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The Nova Trilogy #1
The Soft Machine
Alternate version of this book.
In Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs revealed his genius. In The Soft Machine he begins an adventure that will take us even further into the dark recesses of his imagination, a region where nothing is sacred, nothing taboo. Continuing his ferocious verbal assault on hatred, hype, poverty, war, bureaucracy, and addiction in all its forms, Burroughs gives us a surreal space odyssey through the wounded galaxies in a book only he could create.
In Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs revealed his genius. In The Soft Machine he begins an adventure that will take us even further into the dark recesses of his imagination, a region where nothing is sacred, nothing taboo. Continuing his ferocious verbal assault on hatred, hype, poverty, war, bureaucracy, and addiction in all its forms, Burroughs gives us a surreal space odyssey through the wounded galaxies in a book only he could create.
184 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1992
309 people are currently reading
9,940 people want to read
About the author
William S. Burroughs
436books6,717followersWilliam Seward Burroughs II, (also known by his pen name William Lee) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961�64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.
A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century".
His influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays.
Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.
He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the inventor and founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studied English, and anthropology as a postgraduate, and later attended medical school in Vienna. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy in 1942 to serve in World War II, he dropped out and became afflicted with the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, while working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation.
Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch (1959), a controversy-fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961�64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift", a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".
Burroughs had one child, William Seward Burroughs III (1947-1981), with his second wife Joan Vollmer. Vollmer died in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs was convicted of manslaughter in Vollmer's death, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas, after suffering a heart attack in 1997.
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January 6, 2020
”In order to accomplish the purpose I prostituted myself to one of the priests---(Most distasteful thing I ever stood still for) ---During the sex act he metamorphosed himself into a green crab from the waist up, retaining human legs and genitals that secreted a caustic erogenous slime, while a horrible stench filled the hut---I was able to endure these horrible encounters by promising myself the pleasure of killing this disgusting monster when the time came---And my reputation as an idiot was by now so well established that I escaped all but the most routine control measures---.�
So the paragraph above that I shared with you is strange, but easily understood. Now check out this paragraph.
”Larval people whispering flesh. Eyes ejaculated spine mud. Black gum in member. Old junky coughing limestone in the obsidian morning: the sale mirror to red sky. Manipulated spasms puppets vestigial meat. Pulsing pink shell. Red pagodas and crystal accounts. Wet dream eyes hanging in lust of dead flesh patios. Boy chrysalis in streets of postcard. Eating birds patrol black lichen. Catatonic sports sear lungs of dream clay. Lust of mud bubble coal gas the insect street. Flesh ejaculation. Penis in the broken mirror rocks of Marwan. Serving the crystal dawn photo of sex. On the Brass and Copper Street.�
This book was originally composed using the cut-up technique inspired by the artist Brion Gysin. Let me define cut-up for you: ”Cut-up is performed by taking a finished and fully linear text and cutting it in pieces with a few or single words on each piece. The resulting pieces are then rearranged into a new text.� So William S. Burroughs wrote a traditional novel and then cut those sentences up into pieces and rearranged them randomly. Maybe less of a creative process than just a random throw of the dice. Burroughs was not happy with the 1961 edition, and in several editions after the original, he continued to make radical changes. It is the type of novel that possibly, because of the randomness of design, can never be finished.
He added more standard prose to each new edition to make the book more readable. There is this moment when he writes: ”But then who am I to be critical?� I chuckled because it was as if he were talking to the reader. There is a lot of homosexual sex described, but a lot of it is fairly repetitive. He likes the words jissom (jism) and rectum, and the phrase ”ragged pants to the ankles.� Did I say there was a lot of sex description? I meant there is oceans, mountains, oodles, gobs, and, forgive my French, a$$loads, (Yes, I’m being tongue in cheek) of sexual situations.
There is a linear prose chapter titled The Mayan Caper which gives the reader some idea of what they are actually reading about. If you do decide to take on the task of reading this novel, and you become bogged down, frustrated, discombobulated, or start screaming uncontrollably, please skip ahead to this chapter and soothe your ruffled reader’s soul with at least something you can wrap your mind around.
I made notes of some cool passages that I really liked:
”An evil old character with sugary eyes that stuck to you.�
“They were ripe for the plucking forgot way back yonder in the corn hole---Lost in little scraps of delight and burning scrolls.�
“The man opposite me didn’t look like much---A thin grey man in a long coat that flickered like old film.�
�...in these times when practically anybody is subject to wander in from the desert with a quit claim deed and snatch a girl’s snatch right out from under her assets.�
“When the boy peeled off the dry goods he gives off a slow stink like a thawing mummy.�
“Crab men peer out of abandoned quarries and shag heaps some sort of vestigial eye growing cheek bone and a look about them as if they could take root and grow on anybody.�
Even the linear prose is sometimes as confusing as the cut-up technique sections. Most people probably do not need to read this trilogy, but if you are someone who enjoys looking at words used in unusual ways, or if you are someone who wants to write innovative songs or progressive novels, or if you are someone who thinks that you understand what edgy writing is all about, you probably do need to at least dip a toe into the murky waters of Soft Machine.
What will I do? Well, I will read the rest of the series and probably, over time, everything that Burroughs wrote. I save his books for a time when I feel I am becoming stale or too comfortable. Sometimes, I just reach these crustaceous moments when I start to feel like a barnacle attached to the underside of a boat, permanently moored in port.
”Human faces tentative flicker in and out of focus. We waded into the warm mud-water. Hair and ape flesh off in screaming strips. Stood naked human bodies covered with phosphorescent green jelly. Soft tentative flesh cut with ape wounds. Peeling other genitals. Fingers and tongues rubbing off the jelly-cover. Body melting pleasure-sounds in the warm mud. Till the sun went and a blue wind of silence touched human faces and hair. When we came out of the mud we had names.�
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:
So the paragraph above that I shared with you is strange, but easily understood. Now check out this paragraph.
”Larval people whispering flesh. Eyes ejaculated spine mud. Black gum in member. Old junky coughing limestone in the obsidian morning: the sale mirror to red sky. Manipulated spasms puppets vestigial meat. Pulsing pink shell. Red pagodas and crystal accounts. Wet dream eyes hanging in lust of dead flesh patios. Boy chrysalis in streets of postcard. Eating birds patrol black lichen. Catatonic sports sear lungs of dream clay. Lust of mud bubble coal gas the insect street. Flesh ejaculation. Penis in the broken mirror rocks of Marwan. Serving the crystal dawn photo of sex. On the Brass and Copper Street.�
This book was originally composed using the cut-up technique inspired by the artist Brion Gysin. Let me define cut-up for you: ”Cut-up is performed by taking a finished and fully linear text and cutting it in pieces with a few or single words on each piece. The resulting pieces are then rearranged into a new text.� So William S. Burroughs wrote a traditional novel and then cut those sentences up into pieces and rearranged them randomly. Maybe less of a creative process than just a random throw of the dice. Burroughs was not happy with the 1961 edition, and in several editions after the original, he continued to make radical changes. It is the type of novel that possibly, because of the randomness of design, can never be finished.
He added more standard prose to each new edition to make the book more readable. There is this moment when he writes: ”But then who am I to be critical?� I chuckled because it was as if he were talking to the reader. There is a lot of homosexual sex described, but a lot of it is fairly repetitive. He likes the words jissom (jism) and rectum, and the phrase ”ragged pants to the ankles.� Did I say there was a lot of sex description? I meant there is oceans, mountains, oodles, gobs, and, forgive my French, a$$loads, (Yes, I’m being tongue in cheek) of sexual situations.
There is a linear prose chapter titled The Mayan Caper which gives the reader some idea of what they are actually reading about. If you do decide to take on the task of reading this novel, and you become bogged down, frustrated, discombobulated, or start screaming uncontrollably, please skip ahead to this chapter and soothe your ruffled reader’s soul with at least something you can wrap your mind around.
I made notes of some cool passages that I really liked:
”An evil old character with sugary eyes that stuck to you.�
“They were ripe for the plucking forgot way back yonder in the corn hole---Lost in little scraps of delight and burning scrolls.�
“The man opposite me didn’t look like much---A thin grey man in a long coat that flickered like old film.�
�...in these times when practically anybody is subject to wander in from the desert with a quit claim deed and snatch a girl’s snatch right out from under her assets.�
“When the boy peeled off the dry goods he gives off a slow stink like a thawing mummy.�
“Crab men peer out of abandoned quarries and shag heaps some sort of vestigial eye growing cheek bone and a look about them as if they could take root and grow on anybody.�
Even the linear prose is sometimes as confusing as the cut-up technique sections. Most people probably do not need to read this trilogy, but if you are someone who enjoys looking at words used in unusual ways, or if you are someone who wants to write innovative songs or progressive novels, or if you are someone who thinks that you understand what edgy writing is all about, you probably do need to at least dip a toe into the murky waters of Soft Machine.
What will I do? Well, I will read the rest of the series and probably, over time, everything that Burroughs wrote. I save his books for a time when I feel I am becoming stale or too comfortable. Sometimes, I just reach these crustaceous moments when I start to feel like a barnacle attached to the underside of a boat, permanently moored in port.
”Human faces tentative flicker in and out of focus. We waded into the warm mud-water. Hair and ape flesh off in screaming strips. Stood naked human bodies covered with phosphorescent green jelly. Soft tentative flesh cut with ape wounds. Peeling other genitals. Fingers and tongues rubbing off the jelly-cover. Body melting pleasure-sounds in the warm mud. Till the sun went and a blue wind of silence touched human faces and hair. When we came out of the mud we had names.�
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:
February 13, 2017
'Breathe in Johnny -- Here Goes --'
I respect rather than love it. Like Gravity's Rainbow's sewer scene on his knees, bare as a baby ... or William T. Vollmann's telephone exchange between steel reefs, a wire wrapped in gutta-percha vibrates: I hereby...zzZZZZZ...the critical situation...a crushing blow....The sleepwalker's all eyes; the realist is all ears; their mating forms the telephone. Later perhaps, I see parts, flashing, cut-in, from David Lynch this is a formica table or Cronenberg's not naked lunch or beginning of Kubrick's 2001 apes confronted with steel. Celluloid burning. when we came out of the mud we had names. Perhaps, Trump Tweets massacred by homoeroticism: I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke 11:43 AM - 14 Oct 2012. Thinking man's thin man. Marlowe and Philip K Dick detectives utilizing third-person singular indirect recall, though now using the cut-up method, Burroughs unsettles and alarms with images of consumption (not to mention graphic scenes of: sex - drugs - coprophagia - sacrifice - self-abuse). Pan God of Panic piping blue notes through empty streets as the berserk time machine twisted a tornado of years and centuries -- wind through dusty offices and archives -- Late night Trump tweets interrupted because The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences! 6:22 PM - 1 Aug 2014. The time to be Messianic is now. Word Hordes of the World Unite! I feel like I just jumped off a modern Joyce nightmare. Not even my warm bath, diet Coke, Hi-Chew blood sugar highs and restless foot cramps can keep me from the dizzying nature of Wind turbines are ripping [Scotland] apart and killing tourism.Electric bills in Scotland are skyrocketing-stop the madness. ...High on ammonia issuing insane orders... Grammy award goes to Adele 'Song of the Year' HELLO? Reading paperback 3rd edition on back in bath. 'Record of the Year' HELLO? Listening to audiobook of revised edition. 'Best Pop Solo Performance' HELLO? HELLO? HELLO? The inconsistency between editions seems right. Lost seems right. Unsettled seems right. Unfinished loop seems to capture the Burroughs sense of a living text. I'm adrift. Wet certainly. Drowning. Cut the word lines -- Cut the music lines -- Smash the control images -- Smash the control machine -- Burn the books -- Kill the priests --Kill! Kill! Kill!. Amazing how the haters & losers keep tweeting the name “F**kface Von Clownstick� like they are so original & like no one else is doing it... 9:35 AM - 3 May 2013. Welcome Mr. President. President Trump welcome to the future. - nothing here now but circling word dust - dead postcard falling through space between world - this road in this sharp spell of carrion -
I respect rather than love it. Like Gravity's Rainbow's sewer scene on his knees, bare as a baby ... or William T. Vollmann's telephone exchange between steel reefs, a wire wrapped in gutta-percha vibrates: I hereby...zzZZZZZ...the critical situation...a crushing blow....The sleepwalker's all eyes; the realist is all ears; their mating forms the telephone. Later perhaps, I see parts, flashing, cut-in, from David Lynch this is a formica table or Cronenberg's not naked lunch or beginning of Kubrick's 2001 apes confronted with steel. Celluloid burning. when we came out of the mud we had names. Perhaps, Trump Tweets massacred by homoeroticism: I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke 11:43 AM - 14 Oct 2012. Thinking man's thin man. Marlowe and Philip K Dick detectives utilizing third-person singular indirect recall, though now using the cut-up method, Burroughs unsettles and alarms with images of consumption (not to mention graphic scenes of: sex - drugs - coprophagia - sacrifice - self-abuse). Pan God of Panic piping blue notes through empty streets as the berserk time machine twisted a tornado of years and centuries -- wind through dusty offices and archives -- Late night Trump tweets interrupted because The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences! 6:22 PM - 1 Aug 2014. The time to be Messianic is now. Word Hordes of the World Unite! I feel like I just jumped off a modern Joyce nightmare. Not even my warm bath, diet Coke, Hi-Chew blood sugar highs and restless foot cramps can keep me from the dizzying nature of Wind turbines are ripping [Scotland] apart and killing tourism.Electric bills in Scotland are skyrocketing-stop the madness. ...High on ammonia issuing insane orders... Grammy award goes to Adele 'Song of the Year' HELLO? Reading paperback 3rd edition on back in bath. 'Record of the Year' HELLO? Listening to audiobook of revised edition. 'Best Pop Solo Performance' HELLO? HELLO? HELLO? The inconsistency between editions seems right. Lost seems right. Unsettled seems right. Unfinished loop seems to capture the Burroughs sense of a living text. I'm adrift. Wet certainly. Drowning. Cut the word lines -- Cut the music lines -- Smash the control images -- Smash the control machine -- Burn the books -- Kill the priests --Kill! Kill! Kill!. Amazing how the haters & losers keep tweeting the name “F**kface Von Clownstick� like they are so original & like no one else is doing it... 9:35 AM - 3 May 2013. Welcome Mr. President. President Trump welcome to the future. - nothing here now but circling word dust - dead postcard falling through space between world - this road in this sharp spell of carrion -
March 5, 2013
I know it is experimental. It reminds me of those alchemists' experiments when they tried to produce gold from excrements. And failed. Ultimately they were just dabbling in shit.
This book reads as if Burroughs swallowed words like rectal mucous, compost heap, jissom, masturbate, cock, dropped his pants. And just threw them up on the page.
This is not even a stream of consciousness, or unconsciousness for that matter. When I am completely off my face, haven’t had any sleep for 30 hours, and I’m thinking things just before passing out, I STILL make more sense. There is this piece of advice W.G. Sebald supposedly used to give: "By all means be experimental, but let the reader be part of the experiment." That's where Burroughs fails miserably.
Here is a random quote from a random page:
"Corpses hang pants open on the road to Monterrey - clear and loud ahead naked post cards and baby shoes - A man comes back to something he left in underwear peeled the boy warm in 1929 - Thighs slapped the bed jumped ass up - 'Johnny screw' - Cup is split - wastings - Thermodynamics crawls home - game of empty hands - bed pictures post dead question - carrion smell sharp. open in"
It goes like this for six chapters. Nonsense in its purest form. So when chapter seven comes, and all of a sudden paragraphs seem to be organized in an almost coherent manner, you get all excited, even though the plot is still completely bonkers, but alleluia, there IS a plot. Or at least in comparison to the previous six chapters which were written by someone with a serious case of anterograde amnesia, who can only remember the last five words he has written.
But then chapter seven ends and it goes right back to gibberish.
What am I supposed to get out of this book? There were two sentences I liked (and I used the word ‘sentence� loosely as obviously Burroughs has a very particular approach to punctuation).
"Jungle invades the weed grown parks where armadillos infected with the earth eating disease gambol through deserted kiosks and Bolivar in catatonic limestone liberated the area."
and
"The name is Clem Snide - I am a Private Ass Hole - I will take on any job any identity any body - I will do anything difficult dangerous or downright dirty for a price -"
And the shock factor is non-existent. It’s 2013, you can write all you want about cocks in rectums, on every page even (as Burroughs laboriously did) and I won’t even bat an eye.
"Evening touched our rectums."
Thank you and goodbye.
This book reads as if Burroughs swallowed words like rectal mucous, compost heap, jissom, masturbate, cock, dropped his pants. And just threw them up on the page.
This is not even a stream of consciousness, or unconsciousness for that matter. When I am completely off my face, haven’t had any sleep for 30 hours, and I’m thinking things just before passing out, I STILL make more sense. There is this piece of advice W.G. Sebald supposedly used to give: "By all means be experimental, but let the reader be part of the experiment." That's where Burroughs fails miserably.
Here is a random quote from a random page:
"Corpses hang pants open on the road to Monterrey - clear and loud ahead naked post cards and baby shoes - A man comes back to something he left in underwear peeled the boy warm in 1929 - Thighs slapped the bed jumped ass up - 'Johnny screw' - Cup is split - wastings - Thermodynamics crawls home - game of empty hands - bed pictures post dead question - carrion smell sharp. open in"
It goes like this for six chapters. Nonsense in its purest form. So when chapter seven comes, and all of a sudden paragraphs seem to be organized in an almost coherent manner, you get all excited, even though the plot is still completely bonkers, but alleluia, there IS a plot. Or at least in comparison to the previous six chapters which were written by someone with a serious case of anterograde amnesia, who can only remember the last five words he has written.
But then chapter seven ends and it goes right back to gibberish.
What am I supposed to get out of this book? There were two sentences I liked (and I used the word ‘sentence� loosely as obviously Burroughs has a very particular approach to punctuation).
"Jungle invades the weed grown parks where armadillos infected with the earth eating disease gambol through deserted kiosks and Bolivar in catatonic limestone liberated the area."
and
"The name is Clem Snide - I am a Private Ass Hole - I will take on any job any identity any body - I will do anything difficult dangerous or downright dirty for a price -"
And the shock factor is non-existent. It’s 2013, you can write all you want about cocks in rectums, on every page even (as Burroughs laboriously did) and I won’t even bat an eye.
"Evening touched our rectums."
Thank you and goodbye.
March 1, 2020
The Soft Machine is like a travelogue concocted by a perverted and drugged space traveler�
It is an acid trip in which atrocities and scatology are special delicacies and tidbits on offer�
And William S. Burroughs surely is a revolutionary but I don’t know exactly of what sort however � probably sexual or maybe chemical or perhaps even linguistic�
It takes all kinds to make the world so even a depiction of despicable vices can be hustled at a profit.
I had this special Green Boy I was making it with who knew the ropes you might say and he told me we have to tune the heat wave out with music � So we get all the Indians and all the Green Boys with drums and flutes and copper plates and stayed just out of the heat blast beating the drums and slowly closed in � lam had rigged up a catapult to throw limestone boulders and shattered the cubicle so we move in with spears and clubs and finish them off and smashed the heat-sending set that was a living radio with insect parts � We turn the Green Boys loose and on our way rejoicing�
It is an acid trip in which atrocities and scatology are special delicacies and tidbits on offer�
I pushed into a Turkish Bath and surprised a faggot brandishing a deformed erection in the steam room and strangled him straightaway with a soapy towel. I had to check in. I was thin now, barely strength in my receding flesh to finish off that tired faggot. I got into my clothes shivering and gaping and walked into the terminal drugstore. Five minutes to twelve. Five minutes to score. I walked over to the night clerk and threw a piece of tin on him.
And William S. Burroughs surely is a revolutionary but I don’t know exactly of what sort however � probably sexual or maybe chemical or perhaps even linguistic�
During the sex act he metamorphosed himself into a green crab from the waist up, retaining human legs and genitals that secreted a caustic erogenous slime, while a horrible stench filled the hut � I was able to endure these horrible encounters by promising myself the pleasure of killing this disgusting monster when the time came � And my reputation as an idiot was by now so well established that I escaped all but the most routine control measures�
It takes all kinds to make the world so even a depiction of despicable vices can be hustled at a profit.
February 16, 2011
Imagine that the cable box has only 20 channels. Imagine that these channels are playing a variety of sex films, a documentary on parasitic and poisonous insects of the amazon, a sci-fi police drama strangely analogous to Dr. Who (no Daleks, sorry), and a film about junkies. Now imagine what all this would look like when the TV was set to jump randomly among channels every few seconds. This is the best description I can give to the text of The Soft Machine, however this belies the strange almost-coherence contained despite the channel-change static bursts I found myself imagining at every punctuation mark. A time traveling agent attempting to foil religious mind-control, regulate drug usage (among those without proper documentation). The strange religious sacrifices, capital punishment he could fall prey to flicker in and out of the picture. The unnerving presence of the Doctor Benway flickers in and out, much less noticably than in Naked Lunch, but there all the same. The fever dreams of the junk-sick flicker against sexual gratification, boys undressing, the smell of rancid tide flat/rectal mucous.
What it means, if anything; I don't know, nor do I really care. Searching for a blatant narrative in this book is a convoluted search indeed, but if you're reading this then you probably expect a challenge anyway. I liked it just the same.
What it means, if anything; I don't know, nor do I really care. Searching for a blatant narrative in this book is a convoluted search indeed, but if you're reading this then you probably expect a challenge anyway. I liked it just the same.
March 14, 2025
To say this novel is off the map is an understatement. Considering it was written very early in the 60s, it's like a rabid dog in a litter of kittens. Burroughs certainly knows how to shaft one's mind, and this was a full-on assault on the senses. There were things I liked about it - wildly inventive unconventional narrative that was obscene and bizarre, corrosive and corrupt, where absolutely nothing was predictable - but at the same time there was only so much rectal mucus I could take. Yes, when it comes to homosexuality, Burroughs is very much R18. There is necrophilia too. The voice of the novel is not going to be easy to flush out. It was like swimming in an open sewer. Well, more like drowning in one. At times dazzling, at times boring, at times it was just all too much for me! This makes Naked Lunch look like a plain old grilled cheese sandwhich.
August 6, 2015
I've seen a lot of comments about how this book of experimental fiction is "unreadable", which I did not find to be the case at all. In fact I enjoyed reading it immensely - the repetition of the cut-up material gives it a sort of surreal hypnotic quality. The writing is occasionally straight up brilliant. Some of the sex stuff is a bit too much though - if I never hear the phrase "rectal mucus and carbolic soap" again it will be too soon.
I do agree that it is difficult to understand - the plot would be bizarre and difficult to follow even if told in a traditional manner, but to then chop it up and rearrange it makes it impossible. Most of the book comes across like avant-garde word soup poetry, and bears almost no resemblance to a traditional narrative. There is a plot though, about a time-traveler who can infiltrate other people's bodies. It is spelled out pretty clearly about halfway through the book in the chapter called "The Mayan Caper", and that chapter even explains why everything is all jumbled up and out of order, and what the sex is all about.
This is definitely not for everyone, but I thought it was brilliant. I will definitely be picking up the other two books in this "cut-up" trilogy soon.
I do agree that it is difficult to understand - the plot would be bizarre and difficult to follow even if told in a traditional manner, but to then chop it up and rearrange it makes it impossible. Most of the book comes across like avant-garde word soup poetry, and bears almost no resemblance to a traditional narrative. There is a plot though, about a time-traveler who can infiltrate other people's bodies. It is spelled out pretty clearly about halfway through the book in the chapter called "The Mayan Caper", and that chapter even explains why everything is all jumbled up and out of order, and what the sex is all about.
This is definitely not for everyone, but I thought it was brilliant. I will definitely be picking up the other two books in this "cut-up" trilogy soon.
March 6, 2013
If you imagine the stereotype of an avant-garde, experimental book, that's The Soft Machine. Sure, it's a clever idea, but actually reading it would be a painful thing. My process reading the book went like this:
p.5 (the start) - what's going on here?
p.6 - how long is this going to continue?
p.9 - oh, it's going on for the whole book.
p.13 - I can see how this style conveys a delirious, fractured mind and world.
p.20 - but I'm not really getting anything else out of it by reading more.
p.27 - in fact, it's very hard to concentrate on the book, so it's probably pointless to carry on.
At this point, I look at the wikipedia entry to see if it will help me read and appreciate the book. It tells me that the plot starts at chapter 7. Surprised and tempted by the promise of a plot, and intrigued to see how the book changes, I return to the book.
p.28 - I take one look at the page and decide I really cannot be bothered.
p.5 (the start) - what's going on here?
p.6 - how long is this going to continue?
p.9 - oh, it's going on for the whole book.
p.13 - I can see how this style conveys a delirious, fractured mind and world.
p.20 - but I'm not really getting anything else out of it by reading more.
p.27 - in fact, it's very hard to concentrate on the book, so it's probably pointless to carry on.
At this point, I look at the wikipedia entry to see if it will help me read and appreciate the book. It tells me that the plot starts at chapter 7. Surprised and tempted by the promise of a plot, and intrigued to see how the book changes, I return to the book.
p.28 - I take one look at the page and decide I really cannot be bothered.
April 16, 2008
The one book by Burroughs that separates the fans from the curious. The curious usually think 'no, I am not going there.' Relentless sexual assault mixed with very experimental writing makes this book... Charming! I love Burroughs' voice. I also think he's one of the great satire writers of all time. A true American (drug addict) original!
November 6, 2024
A kaleidoscope of text. I picked this up in the depths of a reading slump, which is a decidedly horrible idea. There is no outward “sense� to be made from the writing of Burroughs, as the book is made using the cut-up writing technique (hence “The Cut-Up Trilogy�), which is the rearranging of portions of the text that have been cut up and given new form. Whatever comes about, comes about. There is more method to the madness than what I have just portrayed there, but it’s not a method which I can make much sense of.
I read the plot summary section of the Wikipedia article after finishing. There were references to time travel and the Mayans, which I remember, but the rest of that paragraph? I must have been out to lunch, boss. I didn’t pick up any of it. I will quote from the introduction of my copy of the restored text:
Weird experience, but enjoyable. I will continue with the trilogy. I know it won’t get any easier. We move.
I read the plot summary section of the Wikipedia article after finishing. There were references to time travel and the Mayans, which I remember, but the rest of that paragraph? I must have been out to lunch, boss. I didn’t pick up any of it. I will quote from the introduction of my copy of the restored text:
“In this uniquely queer textual zone styles and genres switch in mid-sentence and incompatible realities mix in a single phrase. “Rubbed Moscow up me with a corkscrew motion of his limestones?�? “orgasm crackled with electric afternoon�? “Zero eaten by crab�? Is this science fiction or avant garde poetry? Drug literature or homosexual pornography? Political satire? All, and yet none of the above, because no labels stick and it doesn’t matter how often you read the text, it will seem new every time. As Joan Didion said, to imagine you can put The Soft Machine down when the phone rings and find your place a few minutes later “is sheer bravura.�
Not knowing where we are or where we’re going is the disorientating and yet desired experience, so anyone looking for a guide to reading The Soft Machine had better follow the perverse example set by Burroughs himself back in 1953, when solicited by a smiling Colombian street boy: “He looked like the most inefficient guide in the Upper Amazon but I said, ‘Yes.’� An efficient guide would only have taken Burroughs where he already knew to go, so following his desire by falling for a hustler was the right choice for someone committed to the difficult path of discovering the unknown. You crazy or something read The Soft Machine alone? Yes, indeed; but that’s the best way to do it because what you find there will be your business. Since the text itself resists mapping, all this Introduction can promise, therefore, is a map of where we are right now, offering for the first time the material history of a book about which so much has remained untold–even the origins of its title, a suitably paradoxical phrase that begins with an utterly misleading definite article, since the book in your hand is not The but A Soft Machine.�
Weird experience, but enjoyable. I will continue with the trilogy. I know it won’t get any easier. We move.
Want to read
September 15, 2015I know, that experiment. They are reminded that it is an alchemist experiment to try to produce gold dung. And it failed. In the end, they're just a hobby Sanya shit. I need to get this book? Misunderstanding. In severe cases of amnesia precedence, the stereotype of the avant-garde, experimental book:
Page 5 Start - What's going on here?
6th - two hours here?
P.9 is - this is the entire five books.
P.13 - This style is a way to pass the bullshit, fractures of the mind and the world I see.
Page 20 - but I'm not getting what I read more.
P.27 - in fact, it is very difficult to concentrate on the book, so it continues, perhaps meaningless.
(Bizarre events)
OK hummmm. Delirium addicts.
After reading the smell of sex is almost the same as the compost pile can not love again
Not pleasant. This book is clearly entirely possible despicable to know, shit. Trash unread. "Jissom", "cunt" or "cum"
This is the first book you read to me was.
Surrealistic novels more or my favorite, but less sorry friends, it's shit.
So, this book is like a much more naked lunch. He likes drugs and gay sex. Okay, I get it.
Lame! Give me something easy to read. Bushes below! I need to get this book?
Burroughs, rectal mucosa, compost piles, jissom, masturbation, cock down his pants as if swallowed words, such as the book says.
Damn, why can not create gold urine?
Page 5 Start - What's going on here?
6th - two hours here?
P.9 is - this is the entire five books.
P.13 - This style is a way to pass the bullshit, fractures of the mind and the world I see.
Page 20 - but I'm not getting what I read more.
P.27 - in fact, it is very difficult to concentrate on the book, so it continues, perhaps meaningless.
(Bizarre events)
OK hummmm. Delirium addicts.
After reading the smell of sex is almost the same as the compost pile can not love again
Not pleasant. This book is clearly entirely possible despicable to know, shit. Trash unread. "Jissom", "cunt" or "cum"
This is the first book you read to me was.
Surrealistic novels more or my favorite, but less sorry friends, it's shit.
So, this book is like a much more naked lunch. He likes drugs and gay sex. Okay, I get it.
Lame! Give me something easy to read. Bushes below! I need to get this book?
Burroughs, rectal mucosa, compost piles, jissom, masturbation, cock down his pants as if swallowed words, such as the book says.
Damn, why can not create gold urine?
April 15, 2019
Pure dissonance, attrition and aggression over the Mayan battleships that distillate phosphorescent obsidians into rains of junk. It ends with a dose of apomorphine though.
June 29, 2007
This book forever burned the words "rectal mucus" into my psyche. Carbolic acid and rectal mucus. Thanks BB!
April 11, 2016
Some experiments work, some others don't. In particular, experimental writing can always be, at least, fascinating; a unexpected way to elevate fiction and language to new and interesting places. William Burroughs' experiment here is cutting up one of his own manuscripts and then creating an entire new novel from scratch.
Sounds interesting? Yeah, it also sounds incredibly difficult.
The results are nothing short of peculiar. I often found myself laughing, making weird faces, gasping or even groaning because it was so damn easy to get lost in the poetic madness of this series of pieces that more or less make up a story. If I graded it based on what it did to me in comparison to other books, I'd probably give it three stars, because while I was entertained by the results, I was never fully engaged in whatever story Burroughs was trying to build. That said, this book achieves what it sets out to do, show a game with language, and it fully delivers on that aspect. It is a wonderful and delightful possibility that shows literature doesn't need to have traditional boundaries to work. Some works balance perfectly commercial appeal and art, and they become classics; others only have commercial appeal. And this experiment?
Well, I can say "Soft Machine" is pure art. Sometimes it lands and makes a connection, sometimes it just looks at you.
Sounds interesting? Yeah, it also sounds incredibly difficult.
The results are nothing short of peculiar. I often found myself laughing, making weird faces, gasping or even groaning because it was so damn easy to get lost in the poetic madness of this series of pieces that more or less make up a story. If I graded it based on what it did to me in comparison to other books, I'd probably give it three stars, because while I was entertained by the results, I was never fully engaged in whatever story Burroughs was trying to build. That said, this book achieves what it sets out to do, show a game with language, and it fully delivers on that aspect. It is a wonderful and delightful possibility that shows literature doesn't need to have traditional boundaries to work. Some works balance perfectly commercial appeal and art, and they become classics; others only have commercial appeal. And this experiment?
Well, I can say "Soft Machine" is pure art. Sometimes it lands and makes a connection, sometimes it just looks at you.
January 18, 2015
It hit me with a certain amount of force yesterday that I'd read eight books by William S. Burroughs between July and November of 2012 and zero in the entirety of 2013 and 2014. What had happened to the young rebel? Had he calmed? Dare we say he made peace with the world?
Well, it was a slow realization, but here's the essence of the problem: William S. Burroughs was not a great writer. An interesting one? Definitely. An influential one? I'll go along with that. A key part of shaping my tastes in literature? Oh, you'd better believe it. I'll ride with you as far as saying he was a good one, or at the very least good at writing from a surreal fever pitch. Not to mention his rock-star mystique, his brutal honesty, his de facto status as America's spokesperson for outsiders and weirdos of the world, the sick pleasure I once took in people's disgusted reactions to him and his work... yes, it's easy to see why I was so into this guy at one point.
Yet, looking at him two years and a few months out from the height of my Burroughs thing? Dude wasn't a great writer. He just wasn't. He had one great book in him and a couple of good ones, but he was not a great writer, and Soft Machine proves why: after he wrote Naked Lunch, he just never stopped rehashing it. The Wild Boys gives you a bit of a break from it and is probably his second-best novel as a result, but look, I mean, when book after book after book of nightmare drugs and weird sex and centipede attacks just all blend together, and you can put it in space and justify it however you want with the "he was awfully avant-garde wasn't he," but look, if we count the insubstantial parlor trick Dead Fingers Talk, Burroughs went back to the same crazy-ass hallucinations well four consecutive times after Naked Lunch. Four! Maybe even five, depending on what the Last Words of Dutch Schultz is like, maybe even six because the Wild Boys is coming from the same place as well. Nova Express gets a pass out of artistic laziness because it has a unique kinetic energy to it, but otherwise, I just have to wonder why the hell he never did anything else. Unless you count Junky and Queer, which are valuable as insights into repressed and despised communities but aren't wonderful as pieces of writing.
I remember thinking as I read this that maybe it was a Naked Lunch rehash, but at the time I brushed it off. Now that realization is back in full force. But hey, I've got Port of Saints and Exterminator! on my shelf right now, and if I know myself, I'll probably read them before this year's out. Burroughs is an invaluable gateway to the postmodern thing, and Naked Lunch can't be denied, but there comes the point where we all must say goodbye to old heroes.
Well, it was a slow realization, but here's the essence of the problem: William S. Burroughs was not a great writer. An interesting one? Definitely. An influential one? I'll go along with that. A key part of shaping my tastes in literature? Oh, you'd better believe it. I'll ride with you as far as saying he was a good one, or at the very least good at writing from a surreal fever pitch. Not to mention his rock-star mystique, his brutal honesty, his de facto status as America's spokesperson for outsiders and weirdos of the world, the sick pleasure I once took in people's disgusted reactions to him and his work... yes, it's easy to see why I was so into this guy at one point.
Yet, looking at him two years and a few months out from the height of my Burroughs thing? Dude wasn't a great writer. He just wasn't. He had one great book in him and a couple of good ones, but he was not a great writer, and Soft Machine proves why: after he wrote Naked Lunch, he just never stopped rehashing it. The Wild Boys gives you a bit of a break from it and is probably his second-best novel as a result, but look, I mean, when book after book after book of nightmare drugs and weird sex and centipede attacks just all blend together, and you can put it in space and justify it however you want with the "he was awfully avant-garde wasn't he," but look, if we count the insubstantial parlor trick Dead Fingers Talk, Burroughs went back to the same crazy-ass hallucinations well four consecutive times after Naked Lunch. Four! Maybe even five, depending on what the Last Words of Dutch Schultz is like, maybe even six because the Wild Boys is coming from the same place as well. Nova Express gets a pass out of artistic laziness because it has a unique kinetic energy to it, but otherwise, I just have to wonder why the hell he never did anything else. Unless you count Junky and Queer, which are valuable as insights into repressed and despised communities but aren't wonderful as pieces of writing.
I remember thinking as I read this that maybe it was a Naked Lunch rehash, but at the time I brushed it off. Now that realization is back in full force. But hey, I've got Port of Saints and Exterminator! on my shelf right now, and if I know myself, I'll probably read them before this year's out. Burroughs is an invaluable gateway to the postmodern thing, and Naked Lunch can't be denied, but there comes the point where we all must say goodbye to old heroes.
March 27, 2013
If were a gay heroin addict... okay you get the point.
But there are some startling similarities. An affinity for a limited vocabulary, eroticising of stones (sand- for James, lime- for Burroughs)...
Neither of the two authors seemed to know anything about sex. Or how human beings normally interact. The flimsy character of one was hung, and the other hung most of his flimsy characters.
James taught me that the sight of black men makes you question your wardrobe (page, like... two?). Burroughs, um... well he didn't call them black men...
So yeah, I couldn't call which had the greater ability to offend, but I would certainly opt for Burroughs for a more realistic portrayal of a gentleman.
Still, I think they both inspired something.
But there are some startling similarities. An affinity for a limited vocabulary, eroticising of stones (sand- for James, lime- for Burroughs)...
Neither of the two authors seemed to know anything about sex. Or how human beings normally interact. The flimsy character of one was hung, and the other hung most of his flimsy characters.
James taught me that the sight of black men makes you question your wardrobe (page, like... two?). Burroughs, um... well he didn't call them black men...
So yeah, I couldn't call which had the greater ability to offend, but I would certainly opt for Burroughs for a more realistic portrayal of a gentleman.
Still, I think they both inspired something.
September 2, 2020
Beat candır dedik, T.C. Başbakanlık Küçükleri Muzır Neşriyattan Koruma Kurulu kitabın arka kapağına babalar gibi "bu kitabı okumayın" dediyse, üstüne de çevirmenini sorguya alıp olay yarattıysa kesin alalım, okuyalım dedik, dedik ama..
Kitaptan bir paragraf yazıp tüm kitabın aynen bu şekilde yazıldığını söyleyip gideyim ben, ne yapayım başka?!:
Flaş canavarı sürünerek çıkıyor İhtiyar Fred Flash'tan amansız bir şekilde-1920'den kalma bir filmde orgazm, geri kalmış ülkelerden gümüş yazılar- rüzgarda sallanan cinsel organlar- soyunuk öğlenden gırtlak patlaması erkek eti katmanlarını kara lagünlerin durgunluğuna sürüklerken açık gömlekler menevişli bir halde kıvrılıyor şafakta -(şu keskin leş kokusu)"
Kitaptan bir paragraf yazıp tüm kitabın aynen bu şekilde yazıldığını söyleyip gideyim ben, ne yapayım başka?!:
Flaş canavarı sürünerek çıkıyor İhtiyar Fred Flash'tan amansız bir şekilde-1920'den kalma bir filmde orgazm, geri kalmış ülkelerden gümüş yazılar- rüzgarda sallanan cinsel organlar- soyunuk öğlenden gırtlak patlaması erkek eti katmanlarını kara lagünlerin durgunluğuna sürüklerken açık gömlekler menevişli bir halde kıvrılıyor şafakta -(şu keskin leş kokusu)"
May 9, 2013
-Es difícil influir a tantas y tan distintas personas. Por algo será ¿no cree, estimado lector?-.
Género. Novela.
Lo que nos cuenta. Paseo por y desde las temáticas y estilos tan propios del escritor. Lo que nos cuenta exactamente, mejor no trato de explicárselo, porque no me veo capaz. Tampoco me veo capaz de explicarles la “Composición VI�, para que se hagan una idea.
¿Quiere saber más del libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
Género. Novela.
Lo que nos cuenta. Paseo por y desde las temáticas y estilos tan propios del escritor. Lo que nos cuenta exactamente, mejor no trato de explicárselo, porque no me veo capaz. Tampoco me veo capaz de explicarles la “Composición VI�, para que se hagan una idea.
¿Quiere saber más del libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
January 7, 2023
Horrendous from start to finish. An aimless barrage of shit, piss, cum, and racial slurs which barely manages a single coherent sentence, let alone any sense of story, character, place, or even feeling. A novel doesn't *need* any of these things, of course, but if you're going to write 100+ pages without a story or a character then you better have something good to offer instead. This is nothing but edgelord drivel, with no respect for the reader's time, money, or enjoyment. Simply the worst time I have ever had reading a book.
February 13, 2022
A self-indulgent mess. Not enjoyable. I love Most of Burrough’s work including Naked Lunch but this was too impenetrable. It just wasn’t any fun. It was simply a junkie tapping away at his type writer, alone in his cheap motel room thinking how great it might be to write a book completely fucked. Sorry pal, it's shite.
October 2, 2024
I was far too young when I read Naked Lunch. All I could see was the content of the text, a profusion of endless spurting cocks that quickly exhausted me. Now? I see the structure of The Soft Machine and I feel the opposite. It's riveting seeing the plurality of language, how a sentence cut apart and smashed into another can create visual mutations. Scenes flow and fold, bodies merge and splinter, the present falls into the past then emerges again through violent juncture. It's garish, and bold, and luxurious. It's the birth of slipstream.
July 4, 2012
I find the work of William Burroughs fascinating, but I’m not sure I always understand it. In fact, his most experimental books, of which this is a prime example, are utterly incomprehensible from a rationalist, linear perspective. Their meaning seeps in to the subconscious and the reader is left with the feeling that they have almost but not quite grasped some profound set of truths fixed in a story that remains enigmatic, disturbing and genuinely strange.
The main conceit behind *The Soft Machine* seems to be that all of us are hosts to mind-parasites that are so well-established we don’t even know they are there, which makes them difficult to oppose or even comprehend properly. Over a long period of time humans have come to accept them as part of their own biology to the extent that we refer to them as our ‘id� and ‘superego� and assume they are a natural part of our brains. But they aren’t. They are alien outsiders, controlling us.
My friend Stuart Ross once epitomised the works of William Burroughs. Pretending to turn the pages of an imaginary Burroughs novel, he made the following running commentary: “Heroin, buggery, heroin, buggery, heroin, buggery, time-travel, heroin, buggery, heroin, time-travel, heroin, buggery…� And that’s a pretty accurate synopsis of *The Soft Machine*. But it’s not the whole story. The whole story is a lot more. I’m still trying to get to grips with it. Perhaps the mind-parasites are preventing me.
The main conceit behind *The Soft Machine* seems to be that all of us are hosts to mind-parasites that are so well-established we don’t even know they are there, which makes them difficult to oppose or even comprehend properly. Over a long period of time humans have come to accept them as part of their own biology to the extent that we refer to them as our ‘id� and ‘superego� and assume they are a natural part of our brains. But they aren’t. They are alien outsiders, controlling us.
My friend Stuart Ross once epitomised the works of William Burroughs. Pretending to turn the pages of an imaginary Burroughs novel, he made the following running commentary: “Heroin, buggery, heroin, buggery, heroin, buggery, time-travel, heroin, buggery, heroin, time-travel, heroin, buggery…� And that’s a pretty accurate synopsis of *The Soft Machine*. But it’s not the whole story. The whole story is a lot more. I’m still trying to get to grips with it. Perhaps the mind-parasites are preventing me.
May 18, 2019
This is the first (or second; or third� depends on the edition) volume of Nova trilogy, written by the beat generation icon, . I initially planned to read the whole trilogy, because (formally last volume) , was nominated for Nebula in 1965. It doesn’t worth the effort.
The author actively uses his ‘novel� cut-up method of composition: take your text, scissors, and start rearranging parts until they lost coherence. This means the story has no plot, no characters, no sense, only raw feelings, reminiscent of fever dream. It may work once in a short story, but for a novel it is an overkill. Up to the middle of the book readers get just glimpses of action � gay sex, hangings, hanged man’s erection, dirt, some fantastical creatures � crabs, centipedes, rape of a paralyzed boy, smell of color and color of words ad nauseum. Only in the middle, there is a small coherent story of time travel to Maya, who ruled people via computer. It parodies action-adventures of ‘heroes in ancient evil lands�. Then once again you get just glimpses.
In the middle of this town was a construction of clay cubicles several stories high and I could see some kinda awful crabs were stirring around inside it but couldn’t get close because the area around the cubicle is covered with black bones and hot as a blasting furnace—They had this heat weapon you got it?—Like white-hot ants all over you�
Meanwhile I had been approached by the Green Boys have a whole whore house section built on catwalks over the mud flats entirely given over to hanging and all kinds death in orgasm young boys need it special—They were beautiful critters and swarmed all over me night and day smelling like a compost heap—But I wasn’t buying it sight unseen and when I proposed to watch a hanging they come on all indignant like insulted whores—So Iam rigged up a long distance periscope with obsidian mirrors moaning about the equipment the way he always does and we watched them hang this boy just down from the country—Well I saw that when his neck snapped and he shot his load instead of flowing into the Green Boy the way nature intended these hot crabs hatched out of his spine and scoffed the lot.
Recently I've learnt how to make word clouds and they clearly show what this book is about:
This is two-word cloud
This is one-word cloud
The author actively uses his ‘novel� cut-up method of composition: take your text, scissors, and start rearranging parts until they lost coherence. This means the story has no plot, no characters, no sense, only raw feelings, reminiscent of fever dream. It may work once in a short story, but for a novel it is an overkill. Up to the middle of the book readers get just glimpses of action � gay sex, hangings, hanged man’s erection, dirt, some fantastical creatures � crabs, centipedes, rape of a paralyzed boy, smell of color and color of words ad nauseum. Only in the middle, there is a small coherent story of time travel to Maya, who ruled people via computer. It parodies action-adventures of ‘heroes in ancient evil lands�. Then once again you get just glimpses.
In the middle of this town was a construction of clay cubicles several stories high and I could see some kinda awful crabs were stirring around inside it but couldn’t get close because the area around the cubicle is covered with black bones and hot as a blasting furnace—They had this heat weapon you got it?—Like white-hot ants all over you�
Meanwhile I had been approached by the Green Boys have a whole whore house section built on catwalks over the mud flats entirely given over to hanging and all kinds death in orgasm young boys need it special—They were beautiful critters and swarmed all over me night and day smelling like a compost heap—But I wasn’t buying it sight unseen and when I proposed to watch a hanging they come on all indignant like insulted whores—So Iam rigged up a long distance periscope with obsidian mirrors moaning about the equipment the way he always does and we watched them hang this boy just down from the country—Well I saw that when his neck snapped and he shot his load instead of flowing into the Green Boy the way nature intended these hot crabs hatched out of his spine and scoffed the lot.
Recently I've learnt how to make word clouds and they clearly show what this book is about:
This is two-word cloud
This is one-word cloud
August 2, 2017
If one performed a Burroughs-type surgery on The Soft Machine and removed every instance of the words ‘orgasm�, ‘rectum�, ‘ass hairs�, even ‘Panama�, then the novel would, as it were, go limp, though if the title is synonymous with the human body then repetition is its natural mode. The cut-up style, assembling narrative by splicing in text from various sources at chosen, random or repeated intervals, is often intriguing but mostly hard-going. Then again, a book with ‘jissom� every other paragraph is never going to be a page-turner. To borrow: most distasteful thing I ever sat down for, loved it!
January 30, 2012
Maybe it's me, but I don't see "genius" at work here at all. The cut-ups are sometimes fun, sometimes arresting, but the huge quantities of jism and rectal mucous in evidence here swiftly become tiresome when there's little of substance to accompany them.
I thought I'd give another of the "prime" Burroughs novels a go after abandoning Naked Lunch, but I wish I hadn't. Junky and Queer are brilliant. This isn't.
I thought I'd give another of the "prime" Burroughs novels a go after abandoning Naked Lunch, but I wish I hadn't. Junky and Queer are brilliant. This isn't.
September 8, 2019
William S. Burroughs’un The Soft Machine özgün adıyla basılan kitabının Türkiye’de Sel Yayıncılık tarafından basılan kitabı olan Yumuşak Makine, cut-up (kes yapıştır) tekniği denilen özel bir yöntemle hazırlanmış ve Nova Üçlemesi olarak bilinen üçlemenin ilk kitabı. Cut-up tekniğinden bahsetmek gerekirse, elinizde bir ses kaydı olduğunu varsayın. Sonra elinizdeki kasetin bandını çıkarıp yüzlerce parçaya bölün, sonra karıştırıp bu parçaları birbirine ekleyin ve teybe takıp dinleyin. İşte teknik özetle bu. Nova Üçlemesi ise cut-up tekniğiyle yazılmış üç kitaptan oluşuyor. İlk kitap olan Yumuşak Makineden sonra yine Sel Yayıncılık tarafından basılmış Patlamış Bilet ve Nova Ekspres’i diğer iki kitabın adları.
Yumuşak Makine bu yönüyle aslında bir anti-edebiyat örneği. Çünkü yazılış tekniği bakımından, cümlelerin birbiriyle uyumlu olmayışı, konu bütünlüğünün sağlanamayışı kitabın edebi değerinden bahsetmek için pek bir şey ifade etmiyor. Ne var ki aynı bir yapboz gibi dağılmış milyonlarca parçayı bir araya getirmek için insan beyninin zorlanmasına sebep oluyor. Üzerinde derin düşünceler yorulmasına ve kitap üzerinde uzunca oyalanılmasına yol açıyor.
Bunun yanında içeriğindeki uyuşturucu bağımlılığı, eşcinsellik etmenleri, anal ilişkiler, erkek erkeğe yapılan seks, “am, göt, yarak, bel, atmık, sik� kelimeleri, kitaba karşı bazı tepkilerin doğmasına sebep olmuş.
Kitabın arka kapağına bakıldığında T.C. Başbakanlık Küçükleri Muzır Neşriyattan Koruma Kurulu’nun bir uyarısını görüyoruz.
Şimdi bu uyarıyı tane tane incelersek,
İlk cümlede şöyle deniyor; “İnceleme bölümünde de belirtildiği gibi yazar hiçbir değer sistemini ele almayan, disiplinsiz anti sosyal bir seks bağımlısı tipi ile şahsileştirdiği ‘Yumuşak Makine� isimli kitapta bir konu bütünlüğü olmadığı, gelişigüzel kaleme alınarak anlatım bütünlüğüne de riayet edilmediği, genelde argo ve amiyane tabirlerle kopuk anlatım tarzının benimsendiği, özellikle erkek erkeğe cinsel ilişkilerin zaman ve yer tasvirleriyle ar ve hayâ duygularını rencide edecek ölçüde anlatıldığı, zaman zaman tarihi mitolojik unsurların yaşam tarzlarından örnekler vererek kişisel ve objektif olmayan gerçek dışı yorumlarda bulunduğu anlaşılmaktadır.�
Öncelikle “disiplinsiz anti sosyal bir seks bağımlısı tipi� ne demektir diye sorarlar, acaba biri bana gelip de “disiplinli sosyal bir seks bağımlısı”nın nasıl olunacağını ya da örnekleri varsa bunları gösterebileceğini söyleyebilir mi? Yazar kitabında ister sosyal bir kişiden bahseder, ister seks bağımlısından, ister eroinmandan isterse eşcinselden. Ne zamandan beridir özgür düşünce sistemi değişti ve ne zamandır kişiler yazdıkları kitaplardan dolayı yargılanır oldular?
“konu bütünlüğü, gelişigüzel yazılış ve anlatım bütünlüğü� mevzusuna değinecek olursak, uyarının ilk cümlesiyle başlamak gerekirse yine inceleme bölümde de belirtildiği gibi yazar bu kitabı cut-up tekniğiyle kaleme almıştır. Doğal olarak bir konu ve anlatım bütünlüğünden bahsetmek biraz komik kaçıyor. Lakin kitabın tamamı ele alındığında çok da güzel denebilir ki Beat Kuşağı halkının yaşam tarzlarından, eğlencelerinden, küfürlerinden ve hallerinden kesitler sunuyor bu kitap. Yalın bir konu oldu mu bu, oldu. Demek ki elimizde bir konu mevcut, e yazar bunu ister özene bezene kaleme alır isterse sağ eliyle sol kulağını kafasının arkasından tutarak kaleme alır.
“argo ve amiyane tabirler� tartışması, bana bu biraz da ta eskileri anımsatıyor. Hani sırf şiirin birinde “nasır� sözcüğü geçiyor diye bahsi geçen şiirin aslında bir şiir olmadığının kabul gördüğü dönemleri. Ve hemen ardından da Can Yücel ve meşhur sözü akla gelir: “Bizim memlekette göte göt denir.�
“erkek erkeğe cinsel ilişki� konusu ise sanırım hala eşcinsellik kavramının ne düzeyde olduğunu gösterir derecede. Burası Türkiye diye bazıları hala memlekette eşcinsellerin yaşamadığını ve hak iddiasında bulunamayacaklarını düşünüyor.
“ar ve hayâ duygularının rencide edilmedi� mevzusu ise tam bir katliam. Ben kitabı okudum, artık bir ahlaksızım ve çok rencide edildim. O kadar ileri ki bu rencide edilişimin derecesi hali hazırda etrafıma saldırmayı ve türlü arsızlıklar düşünüyorum. Memleketin yerel kanallarında sabahtan akşama kadar kadın programları yapılıyor, birilerini başlarıyla evlensinler diye uğraşıp duran evlendirme programları yapılıyor, magazin kanallarında kimin selülitleri azmış, kim kiminle nerede basılmış gibi haberler gösteriliyor� ama benim hiç ar ve hayâ duygularım rencide olmuyor lakin kendi isteğimle gidip aldığım ve severek okuduğum bir kitap beni rencide ediyor. Bu nasıl bir olaydır? Bu ne perhiz, bu ne lahana turşusu derler adama.
“kişisel ve objektif olmayan gerçek dışı yorumlarda bulunulduğu� o nasıl bir tanımlamadır yahu? Gören der adam burada bilimsel makale yayımlamış ama her şey fasa-füso. Mantığa aykırı bir bildirge. Yazar kendi özgür irade ve düşüncesiyle bir kitap oluşturuyor ve bu “kişisel, objektif olmayan, gerçek dışı� gibi sıfatlarla eleştiriliyor. Çok garip.
Ve uyarının ikinci cümlesi: “Mezkûr kitabın bu haliyle edebi eser niteliği taşımadığı, okuyucu haznesine ilave katkısının olmayacağı, kriminolojik açıdan da kitapta, insanın bayağı, adi, zayıf yönlerinin işlenmesinin okuyucu üzerinde suça izin verici tavırları geliştirmektedir.�
Bir kitaba edebi eser değildir demek ne demektir? Bence en önemli edebi eserlerden biri, yukarıda objektiflikten bahseden kurul bu kez bencilciliği oynuyor ve kitap hakkında “edebi eser değildir� ibaresini kullanıyor. Evet değildir, kitap “deneysel edebiyat� ya da “anti-edebiyat� örneğidir. Oldu sanırım. Kitapta insanın bayağı, adi ve zayıf yönleri işleniyormuş. Beat Kuşağı halkına bakıldığında zaten kendilerini toplumdan soyutlamış ve “değer� bakımından da kendilerini en alt düzeylerde gösteren kişileri görürüz. Bu insanların zaten kendilerinden bulunmaz hint kumaşı olarak bahsedeceklerini hangi akıl, hangi beyin düşünebilir. Bayağı ve adi yönlerden kasıt eğer uyuşturucu bağımlılığı ve eşcinsellikse, bu gibi kavramların hiç de insanı küçük düşürecek düzeyde, basit, bayağı ve adi gösterecek yönler olduğu düşünülemez.
Ve bu kitap insanı suçlu yapabilirmiş. Zaten bu Beat Kuşağı sakinleri, yeraltı edebiyatçıları olmasalar yurtta ve dünyada barış sağlanacak. Tek sorumluları bu adi, bayağı, pislik, bağımlı insanlar. Hep bunları okuyoruz diye bu durumdayız biz şu an. Yoksa daima Şeker Portakalı’nı okusak, bunların hiçbiri başımıza gelmeyecek. Yahu suçlulara soralım bakalım kaçı okumuş bu Yumuşak Makine adlı kitabı ya da diğerlerini. Ayrıca burada sesli olarak güldüm.
Ve siz kimsiniz ki benim okuma hakkımı elimden alıyorsunuz, siz kimsiniz ki benim çocuğumu ya da başka çocukları korumaya kalkıyorsunuz, hem de kitaplardan. Bırakın ben kendi çocuğumu kendim korurum. Kim size bu hakkı verdi? Neyse.
Ve son olarak kitaptan bahsetmek gerekirse, anlaşılması zor, ayıp, ahlak bozan, suça teşvik eden, kaka bir kitaptır kendisi. Mutlaka okunması ve okutulması gerekir.
Yumuşak Makine bu yönüyle aslında bir anti-edebiyat örneği. Çünkü yazılış tekniği bakımından, cümlelerin birbiriyle uyumlu olmayışı, konu bütünlüğünün sağlanamayışı kitabın edebi değerinden bahsetmek için pek bir şey ifade etmiyor. Ne var ki aynı bir yapboz gibi dağılmış milyonlarca parçayı bir araya getirmek için insan beyninin zorlanmasına sebep oluyor. Üzerinde derin düşünceler yorulmasına ve kitap üzerinde uzunca oyalanılmasına yol açıyor.
Bunun yanında içeriğindeki uyuşturucu bağımlılığı, eşcinsellik etmenleri, anal ilişkiler, erkek erkeğe yapılan seks, “am, göt, yarak, bel, atmık, sik� kelimeleri, kitaba karşı bazı tepkilerin doğmasına sebep olmuş.
Kitabın arka kapağına bakıldığında T.C. Başbakanlık Küçükleri Muzır Neşriyattan Koruma Kurulu’nun bir uyarısını görüyoruz.
Şimdi bu uyarıyı tane tane incelersek,
İlk cümlede şöyle deniyor; “İnceleme bölümünde de belirtildiği gibi yazar hiçbir değer sistemini ele almayan, disiplinsiz anti sosyal bir seks bağımlısı tipi ile şahsileştirdiği ‘Yumuşak Makine� isimli kitapta bir konu bütünlüğü olmadığı, gelişigüzel kaleme alınarak anlatım bütünlüğüne de riayet edilmediği, genelde argo ve amiyane tabirlerle kopuk anlatım tarzının benimsendiği, özellikle erkek erkeğe cinsel ilişkilerin zaman ve yer tasvirleriyle ar ve hayâ duygularını rencide edecek ölçüde anlatıldığı, zaman zaman tarihi mitolojik unsurların yaşam tarzlarından örnekler vererek kişisel ve objektif olmayan gerçek dışı yorumlarda bulunduğu anlaşılmaktadır.�
Öncelikle “disiplinsiz anti sosyal bir seks bağımlısı tipi� ne demektir diye sorarlar, acaba biri bana gelip de “disiplinli sosyal bir seks bağımlısı”nın nasıl olunacağını ya da örnekleri varsa bunları gösterebileceğini söyleyebilir mi? Yazar kitabında ister sosyal bir kişiden bahseder, ister seks bağımlısından, ister eroinmandan isterse eşcinselden. Ne zamandan beridir özgür düşünce sistemi değişti ve ne zamandır kişiler yazdıkları kitaplardan dolayı yargılanır oldular?
“konu bütünlüğü, gelişigüzel yazılış ve anlatım bütünlüğü� mevzusuna değinecek olursak, uyarının ilk cümlesiyle başlamak gerekirse yine inceleme bölümde de belirtildiği gibi yazar bu kitabı cut-up tekniğiyle kaleme almıştır. Doğal olarak bir konu ve anlatım bütünlüğünden bahsetmek biraz komik kaçıyor. Lakin kitabın tamamı ele alındığında çok da güzel denebilir ki Beat Kuşağı halkının yaşam tarzlarından, eğlencelerinden, küfürlerinden ve hallerinden kesitler sunuyor bu kitap. Yalın bir konu oldu mu bu, oldu. Demek ki elimizde bir konu mevcut, e yazar bunu ister özene bezene kaleme alır isterse sağ eliyle sol kulağını kafasının arkasından tutarak kaleme alır.
“argo ve amiyane tabirler� tartışması, bana bu biraz da ta eskileri anımsatıyor. Hani sırf şiirin birinde “nasır� sözcüğü geçiyor diye bahsi geçen şiirin aslında bir şiir olmadığının kabul gördüğü dönemleri. Ve hemen ardından da Can Yücel ve meşhur sözü akla gelir: “Bizim memlekette göte göt denir.�
“erkek erkeğe cinsel ilişki� konusu ise sanırım hala eşcinsellik kavramının ne düzeyde olduğunu gösterir derecede. Burası Türkiye diye bazıları hala memlekette eşcinsellerin yaşamadığını ve hak iddiasında bulunamayacaklarını düşünüyor.
“ar ve hayâ duygularının rencide edilmedi� mevzusu ise tam bir katliam. Ben kitabı okudum, artık bir ahlaksızım ve çok rencide edildim. O kadar ileri ki bu rencide edilişimin derecesi hali hazırda etrafıma saldırmayı ve türlü arsızlıklar düşünüyorum. Memleketin yerel kanallarında sabahtan akşama kadar kadın programları yapılıyor, birilerini başlarıyla evlensinler diye uğraşıp duran evlendirme programları yapılıyor, magazin kanallarında kimin selülitleri azmış, kim kiminle nerede basılmış gibi haberler gösteriliyor� ama benim hiç ar ve hayâ duygularım rencide olmuyor lakin kendi isteğimle gidip aldığım ve severek okuduğum bir kitap beni rencide ediyor. Bu nasıl bir olaydır? Bu ne perhiz, bu ne lahana turşusu derler adama.
“kişisel ve objektif olmayan gerçek dışı yorumlarda bulunulduğu� o nasıl bir tanımlamadır yahu? Gören der adam burada bilimsel makale yayımlamış ama her şey fasa-füso. Mantığa aykırı bir bildirge. Yazar kendi özgür irade ve düşüncesiyle bir kitap oluşturuyor ve bu “kişisel, objektif olmayan, gerçek dışı� gibi sıfatlarla eleştiriliyor. Çok garip.
Ve uyarının ikinci cümlesi: “Mezkûr kitabın bu haliyle edebi eser niteliği taşımadığı, okuyucu haznesine ilave katkısının olmayacağı, kriminolojik açıdan da kitapta, insanın bayağı, adi, zayıf yönlerinin işlenmesinin okuyucu üzerinde suça izin verici tavırları geliştirmektedir.�
Bir kitaba edebi eser değildir demek ne demektir? Bence en önemli edebi eserlerden biri, yukarıda objektiflikten bahseden kurul bu kez bencilciliği oynuyor ve kitap hakkında “edebi eser değildir� ibaresini kullanıyor. Evet değildir, kitap “deneysel edebiyat� ya da “anti-edebiyat� örneğidir. Oldu sanırım. Kitapta insanın bayağı, adi ve zayıf yönleri işleniyormuş. Beat Kuşağı halkına bakıldığında zaten kendilerini toplumdan soyutlamış ve “değer� bakımından da kendilerini en alt düzeylerde gösteren kişileri görürüz. Bu insanların zaten kendilerinden bulunmaz hint kumaşı olarak bahsedeceklerini hangi akıl, hangi beyin düşünebilir. Bayağı ve adi yönlerden kasıt eğer uyuşturucu bağımlılığı ve eşcinsellikse, bu gibi kavramların hiç de insanı küçük düşürecek düzeyde, basit, bayağı ve adi gösterecek yönler olduğu düşünülemez.
Ve bu kitap insanı suçlu yapabilirmiş. Zaten bu Beat Kuşağı sakinleri, yeraltı edebiyatçıları olmasalar yurtta ve dünyada barış sağlanacak. Tek sorumluları bu adi, bayağı, pislik, bağımlı insanlar. Hep bunları okuyoruz diye bu durumdayız biz şu an. Yoksa daima Şeker Portakalı’nı okusak, bunların hiçbiri başımıza gelmeyecek. Yahu suçlulara soralım bakalım kaçı okumuş bu Yumuşak Makine adlı kitabı ya da diğerlerini. Ayrıca burada sesli olarak güldüm.
Ve siz kimsiniz ki benim okuma hakkımı elimden alıyorsunuz, siz kimsiniz ki benim çocuğumu ya da başka çocukları korumaya kalkıyorsunuz, hem de kitaplardan. Bırakın ben kendi çocuğumu kendim korurum. Kim size bu hakkı verdi? Neyse.
Ve son olarak kitaptan bahsetmek gerekirse, anlaşılması zor, ayıp, ahlak bozan, suça teşvik eden, kaka bir kitaptır kendisi. Mutlaka okunması ve okutulması gerekir.
February 19, 2024
What a mess. I think this work runs the fine line between genius and s&%t and even though I am a huge WSB fan, i suspect it may fall into the latter category on this occasion.
Having said that, there are some chapters (Celluloid Kali) which are wonderful. If you are new to Burroughs' work, do NOT start here.
Start with Junky or Queer which are his two early masterpieces or read the Final Trilogy, especially The Western Lands, which I believe is his best book.
This is a short read though so I do believe it is worth having a quick look at this, even if it's just to see how revolutionary Burroughs was, not only in his own time but even by today's standards of literature which seem to have slipped back (most unfortunately) into what I perceive to be mostly disappointing conservative or 'pop' writing.
The interesting thing about reading this book though is the EXPERIENCE for the reader. At first, it seems to make absolutely no sense whatsoever but through the use of repetition, to be more specific repetitive imagery which is either graphically sexual or bleak, the semblance of a story or half-story starts to form in the mind. Remember Burroughs' intention in writing in this style was to break down the regular patterns or tracks of thought within language which he describes like a virus which invades and attaches itself to our bodies. I'm looking forward to the next instalment though - The Nova Express and I have heard that the finale of the series - The Ticket that Exploded is the best.
February 2024 - my thoughts on this book second time round.
About a year or two ago, someone told me that there are about FOUR different versions of The Soft Machine. This sparked my curiosity and decided to find one of the latter versions to see if it made more sense. And the edition that I tracked down is from 2010 (although I haven't read the so-called 'Restored Text' by Oliver Harris yet).
This time round my impression is quite different. This book is still nuts, I mean really nuts, but in both good and bad ways.
It's like a glitchy memory movie which skips forward and backwards all the time. There's plenty of homoerotic scenes and Burroughs' 'rectal mucuous' is an image he constantly comes back to. There are some parts that are superbly written - they read like old seedy sepia peep-show late 1920s prose poetry. Disgusting? Yes, quite often. But what I realized this time round is that Burroughs' filthy writings are not necessarily a reflection of his own obsessions or mind, but more of a satirical reflection of the depraved and corrupt world we all live in, which seems to be getting worse all the time. In this sense, he is a very important writer, but this book is difficult, and will demand your full attention. At times, I almost felt like giving this four stars because some passages were stunning in their .....running through the word halls of my memory ...... stark depravity and vivid obscenity - a sort of defiant decadence, if that makes sense.
What I also appreciated about this book this time is how the last 1/4 of each chapter or episode is a cut-up of phrases and images from the first 3/4 of that same chapter so it gives the reader a feeling of the flashback, either akin to a drug-induced hallucination or the moment before death when your whole life flashes before your eyes.
I strongly recommend reading one of the later revised editions of The Soft Machine not the early 1961 edition, which does not make sense at all to me.
Having said that, there are some chapters (Celluloid Kali) which are wonderful. If you are new to Burroughs' work, do NOT start here.
Start with Junky or Queer which are his two early masterpieces or read the Final Trilogy, especially The Western Lands, which I believe is his best book.
This is a short read though so I do believe it is worth having a quick look at this, even if it's just to see how revolutionary Burroughs was, not only in his own time but even by today's standards of literature which seem to have slipped back (most unfortunately) into what I perceive to be mostly disappointing conservative or 'pop' writing.
The interesting thing about reading this book though is the EXPERIENCE for the reader. At first, it seems to make absolutely no sense whatsoever but through the use of repetition, to be more specific repetitive imagery which is either graphically sexual or bleak, the semblance of a story or half-story starts to form in the mind. Remember Burroughs' intention in writing in this style was to break down the regular patterns or tracks of thought within language which he describes like a virus which invades and attaches itself to our bodies. I'm looking forward to the next instalment though - The Nova Express and I have heard that the finale of the series - The Ticket that Exploded is the best.
February 2024 - my thoughts on this book second time round.
About a year or two ago, someone told me that there are about FOUR different versions of The Soft Machine. This sparked my curiosity and decided to find one of the latter versions to see if it made more sense. And the edition that I tracked down is from 2010 (although I haven't read the so-called 'Restored Text' by Oliver Harris yet).
This time round my impression is quite different. This book is still nuts, I mean really nuts, but in both good and bad ways.
It's like a glitchy memory movie which skips forward and backwards all the time. There's plenty of homoerotic scenes and Burroughs' 'rectal mucuous' is an image he constantly comes back to. There are some parts that are superbly written - they read like old seedy sepia peep-show late 1920s prose poetry. Disgusting? Yes, quite often. But what I realized this time round is that Burroughs' filthy writings are not necessarily a reflection of his own obsessions or mind, but more of a satirical reflection of the depraved and corrupt world we all live in, which seems to be getting worse all the time. In this sense, he is a very important writer, but this book is difficult, and will demand your full attention. At times, I almost felt like giving this four stars because some passages were stunning in their .....running through the word halls of my memory ...... stark depravity and vivid obscenity - a sort of defiant decadence, if that makes sense.
What I also appreciated about this book this time is how the last 1/4 of each chapter or episode is a cut-up of phrases and images from the first 3/4 of that same chapter so it gives the reader a feeling of the flashback, either akin to a drug-induced hallucination or the moment before death when your whole life flashes before your eyes.
I strongly recommend reading one of the later revised editions of The Soft Machine not the early 1961 edition, which does not make sense at all to me.
October 19, 2017
Having greatly enjoyed a selection of Burroughs' earlier texts (Junky, Queer and Naked Lunch), and with the intention of reading through his works in order of composition, I hit upon a buffer with The Soft Machine. There are some enjoyably odd and perverse moments within the text and a number bizarre incidents I can relish, but ultimately I do not think the cut-up experimentation works and serves only to distract from the fact that there isn't much in this book that could be read in a sustained way without being intoxicated. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but a Burroughs completist. You will have to be very psychedelic and strange, more so even than me, to properly appreciate this book.
Update: Since having written the above review I have seen an interview with Burroughs conducted during the early 1980's in which he himself stated that the obsession with (cut-up) technique was taken too far in some of his books. He mentioned The Soft Machine as an example of this.
Here's the interview:
Update: Since having written the above review I have seen an interview with Burroughs conducted during the early 1980's in which he himself stated that the obsession with (cut-up) technique was taken too far in some of his books. He mentioned The Soft Machine as an example of this.
Here's the interview:
September 22, 2010
*note to self. Copy from A. (different cover & edition 1968, corgi books).scan later.
hummmm ok. so far. it's just junkie delirium. I was looking forward to seeing Burroughs' cut and paste method in the original. Bitterly disappointed. The 60's and 70's produced some innovative but strange & silly works. There are tiny sections of Soft Machine that I recognised from knowing his biography. If you had no knowledge of Burroughs' life you'd be stuck with mostly gibberish and junkie slang.
I'm well over halfway...but not in the mood for this...off to the shelved indefinitely shelf.
hummmm ok. so far. it's just junkie delirium. I was looking forward to seeing Burroughs' cut and paste method in the original. Bitterly disappointed. The 60's and 70's produced some innovative but strange & silly works. There are tiny sections of Soft Machine that I recognised from knowing his biography. If you had no knowledge of Burroughs' life you'd be stuck with mostly gibberish and junkie slang.
I'm well over halfway...but not in the mood for this...off to the shelved indefinitely shelf.
September 13, 2023
The absolute worst book I've ever read. -5 stars. It's like someone out of his mind on drugs trying to write sex adventures as poetry disguised as a novel. "Experimental" and also a total failure. I feel like the author is just making fun of me for persisting for 182 pages.
Also, not to come off as puritanical but it's also the most disgusting book I've ever read. I wish I could get an operation to remove this book from my memory.
Also, not to come off as puritanical but it's also the most disgusting book I've ever read. I wish I could get an operation to remove this book from my memory.
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