It seems the whole purpose of of writing the Ticket that Exploded for William S. Burroughs is to see how far he can take his sexual exposes while still getting his book published. Its quite the task to sift out the actual plot from amidst the parasitic sex skins and rectal mucus, and even from what I gatherd, the plot isnt that good. Leading me to think that Burroughs inent for this book was to push the envelope, to open up the mail of a new sexual revolution. I just wonder what the veritable postman (his publisher) was thinking when he gave the go ahead for this book to be published. Was he thinking “Oh what a great work, this is really going to entertain a lot of folk”? Or rather, “Hopefully this book will cause a revolution enough so that I can live out some of these sexual endevours?”
I head something interesting in class while we were discussing the book, the fact that it doesn’t leave any wiggle room. It simply is what it is, there is no getting around the garden of delights of anal rape and birth of green fish boys, to read this book is to sift through the rectal mucus of Burroughs thoughts.
This book is not a money maker, if Burroughs would have wanted to make a profit from writing and selling books, he would have chose a different genre than space fucking. It comes across as though Burroughs is trying to assimilate us into his version of reality. Trying to make us see a world in which sex is a means for life as well as death. Pretty messed up If you ask me. The alternate reality which Burroughs creates, if not a joke, is a means for him to come up with new and inventive ways to get his sick jollies.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Thats the ticket
The first few pages of The Ticket were almost pure gibberish about what seemed like little boy orgies and some magical garden where there are people to turn all of the wild sexual fantasies into reality. So far this book is coming off as more disturbing than entertaining. Though I think that may be the point that Burroughs is trying to get across, perhaps he wants us to take a deeper look at how we have viewed sex over the past, but it seems like a strange approach. Usually when people are speculating about our cultures fascination with sex it turns to a more conventional tone, irking us back to less is more.
To contradict myself though the media has always had a “sex sells” mentality, even all the way back to the days of Lulu. Im wondering what the actual plot of this book is going to be or whether is a just a tainted old mans ramblings about fantasies that never came to fruition. Im thinking that the more I read the more the story will piece itself together. hopefully
To contradict myself though the media has always had a “sex sells” mentality, even all the way back to the days of Lulu. Im wondering what the actual plot of this book is going to be or whether is a just a tainted old mans ramblings about fantasies that never came to fruition. Im thinking that the more I read the more the story will piece itself together. hopefully
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Moving on with Morel (forgot to post this)
Moving on in Morel
The second half of The Invention of Morel continues unraveling from the Fugitives eyes. Piece after piece of Morels identity and invention are fusing together. Much like the way he suggests that humans fuse together over time. On page 78 the fugitive is talking about Morels machine and puts forward the idea of an “attachement that would keep it from receiving the waves from living transmitters (they would no doubt be stronger)”. Essentially being able to resurrect the dead. The add on would be a piece that when sitting down long enough could gather all the molecules that a human excretes when their dead, and reassemble them back together to form the person who was deceased. What about the person, would they be the same or would they have to form a different soul for the same arrangement of molecules? I wonder what Morel was thinking of when he trapped everyone into his machine. Was he thinking of their families and the people that would wonder where everyone went? I doubt it. Mayhap he was protecting everyone and doing a civil service to his friends by keeping them in a happy eternity. Though it doesn’t seem as though his eternity is going to be completely blissfull, every week he is going to have the same fights he has with Faustine… hardly something I would want to be my eternity, I like to think that my afterlife will be composed of more than simply one week on repeat.
The second half of The Invention of Morel continues unraveling from the Fugitives eyes. Piece after piece of Morels identity and invention are fusing together. Much like the way he suggests that humans fuse together over time. On page 78 the fugitive is talking about Morels machine and puts forward the idea of an “attachement that would keep it from receiving the waves from living transmitters (they would no doubt be stronger)”. Essentially being able to resurrect the dead. The add on would be a piece that when sitting down long enough could gather all the molecules that a human excretes when their dead, and reassemble them back together to form the person who was deceased. What about the person, would they be the same or would they have to form a different soul for the same arrangement of molecules? I wonder what Morel was thinking of when he trapped everyone into his machine. Was he thinking of their families and the people that would wonder where everyone went? I doubt it. Mayhap he was protecting everyone and doing a civil service to his friends by keeping them in a happy eternity. Though it doesn’t seem as though his eternity is going to be completely blissfull, every week he is going to have the same fights he has with Faustine… hardly something I would want to be my eternity, I like to think that my afterlife will be composed of more than simply one week on repeat.
Monday, January 12, 2009
The Disection of Morel
In the beginning of the Invention of Morel, I felt about as lost on my own Island of thought as the fugitive must have felt when he first arrived at his destination. Though after the pages started turning it was a task to stop reading. Upon reaching page 47 I had some unanswered question. Why does Adolfo keep referencing the phonograph? Why is it always playing at times when the visitor are there? Could the title of the book be simply referring to Morel in the sense of a human being? Or is it a literal invention?
Most of all though it doesn’t make sense that the fugitive can see and hear and sense Faustine and Morel, but why cant they return the favor? They have never even entertained the idea of conversing or interacting with the Fugitive. It's leading me to believe that Faustine and Morel are living on some different version of the island in a time and place where they can’t acknowledge him. The affect of the visitors is having a much more profound effect on the Fugitive , while he seems to have no affect on the whatsoever. For example on page 50 it reads, “I found some food, and began to wolf it down. Suddenly I stopped, for I had lost my appetite. No my pain is almost gone. I am more serene. I think, although I know it seems absurd, that perhaps they did not see me in the museum.” Now when I personally am hungry, so hungry that my eating convention reverts back to “wolf”, that’s not many things that can take my mind off my meal. The fugitive is obsessing so much over the presence of the visitors that it will completely turn off his appetite.
Its perfect foreshadowing of whats going to come to light later in the novel. Invention in the title is not refereing to the renasciance meaning of the term, but rather to a literal invention the Morel has made.
Most of all though it doesn’t make sense that the fugitive can see and hear and sense Faustine and Morel, but why cant they return the favor? They have never even entertained the idea of conversing or interacting with the Fugitive. It's leading me to believe that Faustine and Morel are living on some different version of the island in a time and place where they can’t acknowledge him. The affect of the visitors is having a much more profound effect on the Fugitive , while he seems to have no affect on the whatsoever. For example on page 50 it reads, “I found some food, and began to wolf it down. Suddenly I stopped, for I had lost my appetite. No my pain is almost gone. I am more serene. I think, although I know it seems absurd, that perhaps they did not see me in the museum.” Now when I personally am hungry, so hungry that my eating convention reverts back to “wolf”, that’s not many things that can take my mind off my meal. The fugitive is obsessing so much over the presence of the visitors that it will completely turn off his appetite.
Its perfect foreshadowing of whats going to come to light later in the novel. Invention in the title is not refereing to the renasciance meaning of the term, but rather to a literal invention the Morel has made.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)