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Better get out of the neighborhood, that hick is likely to call the law.

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He walked fifteen blocks, sweat running down his body.

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There was a raw ache in his lungs, his lips drew back off his yellow teeth with a snarl

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of desperation.

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I got his door somehow, for I had some decent clothes.

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Daddy saw a suitcase standing in a doorway.

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Good mother.

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He stopped and pretended to look for a cigarette.

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Funny you thought, no one around.

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Inside maybe, phoning for a cab.

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The corner was only a few miles in the way.

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Danny took a deep breath and picked up the suitcase.

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He made the corner another block, another corner, the case was heavy.

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I got a score alright, he thought maybe enough for a sixteenth in a room.

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Danny shivered and twitched, feeling a warm room and heroin amputating into his vein.

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Let's have a quick look.

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He stepped in the morningside part.

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Goin' around.

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Jesus, I never saw the town this empty.

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He opened the suitcase, two long packages and browns wrapping.

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Took one out, it felt like meat.

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The door of the package opened at one end, revealing a woman's naked foot.

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The toe nails were painted with purple-red polish.

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He dropped the leg with a snare of disgust.

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Holy Jesus, he claimed.

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The routines people put down these days.

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Legs!

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Well, I got a case anyway.

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He dumped the other leg out, no blood stains.

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He snapped the case shut and walked away.

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Legs, he muttered.

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Welcome to our fourth episode about William Boroughs, an influential American writer of

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the 20th century who influenced the beat poets, who popularized heroin, among others,

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who left a huge impact on American culture and died in the 90s,

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which makes him a very exciting figure of the time.

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Today Jonas is the main moderator and Mimi and I are limited to throwing in useless comments.

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Hello, I'm working on Boroughs today, or we are working on Boroughs today.

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I would first introduce the biography, his life, which is very exciting.

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He lived in many different countries.

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Then I would go into aspects of his work that have been less considered so far,

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but are probably not unimportant for interpretation.

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Probably even essential.

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His spirituality, his belief in magic.

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Let's start with his biography.

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He was born in St. Louis in 1914.

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His father had a gift and antique shop and his mother was a housewife.

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He didn't have any money problems because his grandfather invented the calculator.

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He founded a company and it went quite well, obviously.

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His grandfather simply invented the calculator. How crazy is that?

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A real calculator with a lot of keys, like a huge typewriter.

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Many of the other computers at the time made a lot of mistakes.

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Boroughs grandfather spent seven years in the bank checking the calculator.

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He hated the job and after moving to St. Louis he took over a small factory

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and invented a huge calculator, a kind of pre-protocomputer,

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with which relatively reliable calculations could be carried out.

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They used all banks in America relatively quickly, up to 1890 as small pages.

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He came from a wealthy family.

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They had a house with several servants, a gardener, two cooks,

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a little girl and a butler. Of course, he was not to be missed.

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He grew up quite well, you could say.

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Most of the time he was like that.

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However, he had a life in his early years.

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When he was four years old, he had an incident that probably shaped his entire life.

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He can only remember some of it. He was four years old.

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He had a little girl, with whom he had a great understanding.

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When he was a little boy, she took him to a friend of hers

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and her husband, who was a veterinarian.

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Anyway, the four-year-old boy encouraged the veterinarian to blow him up.

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What?

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Yes, that was his punishment. He had to blow up an animal doctor.

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I don't think it was a punishment. It's a bit unclear.

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His memory of it is...

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It was certainly not a reward, right?

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It was certainly not a reward. I don't think so either.

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He told his brother about it, about what happened.

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And they thought, should we tell our parents about it?

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They never did.

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It just happened and they didn't talk about it anymore.

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Interestingly, about a year later, he also had his first visions, I would say,

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and also panic attacks, probably triggered by the event.

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For example, when he played in the forest with his brother,

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he saw a green reindeer with very thin legs that jumped through the trees.

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His brother also said it, but he didn't see it, he ignored it,

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because he knew, oh, William, he always talks a lot and sees things that others don't see.

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And he just ignored it.

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So he had access to these, I would say, intermediate worlds and beings that he had seen as a child.

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His early childhood definitely shaped this experience and also his writing,

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as we will see in the future.

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He went to school, very normal, and during that time he discovered that he was gay.

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swarms for boys in his diary books, with eleven or so,

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which he then, when that was not repeated, he burned them all.

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At that time, that was the 20s, 1920s,

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discovering that you are gay is not that easy either.

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And I think he never really said it publicly,

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he never really said that he was gay.

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It was known, but he never really said it.

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But he definitely felt attracted to men.

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I have to go back to his childhood girls,

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because they probably also gave him the first contact with drugs, with substances.

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So he brought him into contact with them.

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Did his parents vote for him?

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Yes, he was then sent to his first school,

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because he probably tried sleeping pills with a few classmates during the break,

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how that works.

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And that then flew up, he had to change school,

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but then he also finished school in St. Louis.

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And after he was done with school, he went to Harvard

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and studied English literature.

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He also completed that, did a bachelor's degree.

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And when he was done with his studies,

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he then went on trips, as is common today.

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He looked at the world a little bit.

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Money has never been a problem in his whole life,

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because he, I can already mention that,

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because he always got pocket money from his parents,

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about 200 euros a month,

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and you could live off of that at some point.

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It comes down to the 200 dollars in the 20s.

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So 200 dollars in the 1920s are,

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I'll take a quick look at it scientifically.

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A great amount.

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200 dollars in the 1920s are worth 3,000 dollars today.

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Yes, so he could live off of that,

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just from his pocket money,

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that he was granted, because,

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his mother really honored him.

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She once told him when he was already an adult,

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that she kisses the floor on which his feet go,

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so she was really fond of him,

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and they also had a connection

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between the occult and the magical,

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because his mother also believed in it,

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and that he was so close to them.

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His father was a little more distant,

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but he didn't really hold back his wife

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from worshipping her son,

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and in fact he always had him

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out of difficult situations.

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I have no idea, if he was in conflict with the police,

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he got him out of there,

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so he always had support, in any case.

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And also with his homosexuality,

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they came to be,

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because through their antiquities,

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they were apparently in contact with gay people.

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From the art scene, theater scene,

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I have no idea who needs props for performances,

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but they went there,

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so they were familiar with it,

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and that's why they didn't find it that bad.

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They were probably also more well-read,

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average personalities of the time,

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they heard the story,

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where there was a completely different reference to it,

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and if you sell naked Greek statues all day long,

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I mean...

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yeah, you can't have a problem with that.

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He first traveled to Europe,

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after he had finished studying English literature.

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He then enrolled in Vienna

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for a medical studies,

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but he never finished that,

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but he enrolled because he was interested in human bodies,

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and he traveled all over Europe,

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including Croatia,

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where he met Ilse Klapper,

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a Jew who fled from the Nazis,

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and they decided to marry

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so that she could go to the US.

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So they entered a marriage

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so that she could live in safety.

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And I think she's...

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Against the will of Boros' parents.

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Against the will of Boros' parents, yes.

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That's right.

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Gay, okay, but Jewish?

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Yeah.

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You have to draw the line in this time.

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It would be crazy if it was open.

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You can't be too liberal in the 1920s.

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You have to think about it.

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Yes.

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00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,120
Not yet, it will be dangerous.

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She lived in the US for six years,

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until 1945, and then she came back.

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And the marriage was then separated.

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While she was in the US,

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they met regularly,

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they were always in contact.

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When he was back in the US,

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maybe I can say that in Europe

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he had explored the gay scene a bit,

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in Europe.

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In Vienna, too.

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And he gained some experience there,

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probably more than in the US.

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And when he was back,

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00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:04,120
he enrolled for a study

199
00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:07,120
in archeology and ethnology.

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00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:09,120
What was important for his writing,

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00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,120
especially the Maya,

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00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:13,120
and their mythology,

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00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:16,120
fascinated him a lot.

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00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:18,120
He studied a lot with it,

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00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:21,120
read all the Maya codices.

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00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:23,120
They are very nice,

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00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:26,120
and you can look at them online as a scan.

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00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:30,120
The Vienna Library has them online, I think.

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00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:33,120
In different European libraries,

210
00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,120
there are very nice Maya codices

211
00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:38,120
available on the website.

212
00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:40,120
That's a good tip.

213
00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,120
Thanks for the introduction.

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00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:44,120
He was supposed to be,

215
00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:47,120
because the Second World War was still in full swing,

216
00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:49,120
enrolled,

217
00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:51,120
but he was then

218
00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:54,120
demoted due to his unstable psyche.

219
00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:57,120
No wonder what happened to him until then.

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00:13:57,120 --> 00:13:59,120
Or since childhood.

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00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:01,120
He was not accepted,

222
00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:04,120
then he was deported to New York.

223
00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:07,120
A little conspiracy theory.

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00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:09,120
He was actually demoted,

225
00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:12,120
and then he wrote letters to his mother.

226
00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:14,120
And then his mother asked him

227
00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:17,120
to meet with a friend in a psychiatric hospital

228
00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:19,120
and set him free.

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00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:21,120
You could also interpret it

230
00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:23,120
as a privilege of the upper class,

231
00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:25,120
the late Vietnam War.

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00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:27,120
You have contacts,

233
00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,120
and you can get your son out

234
00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,120
if he's sitting in a barrack

235
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:33,120
and doesn't want to go.

236
00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:35,120
He sat there for a few weeks

237
00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:37,120
and then his mother, as a boy, came out

238
00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:40,120
and didn't have to go to the Pacific War.

239
00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:42,120
Yes.

240
00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:45,120
That's not unlikely, I would say.

241
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:47,120
He was often kicked out

242
00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:51,120
and could fully play out his privileges.

243
00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:53,120
In any case, he came to New York,

244
00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:55,120
and that's the first important

245
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:57,120
station in his life

246
00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,120
where he also met people

247
00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:02,120
who accompanied him to the end of his life.

248
00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:05,120
For one, Allen Ginsberg,

249
00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:09,120
with whom you became friends until death,

250
00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:12,120
he was also a little in love with him.

251
00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:14,120
Again and again.

252
00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:16,120
It wasn't completely repeated,

253
00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:18,120
but it actually had an impact on their friendship.

254
00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:20,120
We definitely have to make an episode

255
00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,120
about Allen Ginsberg.

256
00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,120
That would be very exciting.

257
00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:28,120
It's later on to the light-shape hippie movement.

258
00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,120
And then to the light-shape of the pedo movement.

259
00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:33,120
The pedo movement.

260
00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:36,120
That's a bit more in another episode,

261
00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:39,120
but imagine him as an old, white,

262
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:42,120
bearded, long-haired hippie man

263
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:45,120
in the 70s, at least.

264
00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:48,120
And he wrote wonderful poems.

265
00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,120
The Howl is.

266
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,120
That's probably why you know him.

267
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:58,120
But I don't want to go into the Pete Generation

268
00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:02,120
in that case, but they met for the first time.

269
00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,120
Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, of course,

270
00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:08,120
and William Burroughs.

271
00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,120
Those were the three writers.

272
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,120
And there was also Lucien Carr.

273
00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:21,120
So, Neil Cassidy, people who didn't write,

274
00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:26,120
but who provided the food for the stories.

275
00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:28,120
Who took a lot of drugs.

276
00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:32,120
Who took a lot of drugs, had a lot of women.

277
00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:35,120
Many soldiers who returned from the Second World War

278
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:38,120
and didn't fit into society anymore.

279
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:43,120
Many traumatized soldiers who decided

280
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:47,120
against civic life and the American Dream

281
00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,120
and were looking for an alternative.

282
00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:53,120
And thus laid the foundation for counterculture

283
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:55,120
in America in the coming years.

284
00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:57,120
Exactly.

285
00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:00,120
Maybe you can summarize the generation.

286
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:04,120
Maybe Burroughs was much older than Ginsberg and Kerouac.

287
00:17:04,120 --> 00:17:07,120
I think they were almost 10 years apart.

288
00:17:07,120 --> 00:17:10,120
He was older than almost everyone.

289
00:17:10,120 --> 00:17:12,120
He was the pioneer.

290
00:17:12,120 --> 00:17:15,120
Exactly.

291
00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:19,120
And he was in New York.

292
00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:22,120
He didn't really like the university.

293
00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:27,120
For him it was all an English thing.

294
00:17:27,120 --> 00:17:29,120
Everything was made up in England.

295
00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:31,120
Everything was fake.

296
00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:33,120
He didn't like the fake people.

297
00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:39,120
Anyway, in New York he met Jack Kerouac's wife,

298
00:17:39,120 --> 00:17:45,120
Edie Parker, his second wife.

299
00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:48,120
That was Joanne Vollmer.

300
00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:53,120
She lived with Kerouac's girlfriend.

301
00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:58,120
And she was brought together with Burroughs

302
00:17:58,120 --> 00:18:01,120
by this mutual friendship.

303
00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:03,120
They got along well.

304
00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:07,120
They were two people who thought alike.

305
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:11,120
I think Burroughs appreciated her intelligence.

306
00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:17,120
And she had influence on his books.

307
00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:19,120
She gave him ideas.

308
00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:21,120
She was a muse.

309
00:18:21,120 --> 00:18:24,120
And her role in the Beat Generation

310
00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:26,120
is probably too short.

311
00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:29,120
You don't find so much about her.

312
00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:31,120
Exactly.

313
00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:35,120
He met Joanne Vollmer.

314
00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:39,120
And they got together.

315
00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:43,120
Joanne Vollmers was married.

316
00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:46,120
And she had a daughter.

317
00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:50,120
They weren't together anymore.

318
00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:53,120
They were more or less in love.

319
00:18:53,120 --> 00:18:55,120
If we're in New York,

320
00:18:55,120 --> 00:19:00,120
I should mention that a friend of Burroughs,

321
00:19:00,120 --> 00:19:02,120
Kerouac and Ginsburg,

322
00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:04,120
committed a murder.

323
00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:06,120
I think it was Lucien K.

324
00:19:06,120 --> 00:19:08,120
He had a lover who...

325
00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:10,120
Oh, that was Burroughs' lover

326
00:19:10,120 --> 00:19:14,120
who moved to St. Louis with him.

327
00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:16,120
He was a friend of Burroughs.

328
00:19:16,120 --> 00:19:18,120
He was as old as Burroughs.

329
00:19:18,120 --> 00:19:20,120
They were friends.

330
00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:22,120
His name was David Cameron.

331
00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:24,120
He looked at Lucien K.

332
00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:26,120
He stalked him.

333
00:19:26,120 --> 00:19:28,120
You could say that.

334
00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:30,120
He stalked him.

335
00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:34,120
And that was very stressful for Lucien K.

336
00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:38,120
He stabbed him.

337
00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:40,120
They didn't show the murder.

338
00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:42,120
Burroughs noticed it.

339
00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:44,120
But he didn't show the murder.

340
00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:47,120
So they got into a conflict with the law.

341
00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:50,120
Burroughs' parents bought him out.

342
00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:54,120
So it wasn't a problem for them.

343
00:19:54,120 --> 00:19:56,120
There's also a film,

344
00:19:56,120 --> 00:19:58,120
Kill Your Darling,

345
00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:00,120
where you can read about it.

346
00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:02,120
And there's also a book

347
00:20:02,120 --> 00:20:04,120
written by Burroughs and Kerouac.

348
00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:06,120
And the hippos were boiled in their tanks.

349
00:20:06,120 --> 00:20:10,120
It describes this murder.

350
00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:12,120
It's a story.

351
00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:14,120
If you're interested,

352
00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:16,120
you can check it out.

353
00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:18,120
In New York,

354
00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:20,120
he became heroin addicted.

355
00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:22,120
Yay!

356
00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:24,120
I was just waiting for that.

357
00:20:24,120 --> 00:20:26,120
Finally!

358
00:20:26,120 --> 00:20:28,120
We're finally in the heroin addiction.

359
00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:30,120
A little bit.

360
00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:32,120
When he got a little addicted

361
00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:34,120
to what happened,

362
00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:36,120
and then he got dizzy

363
00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:38,120
and didn't think much,

364
00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:40,120
the problem with heroin is

365
00:20:40,120 --> 00:20:42,120
that you only have it for a few months.

366
00:20:42,120 --> 00:20:44,120
You're still trying to satisfy your addiction

367
00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:46,120
without feeling any effect.

368
00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:48,120
Yes, he describes that

369
00:20:48,120 --> 00:20:50,120
very well in his books.

370
00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:52,120
He became addicted to heroin

371
00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:54,120
and also dealt with it

372
00:20:54,120 --> 00:20:56,120
to finance his addiction.

373
00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:58,120
He took on various shit jobs

374
00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:00,120
as a camp hunter,

375
00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:02,120
as a private detective.

376
00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:04,120
Detective elements

377
00:21:04,120 --> 00:21:06,120
are also present in many of his books.

378
00:21:06,120 --> 00:21:08,120
You can imagine that

379
00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:10,120
he felt like a detective.

380
00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:12,120
Absolutely.

381
00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:14,120
He wrote down

382
00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:16,120
his first heroin experience

383
00:21:16,120 --> 00:21:18,120
in New York

384
00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:20,120
in his first novel,

385
00:21:20,120 --> 00:21:22,120
Junkie.

386
00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:24,120
That was probably

387
00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:26,120
the most accessible novel

388
00:21:26,120 --> 00:21:28,120
because it was

389
00:21:28,120 --> 00:21:30,120
fairly linear.

390
00:21:30,120 --> 00:21:32,120
He read very well

391
00:21:32,120 --> 00:21:34,120
and had

392
00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:36,120
an extremely

393
00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:38,120
deep insight

394
00:21:38,120 --> 00:21:40,120
into the drug scene,

395
00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:42,120
the even smaller drug scene

396
00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:44,120
that developed for heroin

397
00:21:44,120 --> 00:21:46,120
and also for weed

398
00:21:46,120 --> 00:21:48,120
and other things in New York.

399
00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:50,120
He describes very well

400
00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:52,120
how he tried to deal with weed

401
00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:54,120
and how people got annoyed

402
00:21:54,120 --> 00:21:56,120
because they wanted to sit at his place for hours

403
00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:58,120
and always smoked joints.

404
00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:00,120
When he changed his heroin,

405
00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:02,120
people came and wanted their stuff

406
00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:04,120
and disappeared.

407
00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:06,120
It's great to sell heroin

408
00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:08,120
and be a drug dealer.

409
00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:10,120
He also popularized

410
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:12,120
many terms like smack

411
00:22:12,120 --> 00:22:14,120
and junk for heroin

412
00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:16,120
and also the term

413
00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:18,120
junkie itself.

414
00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:20,120
He was the first

415
00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:22,120
to do that in a literary way

416
00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:24,120
and thus

417
00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:26,120
presented the scene

418
00:22:26,120 --> 00:22:28,120
and the terms

419
00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:30,120
in a literary way

420
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:32,120
for the first time.

421
00:22:32,120 --> 00:22:34,120
Burroughs has a few

422
00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:36,120
terms that are

423
00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:38,120
important, including heavy metal.

424
00:22:38,120 --> 00:22:40,120
The band Steely Dan

425
00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:42,120
has its name

426
00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:44,120
from Burroughs.

427
00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:46,120
Steely Dan is

428
00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:48,120
a huge

429
00:22:48,120 --> 00:22:50,120
steel dildo in Naked Lunch.

430
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:52,120
His influence

431
00:22:52,120 --> 00:22:54,120
on pop culture

432
00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:56,120
was

433
00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:58,120
and probably still is big.

434
00:22:58,120 --> 00:23:00,120
He was in New York

435
00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:02,120
addicted to heroin

436
00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:04,120
and met his

437
00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:06,120
wife, his second wife,

438
00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:08,120
Joan Folmer.

439
00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:10,120
He noticed

440
00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:12,120
the murder of David Cameron

441
00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:14,120
and didn't report it.

442
00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:16,120
He got into a conflict with the law.

443
00:23:16,120 --> 00:23:18,120
His parents kicked him out.

444
00:23:18,120 --> 00:23:20,120
He spent some time with his parents.

445
00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:22,120
Joan Folmer

446
00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:24,120
became addicted to drugs

447
00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:26,120
with Burroughs.

448
00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:28,120
Both of them didn't give up.

449
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:30,120
It wasn't just heroin,

450
00:23:30,120 --> 00:23:32,120
but alcohol in particular.

451
00:23:32,120 --> 00:23:34,120
The others were more

452
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:36,120
into the band.

453
00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:38,120
Ashlandorff,

454
00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:40,120
Burroughs, also liked

455
00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:42,120
speedballs, a mixture of cocaine

456
00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:44,120
and heroin.

457
00:23:44,120 --> 00:23:46,120
Various amphetamines

458
00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:48,120
he could get in the pharmacy

459
00:23:48,120 --> 00:23:50,120
with fake recipes.

460
00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:52,120
When he came back

461
00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:54,120
to New York,

462
00:23:54,120 --> 00:23:56,120
he decided

463
00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:58,120
that he and

464
00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:00,120
Joan

465
00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:02,120
had to leave the city

466
00:24:02,120 --> 00:24:04,120
and moved to a farm in Texas.

467
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:06,120
Spent by his parents.

468
00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:10,120
Of course.

469
00:24:10,120 --> 00:24:12,120
When they lived in Texas,

470
00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:14,120
their son

471
00:24:14,120 --> 00:24:16,120
William Burroughs Jr. was born.

472
00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:20,120
Creative naming for an author.

473
00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:22,120
Burroughs was also named

474
00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:24,120
as a grandpa.

475
00:24:24,120 --> 00:24:26,120
He probably said that.

476
00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:32,120
I'm telling you all the time

477
00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:34,120
about his second wife, Joan Folmer.

478
00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:36,120
He had a son.

479
00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,120
He was gay at the time.

480
00:24:38,120 --> 00:24:40,120
Joan Folmer knew that.

481
00:24:40,120 --> 00:24:42,120
It probably led

482
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:44,120
to conflicts in the relationship.

483
00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:46,120
Burroughs was gone

484
00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:48,120
with his young son and

485
00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:50,120
got used to it.

486
00:24:50,120 --> 00:24:52,120
He was able to

487
00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:54,120
satisfy his needs.

488
00:24:54,120 --> 00:24:56,120
That was clear.

489
00:24:56,120 --> 00:24:58,120
But it still

490
00:24:58,120 --> 00:25:00,120
led to conflicts.

491
00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:04,120
They had a classic

492
00:25:04,120 --> 00:25:06,120
ancient Greek marriage.

493
00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:08,120
The woman is

494
00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:10,120
the leader of the household

495
00:25:10,120 --> 00:25:12,120
and the man is

496
00:25:12,120 --> 00:25:14,120
happy with the young people

497
00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:16,120
in the high school.

498
00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:18,120
In Texas,

499
00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:20,120
Burroughs

500
00:25:20,120 --> 00:25:22,120
also started

501
00:25:22,120 --> 00:25:24,120
marijuana.

502
00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:26,120
The police

503
00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:28,120
found out about it

504
00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:30,120
because they caught a letter

505
00:25:30,120 --> 00:25:32,120
sent to Ginsburg.

506
00:25:32,120 --> 00:25:34,120
The letters

507
00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:36,120
weren't well coded.

508
00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:38,120
If you read them today,

509
00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:40,120
you think, guys use code.

510
00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:42,120
At least a little.

511
00:25:42,120 --> 00:25:44,120
You know there's censorship.

512
00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:46,120
But no.

513
00:25:46,120 --> 00:25:48,120
Yes.

514
00:25:48,120 --> 00:25:50,120
Of course,

515
00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:52,120
he was sentenced to death.

516
00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:54,120
Burroughs

517
00:25:54,120 --> 00:25:56,120
didn't want to do that.

518
00:25:56,120 --> 00:25:58,120
His family probably

519
00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:00,120
couldn't get him out.

520
00:26:00,120 --> 00:26:02,120
So he fled

521
00:26:02,120 --> 00:26:04,120
with his family

522
00:26:04,120 --> 00:26:06,120
to Mexico City

523
00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:08,120
and wanted to stay there

524
00:26:08,120 --> 00:26:10,120
for five years until the crimes were over.

525
00:26:10,120 --> 00:26:12,120
In Mexico,

526
00:26:12,120 --> 00:26:14,120
he was enrolled in college.

527
00:26:14,120 --> 00:26:16,120
Archeology.

528
00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:18,120
Still.

529
00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:20,120
He was in Mexico

530
00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:22,120
and was close to the Mayas.

531
00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:24,120
He was interested.

532
00:26:24,120 --> 00:26:26,120
I could say more

533
00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:28,120
about the Maya thing.

534
00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:30,120
When I read my text collection,

535
00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:32,120
his influence on

536
00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:34,120
the Maya apocalypse.

537
00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:36,120
In 2012, the world was under

538
00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:38,120
and they made it really known

539
00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:40,120
that Terrence McHale

540
00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:42,120
was the one

541
00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:44,120
who wrote the text.

542
00:26:44,120 --> 00:26:46,120
But they all read Burroughs.

543
00:26:46,120 --> 00:26:48,120
Burroughs knew about the codices

544
00:26:48,120 --> 00:26:50,120
and

545
00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:52,120
in 1960,

546
00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:54,120
he wrote the exterminator

547
00:26:54,120 --> 00:26:56,120
from the end of the insect era

548
00:26:56,120 --> 00:26:58,120
and then

549
00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:00,120
continued in other novels.

550
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:02,120
He was

551
00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:04,120
definitely a

552
00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:06,120
pathfinder.

553
00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:08,120
He knew that at some point

554
00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:10,120
certain consciousness

555
00:27:10,120 --> 00:27:12,120
had to happen

556
00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:14,120
because of an apocalyptic state.

557
00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:16,120
For him, it was something

558
00:27:16,120 --> 00:27:18,120
psychological.

559
00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:20,120
A change of consciousness.

560
00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:22,120
A shift of consciousness.

561
00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:24,120
The whole Beat Generation

562
00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:26,120
was, as it was later,

563
00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:28,120
looking for higher truths

564
00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:30,120
in search of this change

565
00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:32,120
of consciousness.

566
00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:34,120
A bit like John Dee and Edward Kelly

567
00:27:34,120 --> 00:27:36,120
from our last episodes.

568
00:27:36,120 --> 00:27:38,120
That you can get higher truths,

569
00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:40,120
that you can reach wisdom.

570
00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:42,120
A bit like Joe Rogan and his Ayahuasca.

571
00:27:42,120 --> 00:27:44,120
There is his constant

572
00:27:44,120 --> 00:27:46,120
DMT talk.

573
00:27:46,120 --> 00:27:48,120
And at the same time,

574
00:27:48,120 --> 00:27:50,120
they were also children of the Cold War

575
00:27:50,120 --> 00:27:52,120
and were therefore

576
00:27:52,120 --> 00:27:54,120
apocalyptic like John Dee

577
00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:56,120
and Edward Kelly.

578
00:27:56,120 --> 00:27:58,120
And before that, they were also children of the Second World War.

579
00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:00,120
They are people

580
00:28:00,120 --> 00:28:02,120
who experienced the Second World War

581
00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:04,120
as adult people.

582
00:28:04,120 --> 00:28:06,120
And twenty years later,

583
00:28:06,120 --> 00:28:08,120
the great powers of the world

584
00:28:08,120 --> 00:28:10,120
want to bounce back from the universe.

585
00:28:10,120 --> 00:28:12,120
Bomb.

586
00:28:12,120 --> 00:28:14,120
And yes,

587
00:28:14,120 --> 00:28:16,120
the atomic destruction of the planet

588
00:28:16,120 --> 00:28:18,120
is currently at stake.

589
00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:20,120
So apocalyptic visions

590
00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:22,120
are certainly possible

591
00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:24,120
in this area.

592
00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:26,120
Or are certainly understandable.

593
00:28:26,120 --> 00:28:28,120
And the solution of the Beat Generation

594
00:28:28,120 --> 00:28:30,120
was more of a retreat from society.

595
00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:32,120
To say, we take drugs.

596
00:28:32,120 --> 00:28:34,120
And to do something different.

597
00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:36,120
And something different is everything that is forbidden.

598
00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:38,120
So we do magic drugs

599
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,120
and

600
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,120
wild ebbs.

601
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:44,120
For the 50s understanding of the Americans.

602
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:46,120
Where there was a lot of

603
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:48,120
white magic

604
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:50,120
and American Dream.

605
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,120
When I'm in Mexico right now,

606
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:54,120
it fits well with the Mayans.

607
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,120
And his Mayan...

608
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,120
As I said, in The Exterminator

609
00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:00,120
he had already written that.

610
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,120
And he was very successful in writing it in 1960.

611
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,120
It's probably

612
00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:06,120
the least known term.

613
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:08,120
But he also

614
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,120
took up this whole Mayan theme

615
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,120
in The Soft Machine.

616
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,120
That's the first part

617
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,120
of the Nova Trilogy,

618
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,120
as it's called. All cut-up works.

619
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:22,120
And there's also a chapter

620
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:24,120
that's called

621
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,120
The Mayan Chapter.

622
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,120
And in which

623
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,120
the narrator hires a corrupt doctor

624
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:32,120
to get him a special

625
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:34,120
drug that

626
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,120
will enable the narrator

627
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,120
to travel into the past

628
00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:40,120
and take over the body of another person.

629
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,120
And after

630
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,120
he's taken the drug,

631
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,120
the narrator travels back into the Old Mayan period,

632
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,120
takes the body of a simple

633
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,120
field worker and

634
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,120
reports the following.

635
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:54,120
I quote it.

636
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:56,120
I translated it into German.

637
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,120
Of course, it's different in English, but

638
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:26,120
I think it should fit.

639
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:30,120
I have explained that

640
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:32,120
the control system of the Maya

641
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:34,120
depends on the calendar

642
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,120
and the codex,

643
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,120
which contain symbols

644
00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:40,120
that represent all states of thought

645
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,120
and feeling

646
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:44,120
which human beings

647
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:46,120
can feel under such limited circumstances.

648
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,120
These are the instruments

649
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:50,120
with which they turn

650
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:52,120
and control thought units.

651
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:54,120
I think it's a very

652
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:56,120
interesting way of thinking.

653
00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:58,120
These codexes and calendars

654
00:30:58,120 --> 00:31:00,120
are instruments

655
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:02,120
of control for

656
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:04,120
the Bureau,

657
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:06,120
of thought control

658
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:08,120
with which the rulers

659
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,120
keep their subjects

660
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,120
in order.

661
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,120
After the narrator

662
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:16,120
has entered the temple

663
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,120
and this

664
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,120
telepathic

665
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,120
and

666
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:26,120
telepathic machinery

667
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:28,120
– it's all about

668
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,120
thought control, according to the Bureau –

669
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,120
and after

670
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,120
the machine has been sabotaged

671
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,120
and the thousand-feet priest

672
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:38,120
have been destroyed,

673
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:40,120
the final sentences of the

674
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,120
chapter come and they are

675
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,120
as follows.

676
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:46,120
A great weight fell from the sky.

677
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:48,120
Winds of the earth

678
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,120
crushed palms to the ground.

679
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:52,120
Rolls over the Maya control calendar.

680
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,120
And it describes

681
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,120
what

682
00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:58,120
is apparently

683
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:00,120
in the Dresden Codex

684
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,120
where it is mentioned

685
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,120
that this apocalyptic event,

686
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,120
this shift

687
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,120
of human consciousness

688
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:10,120
is represented

689
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,120
by a god

690
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:14,120
who pours water on the earth.

691
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,120
Like a great flood

692
00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:18,120
which is also shown

693
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:20,120
in the Bible,

694
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,120
in the Gospels,

695
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:24,120
in the Gospels,

696
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:26,120
in the Bible, etc.

697
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:28,120
It's everywhere.

698
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:30,120
He has

699
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,120
certainly influenced

700
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:34,120
this 2012 apocalyptic event.

701
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:36,120
We are still

702
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,120
in Mexico

703
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:40,120
in order to locate

704
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:42,120
where Burrosin has fled

705
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:44,120
after he

706
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,120
has built marijuana in Texas.

707
00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,120
And there

708
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,120
he has continued to study

709
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:52,120
and to deal with the Maya

710
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:54,120
and their mythology.

711
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:56,120
And Mexico City

712
00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,120
is also

713
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:00,120
the place in the world

714
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,120
where the most

715
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,120
significant event of his life

716
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:06,120
took place.

717
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:08,120
If it is not that

718
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:10,120
this sexual abuse

719
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,120
was in his childhood, then it was definitely the eliseness

720
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,120
that I will tell you about in a moment.

721
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:16,120
He and his wife were at a party

722
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,120
with a friend in Mexico City.

723
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:20,120
Both of them were already very drunk.

724
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,120
And

725
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,120
they then

726
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:26,120
had the wonderful idea

727
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:28,120
probably,

728
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:30,120
well, you don't know exactly why,

729
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:32,120
there are different sources

730
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,120
that describe the whole process

731
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,120
a little differently.

732
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,120
On the one hand, it means that,

733
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,120
well, maybe I should tell you

734
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,120
what exactly happened.

735
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:44,120
They wanted

736
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:46,120
to

737
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,120
recreate the apple scene

738
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:50,120
from Wilhelm Tell

739
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,120
which is very famous

740
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:54,120
where Wilhelm Tell

741
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:56,120
shoots the apple from the head of his son

742
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:58,120
with a bow.

743
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,120
They wanted to recreate it with a glass

744
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,120
on Joann's head

745
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:04,120
and William Burroughs,

746
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:06,120
who I haven't mentioned yet,

747
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:08,120
was a great weapon lover,

748
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:10,120
generally a very American character.

749
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:12,120
He

750
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,120
was very close to a great weapon,

751
00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:16,120
always slept under a pillow with a weapon,

752
00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:18,120
always wore a...

753
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,120
A big drinker.

754
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,120
He always wore weapons, bite on his body,

755
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:24,120
knives, pistols.

756
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:26,120
Yes,

757
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:28,120
he always had to defend himself

758
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:32,120
or at least be prepared.

759
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:36,120
Sounds still pretty paranoid.

760
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:38,120
Yes, very paranoid,

761
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:40,120
very American.

762
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:42,120
Anyway, they wanted to recreate this apple scene

763
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:44,120
in an extremely drunk,

764
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:46,120
very drunk state.

765
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:48,120
And yes,

766
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,120
that went wrong, of course.

767
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:52,120
He shot her in the forehead and she died.

768
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:54,120
Later, I think, Burroughs

769
00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:56,120
told the investigators in America

770
00:34:56,120 --> 00:34:58,120
the story that he wanted to show his friends

771
00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:00,120
his great weapons

772
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:02,120
and then his pistol fell out of his hand

773
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:04,120
or from the table

774
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:06,120
and then fell on the floor and then the shot

775
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:08,120
and she was standing there stupidly

776
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:10,120
and everyone shot her in the face.

777
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:12,120
But it actually sounds

778
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,120
more like a story

779
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:16,120
aftertaste.

780
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:18,120
Oh, his hand went around in a circle.

781
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:22,120
Yes, the gun fell very stupidly, you know.

782
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:24,120
But it didn't hit her as much as the woman

783
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,120
from Burroughs.

784
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,120
Yes.

785
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:30,120
Tadaam!

786
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:32,120
He said that maybe

787
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:34,120
because Joanne was also

788
00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:36,120
addicted to drugs

789
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:38,120
and maybe it was also

790
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,120
a death wish of her own

791
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:42,120
but I don't know if that's a

792
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,120
criminal offense.

793
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,120
I think so.

794
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:48,120
I think Burroughs

795
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,120
got away very well.

796
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,120
He was only 14 days in prison

797
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:54,120
in Mexico and then his

798
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:56,120
parents bought him out again.

799
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:58,120
And he was

800
00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,120
stamped off as an accident.

801
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,120
What it probably was.

802
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,120
But I can't say.

803
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,120
You could talk about a

804
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,120
fatal death

805
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:10,120
if you were drunk in Wilhelm Tell

806
00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:12,120
and probably on heroin and other drugs

807
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:14,120
in a room with your wife

808
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:16,120
to impress any friends.

809
00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:18,120
That's at least fatal

810
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,120
if you're careful.

811
00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:22,120
But I think it's a very

812
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:24,120
serious crime.

813
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,120
I think it's a very serious crime.

814
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:28,120
At least fatal.

815
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,120
Probably with a statement.

816
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:32,120
He got away very well.

817
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:34,120
Let's put it this way.

818
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,120
If Wilhelm Tell had killed his child

819
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:38,120
instead of getting an apple

820
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,120
Switzerland would either be a different country

821
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:42,120
or he wouldn't be the national hero of Switzerland.

822
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,120
Yes.

823
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:46,120
What he killed his wife

824
00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:48,120
took him very well with it.

825
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:50,120
He couldn't explain

826
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,120
how he

827
00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:54,120
was capable of

828
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,120
getting it to this point.

829
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:58,120
How the universe could allow it.

830
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,120
How the universe could allow it.

831
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:02,120
He was such a good shooter.

832
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:04,120
In the introduction

833
00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:06,120
to Queer

834
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:28,120
he writes again

835
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:52,120
He says in principle

836
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:54,120
that he would never become a writer

837
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,120
without the death of his wife.

838
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:58,120
That that was driving

839
00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:00,120
you in a certain way.

840
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:02,120
And that of course he says

841
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:04,120
that he takes

842
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:09,760
when he wrote that he was possessed by a bad spirit that went into him

843
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:14,480
and that he didn't leave him until the end of his life.

844
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:17,120
Does the evil spirit mean heroin?

845
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:19,840
No.

846
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:24,600
But the ugly spirit, the ugly spirit is always called,

847
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:32,040
he didn't give the name to the creature himself.

848
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:35,640
That came from Brian Geiss, who we will also talk about later,

849
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:37,640
an important figure in his life.

850
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:45,080
But he assumed that he was possessed and that this evil spirit brought him to miss the shot.

851
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:47,080
Well, he hit him.

852
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:51,960
That was evil.

853
00:38:51,960 --> 00:39:02,600
He tries to write something out of it and of course he tries to find an explanation for it.

854
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:08,200
Why this happens and what is the evil spirit that went into him.

855
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:13,240
So possession, also in his books, plays a central role.

856
00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:16,840
Ghosts or that you enter another body and control it.

857
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:20,120
That's how he explained this miss shot.

858
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:25,720
He also had several exorcisms done to get rid of this spirit.

859
00:39:25,720 --> 00:39:30,680
So really, until the end of his life he tried to get rid of this spirit.

860
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:39,720
Whether it was in the swiss huts with Sioux shamans or through his own experiments,

861
00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:42,680
we will come back to that later.

862
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:50,280
It all starts when he has shot his wife.

863
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:52,760
Does he have to leave America first?

864
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:54,280
Does he have to process it somehow?

865
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:55,720
Does he have to understand what happened?

866
00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:59,960
Because he doesn't do that in any way.

867
00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:03,800
That's why he goes to South America first.

868
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:11,560
He heard about a miracle drug called Yahweh, today called Ayahuasca.

869
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:15,240
Are you Joe Rogan?

870
00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:20,040
He is definitely the one who was so ahead of Joe Rogan with all this talk.

871
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:21,000
It's unbelievable.

872
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,400
He is definitely the direct precursor.

873
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:25,400
Definitely.

874
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:36,200
He then hoped to reduce his obscenity through the experience with Ayahuasca.

875
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:44,760
And also to process the whole tragedy with his wife, to make new spiritual experiences.

876
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:50,840
During this time in South America he wrote two novels.

877
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:54,920
I think it was the first novel he published.

878
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:58,200
And also Queer, in which he negotiates his homosexuality.

879
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:02,120
It was published later, a few decades later.

880
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:07,160
In Junkie, this search for this miracle drug is teased.

881
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:11,080
And in Queer, it is followed as a side storyline.

882
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:12,360
Exactly.

883
00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:18,360
And while he was in South America, he also wrote many letters to Elginzberg.

884
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,320
They were also published, the Yahweh letters.

885
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:24,360
You can also read these correspondence.

886
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:27,320
And he then made the first experience.

887
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:37,080
He probably popularized Ayahuasca as one of the first white, one of the first old-fashioned men who had Ayahuasca in it.

888
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:40,040
If he had had it, he would have filmed it for his channel.

889
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:45,560
Since then, he has to write letters to Elginzberg.

890
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,960
He traveled a bit through South America.

891
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:52,520
I think he was especially in Columbia, in Putamayo, right?

892
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:53,720
Putumayo.

893
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:55,720
Exactly.

894
00:41:55,720 --> 00:42:01,640
Interestingly, the McKenners, for example, all went to Putamayo.

895
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:03,320
They all read the Bureaus.

896
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:10,680
And yes, it's very interesting to follow this series back.

897
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:13,720
Exactly.

898
00:42:13,720 --> 00:42:17,960
When he was done with South America, his desire for travel was still not stopped.

899
00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:20,040
He was on the road a lot, in general.

900
00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:23,720
Then he went back to Europe, to London, to Paris.

901
00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:27,080
In Paris, it was called the Beat Hotel.

902
00:42:27,080 --> 00:42:31,320
Yes, it was in Paris, and then he started writing Naked Lush.

903
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:35,080
1959, just as an orientation.

904
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:36,920
We are now in the late 50s.

905
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:43,160
He then traveled to Tanga, Morocco, over Europe.

906
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:47,880
At that time, still an international zone, i.e. internationally managed.

907
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:51,720
It was a paradise for drug addicts, for smugglers.

908
00:42:51,720 --> 00:42:54,920
It was not controlled much, it was cheap.

909
00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:57,960
You write today's Maoco relatively well, I think.

910
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:07,560
Yes, he could live without problems from his pocket money, that his parents gave him.

911
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:10,200
And he lived on stubborn boys and heroin.

912
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:12,920
That was all he consumed in that time.

913
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:13,400
Yes.

914
00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:14,200
Love and air.

915
00:43:14,200 --> 00:43:15,960
Yes, love and air.

916
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:18,920
Oh my God.

917
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:23,080
It always means that he wrote so much while he was on heroin.

918
00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:26,280
But you don't write on heroin, so you probably don't do anything.

919
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:28,280
But he did write a lot of letters, right?

920
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:32,120
He wrote letters his whole life, like books, I think.

921
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:37,000
He wrote a lot of letters, but he also published some books.

922
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:38,360
So...

923
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:40,600
Eh.

924
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,080
There was no SMS or something like that.

925
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:46,040
I don't know if he used that, probably.

926
00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:49,080
But I never see him on Twitter.

927
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:52,840
I see him on Ed Kuhn.

928
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:57,720
He was actually very shady or darknated and not on the road.

929
00:43:57,720 --> 00:44:00,040
On very, very funny forums he borrows.

930
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:00,760
Yes, yes.

931
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:04,680
So he was there in Tanshan.

932
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:10,840
There he also met the painter Brian Gysin for the first time.

933
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:12,680
They actually had similar interests.

934
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:18,520
They both wanted drugs, mythology, the paranormal.

935
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:21,560
But at the beginning they didn't get along well with each other.

936
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:23,880
And so they first separated.

937
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:26,360
I think Gysin went to Paris.

938
00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:32,840
He first had a restaurant in Tanga that was closed.

939
00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:34,760
He believes because he was cursed.

940
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,640
So he was also superstitious like Borrows.

941
00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:39,320
He went back to Paris.

942
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:41,960
And in Paris they met again.

943
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:45,320
And this time it worked out between the two.

944
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:50,440
They then got along very well.

945
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:55,480
So they took drugs together, conducted consciousness experiments.

946
00:44:55,480 --> 00:45:01,000
Which Borrows also did in New York with Joe and Folmer, with Ginsburg.

947
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:07,320
So telepathy experiments and everything that concerns the paranormal.

948
00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:13,480
To get in touch with some creatures, with ghosts.

949
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:21,240
And they did that in Paris and Tanga.

950
00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:25,880
Gysin was also enthusiastic about Scientology.

951
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:32,280
The Trance music, the Master Musicians of Tachukal are perhaps some of the terms.

952
00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,240
They played in his restaurant.

953
00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:38,920
So it's Berber music, Trance-like.

954
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:43,320
Scientology was also a completely new invention at that time.

955
00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:44,920
After the Second World War.

956
00:45:44,920 --> 00:45:48,200
That's a new, aspiring movement.

957
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:49,960
Yes.

958
00:45:49,960 --> 00:46:01,960
So Bill Borrows and Brian Gysin conducted consciousness research.

959
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:06,360
And they also mixed things wildly together.

960
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:12,200
They took psilocybin, set themselves up by stroboscopic light.

961
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:17,160
And added three radios on white noise.

962
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:23,240
To have three different types that penetrate your consciousness.

963
00:46:23,240 --> 00:46:26,520
And yes.

964
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:34,600
If you've ever taken such substances, you might be aware that it's not the best environment.

965
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:38,840
Flashlight and white noise sounds.

966
00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:43,000
Borrows had a lot of horror trips.

967
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:47,960
And his opinion of psychedelic drugs has also had a lot of influence.

968
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:49,720
He always thought it was shit.

969
00:46:49,720 --> 00:46:51,800
So not good.

970
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:55,640
Then also the Dream Machine was developed.

971
00:46:55,640 --> 00:47:00,680
And he called it his flicker induction device.

972
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:03,720
You have to imagine it like a plate plate.

973
00:47:03,720 --> 00:47:09,560
And then it was like a piece of paper.

974
00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:12,920
Or it could also be metal with holes in it.

975
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:14,120
Different shapes.

976
00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:16,280
A light in the middle, a horn.

977
00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:18,840
And then it turned and you had a kind of light game.

978
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:20,280
So you could look inside.

979
00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:27,080
And then you should expand your consciousness.

980
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:28,360
And take other things into account.

981
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:30,200
Hypnotize.

982
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:32,920
You look inside with closed eyes.

983
00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:37,160
Because through the eyelids you can see something.

984
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:40,120
And as I said, they also combined other drugs with it.

985
00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:43,000
And then the effect is probably enhanced.

986
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:46,200
Yes.

987
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:50,440
What did this result in with all the experiments?

988
00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:52,840
In fact, yes.

989
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,800
Both Borrows pushed themselves a little.

990
00:47:55,800 --> 00:48:03,160
The more the relationship with Geisen intensified, the more esoteric experiences Borrows had.

991
00:48:03,160 --> 00:48:05,080
Both pushed themselves a little.

992
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:08,440
It's like in the last episode, the and Edward Kelly maybe.

993
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:12,760
Geisen was a bit like his medium, his guru.

994
00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:17,480
The whole group, also Ginsburg, popularized the whole thing a bit.

995
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:21,480
Also the gnostic trends that he slowly took on.

996
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:24,600
I haven't gotten to talk about that yet.

997
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:32,040
They really have mirror work, tell-telling, telepathy experiments,

998
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:38,040
trance, induced by whatever, through music, dance and so on.

999
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:39,800
They apparently did that every day.

1000
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:45,080
And then they threw in munter, hashish, mescaline and other substances.

1001
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:51,000
And yes, sometimes they then...

1002
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:54,840
The devil suddenly appeared in their room,

1003
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:59,720
dressed like a Swedish gentleman from the 18th century and walked around.

1004
00:48:59,720 --> 00:49:03,320
And Borrows was very enthusiastic about it.

1005
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:05,720
He then wrote to Ginsburg,

1006
00:49:05,720 --> 00:49:09,960
I have made such incredible discoveries in the field of psychological research.

1007
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:14,360
What is happening now is that I am literally transforming into someone else.

1008
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:18,280
Not into a human creature, but human-like.

1009
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:20,920
He wears a kind of green uniform.

1010
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:28,200
His face is full of black, boiling fumes and what people would call evil.

1011
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:33,480
I would like to read another quote from Borrows where he describes

1012
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:37,640
what they did in the world of Tanga and Paris.

1013
00:49:37,640 --> 00:49:41,640
All these experiments that were supposed to be there.

1014
00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:43,720
And he writes,

1015
00:49:43,720 --> 00:49:47,880
We all thought we were interplanetary agents

1016
00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:50,600
who were involved in a deadly battle.

1017
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:52,220
Slaves, codes,

1018
00:49:52,220 --> 00:49:53,720
detainees.

1019
00:49:53,720 --> 00:49:56,120
Back then, everything seemed real.

1020
00:49:56,120 --> 00:49:58,840
From today on, who knows.

1021
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:03,000
They promised us a transport from the area, from time

1022
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:04,520
and into space.

1023
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:06,200
Everything had a purpose.

1024
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:09,640
The danger and the fear were real enough.

1025
00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:12,360
If someone tries to kill you, you know it.

1026
00:50:12,360 --> 00:50:14,840
If someone tries to kill you, you know it.

1027
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:18,120
So, yes, they were in a fight.

1028
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:28,840
So they believed that they were agents in an esoteric war against demyurgy.

1029
00:50:28,840 --> 00:50:31,000
And that also appears in Borrows' novels.

1030
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:33,400
Often, against some...

1031
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:36,440
So, in his novel, the Archons are...

1032
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:39,320
I wanted to talk about that later.

1033
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:43,400
In his novel, the Archons...

1034
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:45,720
Demyurgy is a bad god.

1035
00:50:45,720 --> 00:50:49,960
And there are gods who keep people from the transcendence.

1036
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:52,360
These are the Archons.

1037
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:54,120
It's described in the Gnosis.

1038
00:50:54,120 --> 00:50:56,920
There are different currents.

1039
00:50:56,920 --> 00:50:58,120
But that...

1040
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:01,160
Demyurgy is not necessarily evil.

1041
00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:03,160
He is the creator of the world.

1042
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:05,160
He brings the world into being.

1043
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:11,960
And he stands for wisdom, for knowledge, for spirit.

1044
00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:14,280
He can be experienced by people.

1045
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:16,760
So, the Gnosis is a mystical current.

1046
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:21,720
It developed especially in the Urchristian era.

1047
00:51:21,720 --> 00:51:23,720
There are many apocryphal writings.

1048
00:51:23,720 --> 00:51:26,520
There are also many Gnostic communities today.

1049
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:30,920
The Yesibs are, as you can see, Gnostic.

1050
00:51:30,920 --> 00:51:32,920
Or whoever calls them Gnostic.

1051
00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:35,880
There is Mandaea.

1052
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:37,400
Manichea.

1053
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:40,200
There are also incredibly interesting religions.

1054
00:51:40,200 --> 00:51:42,680
The term Gnosis is, however,

1055
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:45,160
a scientific collection of drawings

1056
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:48,520
for all these Urchristian currents.

1057
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:52,360
And it goes back to the Greek term Gnosis,

1058
00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:54,360
for your information.

1059
00:51:54,360 --> 00:51:58,360
And all these currents,

1060
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:00,360
summarized under this term,

1061
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:03,720
are closely related to the concept of wisdom

1062
00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:05,720
and divine knowledge.

1063
00:52:05,720 --> 00:52:09,240
And that's what Burroughs tried to achieve

1064
00:52:09,240 --> 00:52:11,000
in these seances, in these

1065
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:16,840
parapsychological, mystical experiences.

1066
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:18,840
But I have to add something, Jonas.

1067
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:20,840
Because most of the time,

1068
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:23,480
Demyurgy is often the creator of the world.

1069
00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:25,480
And because we live in an imperfect world,

1070
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:27,480
we are considered an imperfect god,

1071
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:29,480
or an imperfect creator of worlds.

1072
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:33,480
Who gave us wisdom, but not enough.

1073
00:52:33,480 --> 00:52:37,480
And Gnosis is striving to get away from the world

1074
00:52:37,480 --> 00:52:39,480
into a better one.

1075
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,480
So this paradisiacal idea

1076
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:43,480
that there is the perfect world

1077
00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:45,480
has a strong influence on Christianity

1078
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:49,480
and the belief in life after death.

1079
00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:51,480
But Demyurgy is definitely not the good god,

1080
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:55,480
that we know from modern Christian religion.

1081
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:59,480
Maybe a short sentence about Gnosis or Gnostics.

1082
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:03,480
Many believed in Demyurgy,

1083
00:53:03,480 --> 00:53:05,480
but that there is a good god

1084
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:07,480
who loves you,

1085
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:09,480
above Demyurgy.

1086
00:53:09,480 --> 00:53:13,480
That's what Burroughs didn't believe.

1087
00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:17,480
I read some papers by Tommy T. Cowan,

1088
00:53:17,480 --> 00:53:19,480
who called it Archonism.

1089
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:23,480
And that's probably more correct.

1090
00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:27,480
Archons are in Burroughs works,

1091
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:29,480
mostly insect overlords,

1092
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:33,480
scorpions, thousand-feet-long-trails.

1093
00:53:33,480 --> 00:53:37,480
Probably all creatures

1094
00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:39,480
that he saw on his trips,

1095
00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:43,480
into these horror worlds

1096
00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:45,480
where he was catapulted.

1097
00:53:45,480 --> 00:53:49,480
And beside that,

1098
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:51,480
in Burroughs works,

1099
00:53:51,480 --> 00:53:53,480
the body is something

1100
00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:55,480
that has to be overcome,

1101
00:53:55,480 --> 00:53:57,480
destroyed in most cases.

1102
00:53:57,480 --> 00:53:59,480
He strives to...

1103
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:01,480
Many of his romans

1104
00:54:01,480 --> 00:54:03,480
play in an in-between world

1105
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:05,480
where bodies don't really exist.

1106
00:54:05,480 --> 00:54:07,480
And another important Archon

1107
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:09,480
in his work is the language itself.

1108
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:13,480
He believes that language is a virus,

1109
00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:17,480
that it stops the human being

1110
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:19,480
from perceiving things as they are.

1111
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:21,480
I saw a nice diagram.

1112
00:54:21,480 --> 00:54:23,480
There is a virus,

1113
00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:25,480
the language itself is the virus,

1114
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:29,480
that has affected the human being.

1115
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:31,480
And the language, in turn,

1116
00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:33,480
controls our perception of the mind.

1117
00:54:33,480 --> 00:54:35,480
What is true,

1118
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:39,480
is determined by the language.

1119
00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:41,480
And with that, he also

1120
00:54:41,480 --> 00:54:43,480
influences the French post-structuralism,

1121
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:47,480
the literary and philosophical postmodernism

1122
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:49,480
a lot.

1123
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:53,480
He also gives a great criticism of the language.

1124
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:55,480
He says that the language is something like

1125
00:54:55,480 --> 00:54:57,480
a curse that affects us humans,

1126
00:54:57,480 --> 00:55:01,480
that lies between us and reality.

1127
00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:03,480
Jacques Lacan also says

1128
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:05,480
that we, through the entry into the symbolic universe,

1129
00:55:05,480 --> 00:55:07,480
through the learning of a language,

1130
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:11,480
actually remove ourselves from the world

1131
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:13,480
and no longer perceive it with children's eyes,

1132
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:17,480
as we would perceive it before we learned it.

1133
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:19,480
And through the language we learn,

1134
00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:21,480
we are bound into a culture

1135
00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:23,480
that dominates us more and more,

1136
00:55:23,480 --> 00:55:25,480
that makes us unhappy

1137
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:27,480
and confuses us into complexities.

1138
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:29,480
And actually nothing is a veil

1139
00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:31,480
that lays over the world.

1140
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:33,480
And seeing a veil

1141
00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:35,480
wanted to break through burrows.

1142
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:37,480
Exactly.

1143
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:39,480
I also noticed something else

1144
00:55:39,480 --> 00:55:41,480
about the bodies.

1145
00:55:41,480 --> 00:55:43,480
On the one hand, they overcome,

1146
00:55:43,480 --> 00:55:45,480
on the other hand, the bodies are also ambivalent,

1147
00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:47,480
because sex is also a way

1148
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:49,480
to escape the body.

1149
00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:51,480
It is also a form

1150
00:55:51,480 --> 00:55:53,480
where you can transcend and break out.

1151
00:55:53,480 --> 00:55:55,480
So on the one hand, the body is a prison

1152
00:55:55,480 --> 00:55:57,480
and on the other hand, it is also possible

1153
00:55:57,480 --> 00:55:59,480
to somehow reach this transcendence

1154
00:55:59,480 --> 00:56:01,480
with the body

1155
00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:03,480
and escape the Archon.

1156
00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:05,480
Did Alistair Crowley read all of this?

1157
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:07,480
Because it sounds very much like

1158
00:56:07,480 --> 00:56:09,480
his sex magic,

1159
00:56:09,480 --> 00:56:11,480
where he also tried to channel

1160
00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:13,480
all of the sexual energy

1161
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:15,480
that is released in the orgasm

1162
00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:17,480
and thus...

1163
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:19,480
I'm sure that Burrows

1164
00:56:19,480 --> 00:56:21,480
read Crowley.

1165
00:56:21,480 --> 00:56:23,480
Wilhelm Reich definitely read

1166
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:25,480
the orgasm.

1167
00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:27,480
I haven't read Reich, so I can't say much.

1168
00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:29,480
But he also deals a lot with sex.

1169
00:56:29,480 --> 00:56:31,480
And in Burrows,

1170
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:33,480
he explains that

1171
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:35,480
it causes over-sex

1172
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:37,480
for bodies.

1173
00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:39,480
And brutality,

1174
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:41,480
a lot of fighting, a lot of murder,

1175
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:43,480
a lot of beatings, a lot of violence.

1176
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:45,480
But all of this has its own meaning.

1177
00:56:45,480 --> 00:56:47,480
The Archons have to be fought.

1178
00:56:49,480 --> 00:56:51,480
But that sounds

1179
00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:53,480
very much like Scientology.

1180
00:56:55,480 --> 00:56:57,480
He was also briefly at Scientology,

1181
00:56:57,480 --> 00:56:59,480
but he didn't

1182
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:01,480
get along with them.

1183
00:57:01,480 --> 00:57:03,480
He was briefly at them,

1184
00:57:03,480 --> 00:57:05,480
but he didn't get along with them.

1185
00:57:05,480 --> 00:57:07,480
I don't know why.

1186
00:57:07,480 --> 00:57:09,480
You have to become a straight edger.

1187
00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:11,480
You have to be very tough against drug consumption.

1188
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:13,480
And that doesn't fit at all

1189
00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:15,480
to Burrows' daily routine.

1190
00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:17,480
To subordinate the hierarchy,

1191
00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:19,480
I don't see the little Willy either.

1192
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:21,480
No.

1193
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:23,480
He quickly makes a Wilhelm Tell.

1194
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:25,480
In no case.

1195
00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:27,480
The basic idea was maybe good,

1196
00:57:27,480 --> 00:57:29,480
but he's more of a

1197
00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:31,480
the real deal.

1198
00:57:31,480 --> 00:57:33,480
Fight aliens? Yes.

1199
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:35,480
Refuse to ask? No.

1200
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:41,480
Back to Tanga,

1201
00:57:41,480 --> 00:57:43,480
to Geisen and Burrows.

1202
00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:45,480
We were just speaking as Archons.

1203
00:57:45,480 --> 00:57:47,480
And it's great

1204
00:57:47,480 --> 00:57:49,480
that we can follow the cut-up method

1205
00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:51,480
developed by Burrows

1206
00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:53,480
and Geisen.

1207
00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:55,480
Burrows writes to Geisen

1208
00:57:55,480 --> 00:57:57,480
that he's the inventor.

1209
00:57:57,480 --> 00:57:59,480
But even Tristan Zahra

1210
00:57:59,480 --> 00:58:01,480
with his Dada poems

1211
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:03,480
has already introduced

1212
00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:05,480
this cut-up style.

1213
00:58:05,480 --> 00:58:07,480
It was then further developed

1214
00:58:07,480 --> 00:58:09,480
by Burrows.

1215
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:11,480
The idea is that you

1216
00:58:11,480 --> 00:58:13,480
cut a text or several texts

1217
00:58:13,480 --> 00:58:15,480
into pieces,

1218
00:58:15,480 --> 00:58:17,480
and then put them together again.

1219
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:19,480
I also learned it

1220
00:58:19,480 --> 00:58:21,480
not by chance,

1221
00:58:21,480 --> 00:58:23,480
because you still have a certain

1222
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:25,480
way of putting the pieces together.

1223
00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:27,480
And for him

1224
00:58:27,480 --> 00:58:29,480
it was

1225
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:31,480
often seen as

1226
00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:33,480
an anti-authoritarian method

1227
00:58:33,480 --> 00:58:35,480
to tear up language,

1228
00:58:35,480 --> 00:58:37,480
to create intertextuality.

1229
00:58:37,480 --> 00:58:39,480
But

1230
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:41,480
in all

1231
00:58:41,480 --> 00:58:43,480
literary criticism

1232
00:58:43,480 --> 00:58:45,480
it became

1233
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:47,480
so indistinguishable,

1234
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:49,480
this cut-up method

1235
00:58:49,480 --> 00:58:51,480
has an indistinguishable meaning.

1236
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:53,480
Unfortunately,

1237
00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:55,480
that's over.

1238
00:58:55,480 --> 00:58:57,480
His esoteric

1239
00:58:57,480 --> 00:58:59,480
is not serious enough.

1240
00:58:59,480 --> 00:59:01,480
For him, the magic was what he

1241
00:59:01,480 --> 00:59:03,480
used to cut up the language.

1242
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:05,480
The cutting of the language

1243
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:07,480
was probably the same

1244
00:59:07,480 --> 00:59:09,480
in fighting, I would say.

1245
00:59:09,480 --> 00:59:11,480
And then in Tanga

1246
00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:13,480
in Paris

1247
00:59:13,480 --> 00:59:15,480
he wrote a lot.

1248
00:59:15,480 --> 00:59:17,480
He called the whole thing

1249
00:59:17,480 --> 00:59:19,480
the world-horde.

1250
00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:21,480
The word-hound,

1251
00:59:21,480 --> 00:59:23,480
the word-herde, if you will.

1252
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:25,480
It must have been a lot.

1253
00:59:25,480 --> 00:59:27,480
And from this big text body

1254
00:59:27,480 --> 00:59:29,480
four books were created.

1255
00:59:29,480 --> 00:59:31,480
One was Naked Lunch

1256
00:59:31,480 --> 00:59:33,480
and then the Nova Trilogy.

1257
00:59:33,480 --> 00:59:35,480
The Nova Trilogy

1258
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:37,480
are pure cut-up books.

1259
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:39,480
Not so easy to read.

1260
00:59:39,480 --> 00:59:41,480
Not easy at all to read.

1261
00:59:41,480 --> 00:59:43,480
It's a fight.

1262
00:59:43,480 --> 00:59:45,480
But everything you get when you read

1263
00:59:45,480 --> 00:59:47,480
a cut-up book is

1264
00:59:47,480 --> 00:59:49,480
a floating association.

1265
00:59:49,480 --> 00:59:51,480
Small words

1266
00:59:51,480 --> 00:59:53,480
that you can hang around

1267
00:59:53,480 --> 00:59:55,480
often very beautiful

1268
00:59:55,480 --> 00:59:57,480
metaphorically, allegorically.

1269
00:59:57,480 --> 00:59:59,480
They're solving something in one go.

1270
00:59:59,480 --> 01:00:01,480
But there's no reading flow.

1271
01:00:01,480 --> 01:00:03,480
There's not

1272
01:00:03,480 --> 01:00:05,480
this feeling of

1273
01:00:05,480 --> 01:00:07,480
sinking into a book.

1274
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:09,480
You're still in your head

1275
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:11,480
at the same time

1276
01:00:11,480 --> 01:00:13,480
to understand every single sentence

1277
01:00:13,480 --> 01:00:15,480
what this sentence can mean.

1278
01:00:15,480 --> 01:00:17,480
You're thrown back

1279
01:00:17,480 --> 01:00:19,480
to a completely different context,

1280
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:21,480
to a completely different association.

1281
01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:23,480
You're jumping in your head all the time

1282
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:25,480
and this reading has something

1283
01:00:25,480 --> 01:00:27,480
disturbing,

1284
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:29,480
something mystical,

1285
01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:31,480
because you're used to

1286
01:00:31,480 --> 01:00:33,480
to want to find a logic,

1287
01:00:33,480 --> 01:00:35,480
to want to interpret

1288
01:00:35,480 --> 01:00:37,480
a text

1289
01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:39,480
and to want to interpret the text.

1290
01:00:39,480 --> 01:00:41,480
But this doesn't work here.

1291
01:00:41,480 --> 01:00:43,480
And that's what breaks my idea

1292
01:00:43,480 --> 01:00:45,480
that a book should be

1293
01:00:45,480 --> 01:00:47,480
built up linearly,

1294
01:00:47,480 --> 01:00:49,480
contains truths and yeah.

1295
01:00:51,480 --> 01:00:53,480
I can maybe give

1296
01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:55,480
a quote from him.

1297
01:00:55,480 --> 01:00:57,480
He said

1298
01:00:57,480 --> 01:00:59,480
or said it sensibly that

1299
01:00:59,480 --> 01:01:01,480
these exercises to expand

1300
01:01:01,480 --> 01:01:03,480
the consciousness

1301
01:01:03,480 --> 01:01:05,480
should teach him

1302
01:01:05,480 --> 01:01:07,480
to think in association spots

1303
01:01:07,480 --> 01:01:09,480
instead of in words.

1304
01:01:09,480 --> 01:01:11,480
And that

1305
01:01:11,480 --> 01:01:13,480
is exactly what happens with cut-up.

1306
01:01:13,480 --> 01:01:15,480
You have to...

1307
01:01:15,480 --> 01:01:17,480
He also dealt with

1308
01:01:17,480 --> 01:01:19,480
the hieroglyph systems,

1309
01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:21,480
the Egyptian

1310
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:23,480
hieroglyph system, the Maya.

1311
01:01:23,480 --> 01:01:25,480
I think he assumed

1312
01:01:25,480 --> 01:01:27,480
that the picture was

1313
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:29,480
in front of the word,

1314
01:01:29,480 --> 01:01:31,480
I think he said that.

1315
01:01:31,480 --> 01:01:33,480
That's why he wanted

1316
01:01:33,480 --> 01:01:35,480
to go back to these association spots,

1317
01:01:35,480 --> 01:01:37,480
as he called it.

1318
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:39,480
And he also meant that

1319
01:01:39,480 --> 01:01:41,480
the words or at least

1320
01:01:41,480 --> 01:01:43,480
the way we use them

1321
01:01:43,480 --> 01:01:45,480
can be

1322
01:01:45,480 --> 01:01:47,480
in the way of what I

1323
01:01:47,480 --> 01:01:49,480
call non-physical experience,

1324
01:01:49,480 --> 01:01:51,480
he said.

1325
01:01:51,480 --> 01:01:53,480
And that it's time

1326
01:01:53,480 --> 01:01:55,480
to think about leaving the body behind us.

1327
01:01:55,480 --> 01:01:57,480
So here again

1328
01:01:57,480 --> 01:01:59,480
that we step out of the body.

1329
01:01:59,480 --> 01:02:01,480
Again a motif

1330
01:02:01,480 --> 01:02:03,480
that appears in the postmodern

1331
01:02:03,480 --> 01:02:05,480
again and again, especially

1332
01:02:05,480 --> 01:02:07,480
in the Leus Guattari and

1333
01:02:07,480 --> 01:02:09,480
the famous Antonin Arthor

1334
01:02:09,480 --> 01:02:11,480
with the

1335
01:02:11,480 --> 01:02:13,480
theater of terror.

1336
01:02:13,480 --> 01:02:15,480
In general, all the

1337
01:02:15,480 --> 01:02:17,480
Plemiscan currents finally live

1338
01:02:17,480 --> 01:02:19,480
from leaving the body and the material world behind

1339
01:02:19,480 --> 01:02:21,480
and coming into

1340
01:02:21,480 --> 01:02:23,480
the transcendent state of mind

1341
01:02:23,480 --> 01:02:25,480
where you communicate with absolute truths

1342
01:02:25,480 --> 01:02:27,480
and recognize truths

1343
01:02:27,480 --> 01:02:29,480
that may not be expressed

1344
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:31,480
by language.

1345
01:02:31,480 --> 01:02:33,480
And what he might mean

1346
01:02:33,480 --> 01:02:35,480
that the language stops you from doing so

1347
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:37,480
is probably also

1348
01:02:37,480 --> 01:02:39,480
related to terms like

1349
01:02:39,480 --> 01:02:41,480
mystic or esoteric

1350
01:02:41,480 --> 01:02:43,480
or

1351
01:02:43,480 --> 01:02:45,480
paranormal

1352
01:02:45,480 --> 01:02:47,480
that question

1353
01:02:47,480 --> 01:02:49,480
the experience itself in a certain way

1354
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:51,480
and that

1355
01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:53,480
prove with a word

1356
01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:55,480
that this experience is already

1357
01:02:55,480 --> 01:02:57,480
pre-ordered and integrated

1358
01:02:57,480 --> 01:02:59,480
without such experiences or creative

1359
01:02:59,480 --> 01:03:01,480
input

1360
01:03:01,480 --> 01:03:03,480
the attention and significance

1361
01:03:03,480 --> 01:03:05,480
of the language.

1362
01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:35,480
What kind of beings are they?

1363
01:03:35,480 --> 01:03:37,480
And it was quite good

1364
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:39,480
to cut the texts

1365
01:03:39,480 --> 01:03:41,480
to reorder

1366
01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:43,480
to reveal new meanings

1367
01:03:43,480 --> 01:03:45,480
that were previously hidden.

1368
01:03:47,480 --> 01:03:49,480
In general, control

1369
01:03:49,480 --> 01:03:51,480
is also a big concept

1370
01:03:51,480 --> 01:03:53,480
in his books and everything

1371
01:03:53,480 --> 01:03:55,480
that controls you.

1372
01:03:55,480 --> 01:03:57,480
Whether it's drugs, violence, sex

1373
01:03:57,480 --> 01:03:59,480
these are also

1374
01:03:59,480 --> 01:04:01,480
forms of control

1375
01:04:01,480 --> 01:04:03,480
with which the body

1376
01:04:03,480 --> 01:04:05,480
is also penetrated, attacked.

1377
01:04:09,480 --> 01:04:11,480
But interestingly

1378
01:04:11,480 --> 01:04:13,480
as I said, sex is also a way

1379
01:04:13,480 --> 01:04:15,480
to escape the body

1380
01:04:15,480 --> 01:04:17,480
in his books, just like drugs.

1381
01:04:19,480 --> 01:04:21,480
So everything is ambivalent in him.

1382
01:04:25,480 --> 01:04:27,480
And even violence

1383
01:04:27,480 --> 01:04:29,480
can be used

1384
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:31,480
to escape it.

1385
01:04:31,480 --> 01:04:33,480
I'll try to find the right place

1386
01:04:33,480 --> 01:04:35,480
because I found it quite good.

1387
01:04:41,480 --> 01:04:43,480
Exactly.

1388
01:04:43,480 --> 01:04:45,480
You could also see

1389
01:04:45,480 --> 01:04:47,480
Birol's books as dead books

1390
01:04:47,480 --> 01:04:49,480
as well as the

1391
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:51,480
Egyptian dead book

1392
01:04:51,480 --> 01:04:53,480
or the Tibetan dead book

1393
01:04:55,480 --> 01:04:57,480
because

1394
01:04:57,480 --> 01:04:59,480
in the books

1395
01:04:59,480 --> 01:05:01,480
they often find

1396
01:05:01,480 --> 01:05:03,480
between worlds

1397
01:05:03,480 --> 01:05:05,480
between life and death

1398
01:05:05,480 --> 01:05:07,480
between these worlds

1399
01:05:07,480 --> 01:05:09,480
and most of the protagonists

1400
01:05:09,480 --> 01:05:11,480
have to fight

1401
01:05:11,480 --> 01:05:13,480
against some evil evil.

1402
01:05:17,480 --> 01:05:19,480
I think there are also

1403
01:05:19,480 --> 01:05:21,480
some tests in the Egyptian

1404
01:05:21,480 --> 01:05:23,480
before the heart is

1405
01:05:23,480 --> 01:05:25,480
weighed

1406
01:05:25,480 --> 01:05:27,480
and then

1407
01:05:27,480 --> 01:05:29,480
transcended.

1408
01:05:29,480 --> 01:05:31,480
This is also seen

1409
01:05:31,480 --> 01:05:33,480
in his books

1410
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:35,480
that you have to fight through it

1411
01:05:35,480 --> 01:05:37,480
and that's why there is also a lot of violence in his books.

1412
01:05:37,480 --> 01:05:39,480
You could even see it

1413
01:05:39,480 --> 01:05:41,480
as a guide.

1414
01:05:41,480 --> 01:05:43,480
A guide that he wrote for us

1415
01:05:43,480 --> 01:05:45,480
for the readers, how we can

1416
01:05:45,480 --> 01:05:47,480
survive in this in-between world

1417
01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:49,480
and for that

1418
01:05:49,480 --> 01:05:51,480
you can read the books.

1419
01:05:51,480 --> 01:05:53,480
And that is

1420
01:05:53,480 --> 01:05:55,480
that his writing

1421
01:05:55,480 --> 01:05:57,480
is thought as a weapon

1422
01:05:57,480 --> 01:05:59,480
you could say

1423
01:05:59,480 --> 01:06:01,480
that can be used in this land between life and death.

1424
01:06:01,480 --> 01:06:03,480
So it's

1425
01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:05,480
a metaphysical fight.

1426
01:06:05,480 --> 01:06:07,480
It goes quite well together with this

1427
01:06:07,480 --> 01:06:09,480
change of consciousness

1428
01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:11,480
that Birol maybe also wanted to call through his books.

1429
01:06:11,480 --> 01:06:13,480
He believed in the magic

1430
01:06:13,480 --> 01:06:15,480
and also the magic of the words.

1431
01:06:15,480 --> 01:06:17,480
Exactly, and Birol then

1432
01:06:17,480 --> 01:06:19,480
tries to prepare the reader, if he should be there,

1433
01:06:19,480 --> 01:06:21,480
to prepare.

1434
01:06:21,480 --> 01:06:23,480
And eventually

1435
01:06:23,480 --> 01:06:25,480
the violence in his own life

1436
01:06:25,480 --> 01:06:27,480
that he experienced could play a central role

1437
01:06:27,480 --> 01:06:29,480
and of course

1438
01:06:29,480 --> 01:06:31,480
the guilt feelings that he had because of the death

1439
01:06:31,480 --> 01:06:33,480
of his wife.

1440
01:06:33,480 --> 01:06:35,480
It's very interesting.

1441
01:06:35,480 --> 01:06:37,480
Maybe Birol also had

1442
01:06:37,480 --> 01:06:39,480
the desire to prepare other people

1443
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:41,480
for this

1444
01:06:41,480 --> 01:06:43,480
spiritual fight

1445
01:06:43,480 --> 01:06:45,480
this fight in the spirit

1446
01:06:45,480 --> 01:06:47,480
in an in-between world

1447
01:06:47,480 --> 01:06:49,480
not only that

1448
01:06:49,480 --> 01:06:51,480
you find a form of freedom

1449
01:06:51,480 --> 01:06:53,480
of transcendence, but also

1450
01:06:53,480 --> 01:06:55,480
a moral resolution for himself

1451
01:06:55,480 --> 01:06:57,480
a kind of goodwill.

1452
01:06:57,480 --> 01:06:59,480
And also his belief

1453
01:06:59,480 --> 01:07:01,480
in fate

1454
01:07:01,480 --> 01:07:03,480
in predestination

1455
01:07:03,480 --> 01:07:05,480
because

1456
01:07:05,480 --> 01:07:07,480
in the magical universe

1457
01:07:07,480 --> 01:07:09,480
nothing happens without meaning

1458
01:07:09,480 --> 01:07:11,480
and everything happens for a good reason

1459
01:07:11,480 --> 01:07:13,480
and if you step on the snake

1460
01:07:13,480 --> 01:07:15,480
and the snake bites you to death, then it's not

1461
01:07:15,480 --> 01:07:17,480
a good thing.

1462
01:07:17,480 --> 01:07:19,480
And in such a universe

1463
01:07:19,480 --> 01:07:21,480
there are also his own circumstances

1464
01:07:21,480 --> 01:07:23,480
or maybe

1465
01:07:23,480 --> 01:07:25,480
the frames of life

1466
01:07:25,480 --> 01:07:27,480
that are easier to

1467
01:07:27,480 --> 01:07:29,480
to strengthen or to classify

1468
01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:31,480
as a coping mechanism.

1469
01:07:31,480 --> 01:07:33,480
But I don't think

1470
01:07:33,480 --> 01:07:35,480
that it was

1471
01:07:35,480 --> 01:07:37,480
about

1472
01:07:37,480 --> 01:07:39,480
to process it rationally.

1473
01:07:39,480 --> 01:07:41,480
What you meant is that

1474
01:07:41,480 --> 01:07:43,480
it somehow follows this.

1475
01:07:43,480 --> 01:07:45,480
It doesn't follow it at all.

1476
01:07:45,480 --> 01:07:47,480
In a completely irrational way

1477
01:07:47,480 --> 01:07:49,480
the irrational thing that

1478
01:07:49,480 --> 01:07:51,480
is going on in his head

1479
01:07:51,480 --> 01:07:53,480
is trying to process the incomprehensible symbolically

1480
01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:55,480
with the growth of

1481
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:57,480
aliens, the argons

1482
01:07:57,480 --> 01:07:59,480
of some supernatural forces

1483
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:01,480
that of course

1484
01:08:01,480 --> 01:08:03,480
are not...

1485
01:08:03,480 --> 01:08:05,480
But these are all rationalizations, his fear

1486
01:08:05,480 --> 01:08:07,480
and his paranoia.

1487
01:08:07,480 --> 01:08:09,480
But I don't think there was such a linear logic

1488
01:08:09,480 --> 01:08:11,480
that he tried to break

1489
01:08:11,480 --> 01:08:13,480
in his cut-ups.

1490
01:08:13,480 --> 01:08:15,480
The exciting thing in these years is that Boris

1491
01:08:15,480 --> 01:08:17,480
is already an established writer

1492
01:08:17,480 --> 01:08:19,480
in the 60s.

1493
01:08:19,480 --> 01:08:21,480
He was already there in the first hour.

1494
01:08:21,480 --> 01:08:23,480
That means that Summer of Love

1495
01:08:23,480 --> 01:08:25,480
takes place

1496
01:08:25,480 --> 01:08:27,480
in the 60s

1497
01:08:27,480 --> 01:08:29,480
and then

1498
01:08:29,480 --> 01:08:31,480
very quickly

1499
01:08:31,480 --> 01:08:33,480
the Hells Angels and the heroines

1500
01:08:33,480 --> 01:08:35,480
appear in the hippie scene in San Francisco

1501
01:08:35,480 --> 01:08:37,480
and the whole thing falls a little bit

1502
01:08:37,480 --> 01:08:39,480
on it.

1503
01:08:39,480 --> 01:08:41,480
So Boris is an established personality

1504
01:08:41,480 --> 01:08:43,480
just like Ginsburg

1505
01:08:43,480 --> 01:08:45,480
and

1506
01:08:45,480 --> 01:08:47,480
in the 70s

1507
01:08:47,480 --> 01:08:49,480
Boris

1508
01:08:49,480 --> 01:08:51,480
took a lot of heroin with other people

1509
01:08:51,480 --> 01:08:53,480
and never

1510
01:08:53,480 --> 01:08:55,480
was infected with anything

1511
01:08:55,480 --> 01:08:57,480
so no HIV, no other diseases

1512
01:08:57,480 --> 01:08:59,480
because he

1513
01:08:59,480 --> 01:09:01,480
was always the one who

1514
01:09:01,480 --> 01:09:03,480
as the heroine's guru

1515
01:09:03,480 --> 01:09:05,480
was always the one who

1516
01:09:05,480 --> 01:09:07,480
was always the one who got the first one

1517
01:09:07,480 --> 01:09:09,480
and then the needle went round.

1518
01:09:09,480 --> 01:09:11,480
That means that if someone got something

1519
01:09:11,480 --> 01:09:13,480
then probably from Burroughs as the first one.

1520
01:09:13,480 --> 01:09:15,480
But he himself was relatively long

1521
01:09:15,480 --> 01:09:17,480
in the clear and he also

1522
01:09:17,480 --> 01:09:19,480
experimented more and more

1523
01:09:19,480 --> 01:09:21,480
over his life.

1524
01:09:21,480 --> 01:09:23,480
I think in the late

1525
01:09:23,480 --> 01:09:25,480
I don't want to go too far

1526
01:09:25,480 --> 01:09:27,480
but in the late 80s he was blinded

1527
01:09:27,480 --> 01:09:29,480
because heroin sprayed his eyes in Kansas.

1528
01:09:29,480 --> 01:09:31,480
I don't think he's blinded.

1529
01:09:31,480 --> 01:09:33,480
I think his

1530
01:09:33,480 --> 01:09:35,480
wildest phase was actually

1531
01:09:35,480 --> 01:09:37,480
Tanga

1532
01:09:37,480 --> 01:09:39,480
so the time with Brian Guyson

1533
01:09:39,480 --> 01:09:41,480
they definitely took it

1534
01:09:41,480 --> 01:09:43,480
especially when it comes to psychedelic

1535
01:09:43,480 --> 01:09:45,480
substances

1536
01:09:45,480 --> 01:09:47,480
heroin

1537
01:09:47,480 --> 01:09:49,480
he was never free of it.

1538
01:09:49,480 --> 01:09:51,480
He tried it a lot

1539
01:09:51,480 --> 01:09:53,480
and maybe

1540
01:09:53,480 --> 01:09:55,480
he was free of it for a while

1541
01:09:55,480 --> 01:09:57,480
but I think he also

1542
01:09:57,480 --> 01:09:59,480
often said to the TV

1543
01:09:59,480 --> 01:10:01,480
that he believes that if you're addicted once

1544
01:10:01,480 --> 01:10:03,480
then you're always addicted

1545
01:10:03,480 --> 01:10:05,480
and that definitely hit him.

1546
01:10:05,480 --> 01:10:07,480
I wanted to say something

1547
01:10:07,480 --> 01:10:09,480
about his belief in the

1548
01:10:09,480 --> 01:10:11,480
magical universe because he

1549
01:10:11,480 --> 01:10:13,480
actually said something about it

1550
01:10:13,480 --> 01:10:15,480
that also speaks very explicitly

1551
01:10:15,480 --> 01:10:17,480
where he says I believe in the

1552
01:10:17,480 --> 01:10:19,480
magical universe where

1553
01:10:19,480 --> 01:10:21,480
nothing happens, unless

1554
01:10:21,480 --> 01:10:23,480
you want something to happen.

1555
01:10:23,480 --> 01:10:25,480
And what we see is

1556
01:10:25,480 --> 01:10:27,480
that not one god but many gods

1557
01:10:27,480 --> 01:10:29,480
who are in conflict with each other

1558
01:10:29,480 --> 01:10:31,480
are at power and also that

1559
01:10:31,480 --> 01:10:33,480
time is not

1560
01:10:33,480 --> 01:10:35,480
so big. So it could have been

1561
01:10:35,480 --> 01:10:37,480
based on the past and it had an influence

1562
01:10:37,480 --> 01:10:39,480
on what happened now.

1563
01:10:39,480 --> 01:10:41,480
So two cause-aloon events

1564
01:10:41,480 --> 01:10:43,480
with this

1565
01:10:43,480 --> 01:10:45,480
big text body that he created

1566
01:10:45,480 --> 01:10:47,480
he couldn't have done without the help of

1567
01:10:47,480 --> 01:10:49,480
Ginsberg and Kerouac

1568
01:10:49,480 --> 01:10:51,480
they helped him

1569
01:10:51,480 --> 01:10:53,480
a lot

1570
01:10:53,480 --> 01:10:55,480
to put it in shape

1571
01:10:55,480 --> 01:10:57,480
and that's how Naked Lunch came about.

1572
01:10:57,480 --> 01:10:59,480
Naked

1573
01:10:59,480 --> 01:11:01,480
Lunch is always assumed

1574
01:11:01,480 --> 01:11:03,480
to be a cut-up novel.

1575
01:11:03,480 --> 01:11:05,480
There are a few pages

1576
01:11:05,480 --> 01:11:07,480
where it's clearly

1577
01:11:07,480 --> 01:11:09,480
cut-up, everything else.

1578
01:11:09,480 --> 01:11:11,480
It's not a cut-up novel.

1579
01:11:11,480 --> 01:11:13,480
The three novels that follow

1580
01:11:13,480 --> 01:11:15,480
that came out of the same text body

1581
01:11:15,480 --> 01:11:17,480
are cut-up texts

1582
01:11:17,480 --> 01:11:19,480
cut-up novels.

1583
01:11:19,480 --> 01:11:21,480
But Naked Lunch is probably his most famous

1584
01:11:21,480 --> 01:11:23,480
work. You could think

1585
01:11:23,480 --> 01:11:25,480
it's a cut-up but it's just a whir.

1586
01:11:25,480 --> 01:11:27,480
It's just a whir if you want it that way.

1587
01:11:27,480 --> 01:11:29,480
But he describes

1588
01:11:29,480 --> 01:11:31,480
more or less

1589
01:11:31,480 --> 01:11:33,480
the time he spent

1590
01:11:33,480 --> 01:11:35,480
in Tanga

1591
01:11:35,480 --> 01:11:37,480
and in the

1592
01:11:37,480 --> 01:11:39,480
in the in-between worlds.

1593
01:11:41,480 --> 01:11:43,480
Exactly.

1594
01:11:43,480 --> 01:11:45,480
Naked Lunch was then

1595
01:11:45,480 --> 01:11:47,480
in the USA.

1596
01:11:47,480 --> 01:11:49,480
Some states

1597
01:11:49,480 --> 01:11:51,480
wanted to ban the novel because of obscenity.

1598
01:11:51,480 --> 01:11:53,480
So

1599
01:11:53,480 --> 01:11:55,480
we're now at the end of the 50s,

1600
01:11:55,480 --> 01:11:57,480
59.

1601
01:11:59,480 --> 01:12:01,480
It was then rejected.

1602
01:12:01,480 --> 01:12:03,480
Ginsburg also took part in it.

1603
01:12:03,480 --> 01:12:05,480
He also appeared in court.

1604
01:12:05,480 --> 01:12:07,480
Why does it have a literary value?

1605
01:12:07,480 --> 01:12:09,480
And luckily, you have to say,

1606
01:12:09,480 --> 01:12:11,480
it was decided

1607
01:12:11,480 --> 01:12:13,480
Naked Lunch is not obscenity

1608
01:12:13,480 --> 01:12:15,480
and may be published.

1609
01:12:19,480 --> 01:12:21,480
The novel gave him a lot of attention.

1610
01:12:21,480 --> 01:12:23,480
It was one of the last

1611
01:12:23,480 --> 01:12:25,480
big,

1612
01:12:25,480 --> 01:12:27,480
before the Panic,

1613
01:12:27,480 --> 01:12:29,480
maybe later,

1614
01:12:29,480 --> 01:12:31,480
but one of the last big censorship,

1615
01:12:31,480 --> 01:12:33,480
classic censorship processes in American literature history.

1616
01:12:33,480 --> 01:12:35,480
And it generated

1617
01:12:35,480 --> 01:12:37,480
so much publicity

1618
01:12:37,480 --> 01:12:39,480
that it was then made less, I think.

1619
01:12:39,480 --> 01:12:41,480
It was a basic argument.

1620
01:12:41,480 --> 01:12:43,480
What is literature allowed to do now

1621
01:12:43,480 --> 01:12:45,480
after the war and in the new era?

1622
01:12:45,480 --> 01:12:47,480
What does Freedom of Speech mean

1623
01:12:47,480 --> 01:12:51,480
for the writers in America?

1624
01:12:51,480 --> 01:12:53,480
Exactly.

1625
01:12:53,480 --> 01:12:55,480
Naked Lunch was then also filmed

1626
01:12:55,480 --> 01:12:57,480
by David Cronenberg,

1627
01:12:57,480 --> 01:12:59,480
I think in the 90s.

1628
01:12:59,480 --> 01:13:01,480
So the film

1629
01:13:01,480 --> 01:13:03,480
does not describe what happened in the book,

1630
01:13:03,480 --> 01:13:05,480
but rather describes the origin story of the book.

1631
01:13:05,480 --> 01:13:07,480
But you can watch it.

1632
01:13:07,480 --> 01:13:09,480
In any case, it is a good film.

1633
01:13:13,480 --> 01:13:15,480
Then in the early 60s

1634
01:13:15,480 --> 01:13:17,480
he went to London.

1635
01:13:17,480 --> 01:13:19,480
He also worked

1636
01:13:19,480 --> 01:13:21,480
on texts.

1637
01:13:21,480 --> 01:13:23,480
From this

1638
01:13:23,480 --> 01:13:25,480
other books were created,

1639
01:13:25,480 --> 01:13:27,480
for example The Wild Boys.

1640
01:13:27,480 --> 01:13:29,480
What was also filmed

1641
01:13:29,480 --> 01:13:31,480
for a long time,

1642
01:13:31,480 --> 01:13:33,480
or at least the book served as a template for a film,

1643
01:13:33,480 --> 01:13:35,480
rather in the 80s and 90s

1644
01:13:35,480 --> 01:13:37,480
he really became an icon of pop culture.

1645
01:13:37,480 --> 01:13:39,480
I would like to cut that short.

1646
01:13:39,480 --> 01:13:41,480
The 70s is not that exciting.

1647
01:13:41,480 --> 01:13:45,480
That was briefly with Scientology.

1648
01:13:45,480 --> 01:13:49,480
Maybe I will just jump into the 80s and 90s,

1649
01:13:49,480 --> 01:13:51,480
where he actually became

1650
01:13:51,480 --> 01:13:53,480
an icon of pop culture.

1651
01:13:53,480 --> 01:13:57,480
He had a lot of famous musicians,

1652
01:13:57,480 --> 01:13:59,480
also writers,

1653
01:13:59,480 --> 01:14:01,480
esoteric people

1654
01:14:01,480 --> 01:14:03,480
who sought contact with him.

1655
01:14:03,480 --> 01:14:05,480
Probably because they also read his books

1656
01:14:05,480 --> 01:14:07,480
and he was this

1657
01:14:07,480 --> 01:14:09,480
well-known figure.

1658
01:14:09,480 --> 01:14:11,480
He also had appearances in films,

1659
01:14:11,480 --> 01:14:13,480
small KBOs,

1660
01:14:13,480 --> 01:14:17,480
and he worked with Tom Waits

1661
01:14:17,480 --> 01:14:21,480
in a theatre play.

1662
01:14:21,480 --> 01:14:25,480
He also appeared more often,

1663
01:14:25,480 --> 01:14:27,480
as spoken word,

1664
01:14:27,480 --> 01:14:29,480
he read his texts

1665
01:14:29,480 --> 01:14:31,480
because he has a very, very pregnant voice,

1666
01:14:31,480 --> 01:14:33,480
very slow,

1667
01:14:33,480 --> 01:14:35,480
and yes,

1668
01:14:35,480 --> 01:14:37,480
you have to listen to him.

1669
01:14:37,480 --> 01:14:39,480
You don't forget his voice.

1670
01:14:39,480 --> 01:14:41,480
You also hear his voice

1671
01:14:41,480 --> 01:14:43,480
with the many drugs

1672
01:14:43,480 --> 01:14:45,480
and all the experiences.

1673
01:14:45,480 --> 01:14:49,480
It's a sad, beautiful kind of sing-song.

1674
01:14:49,480 --> 01:14:51,480
There was a short introduction.

1675
01:14:51,480 --> 01:14:53,480
I just read it.

1676
01:14:53,480 --> 01:14:55,480
In 1978,

1677
01:14:55,480 --> 01:14:57,480
there was a reading in New York

1678
01:14:57,480 --> 01:14:59,480
about the

1679
01:14:59,480 --> 01:15:01,480
southern Ginsburg Smith Frank Zappa,

1680
01:15:01,480 --> 01:15:03,480
who jumped in for Keith Richards

1681
01:15:03,480 --> 01:15:05,480
because he had a legal problem.

1682
01:15:05,480 --> 01:15:07,480
And Timothy Leary

1683
01:15:07,480 --> 01:15:09,480
and Robert A. Wilson,

1684
01:15:09,480 --> 01:15:11,480
about whom we will also follow.

1685
01:15:11,480 --> 01:15:13,480
All of whom were inspired by Burroughs.

1686
01:15:13,480 --> 01:15:15,480
Exactly, with whom he had discussions.

1687
01:15:15,480 --> 01:15:17,480
That means that Tom Leary

1688
01:15:17,480 --> 01:15:19,480
met him.

1689
01:15:19,480 --> 01:15:21,480
I also have a whole list

1690
01:15:21,480 --> 01:15:23,480
of people who he influenced.

1691
01:15:23,480 --> 01:15:25,480
For example,

1692
01:15:25,480 --> 01:15:27,480
J.G. Ballard,

1693
01:15:27,480 --> 01:15:29,480
the writer Hunter S. Thompson,

1694
01:15:29,480 --> 01:15:31,480
Alan Moore,

1695
01:15:31,480 --> 01:15:33,480
the comic writer,

1696
01:15:33,480 --> 01:15:35,480
and also the bookseller,

1697
01:15:35,480 --> 01:15:37,480
for example,

1698
01:15:37,480 --> 01:15:39,480
The Watchmen,

1699
01:15:39,480 --> 01:15:41,480
Chuck Palaniuk,

1700
01:15:41,480 --> 01:15:43,480
Fight Club,

1701
01:15:43,480 --> 01:15:45,480
Nick Land,

1702
01:15:45,480 --> 01:15:47,480
philosopher,

1703
01:15:47,480 --> 01:15:49,480
Timothy Leary, of course,

1704
01:15:49,480 --> 01:15:51,480
and many other musicians.

1705
01:15:51,480 --> 01:15:53,480
The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Iggy Pop,

1706
01:15:53,480 --> 01:15:55,480
Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, Kurt Cobain,

1707
01:15:55,480 --> 01:15:57,480
with whom he also recorded an album.

1708
01:15:57,480 --> 01:15:59,480
He was also on the album cover

1709
01:15:59,480 --> 01:16:01,480
of the Sgt. Pepper's

1710
01:16:01,480 --> 01:16:03,480
Lonely Hearts Club Band,

1711
01:16:03,480 --> 01:16:05,480
the Beatles, which probably speaks

1712
01:16:05,480 --> 01:16:07,480
for its iconic status.

1713
01:16:07,480 --> 01:16:09,480
He also hung out with the Beatles

1714
01:16:09,480 --> 01:16:11,480
when they recorded the album.

1715
01:16:11,480 --> 01:16:13,480
That's why he's also on the cover.

1716
01:16:13,480 --> 01:16:15,480
And then of course his influence

1717
01:16:15,480 --> 01:16:17,480
on these esoteric and New Age movements,

1718
01:16:17,480 --> 01:16:21,480
on the Chaos Magic scene,

1719
01:16:21,480 --> 01:16:25,480
even on the rave culture, punk.

1720
01:16:25,480 --> 01:16:27,480
He's been a little bit

1721
01:16:27,480 --> 01:16:29,480
in every way.

1722
01:16:29,480 --> 01:16:31,480
He's influenced many people around him.

1723
01:16:33,480 --> 01:16:37,480
In high age he moved to the countryside

1724
01:16:37,480 --> 01:16:39,480
to Lawrence, Kansas.

1725
01:16:41,480 --> 01:16:43,480
There he also did a little bit of art

1726
01:16:43,480 --> 01:16:45,480
in his old age.

1727
01:16:45,480 --> 01:16:47,480
Didn't he shoot with shotguns

1728
01:16:47,480 --> 01:16:49,480
on a paint canister?

1729
01:16:49,480 --> 01:16:51,480
Exactly, something like that.

1730
01:16:51,480 --> 01:16:53,480
He connected his love for weapons

1731
01:16:53,480 --> 01:16:55,480
with art.

1732
01:16:55,480 --> 01:16:57,480
His shotgun pictures, I don't think,

1733
01:16:57,480 --> 01:16:59,480
are very detailed.

1734
01:16:59,480 --> 01:17:01,480
Action art, people.

1735
01:17:01,480 --> 01:17:03,480
I hope you understand.

1736
01:17:03,480 --> 01:17:05,480
There's also a nice documentary

1737
01:17:05,480 --> 01:17:07,480
A Man Within,

1738
01:17:07,480 --> 01:17:09,480
where you also have footage

1739
01:17:09,480 --> 01:17:11,480
of how he as an old man,

1740
01:17:11,480 --> 01:17:13,480
the old, violent man,

1741
01:17:13,480 --> 01:17:15,480
runs around with his shotgun

1742
01:17:15,480 --> 01:17:17,480
and shoots paint cans.

1743
01:17:17,040 --> 01:17:19,480
his secretary and his

1744
01:17:17,480 --> 01:17:19,480
People came to him.

1745
01:17:19,480 --> 01:17:21,480
He also managed his secretary

1746
01:17:19,480 --> 01:17:21,480
his secretary and his

1747
01:17:21,480 --> 01:17:23,480
his secretary and his

1748
01:17:23,480 --> 01:17:25,480
his secretary and his

1749
01:17:25,480 --> 01:17:27,480
secretary and his secretary.

1750
01:17:27,480 --> 01:17:29,480
He got visitors over and over.

1751
01:17:29,480 --> 01:17:31,480
He had an argon battery

1752
01:17:31,480 --> 01:17:33,480
in his garden

1753
01:17:33,480 --> 01:17:35,480
which he wanted to

1754
01:17:35,480 --> 01:17:37,480
use to accumulate

1755
01:17:37,480 --> 01:17:39,480
the argons.

1756
01:17:39,480 --> 01:17:41,480
They were apparently good for his body.

1757
01:17:41,480 --> 01:17:43,480
I think you can also find them in Wilhelm Reichsuche.

1758
01:17:43,480 --> 01:17:45,480
I'm not sure.

1759
01:17:45,480 --> 01:17:47,480
It was supposed to be good for everything,

1760
01:17:47,480 --> 01:17:49,480
against cancer and so on.

1761
01:17:49,480 --> 01:17:51,480
It was just a wooden box

1762
01:17:51,480 --> 01:17:53,480
that had metal inside.

1763
01:17:53,480 --> 01:18:01,840
And then he was there in 1997, when he became the oldest of the whole Beat Generation,

1764
01:18:01,840 --> 01:18:06,640
despite the fact that he probably consumed the most drugs of all.

1765
01:18:06,640 --> 01:18:09,680
And even though he was the oldest, he still lived the longest.

1766
01:18:09,680 --> 01:18:14,840
I made a very short introduction from 1993, before you end your life,

1767
01:18:14,840 --> 01:18:19,880
from the ministry of front singer Al Jurgensen.

1768
01:18:19,880 --> 01:18:25,640
We were hanging around in Burroughs in 1993, and he went to his house.

1769
01:18:25,640 --> 01:18:30,560
He decided to spray heroin on us, and he took out this belt full of syringes.

1770
01:18:30,560 --> 01:18:33,560
Huge old-fashioned syringes from the 1950s.

1771
01:18:33,560 --> 01:18:37,560
I have no idea how an 80-year-old man would find this, but he knew what he was doing.

1772
01:18:37,560 --> 01:18:42,720
So we were all hanging around, and then I noticed the post on the couch table,

1773
01:18:42,720 --> 01:18:46,040
a letter from the White House. I said, hey, that looks important.

1774
01:18:46,040 --> 01:18:49,920
And he said, no, that's probably just junk mail.

1775
01:18:49,920 --> 01:18:52,280
I opened the letter, and it was from President Clinton,

1776
01:18:52,280 --> 01:18:54,960
who invited Burroughs to a reading of a poem in the White House.

1777
01:18:54,960 --> 01:18:58,600
I said, wow, do you have any idea how important that is?

1778
01:18:58,600 --> 01:19:02,000
He said, what? Who is the president these days?

1779
01:19:02,000 --> 01:19:04,080
I think he didn't even know that he had a son.

1780
01:19:04,080 --> 01:19:07,800
Oh, his son is right, he's a little bit out of it now.

1781
01:19:07,800 --> 01:19:09,560
We forgot that, too.

1782
01:19:09,560 --> 01:19:13,840
Just like Burroughs, we neglected his son.

1783
01:19:13,840 --> 01:19:17,160
I could say something about that. After he shot his wife,

1784
01:19:17,160 --> 01:19:20,600
the daughter who wasn't his, the one before him,

1785
01:19:20,600 --> 01:19:24,720
she came to his wife's grandparents.

1786
01:19:24,720 --> 01:19:30,280
And his son is... I think he grew up with his parents.

1787
01:19:30,280 --> 01:19:35,160
He had very little contact with him. He was a real shit father.

1788
01:19:35,160 --> 01:19:39,000
We have to imagine this from the situation of the little boy,

1789
01:19:39,000 --> 01:19:43,880
who lives in the living room, how his father shoots his mother.

1790
01:19:43,880 --> 01:19:46,280
Before that, the father was very dependent on ruin all the time,

1791
01:19:46,280 --> 01:19:48,520
and probably not for the family anyway.

1792
01:19:48,520 --> 01:19:52,520
I also suspect that the child plays such a small role in junkie and queer

1793
01:19:52,520 --> 01:19:56,640
because Burroughs wanted to be the personality rights of his child,

1794
01:19:56,640 --> 01:19:59,560
because he had never been protected by anyone else in his environment.

1795
01:19:59,560 --> 01:20:04,440
It was probably more about the fact that he didn't have

1796
01:20:04,440 --> 01:20:09,200
such a relevant role in his life, and that's very sad for the child.

1797
01:20:09,200 --> 01:20:12,200
I think he died at the age of 30.

1798
01:20:12,200 --> 01:20:16,720
He was very eager about his father. He also wrote.

1799
01:20:16,720 --> 01:20:20,680
He also processed his experiences,

1800
01:20:20,680 --> 01:20:24,880
especially when he had to experience how his mother was shot.

1801
01:20:24,880 --> 01:20:28,240
He also took a lot of drugs,

1802
01:20:28,240 --> 01:20:32,000
because he probably wanted the attention of his father,

1803
01:20:32,000 --> 01:20:33,600
which he didn't get.

1804
01:20:33,600 --> 01:20:39,640
And I think he died at the age of 30 because he gave up his liver.

1805
01:20:39,640 --> 01:20:41,280
How unfair is life?

1806
01:20:41,280 --> 01:20:43,760
The father takes 15 times as many drugs

1807
01:20:43,760 --> 01:20:49,440
and somehow becomes so old with his incredibly low life cycle

1808
01:20:49,440 --> 01:20:55,160
and the son dies at the age of 30.

1809
01:20:55,160 --> 01:20:58,720
So you can definitely see that Burroughs

1810
01:20:58,720 --> 01:21:01,880
is probably too well off in today's reception.

1811
01:21:01,880 --> 01:21:04,960
He probably wasn't a very pleasant time-friend.

1812
01:21:04,960 --> 01:21:08,760
He was admired by many, but he did so much shit.

1813
01:21:08,760 --> 01:21:12,640
And for that he was fired for the guilt he had with himself,

1814
01:21:12,640 --> 01:21:15,240
which somehow also set his writing on fire.

1815
01:21:15,240 --> 01:21:17,680
And then of course what he experienced as a child

1816
01:21:17,680 --> 01:21:20,440
is of course not to be neglected,

1817
01:21:20,440 --> 01:21:24,800
but he gets away pretty well, I would say.

1818
01:21:24,800 --> 01:21:26,800
And he has his privileges.

1819
01:21:26,800 --> 01:21:29,800
So he would have had a different skin color

1820
01:21:29,800 --> 01:21:32,320
if he had been in jail, for sure.

1821
01:21:32,320 --> 01:21:33,880
But he was an old white man.

1822
01:21:33,880 --> 01:21:36,160
So you should emphasize that again.

1823
01:21:36,160 --> 01:21:40,040
No, and he was rich, especially if he had been poor.

1824
01:21:40,040 --> 01:21:42,400
He had all the privileges.

1825
01:21:42,400 --> 01:21:44,560
He didn't have to go to the Second World War,

1826
01:21:44,560 --> 01:21:46,760
because his mother had kicked him out.

1827
01:21:46,760 --> 01:21:51,160
He could use his spare time somehow to take drugs in Morocco

1828
01:21:51,160 --> 01:21:54,400
and to carry out experiments himself.

1829
01:21:54,400 --> 01:21:56,440
And probably Burroughs,

1830
01:21:56,440 --> 01:22:01,520
when you read his books, he doesn't seem particularly happy,

1831
01:22:01,520 --> 01:22:05,320
but he was definitely driven.

1832
01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:07,040
He was a demurk himself.

1833
01:22:07,040 --> 01:22:11,920
He created new worlds and influenced the world sustainably.

1834
01:22:11,920 --> 01:22:16,160
He withdrew and left behind the world he created

1835
01:22:16,160 --> 01:22:17,800
and left us humans.

1836
01:22:17,800 --> 01:22:21,640
He was an inspiration for many artists and philosophers

1837
01:22:21,640 --> 01:22:24,320
of the 20th and 21st centuries.

1838
01:22:24,320 --> 01:22:27,520
A light switch in the shadows is his story.

1839
01:22:27,520 --> 01:22:29,600
That's a good ending note to the podcast.

1840
01:22:43,600 --> 01:22:45,080
Let's go.

1841
01:22:45,080 --> 01:22:47,680
If you're standing here now and it's like a dead man,

1842
01:22:47,680 --> 01:22:49,680
then you're really mean.

1843
01:22:49,680 --> 01:22:50,960
What?

1844
01:22:50,960 --> 01:22:52,640
I'll just buy you.

1845
01:22:52,640 --> 01:22:55,280
You mean...

1846
01:24:25,280 --> 01:24:27,280
You