A William S. Burroughs Memorial

Burroughs is gone but clearly not forgotten. He's already obviously achieved a sort of immortality as a myth, a man, a catalyst and a legend in and beyond his own time.

Please share your thoughts, feelings and stories
about William S. Burroughs
and what his work meant to you.

William Seward Burroughs
February 5, 1914 - August 2, 1997

add your comments


8/03/97
8/04/97
8/05/97
8/06/97
8/07/97
8/08/97 -9/04/97
Sept. '97 - April '98


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My mane is Richard Désilets. I am a composer from Montréal, Canada.

I recently compose a music with some extracts from William Burroughs Apocalypse poem.

My question is : Do you know to who I should ask the right to use some extracts of that poem.

Richard Désilets <richard.desilets@sympatico.ca>
Montréal, Québec Canada - Monday, October 16, 2000 at 16:35:11 (EDT)



Nicolas Caillier <n.caillier@nordnet.fr>
Lille, FRANCE - Sunday, April 18, 1999 at 05:06:20 (EDT)



Nicolas Caillier <n.caillier@nordnet.fr>
Lille, FRANCE - Sunday, April 18, 1999 at 04:57:13 (EDT)


bill was by far the best writer i have ever read. i wish i could
have met him. i look at him as more of a god than an old junky
writer.

jayson terlizzi
clinton , in usa - Wednesday, December 02, 1998 at 09:10:09 (EST)


On Good Friday of 1994, I drove all night from Duluth, MN to Lawrence, KS in hopes of meeting WSB. After a
series of adventurous too lengthy to go into here, I finally tracked down his address, and knocked on his
door. He was cordial, gentle, and polite. He walked me around his grounds, showed me his fish pond ("I've
seen goldfish frozen solid, but they're fine when the thaw hits."), one of his cats (Ginger), and talked about
a friend he had from Minnesota (who just happened to be in Husker Du). Though it only lasted 10 minutes or
so, it remains one of my favorite memories, and something of a defining moment in my life.

Ernie Engebretson <welles@altavista.net>
Duluth, MN USA - Tuesday, December 01, 1998 at 15:49:58 (EST)



We love people like William S. Burroughs.

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Psychiatry, philosophy, sexology, sociology, astrology, alternative medicine, alternative therapy, enlightenment, new age, spirituality, meditation, bodywork, massage, art, travel, books and last but not least, entertainment.


Dear Madam, Sir,
We are contacting great people from around the world, letting them know about what we are doing in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. By means of this message we cordially invite you to come to Amsterdam, whenever it suits you. Please, have a look at our homepage:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kosmoss


You would do us a big favour if you would forward our message in any relevant direction.
Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Pascalle Sweerts, director
The Halcyon Cosmopolitan Entertainment
P.O. box 94158 1090 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands
kosmoss@xs4all.nl


Pascalle Sweerts <kosmoss@xs4all.nl>
Amsterdam, NH The Netherlands - Saturday, November 28, 1998 at 06:00:27 (EST)


I have no desire to start a "flame war" on this list, but I feel compelled to respond to the filthy screed posted by one "tfg" who, having read Burroughs' Thanksgiving message on the net, desired to "spit in his face," for reasons that are unknown to me. This miserable cretin expressed hopes that Burroughs was "rottening in hell," (sic) and the rest of the message was as incoherent and vile as one might expect from a person of such a loathsome mentality. I suppose that it is not surprising that Burroughs was could inspire hatred as easily as he could inspire devotion, but to wish for a dead man to rot in hell after he is gone and can no longer defend himself -- well, that pretty much speaks for itself. If the world IS divided into the "Johnsons" and the "obligate shits," as Burroughs said, my guess is that tfg is one of the latter. When YOU die and go to hell, tfg, whoever you are, you may find yourself the recipient of the very torment you wished on Burroughs. If there is any kind of cosmic justice at work, it will certainly come to that. What a classless jerk you showed yourself to be...and I suspect that your hatred of Burroughs is predicated on envy of his enormous talent and a fear of the freedom which he defended so eloquently. See you in hell, tfg....it seems to be a place designed for people just like you.

Alec Markov <legacy@admin.con2.com>
Brooklyn, NY USA - Friday, November 27, 1998 at 16:49:30 (EST)


i can remember one day at the beach.i went there with one of my cousins and his friends. they were smoking hash but i didn´t. i was only listening on my headphones joy division´s unknown p`leasures and reading the naked lunch. i get at chapter a.j. annual party, and i can´t remember what happened. everything had disappeared there were only the smell of smoke and the music in my ears. i was reading with my eyes closed. the lyrics were coming into me but i didn´t know how. that was the wsb work.

antonio tomas mora <atm4@alu.um.es>
murcia, spain - Friday, November 27, 1998 at 05:43:29 (EST)





Cesare Borgia <cesare.borgia@gte.net>
Lombard, Il USA - Thursday, November 26, 1998 at 23:09:31 (EST)


I read his thanks giving prayer on the net, it too bad he is already dead, this deprives me of my right to spit in his face. No need to give my name or address because he is rottening in hell where he belongs.

tfg <hecankissmyass.com>
eht, nj USA - Thursday, November 26, 1998 at 11:56:05 (EST)


long winding road eye see small thing on way ... watch they see

michael <gihdra666@mailcity.com>
- Thursday, November 26, 1998 at 06:38:33 (EST)


Burroughs was the man!! and still is the man!!!
i hope he's up in orbit, too!

DJ X-Rider <anon@xyx.org>
Washington, DC USA - Wednesday, November 25, 1998 at 21:44:49 (EST)


I posted these messages nearly a year ago, but it seems that they are no longer accessible.
I am a paranoid artist, affected by little in this hypocritical world, but the more I learn about
WSB, I realise I wouldn't have it any other way.

Like th man said; how random is random? I used to think it was just coincidence that I
became interested in WSB, but as I continue to educate myself with his work,
it becomes more apparent that th was not true at all.
I often find myself reading (random!) sentences of his work and experiencing brief
regenerations of mi consciousness, or just laughing out loud at unironic irony.
Even though I had expected it for some time, I still cannot absorb th fact he has gone,
with so many people keeping his combination of words alive, it looks like he never.
On the 23rd nov last year, I had a dream where I was travelling on th top deck of a
prestine bus (yes it had no fuel) along a foggy motorway with th man himself,
something about controlling th visibility ahead an driving into a mother&child
at 80mph. mmmm well now. I actually got on th Burroughs ????? when I was 14
from seeing a copy of Naked Lunch in a fashion shoot, so I bought th book (as you do
when it presented alongside a good-looking model) after the first chapter I was
convinced I was experiencing cold-turkey, Turn-key and I knew I was onto something
important. (partly because I couldn't understand it, I just presumed it was such an
advanced style of writing, I would have to read it again when I was 30) anyway it is now
5 years later and have still not read it in order, but cover to cover, yes, seeing as it was written
out of order I do not see that as a dis advantage. I used to wonder why certain aspects
of my life stayed constant, even when I knew no-one who shared my interest, I know
that to use a corny phrase 'it was ment to be'.
Thank you Bill for putting me in the right direction.

To finish, something I wrote about what Burroughs does for me.
and a couple of short quotes.

Pur emelting honey down my neksides bliss
taste full of frequent ash
Shut, fall and sinus crack
ill buzz waiting in lonely sands (ambush soon)
sea teeth flash
bloom ditto bloom for one more
tide-sync error fading
over

"Please to be restful, it is only a few crazies who have from the crazy place outbroken."

"She (the airline hostess, of course) leans over us to murmur of chewing gum, Dramamine
even Nembutal. talk paregoric, sweet thing, and I will hear."

'Unfinished Cigarette' and 'The Inferential Kid' (from the Burroughs File)
are two texts I would also like to quote, but the whole book is fascinating.

-SHOWN-
ps peace to cyan an all that lies tween blue&green

seon g <showng@hotmail.com>
Cambridge, UK - Wednesday, November 25, 1998 at 13:55:58 (EST)


& #*(!"!=%

Peter Jones <jonesp@cc.umanitoba.ca>
Winnipeg, MB - Tuesday, November 24, 1998 at 01:57:26 (EST)


my clark-nova's speaking to me...it says you checked out of the flesh gimmick not a moment too soon. The Nova conspiracy's reaching fruition...it's a sick picture, Bill...no va...no go...no bueno. TIME TO GO!

Jim Lawrence
southampton, england - Saturday, November 21, 1998 at 19:07:58 (EST)



jim lawrence <awt.mail@msn.com>
- Saturday, November 21, 1998 at 18:53:31 (EST)


I sent this message once already, but I think it is important, so here goes again....I teach a course devoted to the lietrature of the Beat Generation at a NYC high school, and I am happy to report that the course has been well received by both the students and the faculty, with a couple of minor exceptions. I wanted to focus primarily on Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs, but of these three, Burroughs presented me with the greatest challenge. I am just starting "Junky" in fact, with my students, and the challenge here is presenting this controversial material (drug addiction) without getting into hot water. Truth is, Ole Doc Benway does present me with the greatest challenge. Many of my female colleagues detest Burroughs, largely because of his misogynistic utterances, but other people loath him for his cranky emphasis on human freedom, which makes me wonder more about THEM than anything else. But I have to admit that Burroughs, to me, represents one of the true literary heroes of the twentieth century. I do nnot think I have to go into great detail here about the literary value of Burroughs' writings, although I have to admit that not all of his work is necessarily of the highest quality. In fact, some of it is, I think, poorly executed and almost incoherent and even Burroughs has admitted this about his early books. On the other hand, he deserves enormous credit for his emphasis on personal liberty and his hatred of the arbitrary abuse of power by the control addicts who systematically and persistently have done everything to maintain and keep the power to which they are addicted. For his iconoclasm, his apolitical stance, his rejection of all creeds, ideologies, movements, religions, causes, what-have-you, I think he deserves the highest praise. I admire him because of his fearless insistence on independence and his rejection of the sentimental tripe that passes for popular culture. His obsessive interest in the word as a "virus," and his efforts to understand what power the word has makes him unique, I suppose, to the Deconstructionists among us, but I have also heard him assert that such people are full of shit because of their candy-ass emphasis on expunging all "politically incorrect" expressions from the language. In fact, any attempt on the part of any group to co-opt Burroughs and turn him into a shill for their cause would, naturally, be a miserable failure, as it deserves to be. But right now, my students are fortunate enough to hear the TRUTH about drug addiction from a man who knows the score,and who presents the facts without bullshit or prevarication, and who makes no apologies for how he has lived his life. In an era of relentless propagandizing, misinformation, hypocrisy and cowardice, his clear-eyed and authoritative take on drug addiction is a welcome breath of fresh air. In my research for teaching this book, I uncovered a ton of infromation for my students which will support Burroughs' thesis that the so-called "war on drugs" is a fucking sham and has probably done more to propagate harm than anything else. And I myself am relentless and unapologetic as well in my attempts to present these students with an alternative point of view. I owe it them to present the facts such as they are, because while teen-agers may be stupid enough to try heroin, they are NOT stupid enough to believe the bullshit that so-called "drug experts" put down for them. I think Burroughs would have been pleased. And, surprisingly, the parents of my students (who are baby boomers in their 40's & 50's) actually APPRECIATE my efforts to give their kids a balanced view of the subject. I guess that proves something, too. Moreover, I live in NYC, where our self-righteous prick of a mayor is about to abolish methdadone programs on the specious premise that addicts should have to get well "without the help of medication" not even realizing that taking people off methadone will turn them back into heroin addicts who will commit crimes to get the drugs they need and thus give him a pretext for implementing more draconian policies and thus grandstand to his ignorant constituents on the backs of sick junkies. Well, maybe this approach of mine will help, but who knows? The propagandists out there are busy overtime harassing innocent citizens with drug tests, illegal search and seizure techniques, wire-tapping, drug-sniffing dogs and God knows what else. With a hearty "fuck you" to the mayor and every other self-righteous control freak out there, I gladly and enthusiastically offer my efforts to fight my own "drug war," with the help of Ole Doc Benway. In any case, there is no need for me to belabor the point. I have read the other contributions to this memorial page with satisfaction, knowing that a good number of people out there are spreading the word of the good doctor as I am trying to do. Unfortunately, because of the times in which we live, I will have to sign this with a pseudonym, because you never know what kind of sneaky crpto-fascist bastards working for the NYC Board of Ed will misconstrue my words so they can accuse me of encouraging drug use, which, of course I am not. Wherever "Honest Bill" is now, I do not know......I DO know that he once said "You CAN survive your physical death," and I take that as an encouraging sign. If that is true, then it means that he knows what I am doing and why I am doing it. In the name of freedom, dignity, independence and individuality, I humbly offer my love and praise to the man whose entire life -- all things notwithstanding -- is an eloquent testimony to the freedom we all cherish as human beings. God bless you, Bill.....and thank you for all you have done.

Alec Markov <legacy@admin.con2.com>
Brooklyn, NY USA - Saturday, November 21, 1998 at 01:59:30 (EST)


This man is probably the most important fucking
American writer of this century.[Twentieth] Not to mention
he made me laugh like a hyena.

Michael K. Horton
IL - Saturday, November 21, 1998 at 00:35:02 (EST)


I am the grandson of a man who, as it seems, worked for Mr. Burroughs. My grandfather has had a complicated life in which my mother was the first, complications which turned out as a blessing in disguise, because it kept him from going to Germany during the war! He later had a son who would take his leg in a silly accident with a motorcycle. He suffers because of it and cancer now, and does not see many years ahead! I have known him only shortly as a new e-mail friend and I have asked for his life story which seems to include Mr. Burroughs, who, from his account, hired him at the "highest wage possible" ( I am not sure if this was personally or not) for the position he held at the time! I know that even now my grandfather is a UNIX GURU, if you will, and I revere the personal time we have now, even if it is only e-mail. I would only ask that if the host of this site or others having insite into this matter would validate my fathers interraction with this obviously great man and my grandfathers contributions to his greatness. Please e-mail "evermind74@hotmail.com" with any comments you may have regarding this matter! Thank you for your time and interest!

Sincerely
James Smith

James Smith <evermind74@hotmail.com>
Chicago, IL USA - Friday, November 20, 1998 at 03:00:58 (EST)



Jeffrey Perchuk <legacy@admin.con2.com>
New York, NY USA - Thursday, November 19, 1998 at 23:30:54 (EST)


Burroughs always seemed immortal. He lived through addictions, mad thoughts, mad people. He somehow managed to live on the brink of never being at all. I don't really believe Burroughs will ever die, I don't believe he was ever alive in the conventional sense that most of humanity wakes up to every morning, forgetting their fragmented, fucked up dreams. Burroughs cannot die because he's immortal in having never existed like the rest.

Matthew Thompson <burty@hotmail.com>
Lousiville, KY US - Thursday, November 19, 1998 at 06:34:32 (EST)


I need imput for a critical analysis project.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
i.e.-opinions
character analysis
comments, ect.

e-mail freejunk@hotmail.com

THANKS!!

anonymous <freejunk@hotmail.com>
somewhere, tx usa - Thursday, November 19, 1998 at 00:44:12 (EST)


There goes the last relic of old decency. So long, Bill; thanks for writing. Hope the Western Lands pan out all right for you.

Ger Whelan
- Monday, November 16, 1998 at 17:39:42 (EST)



PHIL CHENNELLS
- Sunday, November 15, 1998 at 22:33:13 (EST)


CONTROL IS CONTROLLED BY ITS NEED TO CONTROL. WE ARE ALL HERE TO GO. IT IS PERSISTING, YES..........THANK YOU.

carleton hardy IV <DOAlll@aol.com>
fayetteville, nc usa - Saturday, November 14, 1998 at 18:39:31 (EST)


Let me introduce myself. I am Elliot Strange. 16 years old and already messed up enough to be
'an artist' or at least that's what they tell me. I remember about a year ago I was cleaning my
room and as I did I collected all of the audio tapes in one place, to figure out what was on
them later. When I got around to it I found most contained unknown music and a few contained
broadcasts of the local college Trivia Challange (a three day long radio competition)... the
last tape I examined was an unlabeled one-hundred-twenty minute maxell cassete. It contained
what would eventually set my life in another direction: William S. Burroughs' "Spare Ass Annie
and Other Tales". The first time I listened to it the very first story (Spare Ass Annie) was so
disturbing to me that I had to turn it off. Well, time progressed and I finally decided to just
listen to the whole tape, straight through, no matter how disturbing it became. I did just that.
It was amazing. (The stories [tracks] contained, by the way are listed at
http://store2.ubl.com/Album.asp?a_id=R+++188110 in case you're wondering which pieces
were on the tape) I came to love the tape for all it was: disgusting, disturbing, enlightening,
entertaining, and outright wonderful. I found out from my brother it was the work of one
William S. Burroughs. This is what introduced me to the beat generation and all it's literature.
Since then I've read every text I could get off the internet as well as Naked Lunch (of
course) and aside from WSB, delved into whatever beat writings I could get my hands on.
I stand now more complete than I ever was. I feel all this is best summed up in a quote from
WSB: "In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents.
Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. The dogma of science is that the
will cannot possibly affect external forces, and I think that's just ridiculous. It's as
bad as the church. My viewpoint is the exact contrary of the scientific viewpoint. I
believe that if you run into somebody in the street it's for a reason. Among primitive
people they say if someone was bitten by a snake he was murdered. I believe that."

This is my story.
This is my life.
Elliot R. Strange

I hope he knows, where ever he is, that he has succeeded.

Elliot R. Strange <elliotstrange@hotmail.com>
Appleton, WI USA - Saturday, November 14, 1998 at 02:26:40 (EST)


one of the most unique and impressive creatures ever
the universe has lost one of its essential components
talk to Mescalito in search for the giant centipede

iva <imahale@comp.uark.edu>
fayetteville, ark usa - Sunday, November 08, 1998 at 15:54:41 (EST)


Living in Nigeria it's difficult to be in touch...I didn't know B had died. That's how out of touch.
Surprised.

Gio <gio@hydesite.com>
Lagos, Nigeria - Friday, November 06, 1998 at 12:57:29 (EST)


burroughs was my meganine

bill methalagouse <hoper@wentworth.com>
Pikone, AZ USB - Tuesday, November 03, 1998 at 18:57:15 (EST)


Bill b.\changed my life... push the bulb and let it all rush in...hungry junk cells collide in
extacy.....WE will miss your presence bill.Thank YOU for Everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jason Stanley <none>
Islandton, s.c. U.s.a. - Monday, November 02, 1998 at 13:06:47 (EST)


when it rises it rises and it is big


thank you w s b

jux ta pose <godamujrk@aol.com>
some place, id u.s. of a - Friday, October 30, 1998 at 23:24:19 (EST)


I'v been reading wsb's books since i was 16. I'm 24 now, trying to write myslf, and extremely influenced
by him. My first encounter with wsb's works was, strangly enough, was after I watched "naked lunch"
(the movie). I bought the book the next day. it's very hard to find his books here in Israel, but somehow I
maneged to collect 25 of them so far.
very glad to be a part of his project.

Nadav Tamir <dove12@inter.net.il>
Tel-aviv, Israel - Thursday, October 29, 1998 at 12:57:17 (EST)


Well,well,well...
Mr. B don`t feel the beat anymore
So not And So nice
Mr. B lives twice

.... ....
.... ....
.... ....



Have fun!


Jaakko Leppänen <jleppane@felix.taide.turkuamk.fi>
TURKU, SUOMI-FINLAND - Wednesday, October 28, 1998 at 08:11:11 (EST)


Surly old bastard, but I like that in a man. What do we do now? We carry the torch and hope we don't burn ourselves on it.

DJ Morrison

DJ Morrison <djmorrison@hotmail.com>
Calgary, AB Canada - Sunday, October 25, 1998 at 23:41:07 (EST)


To whom it may concern;

My artistic name is KBS, I'm a singer from North Africa.
The music that I play can be considered as a mix between Orient and Occident in the categories World Music and rock.
I have 4 videos, one album and few other songs...
In 1996 in Switzerland, I represented my country, Morocco, at MJF(Montreux Jazz Festival).
I was the guest of many programs:
- Radio: Radio FM Casablanca, Radio Maroc Rabat, Radio Tanger, Radio RFI (France).
- TV: TV RTM Maroc, TV 2M Maroc, MCM(France).
I would like to meet a professionnal manager. And I wish that our conjucture will be a success in the USA and therefore in the world.

For more information, contact KBS at:
Tel: 718-263-9401
E-mail: smires@usa.net

KBS <smires@usa,net>
- Sunday, October 25, 1998 at 17:43:22 (EST)


un riferimento, così vicino così lontano ...grazie bill

saverio
- Friday, October 23, 1998 at 19:25:47 (EDT)


FONDAMENTALE
grazie dall'interzona inc.

:-)
Avellino, italy EUROPE - Thursday, October 22, 1998 at 16:22:33 (EDT)


It has been over a year. I still find it hard to accept. I know he didn't take great care of him self(the extreme living and all). I guess I had accepted that he was immortal. If there was anyone who was deserving Bill was the one.

Michael Kemp <gingerkangkang@hotmail.com>
Henniker, NH USA - Thursday, October 22, 1998 at 14:22:59 (EDT)


It has been over a year. I still find it hard to accept. I know he didn't take great care of him self(the extreme living and all). I guess I ahd accepted that he was immortal. If there was anyone who was deserving Bill was the one.

Michael Kemp <gingerkangkang@hotmail.com>
Henniker, NH USA - Thursday, October 22, 1998 at 14:21:42 (EDT)


Looking for William S. Burroughs I found a web-page dealing with a record from "SS say" called "fusion".
I would be very glad if anyone could help me to get the record.
Many thanks
Mitch

mitch <mitch@hrz1.uni-oldenburg.de>
Ol, D Ger - Tuesday, October 20, 1998 at 08:02:09 (EDT)


I have always been an admirer of WSB. I put a link to this site on my webpage. I think that I was supposed to get permission first. I'm not sure. I am only beginning the page.......never did one before.
Thanks,
Grovetta

Grovetta Suttles <Grape2010@aol.com>
Greenville, SC USA - Monday, October 19, 1998 at 11:51:09 (EDT)


my swollen glands feel the tremor of impostulence like a sickness
thru my broken body. in ruin I disembark my moment of fleeting clarity
like the divine sun washes pure whitelight thru the soft, pourous open
skin of a young boy. the fever inside causes me to tremble in the
prescence of greatness, my glistening skin bubbles to his feeble touch.

pop user number octogonial pen <rogue@chaven.com>
nod land, - Friday, October 16, 1998 at 05:03:06 (EDT)


not good at comments
enjoyed the page

skot spear <sikmtf@aol.com>
-, - - - Thursday, October 15, 1998 at 22:39:49 (EDT)


Allergic to humanity, obstinates in thought, regional network of signal
emitters, transpose mind data overlap with random extraneous spill-junk data
will form the new human database whereby not a rational thought can be
made without overlapping nonsense being wrapped thru signal until the
allergies rise to mutate thru non-human mesh corridor, where thought will
remain derelict for further dormanity to writhe towards the doorways this
electric medium henceforth created, ad infinity.

dwarf mexicoe farmer <rogue@chaven.com>
frenetixLab, Allergy colony - Thursday, October 15, 1998 at 22:16:21 (EDT)


While basking in the magnificince of the meaningless unification with glory, I became cognicient of the omnipresent light: which is the self-same light that gives vision and sight to humanity, I became aware of certain aspects in the darker corridors of all subconscious thought. It is the pervading force that overcomes all human cognition which, in turn, makes us aware that we are all part of, what some existentialist, or phenomonologist, said "we are all parts of the sum and the sum is greater than the whole of it's parts". Yes, all is right but right is naught.

Arnie Moomaw
Omak, WaWWwa usa - Monday, October 12, 1998 at 16:51:34 (EDT)


While basking in the magnificince of the meaningless unification with glory, I became cognicient of the omnipresent light: which is the self-same light that gives vision and sight to humanity, I became aware of certain aspects in the darker corridors of all subconscious thought. It is the pervading force that overcomes all human cognition which, in turn, makes us aware that we are all part of, what some existentialist, or phenomonologist, said "we are all parts of the sum and the sum is greater than the whole of it's parts". Yes, all is right but right is naught.

Arnie Moomaw
Omak, WaWWwa usa - Monday, October 12, 1998 at 16:51:33 (EDT)


While basking in the magnificince of the meaningless unification with glory, I became cognicient of the omnipresent light: which is the self-same light that gives vision and sight to humanity, I became aware of certain aspects in the darker corridors of all subconscious thought. It is the pervading force that overcomes all human cognition which, in turn, makes us aware that we are all part of, what some existentialist, or phenomonologist, said "we are all parts of the sum and the sum is greater than the whole of it's parts". Yes, all is right but right is naught.

Arnie Moomaw
Omak, WaWWwa usa - Monday, October 12, 1998 at 16:51:32 (EDT)


I AM one of the card playin' whiskey drinkin' evil old men that runs the United States of America!!!!

Ron Harrell <rharr98765@aol.com>
Edmonds, WA USA - Monday, October 12, 1998 at 08:03:38 (EDT)


the day i bled thru brown shoe, revealing other split anatomy
revives me to creep up the stairwell towards the infinite...
cowardously, in tedium, left foot farewell in ambiguous fleeting
momentus, i tripped thru balconies rise up skywell blinking fluids
lost...the splintered toe step, the touchless method of inhilation
of tapless two step in the bloodied mind wrap in useless old brown shoe.

- chris rogue -

spilled gold head soup <rogue@chaven.com>
- Sunday, October 11, 1998 at 21:59:56 (EDT)


when nothing is true than every thing is permitted-ilove you
bill love bill

when my boyfriend and I were living together, the book Naked Lunch was a great use in the bathroom. It scared the shit out of us!

tanya hill and bill smyth
- Sunday, October 11, 1998 at 17:31:42 (EDT)



tanya hill and bill smyth
- Sunday, October 11, 1998 at 17:28:04 (EDT)


this is my second message. about when i met bill. well, it was amazing. i was 20 and he was 70. and some friends of mine were going to his birthday party. well, the reading itself was a party for him- but he was reading. and it made me laugh and cry and everything. so. did i mention the bowie tickets? well, i won them from the paper- i live sort of a charmed life- a bit of heaven and hell- must always have the balance, right?, or what's the point?!- anyhow, was amazing. and the dream too- i recognized his face in the first photo i saw of him- from a kerouac reader- and i was shocked- because this was the man in the dream. i don't know if anyone believed me. but i knew. so i traded bowie tickets to go and see burroughs. i think it was in 1982- or a bit later. no. 84'. so that was the first time i saw him in person- and i sat in the front row. it was very powerful. after that, i started doing my own readings. well, i thought, if he could, then i guess i could. and i did. for a long time. but it is very draining. it's hard to describe. it's like giving yourself to everyone at once- opening up your soul and letting everyone have a peek. but it also feels so amazing. like nothing else. better than sex. that's why bill read until he dropped. honestly. by the way; i still got to see bowie- and that was amazing too. so that was a good year. and i saw burroughs a few more times- and sent him birthday cards and letters for awhile. don't know if he ever got them. but i gave him a couple in person. he smiled. and that's all. he always made me feel incredible- for no reason at all. that's the beauty of him. of course there is more to it, but those things, you can't really explain. and his mind blows me away. i think bowie is getting there too. and you know, he will be a beautiful old man too. smile. so there. if anyone wants to reply to this or write to me about burroughs, feel free. would be nice. so. goodnight. love and madness, roses, and quiet nights. that's what we all need. and thanks for this sight. site. it is truly amazing. and the blue background is very soothing. anyone else notice that?! later. diane.

diane mcquade <dianepop@hotmail.com>
- Saturday, October 10, 1998 at 21:42:15 (EDT)


hi. i met william burroughs when i was 20. he was 70. he was beautiful. we were both aquarians. i still am. i was enthralled and in love. he said to me; nice to see you again.' this amazed me. still does. i'd never met him before. he was so brilliant. i first read about him in kerouac's books- of course. when i was about 12 or 13. possibly younger. then i began to buy his books... and his records. i had a dog, his name was bill, a working class friend of mine...' from one of his songs... 1962. he had that old raspy voice, from too much drugs and thinking. yes, thinking. it changes your voice. i think it does. he is my grandfather= old bull lee= now you are a ghost= like i always thought- and so did everyone else- and you always follow me. he does. i can still feel him, and see those cold blue-grey eyes. we have the same color eyes too. smile. he has made me so happy. he taught me not to be afraid of myself and my thoughts= and there was always love in his voice and the words- and everything he said or wrote. always love. people don't get that. he wanted to be accepted and loved. and he was/is. i saw so much in him. my first dream= at age 3- was of bill. maybe that's why he said hello, and nice to see you again. he smiled. they said he never did. but he smiled at me. it's not true; that he doesn't i mean, because, i saw him laugh too. everyone saw the cold old man. i saw something else. i was 3- as i said; and he came to me. he put his hand through the window, and he said hello. his hands were pale and transparent and warm. it was the first dream i ever had. i still remember it. the sky was pale and blue and beautiful around his head and his shoulders. i couldn't see his whole body. he took my hand through the window and held it. was so nice. and we stayed that way for awhile. and he made me feel open. like i could be anything. and believe me, i have been. smile. bill, i love you, and miss you so much. roses for your grave and your heart. it is still here. love diane. oct 10th 1998.

diane mcquade <dianepop@hotmail.com>
- Saturday, October 10, 1998 at 21:14:04 (EDT)


William Burrough's writings introduced me to ideas and visions the like of which I had never seen before. It made me question life and art and drugs all of which have helped make me who I am today. Let others learn from this legendary visionary so that they too may experience his wisdom, and perhaps also be changed by his words.
P.S Bill, Congrats on living for so long! You showed everyone!!

Marisa <marisa.cartland@pobox.com>
canberra, a.c.t australia - Thursday, October 08, 1998 at 23:20:02 (EDT)


Re the above

I mean Tiresius of course, who paid a forfeit, invoked the anger of the Gods and, well, you know the rest.

johnny d <paws@yottle.demon.uk>
London, UK - Thursday, October 08, 1998 at 14:42:58 (EDT)


William Burroughs

It recently struck me that he was the physical embodiment of the character/narrator of the Eliot poem 'The Wasteland' (- and I who have walked amongst the dead;

(- who have foresuffered all, enacted on this same divan or bed)

Its his voice I like best though.

Johnny D

johnny d <paws@yottle.demon.co.uk>
London, UK - Thursday, October 08, 1998 at 14:32:14 (EDT)


I'm not going to give you a bunch of strung together words..
that was his job... I'm not going to tell you how much he
meant...you already know... I'm from the city he grew up in..I live
15 minutes away from where he died and yet I never met the man
but I know him well and I miss him fondly..and I will till my
days pass...bill...thank you and I love you

Myque

Myque Miles <steffany@swbell.net>
Kansas City, MO USA - Wednesday, October 07, 1998 at 17:49:25 (EDT)


I don't really have much to say about WSB except that his
works such as "Cities of the Red Night" and "Naked Lunch"
dragged me through worlds which were, to me, completely
alien. I think I am now a more open-minded person having
made those journeys.

Tommy@gla
glasgow, scotland - Tuesday, October 06, 1998 at 08:02:02 (EDT)




Wish he was still alive. Oh well.

LG Anderson <LGA178@aol.com>
NYC, NY USA - Tuesday, October 06, 1998 at 00:32:45 (EDT)


William Seward Burroughs was the only person to get me up off my ass and write.

Evi Kouvelas <marlowe2000@yahoo.com>
Toronto, Canada - Tuesday, October 06, 1998 at 00:11:55 (EDT)


Burroughs is a genious in his work. I thind he did as many drugs as Hunter S. Thompson

Budman
- Friday, October 02, 1998 at 13:47:31 (EDT)


thanks Bill.

alistar wickens <awickens@hotmail.com>
wellington, new zealand - Thursday, October 01, 1998 at 04:59:01 (EDT)


For all those who grieve at the loss of William, just permitt him not dead. Live in your dreams of his fatasy where he always lives and tells his truths'. Cut up his works yourself, and create new worlds of Burroughs you have randomly created and live in that world. I am afraid of doing these obligations so encourage others to do so.
Freedom through Fantasy is the way for you personal future, I think.

Allen <NLarge98@aol.com>
Swampscott, MA USA - Tuesday, September 29, 1998 at 21:07:07 (EDT)


I've already read all the Burroughs waorks I've find translated in Spanish but I would like to read some works I couldn't find in Spain but I think they are published in Soouth America or in the United States in Spanish as Interzone or Red night cities (I'm not sure about last title because is a direct translation from the Spanish version)
If somebody con give me a piece of information about this titles I will be very happy. Thanks a lot

Francesc Signes <vtasignes@ctv.es>
Benidorm, ALC Spain - Monday, September 21, 1998 at 18:16:19 (EDT)


Anybody who can write a sentence such as "She beat on the table with the expression
of a masturbating idiot.", knows how to express his thoughts in a powerful manner.

Bill Philips <kzv3@maristb.marist.edu>
Poughkeepsie, N.Y. - Monday, September 21, 1998 at 16:32:16 (EDT)


DH;;;;;:::::""""''''''""""!@#$%^&*()_+1234567890-=?/>.<,~`

DISNEY WORLD <FLORIDA>
ATLAFNGFGJIHFITIHJ, FL USA - Saturday, September 19, 1998 at 19:35:00 (EDT)


G. STEIN SAID A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE. WELL THAT'S CRAP AND SO IS MOST OF WHAT W. BURROUGH'S WROTE. HIS CUT-UP WRITINGS SUCK AND SO DOES HIS SHITGUN ART. JUNKIE IS ONE GOOD BOOK THOUGH.

STEVE SABO <STEVO>
- Thursday, September 17, 1998 at 14:20:36 (EDT)


I don't have much to say. Newly introduced to the literary works of William S Burroughs I wish only to
express my feelings towards this mans mind. Absolutely onto it and absolutely out of it. Genius/madness.

Thanks

Craig <mokum@ihug.co.nz>
Ohakune, New Zealand - Thursday, September 17, 1998 at 01:11:20 (EDT)


I am fairly new to Burroughs' work, and I am just embarking
on reading 'Naked Lunch'. I say 'embarking' because it is
a voyage, and a few pages each day is all I want to take as it
is an endlessly fascinating, and terrifying, work of art.

I want to make it last.

I have read some other interesting pieces including 'Dead
Fingers Don't Talk', and 'The Johnson Family'. The latter
is especially poignant as a general ethical attitude towards
other people.

I have also at this session, downloaded lists of recorded
works which I will hunt down relentlessly as soon as time
and cash permits.

My own 'experiments' with a flicker machine (alas not as
elegantly contructed as those of Burroughs, Gysin and
Sommerville, mine is basically my PC that runs some software
I wrote that simply makes the VDU screen flash off and on
as many time a second as you input), have also stimulated
my interest in the work of 'The Beats', as twentieth century
pioneers of both drug and non-drug induced altered states
of mind.

Which brings me to a request about the work of Sommerville.
I would be interested in getting hold of some more detailed
reports of the experiments with the DreamMachine, and also
is Ian Sommerville currently involved in any kind of
academic Information Technology research/teaching.
The reason I ask is because I am currently studying for a
degree in software engineering, and one of the recommended
text books is written by an Ian Sommerville. I am curious
to know if this is the same personage of 'Flicker' fame.

You have built an excellent webpage and archive.
Many Thanks for a stimulating browse,
ZoneTripper.





ZoneTripper <cmspsuff@livjm.ac.uk>
Liverpool, UK - Tuesday, September 15, 1998 at 12:37:10 (EDT)


the short film of wsb and friends at xmas on the end of junky's xmas film
shows wsb in lawerence kansas not the bunker in nyc

greg clayton <greg.clayton@sympatico.ca>
montreal, quebec canada - Monday, September 14, 1998 at 01:11:45 (EDT)


It was Burroughs who first articulated--repetitively--that the concept of good vs. evil does not correspond to a religious denomination or being sexually chaste. It's about minding one's own business; a surprisingly simple task that few people have the capacity for. This would explain Burroughs' encyclopedic knowledge of weapons and minor arsenal of handguns for the purpose of protecting his coveted privacy. As a member of an intellectually superior minority in a world populated by "Shits", Burroughs saw it fit to preserve himself through this technology, unafraid to denounce authorities which others thought were legitimate.

Tim Bailey <Bassick8@Aol.com>
Chicago, IL USA - Sunday, September 13, 1998 at 21:12:41 (EDT)



Tim Bailey <Bassick8@Aol.com>
Chicago, IL USA - Sunday, September 13, 1998 at 21:07:04 (EDT)


Hey there Malcolm:

Currently exploring your site (looking for old friends,
reminiscing a bit). Tried to send an e-mail, but no-go
for some reason, so I'll post it here instead.

Noticed a hole in your Giorno Poetry Releases Listing.

Both Bill Sr. & Billy Jr. are on vinyl entitled
SUGAR, ALCOHOL & MEAT (another Dial-A-Poem Poets lp).

I have the broadside, as well as the New York Magazine
(Best Bets) blurb that was published about this one in
my files.

Why? I was on that album too. As was the recently departed,
Kathy Acker. Also Allen, Patti Smith, John Cage and a host
of other poets/writers/performers.

Cover photos are 3 separate images of Giorno, John Ashbery
& Bill all in dinner dress (& shot by Robert Mapplethorpe).
Tres suave!

I no longer have the albums (hey this was 18 yrs & a few
lifetimes ago), but I do remember that some of the recordings
were live (mine was from a New Years' Reading taped at
St. Marks Poetry Project) & I seem to recall the Burroughs'
trax were also live readings. But memory could be playing
trix.

I'll try to toggle my brain better, if ya need it.

Bill was also on a track of BIG EGO (cover has Meredith Monk,
Philip Glass, Giorno and a couple of kids on the Lower East
Side). I think that one was released earlier than SUGAR,
ALCOHOL & MEAT (which was 1980 or possibly `81).

Enjoying your site.

ThanX,
D

Didi S. DubelyeW <ddsw@earthling.net>
US - Sunday, September 13, 1998 at 15:37:10 (EDT)


About five years ago. I Talked to James Grauerholz after i was done reading LITERARY OUTLAW. Burroughs was with him. i cant say how i got a hold of him. what i can say is that was the greatest momment as a writer ive had. thank you James and William.Gone but not unsung

Gary r Parrish <Niceguy168>
Ft. Bragg, NC U.S.A. - Saturday, September 12, 1998 at 14:43:07 (EDT)


what a loss; burroughs was one of the few men who had an
original vision and managed to still be showing it when
he died unlike others icould mention........he gave me a
vision and a name for the self and as someone might once
have said- 'he knew TIME'

Thom <luckyjim@mcmail.com>
Portsmouth, England - Friday, September 11, 1998 at 18:34:46 (EDT)


Once I bought Naked Lunch and read it. Then I read it again. And so I did several times more. Still I did not understand some of the pages. But the images of the book began to haunt me sometimes. And BINGO!!! I came to it. I did not have to understand the words (unfortunately I read only the Russian translation of the book)! I understood the literature as it is!
Thank you

Mikhail Dounavetski <airlin@hippo.ru>
Samara, Russia - Friday, September 11, 1998 at 04:22:02 (EDT)


AS ABOVE SO BELOW......

adrian speigal <ade@south-side.uk.com>
- Friday, September 04, 1998 at 22:11:14 (EDT)


THE MAN

dave blackford <d_dazl@yahoo.com>
council bluffs, ia USA - Friday, September 04, 1998 at 09:46:30 (EDT)


I was wandering if you send us some info about how to make a writing more interesting

St.rose school
breese, Il united states - Thursday, September 03, 1998 at 12:26:22 (EDT)


It aint no sin to shake off you skin and dance around in your bones. When the comfort level gets too hot and you can't find an ice cream cone.........words to live by, you have helped me find peace.....

Jeff Wright <jw8228@ark.ship.edu>
Shippensburg, PA USA - Wednesday, September 02, 1998 at 22:54:30 (EDT)


As a young writer (just 29) living in Lawrence after my great escape from Sarah Lawrence College, I had the fortune to meet and chat with 'the great frail man'. He asked simple questions with alarming inpact...He turned me on to other writers and gave me hope in the future of writing, a future sadly without him. Rest in peace Mr. Burroughs and may you be sitting in your chair polishing a revolver and laughing at we mortals scurring around for our crumbs...

All my best,
Gone but not forgotten,
And hopefully sipping a drink,
Paul R. Reilly

Paul Reilly <preil@yahoo.com>
Lawrence, KS 66049 - Wednesday, September 02, 1998 at 10:34:33 (EDT)


Billy will always live on! Well, as long as there are talking assholes! haha Read on brothers and sisters!!!


Red <poetess21@hotmail.com>
Mapleton, UT USA - Monday, August 31, 1998 at 18:52:22 (EDT)


Mr.Burroughs,
You make me feel not so alone,
As I pick up that utencil....

Doctor West
OR USA - Wednesday, August 26, 1998 at 14:04:40 (EDT)


To the greatest writer of our time...

Au grand passager d'Interzone, destructeur de langage-code, imagicien des fantasmes-vert-nuit.

Au grand parolier des quantas, celui qui a fait parler l'homme-machine, brutale ingérence dans un présent définitivement frelaté.

Gloire à toi, oh psychédélik Rimbaud.



Yours for ever, die long and prosper.


Stephane


stephane vansteenkiste <stephane.van@wanadoo.fr>
valenciennes, FRANCE - Thursday, August 20, 1998 at 13:19:02 (EDT)


the junk miser laid on his balcony to sweat it off, burlap thick eyelids
powerful mutagenic alkaline agent on the nod. my remedy rising as undigested
verse...my misery induced fugue revelant to only the beaded sweat on the 3am
balcony miserable kentucky ham son.

misery induced fugue <rogue@chaven.com>
- Thursday, August 20, 1998 at 03:14:09 (EDT)


Just read Naked Lunch - more or less stumbled across it in a second hand book-shop. Though I do not profess to have understood half of it, I am still deeply impressed by the book. I believe it is one of the most energetic, forceful novels ever written. The words positively throb with an animal-like viciousness.
When I try to imagine the man who wrote them I wonder if I it is more appropriate to pity or to admire him - though he probably could not give an effing damn in either case...

Martin Rosenstock <rosensto@stud.uni-frankfurt.de>
Germany - Monday, August 17, 1998 at 17:17:07 (EDT)


Mugwump island canary yellow streaks on the piss yellow wall, my hotel
is infested with dark serum worm crawling neckties to swallow in future
correspondence with damp crucified boys, naked and turkish yellow skinned...
My future landlord in St.Louis was incinerated along with several photographs
of mugwump transluscense urine, a weak specimen of yellow tabasco light coloured
piss that could drink you into a mild concussion...so I had dreamt.

meat cafe <rogue@chaven.com>
- Friday, August 14, 1998 at 05:02:28 (EDT)


dear mr burroughs where ever you are..
has got to be better then this...but..
no matter how bad things get here we..
will always have your words and the...
knowledge you have given us all.......
including me...thank you,you great man
i love you.............xoe............

xoe <madcap76@hotmail.com>
rochester, in united states - Wednesday, August 12, 1998 at 19:14:02 (EDT)


to lose is to win

Brian Eno
- Wednesday, August 12, 1998 at 02:03:58 (EDT)


Dear Mrs. Solberg,
i humbly thank you for the honor

from the dead arise alive
Time breaks a rock
with water and air.

WSB

joeapplying2color
- Tuesday, August 11, 1998 at 01:40:12 (EDT)


Naked Glee

Gladness reigns at the death of Bill.
His work was psychopathological filth!
He murdered his wife and went scot free.
He lost his soul to drugs and sex.
He was a pedophile, not less.
Look in the sewer of human degradation
And find Bill.
He lost his humanity; no he threw it all away
With both hands.
He deserves to burn in Hell for all eternity.

Amen! :D

Mrs. Solberg
- Monday, August 11, 1997 at 02:28:40 (EDT)

Mrs. Solberg <Solbergmk@aol.com>>
- Tuesday, August 11, 1998 at 01:36:55 (EDT)



scared
- Tuesday, August 11, 1998 at 01:35:34 (EDT)


hello

joelappy2color
- Monday, August 10, 1998 at 11:36:26 (EDT)


I was first introduced to William S. Burroughs when I was 16. A group of us used to sit around and read parts of Naked Lunch to each other. Now, years later, we only have our own memories and experiences. I miss you very much! You tought so much to so many people about being an individual.
I'll never forget!
l

krys <lizard_chick@hotmail.com>
winnipeg, canada - Saturday, August 08, 1998 at 20:16:27 (EDT)


I just feel a need to say thanx to a person who ment so much to me ...
A writing genius with ears like a god.
No words could say what you ment to me and so many others.
Stay alive... Bill,
and thank you!

Thorsten
Gummersbach, Germany - Friday, August 07, 1998 at 08:39:58 (EDT)


a ritual uxoricium is planned in the home with the wife and I ...

clark street junky <rogue@chaven.com>
- Thursday, August 06, 1998 at 05:38:03 (EDT)


For the record, in Bloodhounds of Broadway, Burroughs plays the butler in all of the scenes involving one particular society party that is revisited throughout the film. He doesn't speak in the film, but is the subject of many spooky lingering shots as he watches the major characters stumbling toward their fates.

Noah Mickens <NMickens@Symantec.com>
Portland, OR USA - Tuesday, August 04, 1998 at 22:41:16 (EDT)


(thanks Bill)

BINDA <BINDA23@AOL.COM>
EAST PECKHAM, KENT ENGLAND - Tuesday, August 04, 1998 at 22:23:04 (EDT)



ANTY <anty@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
germany - Tuesday, August 04, 1998 at 09:49:58 (EDT)


I hope whoever is running this will replace yesterday's hurried comments with this slightly more thought out note. William Burroughs could be seen as forming a kind of tandem with Henry Miller in that both were writers who saw language as their first great problem. Miller broke through certain barriers by writing in a way that was half-surreal, half-day-to-day to break the politeness lines laid down by previous generations of genteel English novelists. After Miller, you didn't always have to write about garden parties in hushed tones. Right to the end, Miller was always trying to get away from the 'literary' restrictions of literature: 'whatever is not from the street is flase derived, that is to say, literature'.

With Burroughs, it wasn't the restrictions society had imposed on the English language that bothered him, but the nature of language itself: goddamm pre-programmed code flashing around in our brains and nobody realising it. So he cut the code up, broke up the syntax, to see what would happen: 'Let's see'.

Together the two of them made the writer's oaklined drawing room a much roomier place than it had been before, they let in the air, and the mice, and christ knows what else. There's nothing wrong with writing about flat characters and round characters and three act plots and all the rest of it - plenty of writers still do - but thanks most of all to Miller and Burroughs all writers who do so are standing on a sixpence as the gym teachers used to say in a vast breezy living-room opened up for them should they want to use that available space.

Not only did Miller and Burroughs let in all this fresh air and go on breathing it for the rest of their lives, they also kept themselves angry which meant they kept their humour in there as well, an ingredient which acts like a literary preservative and will make sure people'll be reading both of them for years and years.

Miller never understood Burroughs and Burroughs was never interested much by Miller, though he certainly knew his books. The two of them, nonetheless, knocked those oaklined panels through and nowadays anybody who still sits at his desk resolutely ignoring the draughts blowing hither and thither, cannot help but look a little silly.

William Burroughs? The English equivalent of the Czech Hrabal and the Austrian Bernhard, one of the best if not the best of all those writers in the second half of the 20th century who didn't worry about being part of 'literature' because they found there were more important problems to be dealt with first. And boy, did Burroughs deal with them. We should shake his talking dead fingers just for that.

Matthew Tree

Matthew Tree <MatthewTree@compouserve.com>
Barcelona, BCN Catalonia - Tuesday, August 04, 1998 at 07:22:56 (EDT)


I lived in Lawrence for about almost 5 years and during that time had the opportunity to meet William several times and even work with him when he did voice-over work for a CD-ROM based on Edgar Allen Poe stories called "The Dark Eye."

On my way home from work today I heard a tribute on NPR and thought of him. It made me think of when I saw him during the Nova Convention Revisited in Lawrence on November 26, 1996. It was a very touching tribute to William, as I am sure you would agree if you were there.

August 2, 1997 was a sad day to be in Lawrence. Many people miss him all over the world. He touched me in more ways than I could possibly put into words. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to meet him.

Brad Barrish <bbarrish@earthlink.net>
Los Angeles, CA USA - Tuesday, August 04, 1998 at 02:49:10 (EDT)


Well, I always say the same stuff about William S. Burroughs, namely, that what Henry Miller did for the English language in the first half of the 20th century, Burroughs did for a second. Miller put all the gentle and genteel fiction that was floating around at the time in its place, meaning not that it was bad necessarily but simply that it had a *place*, it was not the be all and end all, and Miller did this on a level that influenced a whole load of people, from the GIs who bought him in Paris to Mailer etc. So Burroughs just finioshed off the job in the second half of this or that same century, he looked even harder at the nature of language and then decided to see what would happen if you pulled it to pieces - 'Let's see'.

Yes, we can all write novels with round characters and flat characters and three act structures and that's fine, and plenty of people are still doing it, but thanks to Burroughs or the Miller/Burroughs tandem they are sitting in a much larger drawing room as they do so, as they weave their wee plots and fret over their wee characters.

So, in a nutshell, Burroughs did what so many great writers have done, that is, he made the place spacier and freer for the rest of us, he let some air in, not to mention the mice. A great, great writer, with the hallmark or rather the twin hallmarks of all great writers: he sometimes wrote badly and he made sure his books all had humour, real humour, the black kind.

Matthew Tree

Matthew Tree <MatthewTree@compuserve.com>
Barcelona, Es Catalonia - Monday, August 03, 1998 at 21:36:08 (EDT)


I lucked upon this page Aug 2 1998 thru the JG Ballard "What I Believe" hypertext and realised it's been one year since WSB's death. He has changed my life in a number of ways, artisticly and spiritualy (but not my spelling skills) and will continue to do so.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

Eddie Lee <ed_canfield@hotmail.com>
OKC, OK U$A - Monday, August 03, 1998 at 12:49:35 (EDT)


?

# tangiers
(7/9/98)


Many days hungry laid out on table
I close my eyes, And I see, You--standing there,
my only friend, my only head
I cry, Tears--of sorrow, I die.
this is the noise that keeps me awake
fear is not the end of this


Soft now- the lips that dragged me down
showed me everybody, naked and disfigured
hear me cry, hear me moan
and wash away the rain,

funk soul brother
my whole existence is flawed
Everyone avoids me like a psyched lone ranger
ain't nothing here that I care To take a long
you get me closer to god

I close my eyes, And I see, You--standing there,
I cry, Tears--of sorrow, I die.
Uh-huh,
Yeah.


all the little boys with crimson lips
take me home, take me home, and wash away the rain
fear is not the end of this
my only friend, my only head

...




douglas <babu@electriciti.com>
san diego, ca usa - Monday, August 03, 1998 at 02:30:53 (EDT)


Burroughs is one of the three "greats" of the last fifty years in my opinion - Beckett, Burroughs and Ballard.
At the time of his death I had written to him to try and get his signature - I failed, sadly.

Steve Broadhurst <Steve.Broadhurst@btinternet.com>
Newcastle, Staff UK - Sunday, August 02, 1998 at 14:21:36 (EDT)


Much thanks to Malcolm Humes for this Memorial
which gathered Bill Burroughs'readers during this incredible
year. Thanks to all of you who write here.
May the Third Mind which grew up allow us to keep on
his work and Brion Gysin's one with as much fun and
delights we have had to do it untill now.
Happy birthday to Interzone
Let's meet today : see http://www.interpc.fr/mapage/westernlands/menu

For Interzone
Izzy

Izzy <baudron@interpc.fr>
- Sunday, August 02, 1998 at 08:53:14 (EDT)


One year ago exactly my little son Ian (named after Ian C. from Joy
Division...) was born into this world...and William S. Burroughs was
leaving this world. It is my belief that upon entering and leaving
this world, one must travel thru a portal...and for a brief few moments,
people leaving this world get to watch the new ones entering, and that
for a split second they can connect thoughts to one another and pass on
a bit of their influence onto the newborn.
It would incredible if one day my son would wake me up and in the moment
of clarity he would say to me: "Did I ever tell you the one about the man
who taught his asshole to talk?"

BTW, for those who are checking this out, I highly recommend the
4 CD boxset of WSB from Giorno Poetry Systems...there are some of
his first ever live performances and readings, some of which show
a very human side (to err) of WSB where he had not yet established
his patented style and grace...so it reminded me a lot of the open
mic poetry environments where anything can happen and usually does.
Definitely worth the investment...plus, the book that comes with it
is chock full of memories! It is a beautiful tribute to the infamous
writer from interzone.

CHRIS ROGUE
reptile house labs,
Chicago

chris rogue <rogue@Chaven.com>
- Sunday, August 02, 1998 at 07:23:40 (EDT)


So it's a year now, and still no news from The Western Lands.
Buzz Osborne from the Melvins told me of Bill's passing, in a cafe while we were on tour,
and I am still in the same state of disbelief that it would be the last we'd hear from WSB.
The experiment continues.

Troy
- Saturday, August 01, 1998 at 23:53:54 (EDT)


Crumpled, despondent, I...

rogue <rogue@chaven.com>
- Friday, July 31, 1998 at 04:40:21 (EDT)


dustheap kansas, polygon window to the xenophobes centre of earth.
sullen traveler, shuffled thru bleakest of blackened estuaries, dead at 83.

sickening martinelli typewriter <rogue@chaven.com>
- Friday, July 31, 1998 at 04:29:48 (EDT)


The day is done
For an old fag....

The needles are rusting
but always find a newbie fresh arm....

VIVA LA BURROUGHS!

Diane Fornbacher <siamgemini@hotmail.com>
State College, PA 16801 - Thursday, July 30, 1998 at 09:42:20 (EDT)


i search through all these bits of notes and letters and pictures from those around the world, who can't help but miss an old man who lived a life like none other... i am but one voice in the night, sighing.....
when i heard of bill's death, all i could think was.. well, they're all together again, the boys... having a grand ol tea party in heaven, stirring up the old days and laughing. we should all be so lucky to become angels such as these...
i will forever remember his words about love.. "the most natural painkiller that there is", and think of his eyes, glowing with a knowledge and power no one could duplicate. and i will look up when it rains and thank the boys, the beatific saints, for spilling a sip on me...


¤°pðppÿ°¤ <110633.1766@compuserve.com>
- Wednesday, July 29, 1998 at 02:41:03 (EDT)


About a year ago he walked quietly into the western land, cries of anguish rose saying how could that old man be gone.
he had so much to give us. He gives it to us when ever he needs, for one thing his dense funny crap just gets funnier, more real and more relevant.
and as time goes by we see a little more of it. I laugh when his deriders need to cry about his fame and money . He was a natural man protected from proverty by his friend james g and
actually he was lucky that some of the work he needed to write, he was allowed to write, you don't need the hidden work to find his star. He was no louis may alcot, he wasn't in it for the money, he was in it for the bone
I close my eyes and see him, standing on his red porch nodding and see us off, bending down, stroking a cat, I remember him rolling with odd grace in my living room on 13th. singing in the car old jimmy rodgers tune, walking on the river gleaming glad delighted
patricia

patricia elliott <pelliott@sunflower.com>
lawrence, ks us - Wednesday, July 29, 1998 at 00:10:26 (EDT)


Great page. Does anyone have info on a german claymation
short. Based on a Burroughs poem and also narrated by him?
I believe it's called "Ah Pook" and was on the Spike and
Mike Sick and Twisted Animation Festival Circut.

Ben B. <yumyumm@hotmail.com>
- Thursday, July 23, 1998 at 19:03:32 (EDT)


Calling all active agents,
nearly a year from the day William Lee Deserted this virus
riden planet.
Come kick those naked mugwumps from your orgone box and come to interzone.
It's quite a resort.

Remember the lavatory has been locked for three hours.

simon (active agent re) Owen <owens@lishirl1.li.co.uk>
Birmingham, ENGLAND - Wednesday, July 22, 1998 at 07:45:47 (EDT)


STORIES OF MISERY,CAN YOU READ NOW ? I AM NO-ONE HERE . GOD OF NOTHING,HERE I ROTT INSIDE MYSELF.STUCK LIKE WHITE LIGHTNING CRACKING MY BRAIN DEAD TO YOU.

Attila Morpheus Kartali
Past - Saturday, July 18, 1998 at 18:10:13 (EDT)


...young writer...just read Naked Lunch...blown away...must know more...will know more...so glad I've got so much time.

G.R.Weale
London, England - Friday, July 17, 1998 at 13:17:46 (EDT)



G.R.Weale
- Friday, July 17, 1998 at 13:14:58 (EDT)


I found your site whilst researching WSB for a season of Burroughs'-related films
to be held in commemmoration of the first anniversary of his death.
Your site has been extremely helpful in my research - thanks!
If any one is interested in the WSB commemorative season, they should contact
The Lux Cinema in Hoxton Square, London, for a programme.

Kaye
London, UK - Friday, July 17, 1998 at 07:17:44 (EDT)


I realise that this request is not directly linked to this specific website, however, i am requesting
help with decoding all of the 'fictional' characters in 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac, of which
WSB is one (I believe that WSB is 'Old Bull' and Joan Vollmer Adams is 'Jane'). If anyone can
help me with this, or email me with some links that they think may be helpful, please do. Thanks

Kris <kristen@hildas.unimelb.edu.au>
- Monday, July 13, 1998 at 02:19:41 (EDT)


just curious about what i'd find here

trace thaggard <cmoore4200>
holliwood, fl u.s.a. - Saturday, July 04, 1998 at 05:21:37 (EDT)


My introduction to WSB was when I heard him on public radio. He was reciting
a poem about the end of the world, with the music of the band Materia in the foreground.
I was mesmerized. It blew my mind. He spoke of atomic war, and how
if the end of the world came as the result of a nucular holocaust it would not only kill our
bodies, but would also kill our souls. The only way the soul can die is from nucular holocaust,
he said, in his unique poetic style. If the world ended by any other means we would die,
and our
souls would live on to perhaps inhabit another realm, but atomic death, he said, would
be "the final
death"...... Hmmmmm.

sherena
- Saturday, June 20, 1998 at 21:52:10 (EDT)


energy sucker, dilapidated old feline with tattered claws.
mugwumps thrive still in other places in my mind.

chinese bug powder <rogue@chaven.com>
- Saturday, June 20, 1998 at 05:57:47 (EDT)


I missed talking to you when you asked me the time ... I really had all
the time for you but then you were gone....I miss your annual visit to
Edgar A. Poe's bones with the whisky and the rose....I pray you help
break my writer's block...help me break rock.....

Frisco Kid <WmHarris@ix.netcom.com>
Los Angeles, CA USA - Saturday, June 20, 1998 at 00:12:39 (EDT)


As a 16 year old, many people may not beleive I could harbor a true affinity for Burroughs, because of my lack of wordly experience. I think misconceptions like these are exactly the type of thing Burroughs would've been against. Burroughs was about more than terrible experiences in this life and twisted psychological fallability...a human tragedy that we all play a role in. Burroughs (I feel) above all was a spiritualist. His writing transcended physicality and kicks, it was a piece of his soul, his exepreinces, his visions and dreams physical manifested on paper. He manipulated words like an addict manipulates anyone willing to be his enabler. He used them to express that this life, this terror, this sick twisted fantasy/reality we all live in isn't all there is. There is more...H.P Lovecraft held the belief that man did not know the whole truth about all the knowledge, power and terror in the universe...and that if man did, he would go mad. Burroughs stared this omnipresent void, that uncertainty, the Absolute, and painted it with words...and he lived to tell of it. He was our pioneer, our brave tragic voyager who showed us more than we ever thought we could gather about life, death, God, and ourselves...all of us have a little bit of William Burroughs in us...his satire, his honesty, his brutality, his tragically beautiful inequity..but still, he will be missed.

Matt <ummmm>
NJ USA - Monday, June 15, 1998 at 12:26:04 (EDT)


Burroughs ghost never stop writing now totally out of control.
He didn't choose peace but in a way he must find it while
someone'll be accepting his life-job. Secret agent from
anywhere through everywhere.
Total Death is a lie and the liers are the priests of this
world.Life will be fighting and even more.
Like you Old Bill through broken galaxies always against
Nova and whatever gets you through the dream.
Purple-assed baboons what we kill
Rational though forever destroyed secrets still travelling.
Miss your humor.
Pacôme.

Pacome Thiellement <pacome.thielemment@wanadoo.fr>
Paris, France - Sunday, June 14, 1998 at 10:59:00 (EDT)


Long after I thought I understood "Wouldn't you?" I realized that there was another dimension. I was wrong. There is probably another dimension after that. Wouldn't you?

carlos campo <mr.rich@usa.net>
san antonio, tx usa - Saturday, June 13, 1998 at 20:41:38 (EDT)


Long after I thought I understood "Wouldn't you?" I realized that there was another dimension. I was wrong. There is probably another dimension after that. Wouldn't you?

carlos campo <mr.rich@usa.net>
san antonio, tx usa - Saturday, June 13, 1998 at 20:39:53 (EDT)


A sad Loss for all please come back Bill
never had to think about what it would be like if u went

Bob
- Saturday, June 13, 1998 at 09:00:22 (EDT)


If you repulse, it is only because you feel it deep within your
muscular scrotum...

sand moth <rogue@chaven.com>
- Friday, June 12, 1998 at 23:50:29 (EDT)


My grandfather knew William Burroughs so, when choosing a
research project, I decided to study William Burroughs and
Naked Lunch. I was thrilled to discover what an amazing
storyteller and thinker this man was. It truly saddens me
to know that the world will no longer benefit from his
writing. I enjoyed especially his sense of humour. If
anyone is reading this who has not read Naked Lunch, READ
IT NOW!!! Don't borrow it from a friend or from the library,
BUY YOUR OWN! It is a gift, and we are so lucky to have a
novel like this one at our fingertips. Thank you to the
creators of this page for keeping William S. Burroughs alive
for future generations to appreciate. HIS WORKS NEED TO BE
READ AND REREAD as so many of his comments on society are
present more than ever today(read his discussion of
Interzone's political parties on approx. page 140-I can't
remember exactly). His insights into human rotteness cannot
be ignored. Hell, knowing is half the battle right? Maybe
with intense self-scrutiny, the population will one day be
relieved from it's repressed, hypocritical, etc...(read the
book) ways. I hope so. Well, all hail Burroughs***

emily <ehuddart@smus.bc.ca>
VICTORIA, B.C. Canada - Wednesday, June 10, 1998 at 00:03:36 (EDT)


My grandfather knew William Burroughs so, when choosing a
research project, I decided to study William Burroughs and
Naked Lunch. I was thrilled to discover what an amazing
storyteller and thinker this man was. It truly saddens me
to know that the world will no longer benefit from his
writing. I enjoyed especially his sense of humour. If
anyone is reading this who has not read Naked Lunch, READ
IT NOW!!! Don't borrow it from a frieng or from the library,
BUY YOUR OWN! It is a gift, and we are so lucky to have a
novel like this one at our fingertips. Thank you to the
creators of this page for keeping William S. Burroughs alive
for future generations to appreciate. HIS WORKS NEED TO BE
READ AND REREAD as so many of his comments on society are
present more than ever today(read his discussion of
Interzone's political parties on approx. page 140-I can't
remember exactly). His insights into human rotteness cannot
be ignored. Hell, knowing is half the battle right? Maybe
with intense self-scrutiny, the population will one day be
relieved from it's repressed, hypocritical, etc...(read the
book) ways. I hope so. Well, all hail Burroughs***

emily <none>
VICTORIA, B.C. Canada - Wednesday, June 10, 1998 at 00:02:14 (EDT)


Someone should seek out the many trash porn novels burroughs ghostwrote for money long ago , I own one likel;y candidate and they might be some of his deepest works of all
Vincit Omnia Veritas, Vae Victis

Frater Peregrinus <acrocker@sprint.ca>
Halifax, NS Canada - Friday, June 05, 1998 at 16:10:24 (EDT)


telepathic bullet lodges into first glance, barbed wire spindles around
the wrists of no ordinary man. deem to guess his mistake being made at
the table when her temple exploded, fit right into that convenient pocket
between your thumb and forefinger. incindenary minds work in sporatic or
at best half noticed places, notice how they can spontaneously amputate
their fingers? --chris rogue--

tainted cheese <rogue@chaven.com>
mooch nickel, - Thursday, June 04, 1998 at 05:22:18 (EDT)


they wanted a war hero, but got a prom queen instead, aborted fetuses in a bucket being
consumed by termites. we miss you bill.

Jared Sales <panic009@hotmail.com>
Acton, Ont Canada - Tuesday, June 02, 1998 at 14:40:32 (EDT)


He was in, but not from here.
Makes me believe.

Marcus Hermsen <whatelse@csi.com>
Ddorf, Ger - Monday, June 01, 1998 at 14:21:56 (EDT)


I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and we had the best dirt clods. The dirt would dry in layers. And with the hands you can peel it apart piece by piece. I wonder if they have some good dirt in Heaven. Bill?

S.R. Granger <t-voice@mindspring.com>
- Monday, June 01, 1998 at 12:58:38 (EDT)


I like the spicy mustard. But not having to carry the bag lunch onto the plane. Being served poor food somehow makes it a lot better. Being made to carry it myself just makes me wish I had packed a Snickers.

S.R. Granger <t-voice@mindspring.com>
- Monday, June 01, 1998 at 12:52:41 (EDT)


Deep in the clogged mindway a rigor of awful men or robot men, like
dilligent little army men, stop to greet the fatty antibody. Incestuous precursor
to marketcrasher depression era monolithic fire eyed gap toothed sawblade
rotor mouthed death breathin' mind ripper, the fatty is goggled up and in
sight of the meandering writers panhandle where old man Burroughs has done
it again...like a glass chunk broken beer bottle lodged in the throat of
a drunken man on his way to a final resting place...somewhere nearby the
mindway is undulating, awaiting most his arrival. Burroughs, armed to the
teeth, is on his way to the other side- "reckon I outta take out fatty one
last time for old times sake, leavem a souvenir" ...old bill is dead and there
is no place left to go. --chris rogue

bludgeon them in gunfire bill <rogue@chaven.com>
fink, - Sunday, May 31, 1998 at 05:05:27 (EDT)


ohmigod grampa bill is gone ! He was a Shakespeare, man, fiery prophet of the electric sexual era.

tommy sux
- Saturday, May 30, 1998 at 22:03:37 (EDT)


Hi William, wherever you may be, reaching the extreme, you where
honestly looking to find the door to other dimensions. Maybe
you did knock too hard, but you did knock. And that's what counts.
Next life you probably find the right entry and all your efforts will
be rewarded. You will be remembered for be so human. Love, Hans

Hans-Hinrich Taeger <taeger@iol.ie>
Portsalon, Ireland - Tuesday, May 26, 1998 at 21:43:30 (EDT)


Une personne qui restera parmis les esprits libres, un pessimiste optimiste révolutionnaire en marge d'un systême dont il faisait parti

Biozone
Paris, France - Tuesday, May 26, 1998 at 13:27:09 (EDT)


Une personne restera parmis les esprits libres, un pessimiste optimiste révolutionnaire en marge d'un systeme dont il faisait partie

Biozone
Paris, France - Tuesday, May 26, 1998 at 13:25:52 (EDT)


massimo rispetto per lo zio bill

emiliano bussolo <amrey@euronet.nl>
amsterdam, nederland - Tuesday, May 26, 1998 at 10:13:16 (EDT)



emiliano bussolo <amrey@euronet.nl>
amsterdam, nederland - Tuesday, May 26, 1998 at 10:07:45 (EDT)


planning on a local / regional beat poet retrospective with classics such as WSB/kerouac/corso/ginsber, et al, interleaved along with local efforts all within pseudo re-creation of popularized nostalgic interpretation of the coffeehouse as it existed from time to time. please let me know what to do to obtain rights to read some of WSB's works. Thanks for providing this sight.

bill farmer <billfarmer@earthlink.net>
Hartsville, SC USA - Monday, May 25, 1998 at 22:11:16 (EDT)


First off, I would like to recommend an under-read book by the man. "The Job", is a collection of
statements from interview with WSB. Secondly, a quote that I think represents how the man thought.
from: "The Place of Dead Roads", "...the arrow and the bow, the arm and the eye."

Scott Lickstein <cydonia@iws.net>
Boulder, CO USA - Sunday, May 24, 1998 at 15:25:16 (EDT)


Decades from now, university literature classes will illustrate (albeit as dry as ever) what all of us already know-William Burroughs was the nexus of Post-WWII American literature. His loving, gentlemanly influence extended from the Beats to the science fiction subgenre known today as 'cyberpunk'. I am positive he will be "rediscovered" an influence generations to come.

Personally, I "discovered" Naked Lunch in high school over twenty years ago. Later, Viking/Penguin re-released " Junky" and "Queer". At that time, Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was getting another lease on life, thanks to the film "Where the Buffalo Roam". Although both authors reported on those dark corridors of the human mind, "Sailor Bill" did so with such power and grace.

I learned of his death through the San Francisco Examiner. In the obituary, I read that someone places spent .45 caliber shells in a pan-scale located in the storefront window of City Lights in San Francisco. I thought that was the perfect "thank you".

Garrison Burke <MrVaranasi@aol.com>
Vancouver, WA USofA - Sunday, May 24, 1998 at 01:17:17 (EDT)


well im in mexico , ixtapa right now and decided to see
whether or not there was anything on the web about the
movie naked lunch. today i am sorry to find out that
the legend is no longer with but i wanted to add that i
have proudly been a part of his legendary life.

I was an actor in the movie NAKED LUNCH
directed by DAVID CRONENBERG who cast me
as an interzone boy which ironically happens to be a
fictiosous character in an arabesque new york
dreamzone. which actually accured in his life in the
50's in tangiers morrocco. which happens to be the place of my parents origin.

THANK YOU FOR THE HONOR MR.BURROUGHS

P.S. DAVID CRONENBERG IT WAS THE EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE THANK YOU

SINCERELY,
LAURENT HAZOUT IXTAPA,MEXICO MAY 21 1998

laurent hazout <hazout@hotmail.com>
toronto, on canada - Thursday, May 21, 1998 at 19:58:16 (EDT)


thanks, wsb

kill4lafs <semiole@hem1.passagen.se>
sweden - Thursday, May 21, 1998 at 19:28:48 (EDT)


i came back to this memorial site today to look for my old comments which i posted here not long after uncle bill's death. in looking for them (and not finding them) i have read a couple dozen messages and it has brought a tear to my eye, and also made me think (what book did that quote come from?) and laugh (someone quoted "words of advice for young people")...
i guess i've been drawn back here to say something substantial. well, i think of burroughs as a spiritual companion. i have no real beliefs - i consider myself an atheist - but uncle bill showed me what there was beyond the physical world. the more that is written in the spirit of experimentation with the written word, the more we expand the world known as imagination, and we can then grow further as beings.
this is what burroughs has taught me, if nothing else. he has been the greatest educator in my education... but like him, i will not complete my education until i join him in the western lands.

thankyou, bill. thankyou for challenging my mind in a world where books like "trainspotting" are hailed as the best book ever written by man or woman. now i'm going to leave you alone. you have earnt your retirement, inspector lee...

Sam Birbeck <birbeck@ace.net.au>
Adelaide, SA Australia - Wednesday, May 20, 1998 at 10:46:29 (EDT)





.........the 'truth' isn't always pretty. Thanks for giving us a peek at that 'pustulant-sore' known as the human psyche.

bonz
- Tuesday, May 19, 1998 at 03:45:23 (EDT)


I WAS ON JUNK FOR A FEW YEARS BEFORE HE FOUND ME. THEN I DID IT AND I READ, FOR A FEW MORE YEARS.
I KICKED FOUR YEARS AGO, FUCK, THATS IT. IM NOT HERE TO BORE YOU...

KRIS IN LOWELL <NONE>
LOWELL, MA. UGLY - Tuesday, May 19, 1998 at 02:09:11 (EDT)


"Oh the greyjunk yesterdays........"

greyjunk
randolph, nj US - Saturday, May 16, 1998 at 11:19:58 (EDT)


his fingers intertwine the pulse to which I floe, the tapestry
of word flak pounding like a fiery timbale drum, the orgasm rush
in sentence misfile trapping mind impact. the time he traded me
in for ruin and a pistol, the severed lips of the dog pant on his
dead radio word, the stench of stagnant water would have destoyed
him...until the rhythmus pulse brought him to the shopkeeper in
ruin to sharpening his word blade thru keystroke and the tongue
is still wet to his appeteit, how do I miss his pulse.

matinelli typewriter <rogue@chaven.com>
Morocco - Saturday, May 16, 1998 at 01:19:48 (EDT)


Thanks to Patti Smith I discovered William Burroughs in
1996.Thanks to William Burroughs I've led a rich literary
life. I saw/heard William Burroughs read some excerpts from
a then new book, I am ashamed to say I don't remember which
one now. It was many years ago in Colorado (of all places)
& I was starving for some culture, I would have settled for
a Harvey Keitel film. Anyway,William Burroughs appeared at
the downtown Unitarian church & I was invigorated by his
performance. I smirked along with him at his sarcasm &
nodded my head at his acute wit. It was an evening I will
always cherish. I always thought I'd see him again, pref
erable in NYC,to thank him. I guess by doing this in a
way I am. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Valerie Chapman

Valerie Chapman <vch986081@aol.com>
Bklyn, NY USA - Friday, May 15, 1998 at 22:01:08 (EDT)


there is really no way of guaging the effect uncle bill had on me. even though he never answered any of my letters. i did however create a memorial piece in his honor within 24 hours of his passing. It's titled A Walk to the End of the World/Afterbirth of Dream and can be found on the forked yew tape Drive a Better Deal. He was a friend unmet and will be greatly missed by "those who know".
b c n u
dead joe

dead joe <deadjoe@webtv.net>
Bossier city, la amerikka - Friday, May 15, 1998 at 16:20:41 (EDT)


At first i disliked him, thought of him as a fool; a man who couldn't write.
i thought he was famous only because of his beat connections. but, soon (after reading
NAKED LUNCH) he became entered into my mind as one of the most
daring and cunning of writers. he is a big infuences n my poetry and prose.
the man was and is, whether not here or not, a genius of/in his own
way, his own world.

Joseph Higares <verbal_stabbing@hotmail.com>
los banos, ca usa - Wednesday, May 13, 1998 at 11:41:16 (EDT)


As i have always been interested in random occurances of our everyday life , and moreso of the mind , WSB was ( and still is ) a central figure in my universe . He gave me a mad method to the most beutiful madness ever seen. Me and my friends used to joke about it saying: He isn´t going to die on his own , somebody has to kill him .
Well , seems like nothing lasts forever , though we´ll keep your words in our hearts and minds for a long time.

Jonas <Joz23@hotmail.com>
Gothenburg, Sweden - Wednesday, May 13, 1998 at 05:20:02 (EDT)


The last poet is gone... But he's still here

Daniel
- Monday, May 11, 1998 at 07:11:56 (EDT)


the only traveller to go far enough to give us a history To open the eye where the dwarves were raking it in and to offer no solution but the absolute there is a death and its far away

will <fc502790@http//ntu.ac.uk.>
nottingham, england - Saturday, May 09, 1998 at 19:16:13 (EDT)


the only traveller to go far enough to give us a history To open the eye where the dwarves were raking it in and to offer no solution but the absolute there is a death and its far away

will <fc502790@http//ntu.ac.uk.>
nottingham, england - Saturday, May 09, 1998 at 19:11:00 (EDT)


Fight tuberculosis, folks.

The Ultrafoetus <davidbusby@saqnet.co.uk>
UK - Saturday, May 09, 1998 at 15:43:15 (EDT)


i would like to learn more about william burroughs and his thoughts on drugs and society, and the politics of drug control. I cant find any books by him, do you no a place i can order? thanks


justin

Justin McVay <marisy@bellatlantic.net>
union city, nj 07087 - Thursday, May 07, 1998 at 02:38:27 (EDT)


I have found nothing here,no new true love just hate and
bitterness.And to feel this way should be no surprise,no
surprise that they all see but can not make out the exact
shape or form.They are all still drunk and blind by your
stage light.You perform on a stage that is as wide and broad
as the starlit sky with tin-foil for a sun.
The baeuty that incases the sickness is starting to crack,
take on the apperence of the viens of a marble statute
revealing the uglinessin side.

verlon ray allen III
- Wednesday, May 06, 1998 at 22:46:48 (EDT)


Their will never be another writer like William. He had a mind of a pure genius. It was even more than a genius, it was natural to him. I'm 17 years old and am a writer and have always wanted to go out to Kansas and meet one of my inspirations and idols. I wish him the best and maybe sometime we will discuss each other's books.

Grant Butler <Grant99022@mailexcite.com>
Muncie, IN USA - Tuesday, May 05, 1998 at 22:34:02 (EDT)


Bill... he shows me the way through dark ages... yeh. so:
language's a virus, i do now my own best genotypes.
the last words of Dutch Schultz, in the beginning... so, Bill,
c'mon... let's move on! Narcs comin'... Bill?! What a time...
Bill. maybe is only a temporal wakeness. don't know.
You're a fater, yeh. So long, Bill. Maybe in Paris...

liberale maroelli <fab@bluewin.ch>
switzerland - Tuesday, May 05, 1998 at 18:32:52 (EDT)


At the age of twenty, I have only just discovered the writings of WSB. I sit here in front of my computer at 2:00am searching for more information about the man, slowly realising that the world will never see another like him. I feel fortunate though that I can get to know the man through his works, and I can only hope that I live as full a life as he did.

Johno
Sydney, Australia - Tuesday, May 05, 1998 at 12:17:58 (EDT)


how do you discover genius? i did my sophomre year of high school.....he blew my tiny world away and rebuilt me a palace light years in the distance.....thank you my friend....thank you for telling me all about it, thank you for writing it down, to this day you keep me and my mates together, binding us by the word......keep it alive, as we shall you.................

Brian Scott <drsax10529@aol>
Reading, Ma 01867 - Tuesday, May 05, 1998 at 00:30:53 (EDT)


I believe WSB's line (spoken on the Seven Souls CD non the less0 was - " Don't expect to be here when this shit box goes up".

Following his passage, I believe the Space Station Earth may not be on the long end of it's existence...



Waiting for the sky to rip open,


bad billy.

WILLIAM D. WILKERSON <BBKKW.TX@MCIONE.COM>
HOUSTON, TX US - Sunday, May 03, 1998 at 15:24:00 (EDT)


I was introduced to the beats via an eleventh grade history project in may of '97. I became obsessed with them. Soon I realized that Burroughs was the one I admired the most and soon discovered him to be the embodiment of how I want to experiance the world (not necessarily by becoming a junky but in the matter of self knowledge). I missed being able to correspond with him by a year and this greatly saddens me. What do you do when you know a cultural icon was around throughout your entire life and you only discover them a month after they die?

Darius McVay <killajoe00@hotmail.com>
Decatur, GA USA - Friday, May 01, 1998 at 15:19:47 (EDT)


the carpet sweeper breathed curtains for me, numero uno watched me thru
pistol sights canopy bed unkept in mine the walking papers swept behind
in practice the doctor prescribes meathook adjacent to his only self
thru sickness, bombing the mind flak on gaurd on injection after self
mind projection candy store clerk shifty eyed ask me twice to remove
them, projector eye flutters into synaptic remission the shifty store
removed me twice to candy...and the curtains fell leaving me behind.

silver smoke <rogue@chaven.com>
Interzn - Friday, May 01, 1998 at 02:56:37 (EDT)


"Whenever you use this bow I will be there," the Zen archery master tells his students. And he means there quite literally. He lives in his students and thus achieves a measure of immortality. And the immortality of a writer is to be taken literally. Whenever anyone reads his words the writer is there. He lives in his readers." William S. Burroughs "The Place of Dead Roads"
" Just before he signs off for good , many a man has picked up the distant voice of his doctor saying: " He is dead". Remember, these words are meaningless.
When you read this I am alive.
I am here on this page. I am here. I am HERE ! " Brion Gysin "Beat Museum - Bardo Hotel"

Agent Izzy <baudron@interpc.fr>
Johnsonville, Interzone - Wednesday, April 29, 1998 at 15:26:53 (EDT)


I thought he'd see me out but then nothing is sacrosanct as well we all know. And now the insects are burrowing into my brain, through hyperthalamus and visual cortex, the man understand you cant get away from a brand, stay over the shoulder William. Cx.

MRX <paul.sinclair@autotrader.co.uk>
uh?, Normal? (y)UK - Wednesday, April 29, 1998 at 15:20:09 (EDT)


I didn't find Burroughs untill after his death. I wish a had earlier. It seems that it is like this with many things that I love.

William was a great man, who was not afraid to think thoughts, or to write them down. He had more balls then any other writer. He didn't fear himself.

Jason Rodgers <wildman_50@hotmail.com>
Wilton, NH USA - Wednesday, April 29, 1998 at 15:06:31 (EDT)


Beyond the literary persona, Burroughs is the granddaddy of deconstruction. All these trendy, technospeak literary critics owe a great debt to both Burroughs and Korzybski, neither of which ever get any credit from these Derrida worshipping tyrants of English departments. If they really "rubbed out the word," they'd be out of business. As WSB frequently pointed out, those with vested interests will always be recalcitrant..."and yes, maybe deconstruction will break out in English departments all over the continent," the DS sighed wistfully.

Dave Schwankle <Daschwank@aol.com>
- Tuesday, April 28, 1998 at 23:56:59 (EDT)


MY first introduction to Burroughs was the film Naked lunch by David Cronenburg. I was fascinated by the world created and went out to immediatly read the book. I was so overwhelmed that i also read the Soft Machine and the Wild Boys in the same week. Ever since then Burrougs has been a major influence on my personal writing, including a published piece based directly on the Soft Machine. I consider William S. Burroughs to be one of the greatest literary influences on my life and attribute much of my personal writing style to him. He will be greatly missed but what he has given to us will never die and he will continue to be an influence on generations to come. The legacy that is William S. Burroughs will continue forever and that is the greatest gift anyone could hope to give. He will be missed but never forgotten.

Chani Robinson <aliaboy@aol.com>
- Sunday, April 26, 1998 at 15:39:37 (EDT)


"Cause every junkie's like a setting sun"
- Neil Young



Goodbye Uncle Bill

Josh <dkfreak@hotmail.com>
Nowheresville, NY - Sunday, April 26, 1998 at 12:56:52 (EDT)


Writing began and ended with William Burroughs. After The Ticket That Exploded there really wasn't anywhere else any writer could take us to give us the ultimate experience.
I first of Burroughs when I read Ann Charters' biography of Kerouac in 1979 (when I was a college student in Rockhampton, Queensland).
Curious, I got hold of The Naked Lunch and Nova Express in a local bookshop.
For a 17-year-old they were unbelievable record and I was hooked. I have been collecting his books since then and have a sizeable library that I revisit again and again.
On Burroughs' death I convened a wake at my home and I introduced some friends to the world of Burroughs.
They were impressed.

- David Anthony, 7 Denison Street, Bowen, Queensland, Australia, 4805
email ---- ``jackcade@hotmail.com

David Anthony <jackcade@hotmail.com>
Bowen, Qld Australia - Friday, April 24, 1998 at 02:58:48 (EDT)


"wild Boys" was my first. it took everything i knew as
reading, writing, and comprehension; fucked it up the asshole,
dosed it morphine,homosexualized religion, passion, lust,
___and made a beautiful easily seen picture, of new defined
literature;


(now i//) r; e , a : d. (books.)

bryan s doring <doringbs@centum.utulsa.edu>
tulsa, ok usa - Thursday, April 23, 1998 at 20:21:05 (EDT)


Dear dear Uncle Bill. I only hope his memory is appreciated by our childrens children.

Zenobia <zen0bia@hotmail.com>
Naptown, IN USA - Thursday, April 23, 1998 at 19:39:28 (EDT)


William. . .

William. . .

William. . .





This is an actual place at the end of a very dangerous road.

truthspeak <saosvos@hotmail.com>
Muncie, IN usa - Thursday, April 23, 1998 at 17:39:32 (EDT)



Your departure from this world makes it a less interesting place.

You showed us the sickness and the cure.

R.I.P.

Mike Ellis <MEllistm@concentric.net>
- Wednesday, April 22, 1998 at 18:56:02 (EDT)


all the great poets are now dead

edgar doe <edgardoe@aol.com>
philly, pa usa - Sunday, April 19, 1998 at 23:54:10 (EDT)


w.s.burroughs is the only writer which had effected me as much as that....in turkey a company called 6.45 yayinlari is now pressing the 'masters'book...save the 'LEMURS'.

Hayrettin Baran <habrn@aidata.com.tr>
istanbul, turkey - Sunday, April 19, 1998 at 12:46:04 (EDT)


No one who encountered his work could remain untouched.
Whether one shirked in horror or sidled up with lasciviousness,
WSB was the ultimate virus. 23 skeedaddle, 23 skiddoo.
I miss him very much.
I love William Burroughs, let that be written in Heaven's
great book.

D S Hendler <bataille@rocketmail.com>
- Friday, April 17, 1998 at 23:51:00 (EDT)


First read Naked lunch at about fifteen years old (or at
least I tried to read it).It took me another 4 or 5 years of
going back to the book and trying again, and I gave up.
However about 8 years later I bought a tape of Burroughs
and suddenly it clicked.The voice did it for me.Now I have
read most of his books and I love them.But the tapes really
are the thing.I wonder if you could live a life on the
principles of Burroughs and get away with it.....Burroughs
managed it with style.

Jeff Barton <jeffrey.barton@which.net>
England - Sunday, April 12, 1998 at 15:58:03 (EDT)


23 times peace.

Exodus Suture <YageShaman@prodigy.net>
Lost Vegas, - Sunday, April 12, 1998 at 05:16:28 (EDT)


Bill Burroughs was one of the last great poets of the Beat Generation. I was fortunate enough to see Allen Ginsberg give a talk and read some of his works before his death last year. I only wish I had seen Bill as well. Yours is one of the better Burroughs web pages. Keep up the good work. Thanx.

Bryan <Nil8357>
oceanside, ca usa - Friday, April 10, 1998 at 21:18:18 (EDT)


Your 23 screwballing failed

Rev.Buba
Dobbstown, bliss - Thursday, April 09, 1998 at 21:45:13 (EDT)


This weel of fortume has a lost peg that spun off into the ether, the peg was cylindrical,metallic, and ancient. It disintigrated recently witha jolt that devested other pegs in it's wake.
Call MR.Lee, he knows the code is broken.

Hiroshima Twinky
Menlo Park, CA USA - Thursday, April 09, 1998 at 21:31:47 (EDT)


Greetings !

This is my first time on this website.In Croatia WBS is not well known as Danielle Steel, but nevermind
thet fact.Unfortunatelly there is no translations of WBSs books on croatian, cause extermly stupid goverment
decission to tax all products the same; books and cars are equally taxed.So not one publisher in Croatia
won't take the risk with no so paveable stuff as WBS.Also the translators must give to the state about
60% of their profit.You get the picture? But I found in an antique shop WBSs ''Naked lunch'', and I'm still
fascinated.That will be all of me for this time..


bojan

bojan radasinovic <brada02@earthling.net>
zagreb, croatia - Wednesday, April 08, 1998 at 04:50:41 (EDT)



Christopher Thomas
USA - Tuesday, April 07, 1998 at 20:19:46 (EDT)


we did a radioshow about w.b. for local radio in 1983.
some of my lyrics for my band FAMLENDE FORSØK were made using
cut up technices.I saw him live in norway in the 80s-
just him and a microphone so cool
no cool is god
god is cool no
no god is cool
cool god is no
junk

robert ommundsen <trollbrt@online.no>
eydehavn, confused norway - Tuesday, April 07, 1998 at 14:14:21 (EDT)



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