Along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs
(1914--97) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In "William
S. Burroughs," Phil Baker investigates this cult writer's life and
work--from small-town Kansas to New York in the '40s, Mexico and
the South American jungle, to Tangier and the writing of "Naked
Lunch," to Paris and the Beat Hotel, and '60s London--alongside
Burrough's self-portrayal as an explorer of inner space, reporting
back from the frontiers of experience.
After accidentally shooting his wife in 1951, Burroughs felt his
destiny as a writer was bound up with a struggle to come to terms
with the "Ugly Spirit" that had possessed him. In this fascinating
biography, Baker explores how Burroughs's early absorption in
psychoanalysis shifted through Scientology, demonology, and Native
American mysticism, eventually leading Burroughs to believe that he
lived in an increasingly magical universe, where he sent curses and
operated a "wishing machine." His lifelong preoccupation with
freedom and its opposites--forms of control or addiction--coupled
with the globally paranoid vision of his work can be seen to evolve
into a larger ecological concern, exemplified in his idea of a
divide between decent people or "Johnsons" and those who impose
themselves upon others, wrecking the planet in the process.
Drawing on newly available material, and rooted in Burroughs's
vulnerable emotional life and seminal friendships, this insightful
and revealing study provides a powerful and lucid account of his
career and significance.
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