Customer Reviews

Back in No Time: The Brion Gysin Reader

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.