Portfolio On Burroughs and Cut-Ups, Including Comments On My Own Cut-Ups
PORTFOLIO ON BURROUGHS AND CUT-UPS, INCLUDING COMMENTS ON MY OWN CUT-UPS
CONTENTS
Page 1--------------------------------- Title Page
Page 2---------------------------------- Contents
Pages 3-22----------------------------- Commentary on Cut-Ups and Burroughs and word count
Page 23-------------------------------- Bibliography
Page 24-------------------------------- Example of a 'Picture Letter'
Pages 25-27--------------------------- Original Text used for Cut-Ups
Pages28-31---------------------------- Examples of Experimentation with cut ups with various songs
Pages 32-34--------------------------- My own Cut-Ups commented on in pages sixteen to nineteen (see reverse of pages thirty-two and thirty-three)
My Cut-Up Experience
Cut ups essentially began when Brion Gysin "sliced through a pile of newspapers...made a mosaic out of the strips of newspapers...when he read it he thought it was hilarious...for Burroughs...Gysin's cut-up newspapers switched on the electric light bulb over the cartoon character's head"1 What was essentially an amusing accident, tied in with old surrealist games, for Gysin, was, for Burroughs, something completely different; it was a way of escaping the traditional format of word layout and communication on paper. It introduced an element of unpredictability and put the words and their meanings into different perspectives. This idea had been developed before by Duchamp and Von Neumann but it was Burroughs who really developed its theory and practice. The process can be traced back to several movements in literature, arguably as early as the 1930s, for example, Burroughs cites Tristan Tzara ( who had been expelled by Breton from the Surrealists) as on of the first to recognise what is at stake in language.
Burrough's theory of the cut up was linked in with his ideas about addiction and that we are all addicted to media and the way we are controlled by what we read. He called it the 'Control Machine'; our mind is controlled as word and image locks us into conventional patterns of perceiving, speaking and thinking. This consequently determines our behaviour and our interaction within society. The cut-up, to Burroughs, was a way of freeing oneself from being controlled by this convention and altering one's consciousness. Burroughs believed that the 'Control Machine' "has a voice of its own and can talk indirectly only through the words of others...speaking through comic strips...news items...advertisements...talking, above all, through names and numbers"2 The control machine operates only on the literate population. Burroughs stresses the importance of the disruption of reality (and cut-ups can be an aid to this), as Murphy indicates, it is the "literal realisation of art"3, a realisation which concurrently requires the destruction of art as a distinct group, as a mirror to the natural world and being. As Burroughs had the belief that consciousness, as we know it, is a fiction which has only the manifestation of linear stability, Burroughs aimed to interrupt the course of expectation and jolt the reader into some sort of realisation entirely different from the concept of reality that they had before. It is easy to associate the entire concept quite closely with Kabat-Zinn's theory that, if we do not become unchained and open our minds to new ideas and to new courses of thought, then we could become trapped in the past. We may, he says, even be unaware that we are imprisoned and therefore we may have no way out. So many of us seem to be imprisoned in this way, and are entirely unaware and ignorant of it. We require these novel and controversial ideas, concepts and theories to help us to free our thinking.
Burroughs produced endless cut-ups, he devoted himself to cut-ups, he put in eight hour days, creating cut ups from his favourite writers and his own writing. Many people told him that cut-ups alienated the reader that they did not make any sense that cut-ups were too difficult to read. Gysin supported Burroughs, and pointed out to him that writing was catching up with painting in that cut-ups were the text version of painting's collage. They both understood that any advance in the arts was usually at first misunderstood. The pair also realised that film had embraced this collage form too, in that, when you watch a film, you never just see the action from one perspective; many shots are used, so you see all the different angles, just like one does in real life. By seeing more than one perspective, the object can be interpreted in different ways. Cut-ups did the same thing, whereas regular writing does not allow any flexibility of interpretation.
Burroughs suggested that cut-ups may be effective as a form of divination: "Perhaps events are pre-written and pre-recorded and when you cut word lines the future leaks out"4 Burroughs did also think that cut ups were "accidental...prophetic subliminal announcements...in other words...cut-ups had become a medium for the disclosure of events about to happen"5 Burroughs was thoroughly convinced of this.
There was always the issue of the propriety of using other writer's words, but Burroughs pointed out or at least, was of the opinion that words are not owned; they are simply used or borrowed. Burroughs followed the idea that if you can cut up reproduction of a famous painting, then why not cut up a copy or reproduction of someone's work. Creating a montage or a cut-up is the way it is described in the literary art form. Burroughs was able to theorise for hours over the acceptability of cutups, considering how they went back to the Surrealist tradition. He was convinced that "there were many important connections he could not make in the linear method of writing, which he could only find in juxtaposition and happenstance"6. Even Dick Seaver, Burrough's editor, said that he determined that cut-ups were interesting, but that he did not think it should be a life's work, that anyone can use scissors. On the contrary, Burroughs retorted by saying "but some can use them better than others...it takes a master"7 Burrough's editor attempted to steer Burroughs away from the cut-up method, he realised that most likely it was part of his obsessive, drug-related behaviour, he had seen this kind of behaviour in drug addicts before.
Another difficulty with cut-ups is that they usually are more difficult to read than normal writing. It is important to realise that when you read text, for example, in a newspaper, you read the column you are focused on but also; your mind is absorbing the other columns of text. The reader is also aware of the person sitting next to them, perhaps also reading a newspaper, and many aspects of life around them. Often, people are not very aware of this, or aware of what they are able to take in, how much it is possible for them to notice. The linguistic base on which we operate, with the "straight, declarative sentence"8 is simply part of our genetic makeup, it's the way we, influenced by Western thought, work. It is Aristotelian logic. Burroughs felt that Aristotelian logic is one of the key restraints of Western civilisation. He felt that cut-ups were a step toward breaking this restrictive way of seeing and thinking, he saw that it could be much easier for a Chinese person to appreciate cut-ups as, in the way they operate, there are many ways to read any given ideograph, therefore, they would be more likely to appreciate cut-ups as their mind had not been constricted.
What I became most enthused about was the fact that these cut-ups which had been produced by Burroughs so many times created a new way of looking at and understanding text. The most interesting aspect is that through cut-ups, you can read the same text (although mixed up) in an entirely different way. Each individual word can emerge with a completely different meaning and also, one can interpret the text completely differently. For example "you'll find this (uncovering subliminal meanings) especially when you cut up political speeches...some of the real meanings will emerge...the politician usually means exactly the opposite of what he's saying"9 Having experimented myself with cut-ups, having been inspired by Burroughs' work, I have realised how much you can read different meanings when the text is cut-up, and also, different people interpret cut-ups in different ways. The meaning of text is left to chance. "You can introduce the unpredictable spontaneous factor with a pair of scissors"10
One paragraph from the book by Gysin and Burroughs 'The Third Mind' was extremely inspiring to me;
"The poets are supposed to liberate the words- not to chain them in phrases. Who told poets that they were supposed to think? Poets are meant to sing and to make words sing. Poets have no words 'of their very own'. Writers don't own their words. Since when do words belong to anybody? 'Your very own words,' indeed! And who are you"11
It really made me realise the importance of the way you interpret the words, and the chance ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
One paragraph from the book by Gysin and Burroughs 'The Third Mind' was extremely inspiring to me;
"The poets are supposed to liberate the words- not to chain them in phrases. Who told poets that they were supposed to think? Poets are meant to sing and to make words sing. Poets have no words 'of their very own'. Writers don't own their words. Since when do words belong to anybody? 'Your very own words,' indeed! And who are you"11
It really made me realise the importance of the way you interpret the words, and the chance within that in cut-ups and the way one word being in a different place from normal in a sentence, can really change the meaning in the entire thing. It is not only that; it also made me think of song lyrics and how much some of those lyrics mean to me and perhaps how they could mean completely different things to other people. It is also interesting when you realise that one person interprets the same song so differently from how you might, one tends to realise this only when you really discuss one particular song deeply with another person. As Burroughs stated: "...any narrative passage of any passage of poetic images is subject to any number of variations, all of which may be interesting and valid in their own right...cut-ups establish new connections between images"12 The images that we envisage when reading any text can vary so much when the words are in a different order. We intrinsically read, interpret and take in what we read and this means that what people write affects us more than we realise, we can be controlled to a great extent by the media.
One of the main aims of reading and creating cut-ups, for me is to find meaning beyond the parameters of control. Burroughs had a general theory that "the Word is literally a virus, and that it has not been recognized as such because it has achieved a state of relatively stable symbiosis with it's human host....The Word clearly bears the single identifying feature of a virus: it's an organism with no internal function other than to replicate itself."13... That someone can be so sure that the 'Word' is so bad for us, that it can have such a negative affect, gives me the inclination understand why he attempted to change the way we read. Words become images when written down, they should not become images of words, but images of the thing that is being described (or at least that it appears to the reader is being described), often, when told to think of a word, one just sees the word as it would be written down not as what it symbolises or means. The cut-up techniques of Gysin and Burroughs aimed to enthusiastically release meaning from texts and to evade the oppression of deliberate attempts at organisation of ideas.
Burroughs believed that it was best to write only about what you really know about. Being a life-long addict, he saw some unconventional things as addictive things. Manipulation becomes easier the more dependent the addict becomes, Burrough's ever-present addiction to drugs became the mechanism through which he lived his fractured, intuitive life. Adopting the style of the cut-up was a movement against the control of consciousness by words. "I feel that the principal instrument of monopoly and control that prevents expansion of consciousness is the word lines controlling through feeling and apparent sensory impressions of the human host"14 Burroughs maintained that the only way to escape the negative affects of traditional communication, was to stop communication completely and that that would be a very difficult task. He maintained that the word images ingrained in our minds are inflexible and trap us all into one way of thinking. Even though words are essential to our existence, the accumulation of predetermined and rigid ideas in relation to the world, word forms, and the subsequent standard way of thinking puts a stop to our consciousness increasing.
Gysin recommends taking texts that have meaning for you and some that do not, cut them up and rearrange in order to find what you are looking for (if not, you will at least be reading something new and different) in your interpretation of what results from the cutup. Another aspect of cut-ups that really appealed to me is the concept that consciousness is a cut-up; every time you look around you, any time you are conscious, you are taking in snippets and creating a montage in your head to create an image of your surroundings.
Cut-ups free us from the confinements of linear reading, so that we can produce experience, not just simply record it. The cut-up procedure was not only introduced as an avant-garde literary technique, but it was seen as a tool for everyone, it was a tool of liberation; Burroughs and Gysin saw peoples minds being controlled using words and image lines emitted by the mass media in order for us to produce conventional reactions, to prevent awareness; as a method of control. Cut-ups were a way to get around conventional thinking, to a place where new ideas and perceptions were possible. "Whatever you do in your head bears the pre-recorded pattern of your head. Cut through pattern and all patterns if you want something new"15 Some people agreed that there was no fun in the inclination toward destruction, that Burroughs was an old-fashioned man trying to escape his own narcissism and that his work was a shock factor to start with, but essentially, provided no lasting impression. The cut-up method is an interesting experiment; it destroyed the standard method of writing. Cut-ups can lead to stunning results, and introduce a more realistic method of randomness (unlike the usual way of writing where the author attempts to make you believe the text entirely), cut-ups give us a freedom in reading, one does not have to take everything seriously and as it comes. Cut-ups produce a text more like life as it is lived, a more realistic text, but are difficult to maintain for the length of a book before making the reader unbalanced, disorientated and unable to fully take in or fully comprehend. This could be because, although we are used to taking in the world in this cut-up way, we are not adept to doing the same with words, therefore it is too difficult for the brain, or it could be that it is impossible to take in this method in long chunks. I would say, knowing what a brain is capable of, that it is possible, as long as one has learnt to read that way, and has not been 'infected' by the 'word virus' or learnt to read their entire life with the linear method.
It is the word virus which, deeply rooted in images, infects the human being. Ideally, one would escape this via total silence, but this is impossible, as your mind is affected by the virus as well. Otherwise, one should attempt to escape from verbal forms totally and replace them with something other than words. It has not yet been deciphered how one would do this. Cut-ups attempt to partially escape the word virus, in that they avoid traditional word forms. Personally, I can think of one way to communicate on paper not in a word form. This type of communication is picture letters. My grandmother often wrote to me in this form. I have enclosed a copy. It does obviously, still follow typical phrase patterns, but it creates more flexibility in that in order to communicate a word, one can use many different ways. If one attempts to write a picture letter, one will easily see this. For example, in communicating the word 'dear' on could either...draw a picture of a deer, or draw an ear with an 'E' in front of it, or draw a picture of a beer and draw a crossed out 'B' with a 'D' next to it. See Fig. 1 for an example of these picture letters (I have written an explanation underneath each line of pictures in case any of them are not understood). There are many, many ways of communicating one word, and reading one word. Often, one associates a word differently from what a normal person would think of the word that one uses to start a letter. I wonder what Burroughs would have thought of this concept.
I decided it would be appropriate to experiment with my own cut-ups. The question was what to use to create these cut ups. After much deliberation, I decided that I would like to use song lyrics. Using song lyrics would create a more easily readable piece than straightforward prose, creating a poetic aspect. I realise that this could be considered similar to modern electronic music, but without any sound, there would only be the words. It is also difficult to choose lyrics. I decided it would be best to choose songs which I really like, as the result would provoke a more enthusiastic reaction from me and I would be writing about what I know, which is what Burroughs greatly encouraged and emphasised that one should do.
Burroughs' cut up trilogy, 'The Soft Machine', 'The Ticket That Exploded' and 'Nova Express' all "plenty of satirical humour and titillating sexual and drug related material."16 It seemed to me that it is important to cut-ups things you are passionate about, but also, as Burroughs maintained, that one should write about what one knows, i.e. as aforementioned, drugs, humour and sex. In the case of the texts I chose to cut up, I have listened to the songs more times than I know, but I do not entirely understand the sentiment and meaning behind the songs. It was difficult to decide on these particular songs, but I decided it would be interesting to choose two songs which I interpret have contrasting messages behind them, or meanings.
I realise that most contemporary songs are centred on one subject; love, but there are various branches of this that I could focus on. Hence, I decided to chose some songs all around the area of breaking up with someone, which I have a little experience of, but not much and therefore, I feel that I am not too emotionally connected to the lyrics. I thought that keeping the cut-ups on the same subject, even though from different perspectives and different genres of music, that the resulting message would be more profound and intense.
Although I had the opportunity of using various 'cut-up engines' available on the web, I realised it would be much better to create these cut-ups by hand. This provides the opportunity to create the cut-ups, rather than just leaving the order to an electronic programme. I did not intentionally put certain parts together to make sense; it was very much so that they would fit together on the page. It is a very lazy collaborating and editing process.
In constructing my cut ups, I continued with the authentic theme by doing what I thought Burroughs would have done when creating cut-ups; I did not use pritt-stick glue, I used paste glue and a brush, as I thought this may make the experience of making these cut-ups more like the way Burroughs made them; more authentic. I knew it would entirely change the whole process to simply use a word processor and cut and paste in that way, or to use one of the cut-up programmes available on the internet
I realised that it could make a huge difference to the same text by the way one cuts it up. One can either cut it up at random, or follow the method mentioned in 'The Third Mind' where one cuts a page into quarters, equally across the middle and down the middle.
"you have four sections: 1 2 3 4...one two three four. Now rearrange the sections placing section four with section one and section two with section three. Ad you have a different page. Sometimes it says much the same thing. Sometimes something quite different"17
I began by experimenting with various songs on a particular subject, these included the following songs; 'Ain't no sunshine' (Bill Withers), 'Wild World' (Cat Stevens), 'Free Bird (Lynard Skynard), 'Don't Speak' (No Doubt), 'Missing you' (Puff Daddy), 'Miss you' (Incubus), 'don't think twice, it's alright' (Bob Dylan), 'Can't stand losing you' (The Police), 'How do I live without you (Leanne Rimes) and 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' (Bonnie Tyler). These meant that I had been inclusive of the following types of music; soul, pop, hard rock, rap, reggae, soft rock and obviously, some songs are inclusive of more than one of these genres. I used a combination of cut-up methods in these experimental stages just to give myself the feeling of what the different methods could do. Having experimented with using various combinations with these songs (see 1, 2, 3 and 4), I realised that it would be better to use three songs, rather than several in one cut-up, particularly as I intended to keep the text similar to the form of a lyric, therefore, using too many song lyrics would make the cut-ups too fragmented and less relevant, as I would only be able to include a few lines from each song lyric. The method I used when doing these experiments means that the cut-ups are easier to read straight up than the ones I created later.
See 'A' for an example of my own work using the aforementioned method combined with the column method employed by Burroughs (i.e. Page 81 of 'The Third Mind') On the reverse of the same sheet I have re-written the text out, back into the form that the original texts were in; that of a lyric. For this cut-up, I used three different songs; Cat Stevens' 'Wild World', Lynard Skynard's 'Free Bird' and No Doubt's 'Don't Speak. I will later go into detail with my interpretation of this cut-up.
Another method that I experimented with was to cut up each line of the songs individually and then ensure they were all mixed well ad draw them at random (sometimes I needed to chose shorter ones to fit them onto the line). There is definitely a difference in this method with poems and/or lyrics as they are a different form and therefore, shorter lines means more cuts need to be made and therefore, the resultant text is more disjointed. See 'B' for an example of this (this also has the text typed out on the reverse). I used the same three songs as for cut-up A. When I was typing this cut-up out into the verse form, I realised that it seemed more coherent than cut-up A. However, I held back from reading it properly until a later date so that I could have a less bias perspective. The fact that this method of cut-up requires more cutting up and therefore more flexibility means that the words can mix up better, and escape their previous structure and therefore meaning. I will later go into detail with my interpretation of this cut-up.
Cut up 'C' kept the original structure of the text I was cutting up, and once again, sections were cut out and randomly reassembled. Once again, I will later go into detail as to my interpretation of this cut up.
Having read many parts of Burroughs' cut-up books, including excerpts from 'Naked Lunch', 'Junky', 'Queer', 'Cities of the Red Night', 'The Place of Dead Roads', 'The Western Lands', 'Interzone', 'The Soft Machine', 'The Ticket That Exploded' and 'Nova Express' 'The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945-1959' and 'My Education: A Book of Dreams', I realise that what I have made is different from what Burroughs made in that the text is in a different form. My adaptation is in the form of a song or poem and therefore it is more generally accepted and also easier for the reader to take in, that it makes less sense and requires one's own interpretation is more normal and acceptable in this form of writing. Whether this is simply because our brains have been trained to accept this form more easily, or whether shorter lines, I am not sure; most likely a combination of the two. It is also in adding a tune/melody to this form that the writing becomes more acceptable. When adding this tune, the brain seems to accept unusual word combinations and phrases, most likely because it is distracted by the usual sounding melody, but also because the combination of notes and musical tones that one can use, can soothe the brain into bypassing the unusual combination of words or at least into only taking in the basic emphasis or meaning behind the words.
Having left reading through 'A', 'B' and 'C' for a period of ten days before reading through them properly, I realised that it does make a huge difference in how comprehendible and easy to read the different pieces are, depending on which method I used. I also realised how important it was to leave the words alone for a while to let them marinade, almost. Seeing as I know the lyrics to all the songs that I used very well, there was a certain familiarity, however, the fact that I combined these songs which all had a similar theme, made the meaning behind them come out differently. Another aspect which must be considered, which occurs in many song lyrics is that there is frequently repetition of key phrases. This emphasises them in the song and also means that they occur more frequently in the cut-ups; the methods that I used were completely random and therefore, I did not leave out any of the repetitions. The full lyrics for all three key songs used for the cut-ups are seen in Figure 2.
I will now attempt to analyse each of the three key cut-ups without digressing from the subject too much. I felt it was important to show a copy of the way the cut-up looks before I typed it up to be presented and read in the normal way. In the case of the first cut-up, 'A', I essentially employed the column method. This is easy to undertake in the case of lyrics as the form involves short lines, which I cut down the middle and then across several times and re-arranged into four columns. It is easy to see how I did this if you look at 'A'. For the re-written text, see the reverse of the page. I decided to keep the punctuation marks in, rather than creating my own. This method meant that there is not much of a rhyming pattern, unlike the originals songs lyrics. What appeals to me about the resultant text is that the messages behind or within the text, because they are fragmented, are more obvious. When one reads it, one does not just take the sentence as it flows; because it is so disjointed, the short and more significant phrases which I remember from the lyrics become more apparent and clear. Whereas the songs, for me, used to be something enjoyable to listen to, I can now take in the sentiment of the lyrics more easily. The last four lines sum up the entire song; all three songs are included in these lines and key issues behind each song become more clear having read the cut-up, and particularly the last few lines. Also, I am aware that there is an element of rhyme and repetition within these last for lines, which means (and since studying Burroughs I am much more aware of this), that my mind (having been conditioned to accept this form more readily), accepts these lyrics more easily.
Now, to move on to cut up 'B', where I simply cut up each individual line and put them in a pile from which I picked out each individual line to fit on the page, depending on length (which I could tell from the blank back of the piece of paper), this meant that the phrases were put together entirely at random. It also means that because each line has been cut up, that the result had the potential to be very fragmented. As you can see from the photocopy of the result, I tried to select each section according to length in order to fit as much text as possible on one page. On the reverse side, one can see how I rearranged the text to return it to its original form; that of a lyric or poem. In reading this at a later date, I realise that because I cut up each individual line, it means that each phrase or sentence tends to make sense more, whereas, with 'A', the phrases and entire text in general was less easy to follow. I also re-wrote the text in a more standardised way. Once again, because of the repetition that there is within the lyrics, there seems to be a continuation; something which holds the text together. Once again, it seems to be the final line which is very interesting. It has a good conclusion which is part of different lyrics but essentially sums up the quintessence of the entire text. It was easier to manipulate the text whilst re-writing it in order to make it easier to read and more standard, i.e. trying to sustain a rhyme scheme, I did not, however, adjust any of the text or go to huge lengths to keep the rhyme or rhythm going, I just re-wrote the text in a lyrical form.
Cut up 'C' has a simple structure and it is not necessary to re-write it to change the structure. I think lyrically, it's not as readable as the previous two as it is more obviously disjointed as the rhyme that is often sustained in each individual piece, which makes it more obvious when moving on to a new section. Because the sections taken from each song lyric is larger, there is not such a good flow in this text. I have definitely realised that when doing cut-ups of lyrics or poems, different approaches must be undertaken with the method of cut-up, as, due to repetition and shorter lines/ phrases, greater fragmentation is necessary in order to change the way one reads poems and listens to lyrics.
Due to the fact that it is more widely accepted that poems and lyrics can be less comprehendible, it is possible to make the line between each individual section less obvious, it is also more important and more difficult to make the fragmentation less noticeable, due to the rhyme and rhythm of separate poems and lyrics. Poems and lyrics bind the sentences and phrases together more, making them more difficult to separate and this shows that poems and lyrics must be even more of an influence and restrictive on the mind as they have more patterns within them which aid the 'word virus'. I had not previously realised this, and in fact, had always thought the opposite, I think it is generally thought in society that poetry and listening to music frees the mind. I think in actual fact, it is the opposite; lyrics and poems can have a much greater influence over you than one might think. This is backed up by the fact that everyone finds it much easier to recall exactly and memorise lyrics and poems, therefore, surely, these texts, when not cut-up can control our minds more than normal text; that must be why these forms of writing are more difficult to cut up than regular text, and also why, I think, cut up 'B' worked the best, as it was more fragmented than the other cut ups. I am very glad that I experimented with different methods of cut-ups, and I now realise that it is more important the way one cuts up than what one cuts up.
Throughout this project, it has become apparent to me that the way one cuts up greatly affects the result. Also, having asked other people to read through my cut-ups, I have witnessed various different interpretations of the different cut-ups. I had originally thought that the content of the cut-ups would make a huge difference, but it was more the method used than the context which affected the resulting text. Also, I realise that had I not used the form of text that I did, I would most likely not have realised the difference between the methods so easily. In general, I have realised how much words and the combination of them can infiltrate and affect the mind. The way we use words can greatly affect the interpretation of them. I believe that Burroughs was definitely along the right lines when talking of the 'word virus', although perhaps he may have taken it too far.
Cut-ups do change the way that we take in and comprehend a section of writing, but they do not change the basic form of the virus; we still read from left to right, downwards on the page and furthermore, each individual word can greatly affect us, and is part of the word virus;
"Although the cut-ups fractured common sense, and smashed the logical strain that held the traditional narrative together, they nevertheless retained a linguistic bias in so far as one still read from left to right--even if what one read didn't make any sense, or ground the narrative to a halt. Furthermore, the nature of books, arranged in such a way that one must turn the page in order to reveal the fullness of the narrative, implies a linearity in thought"18
Our thought is linear, even in places such as China, where writing is read from right to left, there remains a standard and set structure for reading unlike the way we actually read and interpret real life, for example, when walking around on the streets, we take in fragments of everything around us, and we see so many things from more than one perspective. It is not this way with words and sentences, or any form of writing. It is virtually impossible to escape from this. Gestural language is still used and comprehended in many places but nonetheless, still has the possibility to imply a set image in one's mind...not of the meaning of the word, but of the gesture, just like with words. It seems that the only way to avoid the linear word virus is not to read at all; real life is very different from words written on and read from a page, the written word cannot be the same. There are ways including the cut-up to try and avoid the constrictions of the way we read, such as picture letters (see Figure 1), and also, I think it would be interesting to experiment with sign language and even learn from a community where very few people are literate. This project has certainly made me aware of the affect language and the way people use it can affect you, but also of the way people interpret words and different text differently. I do not feel that I am qualified to say whether I think there is any significance in Burrough's ideas about cut-ups giving one an incite into the future, as I did not carry out as much research into the subject and also, because my subject was different to that of Burroughs, as I only concentrated on the particular form of writing that is song lyrics. I am glad that I did concentrate on this specific form of writing as I feel that otherwise I would have had far too much to cover.
WORD COUNT :( not including contents or title page or any pages after this word count): 5, 913
Bibliography
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* Interview with G. Corso and A. Ginsberg. (1961). Journal For the Protection of All People.
* Kabat-Zinn. (2005) Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness.Hyperion.
* Director: Klaus Maeck William S. Burroughs- Commissioner of Sewers. (1991)
* Lotringer, Sylvère - Foreword.(2001)Burroughs Live. The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs. 1960-1997. MIT Press, Cambridge
* Miles, Barry. (2002). El Hombre Invisible. Virgin Books.
* Morgan, Ted. (1988) The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs. Mackays of Chatham. London
* Murphy, Timothy S. (1997) Wising Up the Marks: The Modern William Burroughs. London: University of California Press.
* Reynolds, Craig. (1998) http://bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab/TEXTARCHIVES/antilinearthought.html- A Personal History of Anti-Linear Thought.
* Editors: Skerl and Lyndenberg. (1991)William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989. Southern Illinois University Press.
* Stephenson, Gregory.(1990) The Daybreak Boys. Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation. Southern Illinois University Press.
Morgan, Ted. (1988) The life and Times of William S. Burroughs. Mackays of Chatham. London. Pg. 321
2 Burroughs and Gysin. (1978). The Third Mind. Viking Press. New York. Pg.178
3 Murphy, Timothy S. (1997) Wising Up the Marks: The Modern William Burroughs .London: University of California Press. Pg. 74
4 Conversations with William S. Burroughs. < http://gorgeaway.blogspot.com/ >
5 Morgan, Ted. (1988) The life and Times of William S. Burroughs. Mackays of Chatham. London. Pg. 322
6 Morgan, Ted. (1988) The life and Times of William S. Burroughs. Mackays of Chatham. London. Pg. 425
7 Ibid
8 Burroughs and Gysin. (1978). The Third Mind. Viking Press. New York. Pg. 5.
9 Lotringer, Sylvère - Foreword.(2001)Burroughs Live. The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs. 1960-1997. MIT Press, Cambridge. Pg. 262
0 Burroughs and Gysin. (1978). The Third Mind. Viking Press. New York. Pg. 29.
1 Burroughs and Gysin. (1978). The Third Mind. Viking Press. New York. Pg.. 34
2 Miles, Barry. (2002). El Hombre Invisible. Virgin Books. Pg. 118
3 William S. Burroughs,. (1985) The Adding Machine . Arcade. Pg. 77
4 Interview with G. Corso and A. Ginsberg. (1961). Journal For the Protection of All People.
5 Burroughs and Gysin. (1978). The Third Mind. Viking Press. New York. Pg. 44
6 Grauerholz, James. (1998) 'The Cut Ups' Word Virus. The William Burroughs Reader. Grove Press. United States. Pg. 179
7 Burroughs and Gysin. (1978). The Third Mind. Viking Press. New York. Pg 31
8 Reynolds, Craig. http://bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab/TEXTARCHIVES/antilinearthought.html- A Personal History of Anti-Linear Thought. Basta! v1n4 (Summer/Fall 1998)
Edwina Jessel 031470089 09/05/2007
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