Faced by the actual practice of freedom, the French and American revolutions would be forced to stand by their words. -- William Burroughs, Cities of the Red Night
William Burroughs is the first author that I am blogging of the Beat Generation. His writing is masterful (while troubled) and influential (while obscure). His writing was semi-autobiographical and was born out of personal tragedy. Burroughs was a drug user and became involved with the homosexual sub-culture of New York City which became themes in his writing. The accidental death of his common-law wife is what eventually led him to write. Burroughs was also friends with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and with them became part of the Beat Movement.
Burroughs writing emerged out of great personal tragedy. As a young man he befriended a woman named Joan Vollmer who later became his common-law wife. One night while drunk at a party in Mexico City, the two decided to play a game of "William Tell" and Burroughs accidentally shot and killed his wife. The incident was charged as a homicide and while awaiting trial Burroughs began to write.
Burroughs most famous work is Naked Lunch. It was written using a style that Burroughs developed that involved cutting out the words from other unfinished manuscripts then repasting them on the page in a seemingly random order. The book was banned in many places for its language and content which included drug use and homosexual themes. The book even resulted in a high profile obscenity trial which brought attention to the book. In the end the book was not found to be obscene. Allen Ginsberg later referenced the book in his epic poem, "Howl". The book was later made into a movie.
The writing style that was defined in
Naked Lunch developed in Burroughs subsequent works. His final "Red Night Trilogy" created a complete mythology that revolved around the drug use and homosexual themes present in his work. I've read the first book,
Cities of the Red Night and it was taxing to read. It was extemporaneous and jumped around from time-period to time-period sometimes in the same sentence. There were long passages of seemingly random words that required a lot of focus. In spite of this, the book was cohesive. It had an arc of beginning, middle and end, and the seemingly random words also seemed somehow related. The final passages felt peaceful in comparison to the rest of the book but at the same time hinted at more to come. I can't say that I'll ever read the rest of the trilogy, but I don't regret reading the first book.
Burroughs led a troubled life. His writing reflects that. But his writing is also masterful, and has been greatly influential. He, together with, Ginsberg, Kerouac and others, helped develop what would become known as the Beat Movement, a counter-culture literary movement that would later lead to the hippie movement and beyond.