DEMONOLOGY
559
dominated by the forces of Dulness which are driving everything
downwards to mud, darkness, inertia and sleep. But Pope's poem
is
an act of resistance as well as a prophecy. For the writing itself
is
clean, lucid and active: a sign of wakefulness in a dozing world.
We are given an ironic tension between the subject matter-a world
sinking to madness and death-and the art, which is vitally intelligent
throughout. What we must now consider is how Burroughs is pitting
his art against the oncoming threat. Which means that we must
consider the "cut-up" technique which he developed into a theory
after
Naked Lunch.
Is it in fact the best way for a devout Factualist
to combat a "sending" world?
The technique is perhaps best described in a letter he wrote to
Allen Ginsberg in 1960, shortly after Brion Gysin had introduced
him to cut-ups. "Take the enclosed copy of this letter. Cut along the
lines. Rearrange putting section one by section three and section two
by section four. Now read aloud and you will hear My Voice. Whose
voice? Listen. Cut and rearrange in any combination.... Dont think
about it. Dont theorize. Try it! . . . With any poems any prose."
Now this is not exactly new, as Burroughs admits. Tristan Tzara and
the Surrealists would create written works by relying on chance, the
trouvaille,
random association and gratuitous juxtaposition-it was a
calculated attack on the conscious controlling mind. But Burroughs'
motives and intentions seem to be more far-reaching. The letter he sent
to Ginsberg to read and then cut up opens with words he used later
in
The Soft Machine
and again at the start of
Nova Express.
They
are the Factualists' summons to rebellion.
LISTEN TO' MY LAST WO'RDS ANY WO'RLD. LISTEN ALL
YO'U BOARDS SYNDICATES AND GO'VERNMENTS O'F
THE EARTH. AND YO'U PO'WER PO'WERS BEHIND WHAT
FILTH DEALS CONSUMMATED IN WHAT LAVATORY TO'
TAKE WHAT IS NO'T YO'URS. TO' SELL THE GRO'UND
FROM UNBO'RN FEET. LISTEN. WHAT I HAVE TO' SAY
IS FO'R ALL MEN EVERYWHERE. I REPEAT FOR ALL. NO'
O'NE IS EXCLUDED. FREE TO' ALL WHO' PAY. FREE TO'
ALL WHO' PAIN PAY.
WHAT SCARED YO'U ALL INTO' TIME? WHAT SCARED
YOU ALL IN'J10 YO'UR BO'DIES? INTO' SHIT FO'REVER?
