To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand the writings of William Burroughs...

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand the writings of William Burroughs. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of early 20th century modernism and 1930's T.V. infomercials most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Burroughs's anthropological outlook, which is deftly woven into his characters- his personal philosophy draws heavily from his time spent studying anthropology at Harvard, studying medicine in Vienna and his travels throughout Central America and North Africa, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about contemporary American culture.

As a consequence people who dislike Burroughs truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humor and wit in one of Burroughs's favorite phrases “Rectal Mucus,” which on one level is a literal term for the naturally occurring moisture inside the rectum, while also doubling as a signifier for the ectoplasmic essence of individuals and the primary means by which this is violated, while also tripling as an anagram of "Scam Culture", which cuts right to the heart of Burroughs's acerbic commentary on 1930's and 40's American culture. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Burroughs's genius unfolds itself across the pages of their books.

And yes, by the way, i DO have a tattoo of Lee. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid.

Other urls found in this thread:

swissinstitute.net/2001-2006/Images/electronic_revolution.pdf
realitystudio.org/texts/
thepiratebay.org/torrent/5042285/William_S._Burroughs_-_Audio_Collection
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

I agree on most points, except I will posit that his satire and critique transcends time and geography. I started reading him in my late teens and soon found myself completely submerged in his ideas and theories. Some of them completely out there, some of them so sharp and precise it felt like he was doing surgery on my brain. And that is how I see him and his work. Deliberate and carefully crafted brain surgery.

He was also a prophet of sorts. All the shit he saw going on in popular culture, infomercials, etc, he made crazy extrapolations, and most turned out to be spot on. Nova express in particular sketches out the madness of the later information age he only lived to see the beginning of. And it does so with eery accuracy.

People also fail to realize the massive impact he had on the avantgarde scenes in both europe and USA. The guy was a post structuralist before structuralism was a thing. The whole fench movement of thought from the late sixties and onwards is mirrored already in naked lunch.

But yea, ignorant people write him off as a profane provo

Is Naked Lunch a good place to start?

Probably. I did so myself. But I'd recommend going chronologically. Junky, Queer, Naked Lunch in that order.

Oh my god

If you are objecting to anything set forth in the post you replied to, it would suit you well to articulate your objection with a reasonable argument

>1930's T.V. infomercials
wat

this

Commercial culture.

Naked Lunch blew. I couldn't finish it. Garbled nonsense, mostly worthless.

Junky was okay, but nothing great. Funny dialogue. It failed to cultivate the feeling it intended to create in me. Hah, I've a first edition of it sitting on my shelf though. Wanna see?

Anyhow, I've only read early Burroughs. I'd read later stuff, but I found his work kinda trite. I thought Kerouac was vapid as well.

Ginsberg is the only beat I've read and liked, and his work is pretty hit-or-miss for me.

>As a consequence people who dislike Burroughs truly ARE idiots

Coherting Burroughs with the beats is a mistake. He belonged to an entirely different school and tradition. It makes better sense to compare him to authors like Joyce and Beckett. But I reckon you take Finnegans Wake to be garbled nonsense too.

But did he write anything on his critiques and theories that aren't fucked in triple-quad spaz erections injecting vessels?

I'd read essays but never Naked Lunch again, never

It's been about a year since I was last on Veeky Forums. Is IQ this current meme? What kind of moron actually puts any weight behind the value of an IQ?

In a hundred or so years, people won't really remember American writers like Updike, Roth, Mailer, Hemingway, et al., but they will Burroughs. Naked Lunch and The Nova Trilogy
will be viewed among the greatest heights of American literature. But with that said, I could totally understand someone not personally enjoying reading his works. I just think the genius and originality are undeniable.

It's a version of a Rick and Morty (a TV cartoon show) meme.

Nigga people will still remember fucking Hemingway in a 100 years

someone who has read studies on life outcomes and their relation to educational attainment and general intelligence. anyone who understands genes basically

you mean racists

He is the only beat I can stand.

You're right. I put his name last because it was mostly wishful thinking on my part.

the funny thing about iq is i have an old anthropology book, one of the earliest general anthro texts published, and it has a part on iq and it ranks native americans, poles and blacks around the same level, but the guy who wrote it was pretty smart because he argued the low iq was due to those groups rural surrounding, indians in the woods, blacks on the plantations and poles in america being former peasants, (he was also smart because he suspected one of those hoax caveman skeletons was fake and later vindicated)

I'm not racist really so no

if you think IQ measures something important then you're racist

the GREs are the only IQ test that matters, oh white noblemen how did u do on ur GREs? better than a chinaman?

Didn't this guy speak like 6 languages? Pretty patrician, but I've only read A Clockwork Orange.

Shit, I was thinking of Anthony Burges.

>acerbic commentary on late 50s through early 70s American culture
Fixed

>Coherting Burroughs with the beats is a mistake.
Younger Beat faggots cleaved to him. Ginsberg wanted the D. There's enough of a gulf in quality to make the Beckett argument. A French Decadent/Spanish Surrealist hybrid with some Futurist scifi strains.

>languages
Reading proficient in French from an early age, don't recall anything beyond that but probably spoke some given his expat time.

Look up electronic revolution for starters.
swissinstitute.net/2001-2006/Images/electronic_revolution.pdf

>Ginsberg wanted the D
Actually Ginsberg ran away after a few weeks together. He was freaked out by Burroughs ideas of mind merging during sex. Burroughs was heartbroken for the rest of his life. They maintained good friendship though.

Anyway, the argument pertains to style, substance, themes etc. The beats are lightwheight stylists with the exception of a handful of ginsbergs poems.

>A French Decadent/Spanish Surrealist
Becket was Irish

Also, Burroughs spoke both French, Spanish and German

More ressources here:
realitystudio.org/texts/

Also check the scholarship section of that site

Aaaand: thepiratebay.org/torrent/5042285/William_S._Burroughs_-_Audio_Collection

Lectures and shit is in there

and I thought you were shitposting I even smirked

Burroughs was a big admirer of Hemmingway himself

>and without a solid grasp of early 20th century modernism and 1930's T.V. infomercials most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer’s head
Yeah, I'm with you. Life is positively not worth living if you can't understand the subtle humor of a 1930's TV infomercial joke.