William S. Burroughs and the Dead-End Horror of the Centipede God
ConversazioniThe Weird Tradition
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1semdetenebre
I think that a reasonable argument can be made to include William S. Burroughs in the canon of writers of weird fiction even if he exists there only in a kind of sideways-thematic manner rather than an intentional one. Billy B was, after all, included in the unusual 1995 anthology, The Starry Wisdom : A Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. Here is a link to a very interesting Boing Boing article. If anything, it belongs here simply due to its unexpected references to HPL and his protege/executor R.H. Barlow.
https://boingboing.net/2014/08/05/william-s-burroughs-and-the-d.html
https://boingboing.net/2014/08/05/william-s-burroughs-and-the-d.html
2elenchus
I'm looking forward to reading that article, but as a fan of WSB I'm completely comfortable including his work among Weird fiction. WSB deploys body horror quite intentionally and thematically, and his Language is a Space Virus was not a one-liner. And then there's the places (and dimensions) you'll go with drug use, whether that usage be conventional or not, pharmaceutical or shall we say, socio-cerebral (I'm referring here to the effects of prolonged capitalist behaviour).
None of that even touches his exploration of sexual practices, though my reading of WSB is that many of these instances (and they are myriad) are more concerned with social prescription and power, than any special concern for sex itself. Though he does like Reich's orgone energy, I must admit.
None of that even touches his exploration of sexual practices, though my reading of WSB is that many of these instances (and they are myriad) are more concerned with social prescription and power, than any special concern for sex itself. Though he does like Reich's orgone energy, I must admit.
3semdetenebre
>2 elenchus:
Yes! And by applying a Weird/Burroughsian filter, we might find that the written word was a virus deliberately created by the Old Ones to engender the biological changes necessary to produce worship-speech in humans. Or perhaps Al-Hazared became an early adopter of what we'd now recognize as WB's cut-up technique in order to optimally convey the alien concepts found in his cursed vector of physically and mentally disorienting, forbidden knowledge. Centipede gods optional.
Yes! And by applying a Weird/Burroughsian filter, we might find that the written word was a virus deliberately created by the Old Ones to engender the biological changes necessary to produce worship-speech in humans. Or perhaps Al-Hazared became an early adopter of what we'd now recognize as WB's cut-up technique in order to optimally convey the alien concepts found in his cursed vector of physically and mentally disorienting, forbidden knowledge. Centipede gods optional.
