Back in No Time: The Brion Gysin Reader [Paperback]

Brion Gysin (Author), Jason Weiss (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2002

Brion Gysin (1916-1986) was a visual artist, historian, novelist, and an experimental poet credited with the discovery of the 'cut-up' technique -- a collage of texts, not pictures -- which his longtime collaborator William S. Burroughs put to more extensive use. He is also considered one of the early innovators of sound poetry, which he defines as 'getting poetry back off the page and into performance.' Back in No Time gathers materials from the entire Gysin oeuvre: scholarly historical study, baroque fiction, permutated and cut-up poetry, unsettling memoir, selections from The Process and The Last Museum, and his unproduced screenplay of Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch. In addition, the Reader contains complete texts of several Gysin pieces that are difficult to find, including "Poem of Poems," "The Pipes of Pan," and "A Quick Trip to Alamut."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though often associated with the Beats, Gysin, English by birth and Canadian by upbringing, was an idiosyncratic and restless spiritual wanderer, a jack-of-all trades who made innovative contributions to poetry, prose and the visual arts with his inventions such as the cut-up (employed most famously by William Burroughs) and the "Dreammachine," the first art work that one viewed with the eyes closed. (Though it never caught on, Kurt Cobain, among other celebrities, owned one.) But Gysin was never one to exploit his works for prestige or financial gain, and he took such pains with projects like his second, and last, novel, a chronicling of the Beat Hotel (the Paris flophouse they frequented) called The Last Museum, generously excerpted here, that it only appeared posthumously in 1986. This volume contains poems, songs (many have been set to music by saxophonist Steve Lacy), Gysin's screenplay based on Naked Lunch, incidental pieces like his introduction to a cookbook by the Moroccan painter Hamri, aesthetic statements, 18 illustrations, and short stories about his life in Morocco that are rendered piquant by the tones of intrigue and the comfortable proximity Gysin had to Morocco's Muslim culture, back before it became a rite of passage for Beatnik wannabes. This is a valuable book that makes accessible an artist too long considered a cult-eccentric, arguing for an engagement with life in which one grasps constantly for the spiritual in art in a time when frontiers in time, space, and formal experiment lured with their promise of adventure. (Jan.) Forecast: This release fills a crucial gap in the historical record, and should do well on campus as it gets adopted for 20th-century art and lit courses. But it will also attract a broad range of literary readers who have heard of Gysin via Burroughs or Ginsberg but have never seen the work. A good bet for prominent stacking.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"This is a valuable book that makes accessible an artist too long considered a cult-eccentric, arguing for an engagement with life in which one grasps constantly for the spiritual in art in a time when frontiers - in time, space, and formal experiment - lured with their promise of adventure . . . This release fills a crucial gap in the historical record."--Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan; 1st edition (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819565296
• ISBN-13: 978-0819565297
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,111,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reader to the work of a beat generation figurehead, May 27, 2004

By 

M. Bromberg "BellemeadeBooks" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Back in No Time: The Brion Gysin Reader (Paperback)

Gysin's work is so overlooked (and so hard to find) that he's assumed the reputation of a cult-figure within a literary movement his work helped create. Here, together in one volume, are excerpts from his most important writings. "To Master, A Long Goodnight" (a biography of the man who was the basis for Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery classic "Uncle Tom's Cabin"), published in 1946, is included along with his script for Burroughs's "Naked Lunch," written in the 1970s. There's a revealing selection of his cut-ups ("The Third Mind," a Burroughs collaboration); songs, set to music scores by Steve Lacy; as well as gallery notes and art from the 1960s. There are also five chapters from "The Process," the novel that synthesized much of Gysin's philosophy of belief, magic, art, and drugs in the service of self-discovery. Editor Jason Weiss has done a terrific job linking these disparate sources into a coherent whole without leaving the first-time reader feeling as though he were on a guided tour. The book is a great starting point for anyone interested in learning more about the roots of the beat generation.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great starting point for understanding Gysin, January 1, 2007

By 

Terry Borst - See all my reviews

This review is from: Back in No Time: The Brion Gysin Reader (Paperback)

Embracing the totality of Brion Gysin's output and influence was essentially impossible prior to the publication of this book. Weiss's study of Gysin's work and his long friendship with the writer/musician/visionary results pays off: opening the door to creative and intellectual explorations that continue reverberating to this day.