William S. Burroughs - 5 lectures given at the Naropa Institute

Five lectures/classes given by William S. Burroughs at the Naropa Institute

MP3 64 kbps

Label / Recorded by: Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics



1976-07-20 Lecture, 1h34m

A lecture by William S. Burroughs including a tape recorded experiment called "Paranormal Voices," a cut-up experiment of Brion Gysin, experiments with Sommerville, messages from dreams, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz, and phrases of minimal context. Burroughs also discusses Shakespeare, computers, Homer, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, and Carl Jung. Lecture ends with a question and answer session.



1976-07-22 Class on writing sources, 2h15m

A class with William S. Burroughs discussing various sources for writing, including dreams, voices (external and internal), and cut-up, giving examples from his own work. Burroughs emphasizes the importance of egolessness to the writer and presents his sources as a means to that end. In the course of the discussion, Burroughs airs many of his ideas about consciousness. Continuing with his exploration of egoless sources for writing, focusing on the nature of egolessness, especially its relation to Buddhist notions of egolessness and nonattachment. Notably, Burroughs maintains that "the goal of enlightenment is not necessarily the goal of the writer." There are some brief digressions on the relation between written, spoken, and nonverbal communication. Finishing with a question and answer session with Burroughs responding to remarks about women, non-referential images, non-linear thinking, and telepathy.



1979-08-08 Class on creative reading, 1h35m

William S. Burroughs lecture on Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and A Short Trip Home, and Stephen King's The Shining. Burroughs also discusses exercises for increasing awareness, books as mental film, codes of conduct, heroes, and the film of Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch.



1979-08-10 Class on creative reading, 1h15m

William S. Burroughs lectures on creative reading, including a discussion about various authors including Joseph Conrad, Denton Welch, Jane Bowles, Brion Gysin, and Julian Jaynes. Burroughs also addresses subjects such as art heroes, hemispheres of the brain, and the training of assasins.



1979-08-13 Class on creative reading, 1h40m

First half of a William S. Burroughs lecture on creative reading. The lecture mentions a wide variety of authors, including Alistair Crowley, Paul Bowles, and many others. The class also discusses science fiction, non-fiction, general semantics, scriptwriting, cloning, rotten ectoplasm, and judgment in cut-ups, as well as Burroughs's novel, The Soft Machine.