Customer Reviews

The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs (An Evergreen book)

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I read somewhere that intelligence is the ability to make connections that others don't see. By that definition, and probably by any other, Burroughs is a philosophical and literary genius. Who else could make the connection between Mayan ritual calendars and the totalian nature of modern nation-states? Who else gives detailed explanations of his proven methods for dissembling reality?? For sheer brilliance and brutal truth about modern society, only Foucault approaches Burroughs. But Foucault never went to hell and came back to write about it.

"The Job" is a fantastic introduction to the obsessions and maverick idealism that characterize Burroughs' fiction. This is not a straight question-and-answer session; Burroughs includes liberal samples of text (his own as well as others') to illustrate his ideas. The final product is an effective, surreal manifesto urging all of us to break out of our private tunnel realities and confront social control systems with open, empowered minds. Especially fascinating are Burroughs' thoughts on language and his prescient examination of media-viruses.

"The Job" is often brutal, always controversial, and possessed by the author's inimitable knack for nailing his target. This is an unforgettable plunge into one of the 20th century's foremost countercultural intellects.

An excellent compendium of Bill Burrough's interests and obsessions. Mostly focusing on the totalitarian nature of nation-states, The Job gives you all at once Burroughs being interviewed, Burroughs straight prose and Burroughs gobbledygook. He also explains--clearly--why his books are written the way they are. I don't know if I've ever learned so much--or at the very least had so many of my perceptions radically altered--from such a thin tome. Highly recommended.

+ How much of what Burroughs has to say in this book is meant to be taken literally is open to debate, but one thing isn't: what Burroughs says on any level--metaphorical, theoretical, literal--is always thought-provoking.

+ Ostensibly a series of interviews, this book also includes extended essays and stories in lieu of answers to a wide range of questions, not only about Burroughs' work, but about his world-view in general, the fertile field of opinions, obsessions, and observations out of which that work grew.

+ Here is Burroughs unplugged: on drug addiction, politics, magick, Mayans, tape recorders, government control, sexuality, science, outer space, inner space, literature, and practically everything else. This is a brain thinking not just outside the box, but outside the skull. His ideas, summarized, sometimes sound like the stuff you might expect to hear coming from a patient in a schizophrenic ward...except that when Burroughs delivers the full script in his infamous deadpan way, his theories actually make sense in a twilight, peripheral vision kind of way.

+ *The Job* is a kind of intellectual guerilla guide to combating the "dogmatic" control of the power-elite whose malignant reach extends into the most personal aspects of our lives. As Burroughs sees it ((with a bit of a twinkle in his eye, I suspect)), we're all prisoners of a limited reality plot, penned in like sheep, kept in blind, dumb subservience to a central authority that likes us stupid, malleable, and passive...and which means to keep us that way.

+ Language is a virus. The War on Drugs is a sham. The newspapers are fabricating the future. The fix is in. How do you use hieroglyphics to free your mind? How can a tape recorder re-write reality? Why must the concept of the nation and the family be transcended before humanity can be saved? *The Job* explains all this and much more.

+ Burroughs is as eccentric as they come, a bona-fide American original, a hepcat Thoreau hooked on heroin...and absolutely mesmerizing. Ideas shower like sparks off a stone while he grinds the ax of his central argument. There are few writers with such a mercurial, quirky intelligence, who dance so closely to the edge of lunacy but still remain almost scientifically lucid.

+ A book that will clarify Burroughs' ideas for those who've read his novels and prepare you to understand his novels if you haven't, *The Job* is a rewarding, relevant, if occasionally repetitive and sometimes dated volume that is as engaging as it is mind-expanding, inspiring as it is enlightening. Anytime Uncle Bill has something to say, it's worth lending him an ear.

Maybe the more accessible book from William Burroughs, in an interview session with Daniel Odier, who talks about his art and life in form which opens the doors to his works and give many keys to the global understnding of the situation of his books and give many explanations about crude and violent experiments on the human race. William Burroughs maybe wants for this book to be the most "readable" of his writing career in the sense that there is no more codes in the complex jigsaw puzzle that the reader have to assemble in the end of the story.
This is an clear interview session documented with insertions of newpapers, books inserted where there is a point of reference, following the scientific evil discoveries of the last century, leading to the land of the deads, where radio waves and radioactivity is melted down with some global miliatry experiments. But this book didn't fall in the game of paranoia this is simply the radical and incisive views of Burroughs which the reade can share or not, but I think that this books really opens important keys in the vast literature of the author which is a huge similar story with various cut-ups and flash backwards.

The death of William S. Burroughs has left a huge gap in our world. The Job is a fascinating, thought provoking, and telling collection of interviews. His insights into politics, sexuality, and America are unique and intelligently spoken. While The Job is a must read for any Burroughs fan, I am sure that anyone could glean something from his words. Certain critics may find the opinions that Burroughs shared to be absurd. I believe that Burroughs was a man who genuinely cared about the future of humanity. His words in The Job are a testament to this. Perhaps it is the value system of America that is becoming more and more absurd. "All knowledge is yours by right."

This is definately a book for the hardcore Burroughs fan. It is bizarre, held in a flippant "mad professor" style, but it is also very interesting - if you are of the inside Bull Lee crowd, that is. I am

If you think you can take Burroughs' words in an interview seriously... If you think this has all the answers, you're wrong. This is the most difficult book of Burroughs to interpret. Short texts, interspersed with a supposedly truthful person-to-person interview with everyone's favorite writer. Some of what he says in plain language is a godsend because it does clearly communicate a message. But beware all messages. His cut-up texts are reassuring to me because at least I know to perceive them as texts. But Burroughs hated to discuss his writing, and he loved to f*** with people. Discerning any sort of reality in this man's writing is difficult, be cautious. I detect numerous "lies" in this one, and I can see a great big smile on his face. I hope you smile too.

Burroughs is a bizzare genius. His theories on America, time travel, and words as viruses are fascinating. The new non-fiction book about the bible being uncoded seems a testament to these theories and the Burroughs-Gysin cut-up method. The interview will definitely stir ideas in any thinker or writer. While some may find his opinions absurd or self-indulgent, there is no denying that his opinions are original and thought provoking. The Job should be required reading for anyone interested in free thinking

I'll keep this short:

This book is the one book I would save if there was a fire in my library (okay, this one and "Burroughs Live").
It is an amazing collection of interviews and musings by the most intelligent man in America, and the most outrageous, creative and subversive author to ever stand on two legs.

Whatever they are asking, pay it! Get his book, get it now. It WILL change your life, it will affect you deeply.
And as a plus, if you order the Penguin edition, you get an amazingly beautiful designed book as well.

Why wait?