Nova Express

by William S. Burroughs

  Their horrible condition from a short blue holiday on Uranus—Post everybody in The Biologic Courts: Willy’s attorney served “Count.”—He said in an interview pushing through and still for it—Fade out—Chambers—Green People—remote green contempt forms fixers and runners all claiming the animal hosts they had—(The Court Of Professional Brothers and Moves Of Vegetable Centuries)—The petitioners and plaintiffs their green sexless life screaming through the halls remote mineral calm received—in slate blue houses and catatonic dances illustrating The Heavy Metal Kid returned—Many have tattooed in diseases and brought suit against The Audience Chambers—

  “They are giving me a short necessary process”—Screaming crowds entered the corridors the audience and the patios—The feeling and proclivities of connection with officials invaded with inexorable limestone and cousins twice removed—Virus and drugs plaintiff and defendant—Heavy Metal People Of Uranus in a thousand languages live robes that grow on them blue and hideous diseases—The little high-fi junk note shrieking for ­compensation—Spine frozen on the nod color flashes the heavy blue mist of bank notes—The petitioners and plaintiffs screaming through the halls wrapped in: “My God what a mess”—Holding up insect claws remote with all understand I hope what service—He appeared sometimes as whatever remains—All understand I hope what proclivities of the animal means that the mediating lie inexorable moves of Time—

  TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING

  The Gods of Time-Money-Junk gather in a heavy blue twilight drifting over bank floors to buy con force an extension of their canceled permits—They stand before The Man at The Typewriter—Calm and grey with inflexible authority he presents The Writ:

  “Say only this should have been obvious from Her Fourth Grade Junk Class—Say only The Angel Profound Lord Of Death—Say I have canceled your permissos through Time-Money-Junk of the earth—Not knowing what is and is not knowing I knew not. All your junk out in apomorphine—All your time and money out in word dust drifting smoke streets—Dream street of body dissolves in light . . .”

  The Sick Junk God snatches The Writ: “Put him in The Ovens—Burn his writing”—He runs down a hospital corridor for The Control Switch—“He won’t get far.” A million police and partisans stand quivering electric dogs—antennae light guns drawn—

  “You called The Fuzz—You lousy fink—”

  “They are your police speaking your language—If you must speak you must answer in your language—”

  “Stop—Alto—Halt—” Flashed through all I said a million silver bullets—The Junk God falls—Grey dust of broom swept out by an old junky in backward countries—

  A heavy blue twilight drifting forward snatches The Writ—­Time-Money-Junk gather to buy: “Put him in The Ovens—Burn his writing—”

  “Say only The Angel Profound Lord of D”—Runs down a hospital corridor—Your bodies I have ­written—Your death called the police—The Junk God sick from “Stop—Alto—Halt—” The Junk God falls in a heavy blue twilight drifting over the ready with drawn guns—Time-Money-Junk on all your languages—Yours—Must answer them—Your bodies—I have written your death hail of silver bullets—So we are now able to say not. Premature?? I think the auditor’s mouth is stopped with his own—With her grey glance faded ­silver understanding out of date—Well I’d ask alterations but there really isn’t time is there left by the ticket that ­exploded—Any case I have to move along—Little time so I’ll say good night under the uh circumstances—Now the Spanish Flu would not be again at the window touching the wind in green neon—You understanding the room and she said: “Dear me what a long way down”—Meet Café is closed—if you wanted a cup of tea—burst of young you understand—so many and soo—The important thing is always courage to let go—in the dark—Once again he touched the window with his cool silver glance out into the cold spring air a colorless question drifted down corridors of that hospital—

  “Thing Police keep all Board Room Reports”—And we are not allowed to proffer The Disaster Accounts—Wind hand caught in the door—Explosive Bio-Advance Men out of space to employ ­Electrician—In gasoline crack of history—Last of the gallant heroes—“I’m you on tracks Mr. Bradly Mr. Martin”—Couldn’t reach flesh in his switch—And zero time to the sick tracks—A long time between suns I held the stale overcoat—­Sliding between light and shadow—­Muttering in the dogs of unfamiliar score—Cross the wounded galaxies we ­intersect—Poison of dead sun in your brain slowly ­fading—Migrants of ape in gasoline crack of history—Explosive bio advance out of space to neon—“I’m you, Wind Hand caught in the door—” Couldn’t reach flesh—In sun I held the stale overcoat—Dead Hand stretching the throat—Last to proffer the disaster account on tracks—See Mr. Bradly Mr.—

  And being blind may not refuse to hear: “Mr. Bradly Mr. Martin, disaster to my blood whom I created”—(The shallow water came in with the tide and the Swedish River of Gothenburg.)

  This Horrible Case

  THE HORRIBLE CASE

  Angle boys of the cosmos solicit from lavatories and broom closets of the Biologic Court Buildings charge out high on ammonia peddling fixes on any case from The Ovens Rap to a summons for biologic ­negligence—After buying a few short fixes in rigged courts, the pleaders defendants court officials and guilty bystanders learn to use a filter screen that scans out whole wave-lengths of ill-intentioned lunacy—This apparatus, sold in corridors and patios of the court buildings, enables any life form in need of legal advice to contact an accredited biologic counselor trained in the intricacies and apparent contradictions of biologic law—The classic case presented to first year students is The Oxygen Impasse: Life Form A arrives on alien planet from a crippled space craft—Life Form A breathes “oxygen”—There is no “oxygen” in the atmosphere of alien planet but by invading and occupying Life Form B native to alien planet they can convert the “oxygen” they need from the blood stream of Life Form B—The Occupying Life Form A directs all the behavior and energies of Host Life Form B into channels calculated to elicit the highest yield of ­oxygen—Health and interest of the host is disregarded—­Development of the host to space stage is arrested since such development would deprive the invaders by necessity of their “oxygen” supply—For many years Life Form A remains invisible to Life Form B by a simple operation scanning out areas of perception where another life form can be seen—However an emergency a shocking emergency quite unlooked-for has arisen—Life Form B sees Life Form A—(Watching you have they thought debarred) and brings action in The Biologic Courts alleging unspeakable indignities, mental and physical cruelty, deterioration of mind body and soul over thousands of years, demanding summary removal of the alien parasite—To which Form B replies at The First Hearing: “It was a question of food supply—of absolute need—Everything followed from that: Iron claws of pain and pleasure squeezing a planet to keep the host in body prison working our ‘oxygen’ plants—­Knowing that if he ever saw even for an instant who we are and what we are doing—(Switched our way is doomed in a few seconds)—And now he sees us planning to use the host as a diving suit back to our medium where of course Life Form B would be destroyed by alien ­conditions—­Alternative posed by the aroused partisans fumbling closer and closer to the switch that could lock us out of Form B and cut our ‘oxygen’ lines—So what else could we do under the circumstances? The life form we invaded was totally alien and detestable to us—We do not have what they call ‘emotions’—soft spots in the host marked for invasion and manipulation—”

  The Oxygen Impasse is a basic statement in the algebra of absolute need—“Oxygen” interchangeable factor representing primary biologic need of a given life form—From this statement the students prepare briefs—sift cut and rearrange so they can view the case from varied angles and mediums:

  The trial of The Nova Mob brought in emergency quite unlooked-for: Broom arisen—sweeps Life Form B—Sees fixes in The Biologic Courts—Deteri
oration of mind body and soul buying a few short fixes in rigged Any Place—Learns the years—the long—the many—such a place—scans out whole lengths of alien ­parasite—and brings action from unspeakable indignities and negligence demanding summary biologic lawyers who never hustle a form—The best criminal counselor was Uranian U—His clients from heavy metal—­Impression Thing followed from that Iron Claws Brief—From one interview he got Sammy squeezing a planet in The Switch—The Green Octopus working Vegetable ­Sentence—And now they have seen there is no “oxygen” in the diving suit—Local life would be destroyed by the “oxygen” they breathe—

  “This pressure—Health cut our ‘oxygen’ lines—so disregarded—”

  “So that the circumstances?”

  “Life of the host beyond ‘THE’ detestable to us—Would deprive the invaders by soft spots in the host—”

  With the material you have nature of absolute need and The First Hearing in Biologic Court—

  “Alleging you understand I must fight indignities and cruelties and the natives are all mind body and soul demanding and I can’t account for poison—(to which of course I have never lost a client)—Specific facts and cases a question of food supply not ­adequate—Owed from that the two claws intimidate and corrupt—”

  “Enables an arrested criminal of pleasure and pain to squeeze counselor trained in the body-prison contradictions of biologic law—Diving suit of thousand years back to our medium instead of The Reverse Switch—Alternative Word Island—”

  So where to first year students of Biologic Law ­Circumstances?—Life Form A was totally alien crippled space craft—Do not have what they call “emotion’s oxygen” in the atmosphere—

  A student who represents Life Form A must anticipate questions of the Biologic Prosecutor:—

  “How did the space craft ‘happen’ to be crippled in such convenient proximity?—Was not the purpose of the expedition to find ‘oxygen’ and extract it by any means?—During many years of occupancy was any effort towards biologic reconversion made by Life Form A prior to intervention of The Biologic Police?—Was not Life Form A conspiring to cut off the ‘oxygen’ of Life Form B as soon as their ‘travel arrangements’ were completed? Did they not in fact plan to liquidate Life Form B by cutting off ‘emotion’s oxygen’ the charge on which human and other mammalian life forms run?—(Doctor W. Reich has suggested that human life is activated by units he calls ‘orgones’ which form a belt around the planet)—Life Form A obviously conspired to blockade the orgone belt and leave Form B to suffocate in a soulless vacuum at the high surface temperatures that obtain on Life Form A’s planet of origin: 600 Degrees Fahrenheit—”

  In short the plea of need offered by Life Form A is inadequate—To prepare a case would be necessary to investigate the original conditions and biologic history of Life Form A on location—A Biologic Counselor must know his client and be “trained in the body-prison contradictions of biologic law”—It will not be easy for Life Form A to find a counselor willing to handle “this horrible case—”

  BRIEF FOR THE FIRST HEARING

  Biologic Counselors must be writers that is only writers can qualify since the function of a counselor is to create facts that will tend to open biologic potentials for his client—One of the great early counselors was Franz Kafka and his briefs are still standard—The student first writes his own brief then folds his pages down the middle and lays it on pages of Kafka relevant to the case in hand—(It is not always easy to say what is and is not relevant)—To indicate the method here is a tentative brief for The First Hearing in Biologic Court:—A preparation derived from one page of Kafka passed through the student’s brief and the original statement back and forth until a statement of biologic position emerges—From this original statement the student must now expand his case—

  QUOTE FROM The Trial—FRANZ KAFKA

  “I fancy,” said the man who was stylishly dressed, “that the gentleman’s faintness is due to the atmosphere here—You see it’s only here that this gentleman feels upset, not in other places—” Accustomed as they were to the office air felt ill in the relatively fresh air that came up from the stairway—They could scarcely answer him and the girl might have fallen if K had not shut the door with the utmost haste—He had already, so he would relate, won many similar cases either outright or partially—That was very important for the first impression made by the defense frequently determined the whole course of subsequent proceedings—Especially when a case they had conducted was suddenly taken out of their hands—That was beyond all doubt the worst thing that could happen to an advocate—Not that a client ever dismissed an advocate from the case—For how could he keep going by himself once he had pulled in someone to help him?—But it did sometimes happen that a case took a turn where the advocate could no longer follow it—The case and the accused and everything was simply withdrawn from the advocate—Then even the best connection with officials could no longer achieve any result—For even they knew nothing—The case had simply reached the stage where further assistance was ruled out—It had vanished into remote inaccessible courts where even the accused was beyond the reach of an advocate—The advocate’s room was in the very top attic so that if you stumbled through the hole your leg hung down into the lower attic in the very corridor where the clients had to wait—

  BRIEF FOR FIRST HEARING / / CASE OF LIFE FORM A

  They sometimes mutate to breathe “here”—The gentleman is Biologic Court Building “here”—You see it’s only “here” fixes any case from The Ovens—Not in other places—after buying the relatively fresh air—Life Form A arrives on worst thing that could happen to a space craft—Life Form A breathes from the atmosphere of alien planet—Form A directs all behavior withdrawn from the advocate into channels calculated to no longer achieve health and interest of the host—The case had simply reached to space stage—Assistance was ruled out—Even the accused was beyond years—Life Form A’s room was in the very top—

  “I fancy,” said the man who was on alien planet, “that crippled faintness is due to the ‘oxygen’—There is no ‘oxygen’ this gentleman feels but by invading and occupying ‘the office air’ they can convert the ‘oxygen’ up from the stairway of Life Form B.”

  The first impression made determines whole course of subsequent “oxygen” supply—A shocking emergency case—For how could he keep Form A??—Sees someone to help him but it debarred action in turn—Could scarcely answer the people of Minraud—Brain directs all ­movement—Use a filter screen that scans the door with intentioned lunacy—Won many similar cases operating through telepathic ­misdirection—There has been dismissed an advocate from Minraud—Pulled in and ­replaced—Worst thing that could happen to present heads—Sometimes happened that a case took total weapons—The principal no longer follow it—The case had simply reached molten core of a planet where assistance was ruled out—

  “I fancy,” said the man, “that this gentleman feels white hot blue skies—Haste he had already so?”

  Even so there is a devious underground either outright or partial misdirection—The office air are heads in bottles—Beyond all doubt intend to outthink and replace the advocate—A client revolution—For how could he keep fallen heads to help him?—Metal shimmering heat from the stage where further assistance melts at noon into remote inaccessible courts—

  “Word falling—Photo falling stylishly dressed—The gentleman’s insane orders and counter orders ‘here’—You see it’s only ‘here’—Accustomed D.C. felt ill in the relatively fresh air, what?—British could scarcely answer him—Shut the door with the utmost haste—”

  “Mindless idiot you have won many similar cases—”

  Electric defense frequently determined the whole civilization and proceedings—Especially when a case fear desperate position and advantage suddenly taken out of their hands—The case had simply reached incredible life forms—Even the accused w
as beyond altered pressure—The very top operation—The client of mucus and urine said the man was an alien—Unusual mucus coughing enemy “oxygen” up from the stairway—Speed up movie made such forms by overwhelming gravity supply—Flesh frozen to supply a shocking emergency case—Amino acid directs all movement—won code on Grey Veil—To be read telepathic misdirection—“Office air” they can convert in dirty pictures of Life Form B—liquidate enemy on London Space Stage—Tenuous air debarred action of yesterday—Coughing enemy pulled in and replaced—

  “The gentleman in body prison working our ‘here’—You see it’s only ‘here’ he ever saw even for an instant—Not in other places—Switched our way is doomed in the relatively fresh air—That’s us—Planning to use the host could scarcely answer him—Of course Life Form B with the utmost haste would shut the door that was very important for our ‘oxygen’ lines—So what else?—­Defense frequently determined the life form we invaded—”