Early Routines

by William S. Burroughs

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

54 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

William Seward Burroughs II, (also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.

Reviews

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slightly unusual title from W. S. Burroughs.

This is basically a collection of half-finished or nearly-finished 'routines' some of which would go into his novels later on, such as Naked Lunch, others seeming to 'fizzle out' into beat obscurity, as they do not appear elswhere, as far as I can remember, although my memory of Burroughs' novels (having read them many years ago) is somewhat "dim jerky far away."

I found this very readable actually and some of the writing here was excellent. It is hard to say exactly when he wrote some of these sketches but here and there dates such as "1956" do crop up meaning that the writing pre-dates the publication of Naked Lunch (1959).
There is no Benway in here but there are shady, dodgy doctors who pop in and out of the narrative - how could there not be? This is Burroughs for chrissakes.

What was interesting as well were the references to certain people Burroughs knew who died such as Dave Tercero (another American heroin junky he knew who died in Mexico City), Phil White who died in the Tombs - Burroughs uses "Roy" as a pseudonym: "Roy went wrong and hanged himself in the Tombs – he always used to say: “I don’t see how a pigeon can live with himself.”” (Burroughs, W. S. (1981). Early Routines. Cadmus Editions: pp. 44-5) Burroughs is obviously referring to the term "stool pigeon" which means 'to dob someone in to the cops.' He also refers to Bill Canastra at one point, which surprised me: “… Spinoza killed climbing out of a moving subway for one more drink – his last words were: “Pull me back!” His friends tried to pull him back inside, but his coat ripped in their hands and then he hit a post…” (Burroughs, W. S. (1981). Early Routines. Cadmus Editions: p. 44) He calls Canastra 'Spinoza' to hide his identity but the story about Canastra's decapitation as he tried to climb out of a subway train window is legendary. After Canastra died, Kerouac moved into his apartment and married Joan Haverty, with whom he would have his only child - Jan Kerouac. In Canastra's apartment, he came across fine Chinese art paper, which he would tape together to type out his roll manuscript for On the Road.

Finally, the Inspector Lee parts were humorous as usual and having had a break from Burroughs for many years, it felt good to be reading him once again.

Highly recommended for all Burroughs fans.