William S. Burroughs The Job (1974)
I had this but never got around to reading it, then was reminded of its existence by The Revised Boy Scout Manual about a year or so ago, then realised I no longer owned a copy; so I've no idea what happened there. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing I would have given away, but never mind. Here's another one and this time I've read the fucker before it can slip from my grasp or is else spirited away by Venusians intent on keeping me from the truth. The Job comprises an interview or, more accurately, Burroughs responding to questions posed by Daniel Odier, occasionally responding by simply reproducing some relevant piece of writing. I assume Daniel Odier was a real person, although the reader could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, perhaps assuming this to be Burroughs setting himself the sort of questions he would like to be asked. It's pretty dry, reads like a postal interview, and is conspicuously lacking any inquiry along the lines of favourite hamburger topping or who's best - Beatles or Elvis?
As one might expect, most of Burroughs' major preoccupations are discussed - control, drugs, conspiracy, and so on. The subjects under discussion will be familiar to most who have read Burroughs and differ from how they are represented in the novels mainly in being a tidier, slightly more linear rendering of Bill's obsessions. Some of it is pure horseshit, as usual, and our man's analysis of Mayan culture is, as ever, about as useful as a chocolate fireguard - probably not quite so wacky as the notion of how we're actually living in a controlling matriarchal dictatorship, but same ballpark.
On the other hand, in The Job we find our man's testimony shining with particular brilliance when playing to his strengths - language as a virus, control systems, and an unusual and intriguing insight into Scientology suggesting it wasn't all just money for old rope. Of all the man's works, The Job probably isn't essential, but there's enough here to justify my having owned it twice.
I had this but never got around to reading it, then was reminded of its existence by The Revised Boy Scout Manual about a year or so ago, then realised I no longer owned a copy; so I've no idea what happened there. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing I would have given away, but never mind. Here's another one and this time I've read the fucker before it can slip from my grasp or is else spirited away by Venusians intent on keeping me from the truth. The Job comprises an interview or, more accurately, Burroughs responding to questions posed by Daniel Odier, occasionally responding by simply reproducing some relevant piece of writing. I assume Daniel Odier was a real person, although the reader could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, perhaps assuming this to be Burroughs setting himself the sort of questions he would like to be asked. It's pretty dry, reads like a postal interview, and is conspicuously lacking any inquiry along the lines of favourite hamburger topping or who's best - Beatles or Elvis?
As one might expect, most of Burroughs' major preoccupations are discussed - control, drugs, conspiracy, and so on. The subjects under discussion will be familiar to most who have read Burroughs and differ from how they are represented in the novels mainly in being a tidier, slightly more linear rendering of Bill's obsessions. Some of it is pure horseshit, as usual, and our man's analysis of Mayan culture is, as ever, about as useful as a chocolate fireguard - probably not quite so wacky as the notion of how we're actually living in a controlling matriarchal dictatorship, but same ballpark.
On the other hand, in The Job we find our man's testimony shining with particular brilliance when playing to his strengths - language as a virus, control systems, and an unusual and intriguing insight into Scientology suggesting it wasn't all just money for old rope. Of all the man's works, The Job probably isn't essential, but there's enough here to justify my having owned it twice.
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