William S. Burroughs Cutting Up the Century

by Joan Hawkins (Editor), Alex Wermer-Colan (Editor)

William S. Burroughs Cutting Up the Century is the definitive book on Burroughs' overarching cut-up project and its relevance to the American twentieth century. Burroughs's Nova Trilogy ( The Soft Machine , Nova Express , and The Ticket That Exploded ) remains the best-known of his textual cut-up creations, but he committed more than a decade of his life to searching out multimedia for use in works of collage. By cutting up, folding in, and splicing together newspapers, magazines, letters, book reviews, classical literature, audio recordings, photographs, and films, Burroughs created an eclectic and wide-ranging countercultural archive. This collection includes previously unpublished work by Burroughs such as cut-ups of work written by his son, cut-ups of critical responses to his own work, collages on the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, excerpts from his dream journals, and some of the few diary entries that Burroughs wrote about his wife, Joan.
William S. Burroughs Cutting Up the Century also features original essays, interviews, and discussions by established Burroughs scholars, respected artists, and people who encountered Burroughs. The essays consider Burroughs from a range of starting points―literary studies, media studies, popular culture, gender studies, post-colonialism, history, and geography. Ultimately, the collection situates Burroughs as a central artist and thinker of his time and considers his insights on political and social problems that have become even more dire in ours.

456 pages, Hardcover

Published May 17, 2019

Reviews

[Mason Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to decide between 3 & 4 stars but I'll boost it a bit. Academic-focused books about authors are always iffy, and this is no exception, but the inclusion of source material helps a lot. Focused on WSB's cut-up methodology, the sections of this book include pieces from the Burroughs archives along with various articles. The articles cover everything from his vocal performances to his history with the Biosphere 2 project, his relation to his hometown of St Louis, addiction, outlaw undergrounds, inspiration from Rimbaud and Genet, the word as image, and more. As might be expected, some are more interesting than others, and which is which will no doubt vary depending on the reader. I found more of interest earlier in the book, although his "Wild Boys" film treatment, included here, was highly entertaining. The main topic, his cut-up trilogy, is fascinating, but the book wanders from that focus a bit more than might be expected. This is certainly a book for Burroughs completists, but it's a very worthwhile addition.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of essays on Burroughs and also some of his own cut-up work. Some essays are brilliant, others a bit rubbish, but overall it's a really valuable book for Beat scholars and others interested in the author and his techniques.