Customer Reviews

William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination

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Harris' most valuable contributions to Burroughs scholarship have been in the relics he's unearthed from various archives: early drafts, notebook reproductions, correspondence, etc. Harris has also been very good at placing these materials in their proper context within the Burroughs canon, showing how and why they might matter. Here, he attempts a full-length forensic report of what seems to be his favorite era, Burroughs' pre-Naked Lunch period, with mixed results.

If anyone ever thought that their own "fascination" with Burroughs' work was a bit extreme, Harris will provide some serious perspective. After reading his interpretations of the cover image (a dewey-eyed paean that takes up two or three pages), of the formative Burroughs-Ginsberg correspondence, or of Harris' own exploits mapping and photographing every alley in Tangier, one gets the sense that Harris crossed over from "fascination" to "obesession" with his subject long ago. Harris spends his life stalking Burroughs' ghost so we don't have to, a hard job indeed, so kudos to him for that.

Much of this book finds Harris trying to debunk the myths that have grown around Burroughs' life and work. His alternate explanations for the various notches in the Burroughs timeline are perhaps the most refreshing aspect of this book.

However, it's an exercise that quickly makes Harris come off as just plain willfully contrary. If critical consensus is that some area of Burroughs' work is inconsequential, you can expect that Harris will argue that it is one of the most crucial. And if some aspect of Burroughs' work is generally considered to be noteworthy and influential, Harris will argue that people are just diffusing their attention.

This reaches absurd depths when Harris takes critics to task for their misplaced emphasis on the "Talking Ahole" routine in Naked Lunch, immediately followed by an entire chapter devoted to analyzing that very same section... and very little else in the novel.

Critics don't make a name for themselves regurgitating other critics, and Burroughs scholarship needs an Oliver Harris to challenge the received wisdom... But on the whole, following Harris down his rabbit holes yields little beyond the tiresome sense that he is trying to recruit readers into an epic series of pssing matches with other critics.

In fact, a better title for this book really would be "My Pssng Matches with Other So-Called Burroughs Scholars." Perhaps Harris would find a more sympathetic audience in his continued efforts to revise and rewrite -- er, create 'restored editions' -- of the Burroughs canon.