Customer Reviews

Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader (Burroughs, William S.)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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A very exspansive and definitive collection for the Burroughs enthusist. This does not have it all, but it does offer a generous portion of this man's work. Including the forementioned, in the other reviews, colaboration with Jack Kerouac. Grauerholz really put togther this labor of love. I'd recomend it for first timers as well as old time collectors. Inbetween each chapter biographical information pertinent to that era is included. Also features a cd spoken word sampler, that pulls material from the Giornio boxed set. I'd also recomend that hefty delight.

Every book that anyone owns will, upon reflection, remind them of the period of their life in which they read the book. Sort of like music.

If I look at my bookcase, I can run my eyes over the spines of a hundred or so spines, and by extension, a hundred or so feelings given to me from those books.

'Word Virus' is by no means an exception to this rule. If anything, it proves it. Simply due to its extensiveness, and the complexity (or stupidity depending on how you look at it) of Burroughs' writing, it took me a few months to hack through in my final year of high school. Even now, the glaring red spine amongst my other books manages to evoke my feelings of that time even now.

But by god it's worth it. There is nothing more frightening than Burroughs' prose. Everything he writes cannot be understood intellectually, but rather emotionally. You read his words, trying to make head or tail of what is printed in front of you, but that's not the point. You just have to let his ideas, his experiments simply wash over you and you'll understand them in due course.

A true shining light in literature.

Belive the myth.

in the word virus collection william s. burroughs is represented in all of his fragmented glory. from talking body parts, to sublminal kids, from street junky's to hindu spiritual presences. burroughs wandered in a world of his own and while a lot of his books scare or confuse first time readers, the word virus jumps styles frequently enough to hold the attention while giving those in the know, new items as well as some possibly overlooked personal insights from the writer himself. and the free cd gives you a sense of his true humor and will make you want that phat box set! and i haven't even finished it yet.

This book was a hard one to review. The writings sampled are inconsistent-but then again, so was Burroughs's output, so in that respect the writings are a true representation of Burroughs's corpus. The chapter introductions by Grauerholz are especially valuable for readers who are removed from Burroughs's original context, and assist in further illuminating Burroughs's writings. The later works (after the "cut-ups") are especially prophetic; it was interesting to read Burroughs's commentaries on Hussein and another Bush in 2003. All in all, a useful and comprehensive introduction to one who is seeking to get acquainted with the wide range of work that came from the pen of Burroughs.

If you need a quick fix of Bill, you'll be in hog heaven as you lug this big tome around. If you're a newbie, this is the petri-dish place to begin. A remarkable labour of love, smartly compiled, spanning the master's entire range of work, with generous excerpts from all periods and supplemental explanatory notes by both Grauerholz and, periodically, Burroughs. Do not hesitate. Minutes To Go.

Some of the greatest writers are great on account of their ability to express complex thoughts clearly and concisely. This may have been a more prized characteristic among the ancients, and it may have taken a turn for the worse in the Renaissance, then steadily into the 18th and 19th centuries. Notable exceptions, such as Machiavelli and Rabelais, probably sought to emulate the ancients more than their own contemporaries. The 20th century, especially among American authors, cured much of the flowery belaboring that was concurrently culminating in Europe. On one side of the ocean Proust and Musil, while on the other side Hemingway and Dreiser. On one side Celan and Michaux, while on the other side Berryman and Olson. So... here we have William Burroughs, an American author of the 20th century, skilled in the craft of getting to the point... but at the same time educated by European letters. And one wonders if the author's decision to cut up his sentences and paragraphs, shuffle these around and make them, as a result, less direct and downright dubious, was in an attempt to serve both masters. The beauty of the prose, however, is astonishing, as are the images and situations depicted. Perhaps the cutups serve even to enhance this beauty in a way, and it does not make any difference where one opens the book. This makes Burroughs an ideal subject for an anthology, and this anthology contains a great selection of samples.

I can't believe this is actually available!

Just think about all that this has to offer:

(1)An in depth analogy of Burroughs life, mind, art, and everything he did/was.

(2)A CD with readings from various Burroughs novels!

(3)A great looking hard-cover book

All this stuff is really great, but the kicker is an exerpt from the un-released, rare, never-before-seen collaboration with Jack Kerouac! I hope that the whole thing is published someday!

BUY THIS NOW!!!!!!

E-MAIL ME IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE KEROUAC/BURROUGHS COLLABORATION!!!

The one book by William S. Burroughs you should buy. The unique genius that William truly was-yes, indulgent, odd and unsettling at 80, but how great it would have been to have known him young and probably pretty in 1950-is best understood with the direction of J. Grauerholz, although a bourgeois beatnik, for sure, who did love him and is the world expert on him. Ira Silverberg is a true young publishing genius, the new Ferlinghetti, and most responsible for the book. My earlier review I withdraw. Although true, it did not reflect the genius and truth of William-and Jack, Allen, Anne, Philip, Lawrence, Gregory, Gary, even Neal and Huncke, et al. View their literature with a full and clear understanding of their weaknesses and that we, the readers, are almost certain to have less ability to `drive-on' pass the drugs, sex, parties, confusion-to produce as they could or can. At least be warned. A lot of souls have been lost on the beat road.

The `Buddha' myth of the Beats is transparent-the truth of the Beats is that they offered simple lust, self-centered desire, and the creation of values for the public that were never real to them. Ginsberg, Burroughs, Cassady, and Kerouac-each remained driven by all-to-real human wants and needs. Whether it was highs, sex (or the never-ending desire for fame and boys that especially drove Ginsberg and Burroughs), the truth is that these never-aging `boys' always wanted one thing and one thing only-what they desired. This is not an argument against the human nature of desire, but rather against the self-inflated myth of the good deeds and generosity of the Beats. That is a lie. Young readers should be aware that even in his later years, Ginsberg, for example, used his fame to get laid, and used it a lot. And Burroughs spent much time thinking about his position as aristocrat of the intellectual world, while giving drugs to young men. They looked down on humanity. The activities of the never-ending boys' club that was created by the Beats included ignoring their own children, their wives (or murdering them in Burroughs case), their friends, lovers (lots of suicides)and anyone else that didn't do exactly what they wanted. The Beats was not a movement of freedom-it was a movement of the Beats, what the Beats wanted, and why YOU had to give it to them. If YOU didn't give them what they wanted-boys, drugs, money, fame-than you were square. Period. What a scam. This collection of Burroughs writings, put together the summer of his death in 1997, was edited by his adopted son, and secretary; and by the former boy friend of the same. It is a closed world, one that does not accept criticism or correction. Buy this book if you want (paper). (Note: there is no documation at all on the biographical data. Burroughs' heir and former lover writes it--you decide whether to believe it or not.) It will save you buying a lot of other books by Burroughs, but it is the continuation of the Beat Myth that you are buying. Enjoy it, but don't think that it was real. It was not.