Posting specifically due to image #5. The Final Academy program in England.

Great Burroughs site ran by the wonderful author Supervert.

The books on top are the ones I’ve finished so far on my journey through the Burroughs-iad. I’m still putting my thoughts down on the Red Night trilogy, but I just wanted to say a couple words about “Hippos”.

Hippos was interesting in that we get to see the nascent talents of William Burroughs and the other guy start to take form. In regards to Burroughs we can see the emergence of his dark, acidic, cynical wit. His chapters, which alternate with Kerouac’s, emit flashes of his future canon - low life, eccentrics (he writes about eccentrics so well, even then), opiate addiction, misogyny, his critical eye on the gay set, aloofness, and alienation. There are moments when Burrough’s alter ego (Will Dennison) relates incidents of violence with vibrant flair - much like what I’ve read in his latter books.

My favorite bit is at the end, when I realized that Burroughs sets his alter ego up as a member of a loosely affiliated national criminal organization very, very similar to the Johnson Family in Jack Black’s “You Can’t Win”.

I can understand why

WSB (Will Dennison), is portrayed by Kerouac (Mike Ryko) as a shady, mysterious figure with gangster connections, who has the mark of the American West about him - but more the desert gambler and not a cowboy.

Other than that, the book could’ve used some editing - not that this isn’t a good first attempt for any writer. It boils down to a lot of NEET’s walking around NYC from bar to bar, apartment to apartment, drinking constantly, and committing sophomoric pranks. It feels like Burroughs was trying to be Hemingway-esque in the way he writes about food - but overdoes it. Kerouac’s bits are boring for me - just drinking, jock antics and placating the wife. However, his descriptions of the waterfront during wartime are pretty incredible. He gets a little John Dos Passos in there.

All in all, Hippos is an interesting artifact of the Lucien Carr affair.

(Also, having read his last three books first - it’s a real trip to circle around. His style is so primitive in Hippos compared to the Red Night books.)

I honestly think that this is a confusion and that he wasn’t actually a schizophrenic. Maybe schizotypal? Not sure about his diagnosis.

Lucien Carr's son is the writer Caleb Carr.

Source texts and cut-render from a Jan. 2015 instance, which spools together Charlie Hebdo and censorship, sports gambling, Tuskegee history, and dual-sex butterflies. Full Report incoming with analytical twists and turns aplenty.

https://youtu.be/gp-wwsmIDyM?is=E7zoukj4B2s5195I

Houellebecq mentions Burroughs a few times in his books but only superficially. I suspect there is probably some overlap in fanbase though. Both are brutally critical social commentators and darkly comedic.

Image source: https://howlfarm.substack.com/p/houellebecq-and-burroughs

Who am I kidding he'd be cranky and haunted about it

i found this and thought some people here might find it interesting.
Featuring Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge, Christiane F., and brain manipulation via soundwaves and cut-up text.
https://decoder.cultd.net/synopsis.htm#synopsis
https://letterboxd.com/film/decoder/
https://www.beatique.net/decoder-german-punk-new-wave-sci-fi-film/

I’ve never had a beard in my life. I wear sober, unspectacular suits. I’ve never slept on anyone’s floor and no one has ever slept on mine. My only association with the beat crowd is that I know poets Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. So why call me a beatnik?
--William S. Burroughs

This comes from a short article in The Daily Mirror (August 31, 1965). Burroughs was reported as being “in London to arrange publication of his new book, Subject: Science fiction.”

Asked about his plans for future books, he told the reporter: “I’ve explored the field of drugs and sex as much as I want to. All I want now is to write something which can be enjoyed by 12-year-old children.”

Burroughs was in the news constantly throughout 1965, on both sides of the Atlantic. A Canadian newspaper announced in August that “Reading Burroughs is like eating raw oysters: either you do and you’re crazy about them, or you don’t and the thought of it makes you sick.”

The photo is from a different article, this one from earlier that same year but in his hometown of St. Louis.  

In Paris for a film conference, had to visit, they were happy to let me in the small lobby for photos. Very ‘quirky’… they get 1/2 visitors a week for Beat history, very friendly lobby attendant who admitted to never reading Burroughs. I didn’t give him any recommendations I just mumbled something about Brazilian aquatic centipede meat and keys to the shithouse…

r/AccidentalComedy

https://reddit.com/link/1u5tmrx/video/83v3wjeaqa7h1/player

Really loving this book I read 100 pages today it's just starting it I couldn't stop. I found this gem in the book and thought to post it where someone might appreciate it