William S. Burroughs: 100 Years
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- Опубліковано 3 січ 2025
- LARB A.V. presents a short feature on the life of writer William S. Burroughs in honor of his birthday centennial this year.
With great help from celebrated biographer Barry Miles, we explore the curious and genuinely rich life that led Burroughs from his "quasi-aristocratic" background to drug-addled jaunts in midtown Manhattan and sex-fueled romps in Tangiers. And by the end we celebrate a major literary figure, a pioneer of the Beat Generation, and one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century.
Featuring Barry Miles, who has written dozens of books focused on 60's and 70's rock musicians and both English and American counter-culture figures. His book "Call Me Burroughs: A Life" was published by Twelve Books on January 28, 2014. See a review at lareviewofbook...
More great interviews, profiles and mini-features at lareviewofbooks...
Los Angeles Review of Books: lareviewofbooks...
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Produced by Jerry Gorin, James Simenc
He was a genuine human being. I wrote him while in high school, and he took the time to hand write two pages back to me.
Did u post it man? If so what’s the link
Oh my GOD, Patrick Hinkley!
Now it is IMPERATIVE that you
should IMMEDIATELY add to these comments the verbatim letter that you, as a high school student, wrote to Mr. Burroughs, together with the two-page reply you received from him!
•••THIS. IS. HISTORY!
You can't just allude vaguely
to a correspondence between
yourself and an American
cultural icon of the stature and
importance of Burroughs,
without having the natural,
logical, presence-of-mind to
INCLUDE that unique content
here in your public recollection
of it. Please, continue!...
#Burroughs
What did he say
can you read it out!!! reddit?
In other words: pictures or it didn't happen.
In 1995 I spent an afternoon with Burroughs in his Lawrence, KS, home, with six of my college students. He was a gracious host, clearly enjoying the attention and interest from young people who were studying the Beats. There was nothing fearful about him, unless you’re fearful of an intense interest and complete honesty. He introduced us to his current cat (Fletch), and showed us around his yard with fishpond and the grave of a former cat. He lived only a few years longer.
Swee
My favorite Author. Man brings you to another perception, wierd, irrational rational, rational irrational, long wave double space chemistry connection. The Writer.
What a load of crap!
@ explain yourself
The man the myth the legend - the man the myth the legend - the man the myth the legend - the man the man the man the man....who let the world know where he was and what he knew - without blinders nor shame. He spoke in a educated and matter of fact way, he was willing to let the world inject into him whatever it had cooked up. He is one of a kind and a true hero of mine. There will never be another one like him. He was sweet and gentle, he was fearless and simple, he did what he did and never hid it for the sake of what people thought.
Good for you, man..well said..!
don't become a writer, please
zero content
Sounds like he would fit well on Trump's new team!
@@ralphdavidson9542Not at all. What in this post is untrue? (I'd quibble with "simple" but it makes sense if you hear that word as meaning without pretensions).
thank you for this. Junkie and Naked Lunch are both terrific books with some of the most vivid imagery i've ever read
The humor of naked lunch carries on in the trilogy. Fucking Benway is hellarious!
My HERO, I could listen to him and things about him. I was born in 1964 and I began reading his works in the 1970's, late 70's. He was dynamic. And his underground movies. And my generation's Kurt Cobain going and meeting him (Mr. Burroughs) before he passed away.
Kurt Cobain listened to ledbellly because of him
The book is good. The first decent attempt to chronologically account for the life of the man, with great access to documents, people and places that were formative and witness to it.
I ran into Burroughs in 75. He was scary, a haunted gray figure, as if emerging from a pulp novel mist or a horror film.
Holy mother of god
There's a fine line between monster and genius, or the insane.
The mirror exists to see yourself rather clearly. And how others appear to ourselves is the reality of who we are as well.
@@Efrain_rojas Everyone has a dark side, even you. The thing is some of us chose to admit this is the case and we dare to face our hidden dark side and accept it is there. When that is done one can start to do actual good in life. I dare say many do "goodness" that turns out to be evil, as they have no idea about the impact of their actions due to not knowing who they truly are.
@@Efrain_rojas He was what one calls an 'artist'
@@Efrain_rojas ,
He marched to a different beat; I'll grant you that. He did have a penchant for goosing his audience; I think he liked to get a rise out of people. I had heard of the story of his killing his wife in Mexico for years as a youth, and thought it was a sort of urban myth...it wasn't. That would darken anyone's soul...
Burroughs played an amazing character ( himself) in Drugstore Cowboy w/ Matt Dillon, early 80s. Shot in Portland Ore. Great movie. Shows how the doper lifestyle can kill u as easy as the junk. A point lost on most people talking about drugs.
Narcotics are narcotics- junk isn't always the same strength due to cut etc. but drugstore narcotics are reliable - be it morph or methadone. Junk sadly is tainted with a volatile drug these days.
Thanx 4 sharing, burroughs is one of my heroes.
VERY INSPIRATIONAL IN HIS USE OF LANGUAGE AND HIS FORSIGHT IN HOW LANGUAGE IS USED TO MANIPULATE .. UNDERSTAND THE TACTICS OF THOSE WHO WANT TO MANIPULAT YOU (EG THE LIBERAL LEFT VIA SO-CALLED POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND THEIR FALSE DICHOTOMIES AND DOWN RIGHT FALSE ACCUSATIONS) - AND YOU CAN BE FREE... AND EVEN BETTER YOU CAN EXPSOE THEM AND CLOSE THEM DOWN..
Shaun Clark dude fuck you... trying to take Burroughs into your right wing fantasies... that's almost as bad as rightists trying to steal Orwell or the clash
Thanx 4 sharing😡😡😡😡😡.Im sure William would love the use of the English language here.Have more brandy and learn how to write.
@@shaunclark425 Burroughs was anti-"liberal" in the sense of liberalism = the capitalist American paradigm. He wasn't anti-liberal in the sense that the GOP uses the word today.
@@t.n.3819 man was anti-government to the bottom
Wish I could have met Old Bull Lee, or any of the Beats, for that matter.
imagine if youd popped by his house the day kurt cobain was visiting him....
A brilliant mind. And a good friend with Francis Bacon. Doesn't get any better than that.
I didn't know about William and Francis's friendship. That's interesting, thank you, it makes sense.
@@mikerostov7811There is a video of them having a meal and convo.
this is precious, thank you.
when you (are forced to) dig deep down enough, it's quite barren and ugly, also most stuff becomes pointless, but it's quite liberating, albeit depressing. a heavy load still.
A crowd of people where he would feel safe and would help him out. Sounds like family to me.
Ie;Leonard Cohen 'Captured..that ..in 'Im Yr Man'-Dvd..Tribute..Spoken word..very great.!!
@@pena.3302 Thanks. If I have a chance to hear the DVD I'l listen for that.
Bourghs is a kick in the ass. Nice the
These are avalible to us today
still love his work!!
Barry, thank you, this is a great gift. Sorry to be so late to the party. Best & cheers, Sean
Kudos to Barry Miles...very insightful short feature!
Smoked a joint with him when I was a kid.
At first I refused because he was an old man I didn’t know at a punk rock show.
He laughed and laughed at me and I ended up smoking with him.
I got to meet him at his home in Lawrence sometime in spring of 1996. We spent the evening in his back yard where he introduced us to the Vodka and Coke that he was so fond of. He had an incredible sense of morbid humor and absolutely no tolerance for bullshit.
@@blue3media Thanks for sharing. It does add flesh to the skeleton of him that is portrayed in media and by heresay.
@@jmp01a24 Read his books
@@epictetus9221 I've read a couple. I am more interested in his magickal approach to art and life.
@@jmp01a24 Hell yeah. If I may recommend a very interesting book dealing quite a bit with the subject: "Nothing us true, everything is permitted" - biography of Brion Gysin.
Burroughs was the greatest writer of the 20th Century in my book.
Good video very informative.
Summer I turned 20 read Nietzsche "Antichrist ", smoked weed and read Naked Lunch. Never had a chance brother! "Literary Outlaw" by Ted Morgan. Couldn't believe one person could think and do what he did. Unfortunately the more salacious aspects of his life became my own.
Well worth viewing..
Awesome video! I thought Blaise Pascal was the one who invented the adding machine in France in like the 1600's or something.
I just finished the book Junky yesterday. Today I read 50 pages in his book Interzone.
Junky is crap!
great stuff...
Thank You.m
I appreciate what this man is trying to say, but in all honesty had I not already known about these accounts , I'd be completely lost in his highly diffuse monotoned explanations. It's my understanding that, Joan told Bill, it was time for their William Tell routine, and she placed a highball on top of her head. The gun (as I understood it) had a propensity for hitting targets low; and if the shooter didn't take this into account, they would miss. But like most crimes, wild stories, and great moments in history, I personally was not there to bare witness , I cannot say with all certainty exactly how it went down. I do however love hearing him (WSB) tell, describe and explain his stories, in his own voice. It's only at these moments, when your ear rides his thick, smokey voice, one can truly appreciate his unique style.
Regardless of "how it went down" Joan was absolutely dead and her two children were now motherless. What is it with pseudo intellectuals who think that being "free thinker" justifies being crappy husband, abuse and murder.
@@susanprice7202 It's not so much that any of it is "justified"; it's not. But most people have done things they were ashamed of, and Burroughs was just a more extreme example. He clearly felt overwhelming guilt about what he'd done to Joan, and it haunted him for the rest of his days. He was acutely aware of his moral failings. And yes, he clearly wasn't cut out for fatherhood and his son grew up to be quite a damaged man who drank himself to death at a young age. Yes, that is tragic but many people grow up fatherless and become well-adjusted adults; we also must not forget that Joan was a full-blown alcoholic so I suspect genetics were a factor. I'm not trying to make excuses here, I'm just pointing out that it's hard to say how much Burroughs factored into his son's psychological issues. Furthermore, it's not as if Burroughs had a pattern of intentionally hurting people. He even entered a sham marriage with a Jewish woman to help her escape an increasingly anti-Semitic Europe, so he clearly felt empathy and a sense of social responsibility. I'd argue that he literally saved her life. I just don't fully buy into the current zeitgeist where if someone has "problematic" aspects (who doesn't?) they are a 100% irredeemably bad person. If people, even the worst criminals, aren't allowed to learn from their mistakes and improve themselves then the world seems to be a very hopeless place indeed.
Has anyone ever seen a photo of Phil White (the Sailor)?
In the end, we come to terms with ourselves...
Junky is a great book
Did his image feature in the Ministry video “ Just one hit “ ???
... imvho His most interesting book might well be Nova Express, for brevity coupled with multi-facetted, truly inspirational take/out-look on the world, not so dissimilar to G. Orwells, perhaps ...
No Good
No Bad
Always Great Art
So he shot his wife, and felt awful about it the rest of his life. To me, doing something harmful to another person is something to regret and subsequently feel guilty about. It shows Burroughs wasn't cold and calloused, but in spite of his seemingly bizaar character, he did have feelings.
but he never served a day in jail or prison. that's privilege.
@@utahredrock1 sorry. That how the world works. Fix it or stuff it
@@utahredrock1 because it was an accident
That sneering WSB voice is what I found interesting......
Hear Neill Young
"the needle and the damage s'done"
A classic example of how historical truth can never be accurately related due to the obvious presumptuous pronouncements of scribes such as Mr. Miles who WAS NOT THERE during many of his described episodes and incidents during William Burroughs life.
One can understand the need to know more regarding one's interests, but the ability to traverse time and space still eludes our grasp.
The further we get from the TIME described, the less it resembles the truth of that instance.
Well put.
I really miss your point. I m now reading this 700 page biography, which is so accurate that I miss your point.
The only conventional and easy to read book by Burroughs is Junky but the perusal of his other works esp Cities of the Red Night is taxing but rewarding.
Hannes8 Queer is an easy straight forward read
Taxing?. Maybe. But that's no excuse for whining.
ACURATE OBSERVATION IS NOT WHINING.. OBVIOUSLY YOUR A LIBERAL TO TALK SUCH ABSURED NONSENCE...
Matthew Cooley i dont think he is whining, man. Is a solid point he is making; it is a taxing read.
felipe De la cerda Burotto
everything this dude says is taxing. I've no idea what the complaint is.
Ol' Bazzer's the Queen of Artistic License.
22..? Babies..? Navels? No way. That’s extremely hard to believe for some reason. I cannot wrap my head around that one lol
I know an 84 year old lady of whom recently was shocked to learn that Lesbians have sex with eachother.
There are still people that beleive the Penis has to penetrate the urethra,
And some that prefer to have intercourse in that manner.
I was on the Poetry Festival scene in Europe in the early 80s performing alongside some of the'Name' guys
and learnt that Ginsberg had told one of the Dutch poets of whom had enquired about homosexual activities,
that they even fuck under the armpit.
Guess you won't beleive that either.
My mother b. 1931 believed this into her twenties. Her own mother died when she was 10, and there was no sex ed in the 40s
Love his part in Drug Store Cowboy.
Key point here is wealthy backgrounds
Would you elaborate on this? I want to reply but this comment is just too vague
@@xenon23601 Only those that never worked for a living have the luxury to be such a degenerate, do you understand?
@@brandonmills1135 it took me a moment to find the reply button. I’m not used to commenting on UA-cam. So sorry to be slow...
Yes... you are mostly correct. This level of degenerate takes money, though I’ve seen a few manage it on less. It also take money to sit back and reflect. To take time to educate is very hard it you have a family and kids... 9 to 5 leaves little room for more advanced thinking. This should not be only for the corporatist oligarchs. I was blessed with a very comfortable abused childhood. I wonder if I would have gotten over it faster and better has I grown up abused in the slums. But my childhood world was a bit of an anomaly anyway.
@@brandonmills1135 No, they have the means to “act out” their “fantasies”, but it doesn’t mean poor people are not what you refer to as “degenerates”.
Nonsense, what about the talent? There are plenty of wealthy slummers, but only one wrote Naked Lunch. Only you didn’t read it, too difficult. Now go shriek ‘Black Lives Matter’ at an old white lady you feel you can get away with attacking.
So I says to my doctor, "What is the worst addiction of all time?" He gives me a thoughtful look and says, "Well ... probably heroine or morphine." I look him straight in the eye and say, "Nope, it's death. Try it once and yer hooked for all eternity!" I don't think he got it and he still wouldn't give me a script for Tramadol!! What a fricking moron!!!
Suicide is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. However life is a permanent situation
Tramadol isn’t bad though
@@DanielGenis5000 Bad for comedy.
@@DanielGenis5000 You can stay relatively comfortable for as long as a doctor is willing to prescribe it, but Tramadol withdrawal is terrible considering how mild the buzz is. (And in these hysterical times, docs will cease to prescribe very abruptly and without explanation--even if you have arthritis or some other documented condition.) It's a wretched, restless, maudlin kind of withdrawal that I found almost intolerable; I had an easier time getting off Tianeptine, which provides a much stronger buzz.
Yeah, why don't share the letters alledgely written?
Alcohol, period, I'm one of those people that alcohol can turn extremely violent, I never shot a gf but if I'd had a gun, who knows, booze can bring out evil or at least completely insane behaviour
How can you miss were "beat" came from......"beat by the bomb"....
How can you review Burroughs without the Los Alamos experience?
Son œuvre avec celle Ginsberg et Kerouac ont amené la "beat génération" . Ils ont changé la culture occidentale au milieu du XXème siècle.
His work with that of Ginsberg and Kerouac brought the "beat generation" They changed Western culture in the middle of the 20th century.
Listening to Barry Miles' palaver you'd think he was in Burroughs' inner circle. He gives the impression that WSB left some sloppy notes around and Ginsburg and Friends were outside in the shrubs, ready to rush in and administer extreme unction to the work when Burroughs would leave his flat. Pretty shoddy, Mr. Miles.
It's true, though: "Junky" almost certainly would never have taken the form of a novel without Ginsberg's persistent encouragement; Brion Gysin and Sinclair Beiles helped to organize "Naked Lunch" for publication; James Grauerholz edited "Cities of the Red Night". The raw material came from Burroughs, naturally, but always he gratefully acknowledged the assistance of his friends in putting his books together.
@@jonathanmitchell9886 not during most of the sixties and early 70s where his best work (imo) is actually found
@@dl1279 I like some of the early '70s stuff, too--especially "Port of Saints." I think it may be WSB's most underrated book.
It wasn't 100 years, but it seems like it listening.
The year he was born. February 2 1914.
Ah, at odds with the Ugly Spirit. That spirit is always part of the human experience. All of them. Not all experience is tangible. So magic can be science not yet understood.
Say what you want about America but it's produced some incredibly inspiring artists over the decades. No other country even comes close.
I think other countries do come close sorry old sport
Is there anything worse than suffering through the clumsy, 1st-year psychological profiles from the likes of soft intellectuals (editors) such as B. Miles? -His presumed 'insights' amount to little more historical gossip in which not much more is revealed than Miles' own thinly veiled, and likely 'unconscious' ambivalence towards Burroughs himself. If you're at all interested in Burroughs' work, do yourself a favor and go directly to the source; interpreters like Miles only serve to muddy the literary waters, such as they are.
Agreed. I was surprised by how glib and pedestrian this 'interview' was. You can't treat a literary figure of WSB's stature like one of your rock star subjects, despite the temptation to do so given the author's iconoclastic orientation.You do yourself, your subject and your audience a colossal disservice.
i don’t have a problem with it. walk into any university or school and you will hear the same thing. but what drag it would be if he told everything about burroughs and there was nothing left to discover. he didn’t mention that burroughs was life-long heroin addict. he didn’t mention paul bowles at all ... (for the record, bowles dismissed the beats entirely, rather despised burroughs ...).
10:00
“The got the Steely Dan T-shirt”
I have always felt he was the one who had earned himself an indulgence in heaven.
Its my opinion Barry miles butchered burroughs novels with grauerholtz and wrote that insane autobiography. Maybe grauerholtz thought he was owed something, but miles, there is something missing in his stuff, something important. Something vital. He and grauerholtz assume they know burroughs though ended up playing with very dangerous formulas they took for simple cut-ups and the simple whimsy they thought burroughs was, but they messed with a dark science held within burroughs work only burroughs knew about himself. And they opened the puzzle box and mass produced the sacrilege for the kids to read - saying this is burroughs. Was it?
Great interview, but "Phil, something or other" - Come on Barry, Phil White - you should have this stuff on the tip of your tongue, sir.
I've noticed this a few times with Barry and easy facts.
He's a pretty old fella himself, but his bios are solidly researched AFAICT
he murdered his wife and never served a day. pretty amazing.
I get what you are saying... Today this would be unthinkable. Back then misogyny and mexico being a wild place made it different.
Now thinking about it, I could likely shoot someone in mexico and not serve a day as well...
Not that I would want to. And I don't think he wanted to as well. And if we believe in reforming criminal behaviour as the reason for jail, then he did not need it. He had no further accidents or dangerous gunplay in his later life. He regretted his actions deeply etc. everything you would need to be eligeble for release from jail.
Meanwhile others serve 20yrs and go out and do the same things all over again. Jail has not worked for them as well as inrospective thinking has worked for Burroughs.
In the end, a young life ended, in a fair world he would have had to have served at least a few years, to not completely bend the sense of justice. But knowing him, he would have just read a lot and likely nothing much, maybe he wouldn't have gone running off to Tangier and became a good writer... In that case Joans death would be even more tragic.
It's all history now anyways, and like with great art, it's healthy to not really connect the artist and art too much, and certainly it would be deadly to try to immitate great past artists lifestyles.
El Hombre Invisiblé
onOnly an addict will understand the truw sacrifce made that day.
... at least so who honestly tried to grapple in earnest with His daimons ...
Am i right to believe that buroughs greatly influenced Tom Waits.
No!
Yes. They collaborated on the Black Rider.
If you can't party at work find a new job
This guy narrating is out there. Says Burroughs' mom was "something wrong there" bc she said she worshipped the ground he walked on. Also, he went to the best schools so he didn't know how to spell well... 🤔🙃
The idiocy of people trying to be experts on other people's minds.
Couldn't agree more. You want to know someone's mind let them speak and even then you only get what they want to share.
Opinions, I have none.
What a tragic sad life...the brain can be indeed ill.
Dude
I need a heroin sandwiches for eat. You can hear the problems in sky there. I did. I hope it rains inside work so we can't but get paid. Everyday is excellent!!
13:33
Beatniks!
Pot? The Hippies were the pot smokers. They were more into jazz, not rock and roll. Coffee, wine, leisure and off beat clothes were their big things. They were not hot rodders. Hot rodders were competitors. More into the meaning of life stuff. By today’s standards they were only mildly different. The main thing is, they did not want to TOIL in a factory. It was 1950s America. Real adult men were ex military. Combat military! Buttoned up. That was the background they contrasted against.
As if anyone WANTS to toil in a factory......haha....what a clown
Sounds like Burroughs was a mooch. Was he a mooch? I like think he paid his own way.
Gysin by Lacy : ua-cam.com/video/z2AuYCJwPK0/v-deo.html
so how he payed for his living..appartement..drugs..vacations to Mexico. As I know he didnt sell anything his early years..also not saw him working. He was a disturbed young Snob..going "for real"..
You're mischaracterizing him. Burroughs never attempted to hide the fact that he got a check from his family every month; what he took issue with was the perception that he was fabulously wealthy, which he wasn't. The money he received from his parents wasn't enough to support his junk habit, hence all the trouble (rolling drunks on the subway, etc.) he got into and documented in "Junky." Burroughs was a lot of things, but he wasn't a snob.
Being an excellent mason, doctor, or cashier, have nothing to with literary talent. Clearly WSB was psychologically ill suited to the world of work, except maybe as a college professor. If he could contain his self. What about Gertrude Stein? Would she be shaking a stick at the old glass ceiling?
Uncle Bill
26yrs ago I named my new born tabby/ siamese cat uncle bill ...I buried him 10/10/10 ....
Jesus loves U!!!!!
"Con and bullshit." -WSB
Who writes these hilarious sub-titles? Do they have any knowledge of the subject matter -- Alice Ginsburg??? Are they hearing impaired? Are they even listening to what the guy is saying or just doing it phonetically as if it's a foreign language. Maybe they are. Translators reveal yourselves. Are you in Bangladesh? India? Philippines? Do you even speak English? And it's not just this one but all of them with the CC option on You Tube.
it's done with software that tries and fails to understand the words, it's not a person
Zoe Green That explains it. The reason I was thinking in terms of a person is because my daughter-in-law runs a network of translators who often times do sub-title work for the movies.
uncle bull lee
he looks like he is related to the Bush family to me
Nope. His family was rich though. His grandfather invented the adding machine and his uncle was the man who imvented public relations
What a salient observation.
There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written, that is all.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde.
Awful lot of fuss over a second-tier novelist. Hard to know whether to consider him a Bukowski Award winner or the reverse. Possibly a tie.
An american original.
The sadness of it all is that Jack had to deal with these two motherfuckers--ginsberg and burroughs were a couple of creepy creatures, and had no capacity to support jack in the way he really needed. It was an isolating time for an artist, and they both made it much worst for him. And that gulf between straight and gay is SO immense and SO ignored, especially when it comes to the arts, we must begin to look at Kerouac as a very separate, isolated figure within the so-called beat framework of ginsburg, burroughs and himself.
Hhhmmm.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEAOOOOUUUUM.
This man was a sick twisted fucking dog
Mr. William S. Burroughs. Harvard graduate, one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century, philosopher, world famous. Who the fuck are you?
Who the fuck are you. That dog was a smack head and also into all kinds of twisted shit.
I've listed Burroughs' accomplishments above. Let me know if and when you come close to doing any of those things. I won't hold my breath.
Watch hidden knowledge. Below
Link on ytube chat under vid .
I can imagine a very miserable energy around Burroughs.... he looks hunched up and really quite miserable. Can’t stand his voice cannot understand a word he says........ interesting chap though,
Work in an office celebrate anniversaries the world of the heterosexual is a sick and boring life
Better than cold turkey, bro.
@@aclark903 that i understand
Another goddamn rich kid. 'I never took a cent off them' he whined.
(Didn't have to.)
Another rich kid, anudder poor kid...And?
@@johnryan3913 'Never took a dime...Just walked through life leaving casualties behind me.
A southern gentleman.'
The only talent those beat writers had was self-promotion.
horrible speaker was Burroughs, great writer
Silly old man