La Machine molle (10-18)

by William S. Burroughs

La Machine molle

by
William S. Burroughs

book data

862 ratings, 3.47 average rating, 35 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		18%
4		28%
3		38%
2		10%
1		3%

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published

1985 by Union générale d'éditions (first published 1961)

details

Reliure inconnue

isbn

2264007087

description

In Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs revealed his genius. In The Soft Machine he begins an adventure that will take us even further into the dark rece…more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,246)

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Oct 23, 2007

Tosh rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

The one book by Burroughs that separates the fans from the curious. The curious usually think 'no, I am not going there.' Relentless sexual assault mixed with very experimental writing makes this book... Charming! I love Burroughs' voice. I also think he's one of the great satire writers of all time. A true American (drug addict) original!

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6 comments

Jan 24, 2010

Adam rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Read in January, 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Summary:

The Soft Machine is a semi-continuation of what Burroughs began in Naked Lunch and also seems to be a prelude to Nova Express, though I have yet to read the latter. This novel, in typical Burroughs fashion (read: shocking, course, disturbing, blunt, incoherent, etc.) rants on the abuses of power, the "Red Scare," racism and segregation, sexism, homophobia, drug abuse, and more. They cut-up style of prose is interesting and certainly ground-breaking for the time (re...more Summary:

The Soft Machine is a semi-continuation of what Burroughs began in Naked Lunch and also seems to be a prelude to Nova Express, though I have yet to read the latter. This novel, in typical Burroughs fashion (read: shocking, course, disturbing, blunt, incoherent, etc.) rants on the abuses of power, the "Red Scare," racism and segregation, sexism, homophobia, drug abuse, and more. They cut-up style of prose is interesting and certainly ground-breaking for the time (reminded me of Gertrude Stein, except less poetic sensuality and more raw sexuality), though it is not particularly novel to those familiar with Burroughs' work. I did find this novel more in-line with Naked Lunch than, say, The Wild Boys, which is to say that it is less accessible to the general public.

The Good:

Burroughs is still hilarious, and still refuses to pull any punches. His writing style - prose and language - are incredibly blunt and "in your face." As are the themes being discussed. I enjoyed how Burroughs ended many of the chapters by re-phrasing or summarzing what had been said/done throughout the chapter in a brief, chopped-up retelling, as if the narrator is having flashbacks, incomprehensible and out-of-focus. These moments are seemingly drug-induced or drug-hazed memories, incapable of being fully grasped, and typically without meaning for the narrator ("Johnny" - they're all "Johnny"). And, since I've mentioned "Johnny" - I'll go on to say that I found it incredibly amusing that all of the many characters of many nationalities, located in many parts of the globe (mainly latin-American) referred to the American boys as "Johnny" - a nice, satircal, throw-back to the All-American G.I. "Johnny". Clean-cut and wholesome. Well, except when Burroughs gets his hands on him.

The Bad:

I can't honestly pretend to understand Burroughs' genius. I would like to, and I do get certain aspects of it - but I can't go all the way. Joan Didion said of Burroughs, "[his:] voice is hard, derisive, inventive, free, funny, serious, poetic, indelibly American, a voice in which one hears transistor radios and old movies and all the cliches and all the cons and all the newspapers, all the peculiar optimism, all the failure....it is precisely this voice -- complex, sublte, allusive--that is the fine thing about The Soft Machine..." Okay. Serious, inventive, free, and funny? I see it. As far as imagination and free-expression go, I would be hard-pressed to name many authors who rise above Burroughs. Peculiar optimism? Subtlety? I'm lost on this one. I also find it hard to wade through a lot of Burroughs' nonsense without getting lost. Perhaps that's my short-coming, or perhaps it's Burroughs' intent (most of his novels are told through the eyes of drugged-out narrators, after-all). I must admit to tiring of the crass language, though, and the crude, repetitive descriptions of "rectal mucous" and vaseline, for goodness sake. I understand that langauge is power and that, particularly during the time of McCarthy-era oppression, writing was freedom - but I couldn't help but wonder if Burroughs is even capable of reigning himself in, of tightening up his ideas, of delivering a well-conceived, purposeful, and understandable plot. Would it matter? Maybe. Would it get Burroughs' point across to deliver the message in a pretty package? Probably not.

The Final Verdict: 3.0/5.0

While I still applaud Burroughs' honesty, imagination, and bold social-conscience, I just didn't enjoy the book very much. I laughed at certain lines and references; I nodded along at certain moments where Burroughs lashed-out (in his way) at bigotry and ignorance; but, overall, I just got tired and I wanted to be through with the book. When I finally did get to the end, it was more rectal mucus, tapeworms, and cannibalism. Blech!
(less)

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Jun 29, 2007

francesca rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

This book forever burned the words "rectal mucus" into my psyche. Carbolic acid and rectal mucus. Thanks BB!

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Apr 09, 2009

Misha rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

bookshelves: 2009, beat-generation, experimental, novel

Three stars because I admired what Burroughs was trying to do with his cut-up technique, but ultimately I found the book unreadable. I think the cut-up technique could work on a story level, but on a sentence level it renders nonsense. However, reading the book made me search out more information about Burroughs, his life and his technique, so in that sense I think I really engaged with the book beyond the text itself, so kudos for that, Uncle Bill. I may try again some rainy weekend when I have...more

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Oct 22, 2008

V rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

bookshelves: xxth-c--literature

Another one of my favorite few books ever. One of a very few texts that made me feel like jumping out of my skin on first read, others being Anti-Oedipus and (when I was younger) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which unfortunately seems like a cynical cash-in attempt to me now.
Burroughs, on the other hand, could be called skeptical, hard-boiled, perverse in his thirst for the painful and revolting, but not ever cynical. He's a satirist of the Enlightenment variety not unlike Voltaire, wi...more Another one of my favorite few books ever. One of a very few texts that made me feel like jumping out of my skin on first read, others being Anti-Oedipus and (when I was younger) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which unfortunately seems like a cynical cash-in attempt to me now.
Burroughs, on the other hand, could be called skeptical, hard-boiled, perverse in his thirst for the painful and revolting, but not ever cynical. He's a satirist of the Enlightenment variety not unlike Voltaire, with his utopian ideals intact despite it all. Not that his utopia involves everyone being made equal in every respect-- in an public reading near the end of his life, I recall him advising the audience to steer clear of fuck-ups lest they ruin your life as well as their own. He may have been a "Beat intellectual" but he never romanticizes poverty or tries to sell you any 'nirvana through slumming' bullshit.
I read this book as a carefully constructed critique of representation and the epistemologies of representation that underly so many malevolent conformist tendencies in business and 'private' social life. Despite the cut-up technique this intent is clear. Because of the cut-up technique, the intent is involved in somewhat less of a performative contradiction with the text itself. Burroughs' insights in this book (which can be roughly summarized in the phrase "word virus," like the title of a popular comp. of his other writings) are not miles away from the Foucault of Discipline (social sciences inevitably create a control-system for powerful institutions like prisons rather than criticize one) and Punish or Birth of The Clinic (medicine is scientific only in proportion to the deadness of its object). I wrote a paper in college reading this book along with Deleuze's Dialogues II, comparing their notions of control society.
Did I mention I love this book and it reads like poetry?
Unfortunately that's not the case with Nova Express or The Ticket That Exploded. They seem didactic and paranoid comparatively.(less)

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Jun 13, 2008

St-Michel rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

bookshelves: 2008, own

Read in June, 2008

The evil wordsmith that makes Burroughs what he is, it's like escaping into a shell of extroverted lunacy. Burroughs has always clawed at me (especially since he's one of my most favoured and influential authors) but for some reason I always seem to skim past his books whenever I find myself at a bookstore, fearful of what might lay waiting inside - but why? It's like Underworld or Squarepusher of the music world, for I love it, but have a certain anxiety that what I purchase next could horrib...more

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Feb 11, 2009

Andy rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

bookshelves: gay-lesbian, jazznbeats

Read in May, 1990

A lot of cut up writings going on here, serious prose experimentation combined with embarrassing outdated racist Chinese laundry cliches ("Clom Fliday"...not funny), add some disturbing imagery of naked boys hanging themselves and ejaculating on every five pages, and you've got a hip and unreadable mess.

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Feb 08, 2009

dete rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Read in November, 2004

it's not good for your mental health to start burroughs with that book.i tell you cuz that's what i did! i had these dreams with the strange forms he describes and i was geting horny reading the sex scenes.oh my!

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Jan 05, 2009

DC rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

bookshelves: experimental, fiction

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: people who like surrealist literature, or abstract erotica.

Intoxicating. I could not figure out why I liked this book so much. This was my first of Burroughs' books and now I'm hooked.

Non-linear and cut-up, what more could you ask for? Soft Machine is part of a larger story cut from "The Word Horde" along with others from around the same time. The story is hard to pick up on first read but the images blow you away and it's really hard to forget.

I found myself thinking words like "rectal mucus" and "jisso...more

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Mar 25, 2009

Kye Alfred Hillig rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Read in November, 2009

Burroughs is a total fucking lunatic, in the most wonderful way. He, like Bukowski, is such a great writer that he can talk about the same topics over and over and still you want more. Williams topics being of course; shooting up, gay sex, hangings, and the Mayan culture. His writing is incredibly poetic and to be frank he often seems to be in the grips of a deep H induced writing frenzy. His mind hops around like a horny toad looking for violence. His characters will be in France giving blow jo...more

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Aug 23, 2009

Adam Shaw rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Everything that I've read of the book & about the book states that this should not be the first Burroughs read, and I can understand why. I liked the flow of the writing as well as the language, but the cut up sentence structure & jumping of points made it exceptionally difficult to follow.

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Mar 04, 2008

tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE rated it:

(review of other edition)

bookshelves: literature, sf

Read in September, 1973

This was the 1st William S. Burroughs novel I read. The obssessive reiterations of hanging boys ejaculating was disturbing & sickening to me but the overall shockingness of the bk had a profound effect on me. I got the novel b/c its title was the same name as one of my favorite music groups. I hadn't realized that they'd taken their name from this bk. I'd never read anything even remotely like this. Just its formal power was a great jump-start for my nascent experimental writing. According...more

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Mar 04, 2009

M. J. added it (review of isbn 0802133290)

Read while with my mom at the bookstore.

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May 10, 2009

Yuki rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

bookshelves: stopped-reading

Read in May, 2009

It was recommended by Rodney- I gave it a shot, but I didn't understand it at all...

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Dec 13, 2007

K rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Burroughs fans

Part of WSB's "trilogy" of cut-up novels, constructed from his notes for Naked Lunch. By its end, definitely shows the limitations (and they abundant) of the cut-up method. Burroughs was much more sparing in his usage of non-linear and non-objective theoreticals in his later works, all to the benefit of the reader.

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Oct 24, 2007

40 Forte rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Burroughs is a strange cat, and his style of composing his novels is interesting as it makes some wonderful imagery.

Unforunately the Soft machine has too much explict homoerotic actions described in all their graphic-ness.

That and when you piece the thing together it isn't very interesting....turns out for most Burroughs the parts are actually much better than the sum.

-40

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Dec 05, 2007

Josh rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Read in February, 2003

My bell curve of Burroughs ends here. I'm always tempted to go read his later novels, but this just become so unintelligible that was just reading words and turning pages. I got literally nothing out of it, with the one very notable exception of the phrase, "anal mucous," which was used many-a-time. oh dear.

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Nov 04, 2007

Rachelandthecity rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Read in January, 1993

For some reason, I remember this book being harder to read than Naked Lunch - which I never understood until I watched the movie on acid - so I actually could still not really know what it's about.

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Jul 15, 2008

Maureen rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

bookshelves: experimental, novel

Read in January, 1977

recommends it for: everyone

Another experience of the Burroughs cut-up period, The Soft Machine is a sort of homoerotic travelogue, minus descriptions of the places, other than various, um, interiors. Still, I found this book to be an easy read, and many of the random word couplings outclassed the other kind.

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Jul 25, 2008

Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 0802133290)

Pretty fucked up. Burroughs chop-up method can be confusing, so it took me a few reads. But seriously, want to try some crazy drugs and see crab people with me?

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