Today's Topics:
Subliminal proselytization
The Power of Words Mouthed by Powerful People
William S. Burroughs and "Naked Lunch"
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Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 16:02:25 EST
From: drw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9202042102.AA10212@euclid>
To: subgenius@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Subject: Subliminal proselytization
In the movie "Naked Gun 2-1/2", the cop inquires if a man has a "third
nostril"!
Dale Worley Dept. of Math., MIT drw@math.mit.edu
-- Last week at a stop sign, I barely missed hitting a driver who suddenly turned left from the right lane. And as she zoomed off, I caught the words on her bumper sticker: "Think Globally, Act Locally." -- typical Boston driving story------------------------------
To: toad=toast@cs.cmu.edu CC: Subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu, GR4302%SIUCVMB.BITNET@bitnet.cc.cmu.edu, glasserj@sun.mcs.clarkson.edu, jwz@lucid.com In-Reply-To: <12909.696822321@ANKARA.MT.CS.CMU.EDU> Subject: The Power of Words Mouthed by Powerful People Reply-to: ingria@bbn.com Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 22:52:22 EST From: ingria@bbn.com Message-ID: <9202042302.aa25595@mc.lcs.mit.edu>
Burroughs not only experimented with print and audio tape cut ups, he also participated in some film cut-ups. Check out _Tower Open Fire and Other Videos_, a Mystic Fires video of several short films done by Anthony Balch with WSB, Bryon Gysin, and Ian Somerville (the whole cut-up crew). Particularly check out ``Bill and Tony'' which is a cut-up in several ways.
-30- Bob
``She was once a bee-yoo-ti-ful woman. Cut!''
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To: bigal@wpi.wpi.edu CC: Subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu In-Reply-To: <9201301446.AA10849@wpi.WPI.EDU> Subject: William S. Burroughs and "Naked Lunch" Reply-to: ingria@bbn.com Date: Tue, 4 Feb 92 23:02:51 EST From: ingria@bbn.com Message-ID: <9202042314.aa25642@mc.lcs.mit.edu>
From: Nathan Charles Crowell <bigal@wpi.wpi.edu> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 92 9:46:44 EST
Has anyone out there ever read the novel "Naked Lunch"? I ask because I saw the film version last weekend (very interesting, striking imagery, some implicit SubG influences...) and was curious if anyone had any comment on either the film or the book.
The film is not a film of the novel _Naked Lunch_. It is a movie about a character called William Lee (the pseudonym Burroughs used to originally publish _Junkie_), an exterminator (as Burroughs was) and former drug addict (ditto). Lee, because of various pressures, enters a mental state in which he believes he is in Interzone, ``a notorious freeport on the North African coast''. There, he writes a novel called _Naked Lunch_. The plot of the movie blends together aspects of Burroughs' life and his writing. There are bits and pieces from _Junky_, _Queer_, _Naked Lunch_, and _Exterminator!_. Burroughs used a technique called the cut-up in some of his works and the dialogue is very much a cut-up of Burroughs life and works. (The movie is also a visual cut-up, with bits and pieces of NYC peeking through Interzone and vice versa.)
I would assume the book is better,
More intensely Burroughs, that's for sure. Hell, the movie had only one scene where somebody died during sex and a character turned into an animal. That's a pitifully low count compared to _Naked Lunch_, the novel. Still, I was enthralled by it. Now to find a copy of _Blade Runner Part 1_ (and to find out if _Blade Runner Part 2_ exists).
because they usually are (I can only think of one exception; 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick). I've read Burrough's contribution to _Three Fisted Tales of "Bob"_, but I get the feeling it's not entirely representative of his work overall.
Burroughs changes stylistically over the course of his career, but his obsessions have remained pretty constant.
-30- Bob
``You'll see how elegantly this works.''
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End of Subgenius Digest ******************************
