Customer Reviews

My Education: A Book of Dreams

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The criticisms of this book commonly state that it is disjointed and detached. Finally, a book of dreams that doesn't pursue some interconnection of the dreams or a relation of them to reality. There are recurring themes, but as in the dreams every person has, they are recurring dreams, and they do not suppose a greater meaning than being dreams. This book let's your mind dream along with Burroughs. Some parts are detailed, and others are totally vague... so much like a dream, you feel a little hazy when you put it down..

This really isn't a novel. It is much more than that. This is where Burroughs got so many of the images for his life time of work. You see, this is a tour book of The Land of the Dead, or as he also called it, The Place of Dead Roads. While he subtitles this work _A Book of Dreams_ he is careful to point out that these are a very special sort of dream. They are dreams that are more real than waking life. Indeed, the author speculates if the dreaming city isn't really his true home, his true life- far more real than Lawrence, Kansas.

You can't expect to read a book like this in the same way that you would read an ordinary book. You must unfocus your mind, in the same way that you must unfocus your eyes to truly SEE some abstract art. Only then will the images begin to flow and transport you. That is because this book is a conscious act of magic, as the old magician knew when he crafted it....

See if the Land of the Dead doesn't start to seem very familiar to you. I know I immediately recognised the place he was describing. It is a place where the dead, the sleeping, the magical travellers all meet. That is why the landscape and architecture are such a tangle, why there are no clear distinctions between public and private places. It is a mad, mixed, consensus "reality." That is also why flight is possible there. You see, in such a place gravity isn't a law- it is an opinion....

I think this was a very interesting concept to record 5 years worth of dreams and then put them into a book. Some of the images and characters Burroughs comes up with are so vivid and so realistic that when I read this I actually felt like I was with Burroughs during this subconcious journey.

I liked how he used his dreams as education, and how he realized the importance of his dreams; a very Freudian quality. I think that this book represented finally coming to terms with your past, and accepting vicissitude (or change) that others tend to shy away from. This book is a very important addition to Burroughs' extensive body of work, and undoubtedly one of his best books. And often times it's overlooked because it's in the shadow of the Naked Lunch and the Soft Machine.

Only few books might change your life & the way you are thinking. William Burroughs latest works such as My Education A Book Of Dreams are really essential and maybe the most accessible books ever written by this genius author. Burroughs bibliography is very diversified and is offering a huge puzzle to rearrange which might give you keys for the understanding of the modern society. With the cut-up technique, his work appears in so many different books with the same characters and flashes all over his literary work. In his early writing often hard to catch seems to appear a similar story, with pieces cutted up from all of his prolific writing.
In My Education A Book Of Dreams the writing is really more accessible than ever and is offering an interesting view throught his dreams of the modern society, its symbols, its plots, its images. Burroughs intelligence is to give to the new generation important writings. This books has been published two years before Burroughs sad reaching to Heaven in 1997.
An essential book in his bibliography which I should recommend to everyone interested in this mysterious writer, so different from his well known principal books, so touching, so mysterious & so essential.

This book is my introduction to Mr. Burroughs, but it definatly will not be the end. I have never read a book so detached yet so intriging, each paragraph takes you further from the "real" concrete world and closer to a world that is so complex and confusing. Rather than trying to make this a thesis or make this book into a lesson, Burroughs treats the subject as a observer and as an experience. It is a short book, you have nothing to lose. I highly recommend

Providing glimpses into his personal life and his imagination, full of the brilliant imagery I've come to expect from Burroughs...For anyone who's ever left a dream and hurried to their notebook, only to later be confused by what they wrote, "My Education" should prove to be an inspiring and entertaining read.

While I found many of the allusions interesting and anecdotes amusing, the book turns something like 5 years of dreams into short sequences and ended up seeming to me to be a sort of mindcandy for Beat freaks. I enjoyed the book, but then again, I've recently read a couple of his books and a book about his work and influence as a visual artist so more of the life references made sense. If you are a Beat poet fanatic, find yourself a cat and cuddle up for some nice distraction that's just enough to make you think but only if you feel like thinking

"My Education" is one of the most interesting booksI've read in a while. Every page is stimulating, food forthought. It's definately a worthwhile read, and any Burroughs fan will love it.A great insight into the mind of Burroughs, go out and buy this book immediately, I can't reccommend it highly enough.