Saturday 30 June 2012

When you cut into the present the future leaks out...


I've been getting an increasing amount of spam in the Comments section of this 'ere blog lately and the random collision of words and phrases that spew forth remind me strangely of the late William Burroughs' "cut-up" or "fold-in" writing method. Developed by Burroughs and Brion Gysin as an alternative to linear narrative, the "cut-up" technique can create surreal juxtapositions of language and ideas... or can be a self-indulgent mess. I've never quite decided if I think Burroughs was a genius or a fraud, or maybe both, but his work has a definite fascination for me - especially Nova Express, a satirical novel about power, control, sex and addiction, expressed in Science Fictional terms.

Burroughs:
"With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms - Heavy Metal People Of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes - and The Insect People Of Minraud with metal music - cold insect brains and their agents like white hot buzz saws sharpened in the Ovens..."

Spam:
The need for a full 60 minutes giving you peace of Gotham City in peril
If the lace while in the most embodies ideal enchanting female, then transparency s really a blatant temptation, like falling into mortal wizard lumber species deep fascination.
the recent government took office , continuing the form of Chloe happens to be gentle enough to develop a purely feminine design continues to be the focus, even the same as well as two slender belt using the ankle, foot skin is basically confronted with the sight Individuals have been very helpful for developing strategic thinking

And one very complimentary slice of fresh spam:

I've been browsing online more than three hours nowadays, but I never found any
fascinating
article like yours
It's lovely value enough for me. In my view, if all webmasters
and bloggers made
excellent content material as you probably did
the internet can be a lot more helpful

4 comments:

Tom Wiggins said...

I never thought it was possible to be jealous by somebody else's spam, but I find myself yearning for some cut-up nonsense I can call my own.

Having recently read Post Office by Charles Bukowski and a few poems by Jack Kerouac (How To Meditate is a favourite - www.allpoetry.com/opoem/40385-Jack-Kerouac-How-to-Meditate), I was thinking about getting into William Burroughs as another player in the Beat Poet Movement. I'm having second thoughts now. I can cope with non-linear, but there is nothing more boring than reading a novel that sets out to confound its reader. As for jibber-spam: well, that's a different story!

Simon B said...

Burroughs' work can be hard-going but, as I said, it does hold a certain fascination for me... in small doses :-)

Back in 1964 Michael Moorcock wrote an editorial in New Worlds magazine about Burroughs ( "A New Literature For The Space Age" )in which he praised WSB's work and said "the desperate and cynical mood of his work mirrors exactly the mood of our ad-saturated, Bomb-dominated, power-corrupted times."

In the same issue, JG Ballard said "Burroughs has fashioned from our dreams and nightmares the first authentic mythology of the age of Cape Canaveral, Hiroshima and Belsen."

High praise indeed!

Will said...

I posted at least two interesting spam posts on my FB, pure unintended 'bot poetry.

I believe we maybe on the verge of a new artform

Simon B said...

Hi William! Thanks for the comment.

I can imagine someone like John Lennon being fascinated by spam: he was always a believer in finding artistic meaning in the random...

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