Post by maddogblues on Apr 13, 2010 14:37:29 GMT -5
gorgeaway.blogspot.com/
These interviews offer a completely intriguing look in the psyche and development of William S. Burroughs revealing him as an evolving person.
Very interesting to read his explanation for the 'cut-up' technique he put together. It appears almost like ancient auguring techniques involving consciousness.
The man is the clearest thinker I have encountered. He seems to have no desire but to encounter reality and report back to those who have not broken through to really see what is on the end of 'the long newspaper spoon'.
From the blog address. This is classic Burroughs discussing how the 'cut-up' technique came to be developed.
"Q: You wrote: "Writing is fifty years behind painting." How can the gap be closed?
A: I did not write that. Mr Brion Gysin who is both painter and writer wrote "writing is fifty years behind painting." Why this gap? Because the painter can touch and handle his medium and the writer cannot. The writer does not yet know what words are. He deals only with abstractions from the source point of words. The painter's ability to touch and handle his medium led to montage techniques sixty years ago. It is to be hoped that the extension of cut-up techniques will lead to more precise verbal experiments closing this gap and giving a whole new dimension to writing. These techniques can show the writer what words are and put him in tactile communication with his medium. This in turn could lead to a precise science of words and show how certain word combinations produce certain effects on the human nervous system.
Q: Did you use the techniques of fold-up and cut-up for a long time before moving on to the use of the tape recorder? What were your most interesting experiences with the earlier technique?
A: The first extension of the cut-up method occurred through the use of tape recorders and this extension was introduced by Mr Brion Gysin. The simplest tape recorder cut-up is made by recording some material and then cutting in passages at random--of course the words are wiped off the tape where these cut-ins occur--and you get very interesting juxtapositions. Some of them are useful from a literary point of view and some are not. I would say that my most interesting experience with the earlier techniques was the realization that when you make cut-ups you do not get simply random juxtapositions of words, that they do mean something, and often that these meanings refer to some future event. I've made many cut-ups and then later recognized that the cut-up referred to something that I read later in a newspaper or in a book, or something that happened. To give a very simple example, I made a cut-up of something Mr Getty had written, I believe for 'Time and Tide.' The following phrase emerged: "It's a bad thing to sue your own father." About three years later his son sued him. Perhaps events are pre-written and pre-recorded and when you cut word lines the future leaks out. I have seen enough examples to convince me that the cut-ups are a basic key to the nature and function of words."
These interviews offer a completely intriguing look in the psyche and development of William S. Burroughs revealing him as an evolving person.
Very interesting to read his explanation for the 'cut-up' technique he put together. It appears almost like ancient auguring techniques involving consciousness.
The man is the clearest thinker I have encountered. He seems to have no desire but to encounter reality and report back to those who have not broken through to really see what is on the end of 'the long newspaper spoon'.
From the blog address. This is classic Burroughs discussing how the 'cut-up' technique came to be developed.
"Q: You wrote: "Writing is fifty years behind painting." How can the gap be closed?
A: I did not write that. Mr Brion Gysin who is both painter and writer wrote "writing is fifty years behind painting." Why this gap? Because the painter can touch and handle his medium and the writer cannot. The writer does not yet know what words are. He deals only with abstractions from the source point of words. The painter's ability to touch and handle his medium led to montage techniques sixty years ago. It is to be hoped that the extension of cut-up techniques will lead to more precise verbal experiments closing this gap and giving a whole new dimension to writing. These techniques can show the writer what words are and put him in tactile communication with his medium. This in turn could lead to a precise science of words and show how certain word combinations produce certain effects on the human nervous system.
Q: Did you use the techniques of fold-up and cut-up for a long time before moving on to the use of the tape recorder? What were your most interesting experiences with the earlier technique?
A: The first extension of the cut-up method occurred through the use of tape recorders and this extension was introduced by Mr Brion Gysin. The simplest tape recorder cut-up is made by recording some material and then cutting in passages at random--of course the words are wiped off the tape where these cut-ins occur--and you get very interesting juxtapositions. Some of them are useful from a literary point of view and some are not. I would say that my most interesting experience with the earlier techniques was the realization that when you make cut-ups you do not get simply random juxtapositions of words, that they do mean something, and often that these meanings refer to some future event. I've made many cut-ups and then later recognized that the cut-up referred to something that I read later in a newspaper or in a book, or something that happened. To give a very simple example, I made a cut-up of something Mr Getty had written, I believe for 'Time and Tide.' The following phrase emerged: "It's a bad thing to sue your own father." About three years later his son sued him. Perhaps events are pre-written and pre-recorded and when you cut word lines the future leaks out. I have seen enough examples to convince me that the cut-ups are a basic key to the nature and function of words."