Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader

by William S. Burroughs

  All this did not manifest itself until some months after we had moved in, July 15, 1963, and, then, it seemed to happen quite suddenly, as if invisible wheels had fallen into alignment. By early spring, February and March 1964, life in that house was Hell . . .

  A single injection of radioactive mind that way; Yes, you think: I am the only complete man in a large room . . . other people dancing on the white plaster walls . . . reassured each other we didn’t really . . . train whistles, blue twilight, beautiful blue thing you got. . . Keep clean, we told each other . . . well, benches and low coffee tables . . . a blast of blue in your slate house . . . a French waiter withers in the wall. . . Sit there in blue twilight. . . radioactive mats . . . yes, we would sleep . . . yes, he found that remote summer day . . . if I felt his heavy blue fix . . . two weeks and this was the first thing . . . low . . . there was something wrong . . . house of split bamboo with vines . . . ever try kicking that habit? There under the stars . . . (The stars out for you: Ton don’t get it if/don’t) . . . I do not recall . . . got in his way somehow. . . interfered with any twinges of foreboding . . . young . . . didn’t have the blast. . . tuned flat, of course . . . we planned you right to metal. . . As it turned out very precisely, assistant Abdulla would leak. A haunted house, a house listed it was haunted by his young pre-sent time . . . the time: calle Larachi. . . Abdulla, who took us to #4 . . . the door slammed . . . green mold on my shoes, however, the house looked charming on dishes . . . kerosene heaters that smoked . . . damp slimy walls . . . thumbs . . . we should have known the dark kitchen stacked with dirty little Arab children . . . Arabian knights who came to work for us smiling: “Fingaro? One cigarette?” . . . guards banging on the door . . . quiet street shadowed by trees as they gathered about us . . . Who stole the old bearded men who served for more money? . . . banging on the door . . . sneering . . . the Arabian house . . . light. . . the room facing the street. . . hostile, throwing rocks . . . someone was always in the room facing the street. . . children, beggars . . . back with window opening if you refused . . . Cool under water we had moved in and then it seemed my own . . . we moved in late . . . under the stairs . . . the house was Hell. . . by early spring, life was simply a hole in the floor . . . These foreign shit birds, here . . .

  IN PRESENT TIME

  now try this take a walk a bus a taxi do a few errands sit down somewhere drink a coffee watch tv look through the papers now return to your place and write what you have just seen heard felt thought with particular attention to precise intersection points where you from on television its a long way to go coca cola sing just after where the old bank used to be was open sundays there on pasteur boulevard only it isnt pasteur now its mohomed v tunnel of old photos you lika the boys or the girls post office where all the clerks walked out at 435 take a left past the spanish school young man said from a group of young men leaning on the fence you lika the boys or the girls post office where all the clerks stamp letters at once up a windy street past the coca cola sign frayed there down rembrandt toward the cleaners passed a man who said where you from marakesh i did not wait to hear more not liking what i had heard already place de france pick up the papers cafe de paris cafe au lait oui beeg one grand double to readers of the daily express loud and clear now yale professor is held as spy somewhere in moscow united states said custody its a long way to tipperary its a long way to go silent on spy arrest this is the fourth lesson 12341234 this is the fourth lesson artist old house must come down this is a store this store is in new york for a waif an end of innocence there are lessons on television there are many lessons on television this is america there are games on television clip and save these coupons charged with glenny deaths there are many games on television the english conquered their planet by good manners am i on the second floor captain cook weak heart no this is not the second floor this is the first floor the second floor is upstairs room above the florist shop go out and get those pictures i dont care if the whole fucking shithouse goes up go out and get those pictures these foreign suburbs here how about the sweet home villa just down the street spanish young man say you lika the boys or the girls lazy good natured spanish insolence the great garlic toothpick impresarioed this belch of folklore now when you get to where the old bank used to be open sundays and paco says vamanos a casa william and barnaby bliss erstwhile columnist on the now defunct tangier gazette sails by with a windy hello there and beats my touch down the street flat on my junkass in those days where you from marakesh you like beeg one son of bitch bastard i ketch one clap from fucky your asshole.

  well lets face it boys he doesnt want his picture taken but perhaps we can persuade him to pose for the nice gentlemens with gun and camera said the wise cop one of those funny bastards in every precinct hows you like a little heroin bill which you better think is funny and answer up like a good nigger yausuh boss man i sure would like some of that white sugar looks like ill have to wait till they burn me now

  the pigfaced whitelashed lieutenant looked up from his books they cut out those execution shots ruling just came through from the capital we were getting entirely too many execution addicts dumped in our lap said a highly placed narcotics department official the ruling is retroactive recalling all execution shots

  its a long way to tipperary its a long way to go young english soldier this is the fourth lesson 12 3 4 flickering fingers sweating last human pieces my contact there faded sepia genitals in a tattoo parlor smile from an old calendar back porch falling leaves sun cold on a thin boy with freckles folded away in an old file annie laurie never called retreat mister wasnt anything to say bradly is not there today telling you enemy intercepted here one blurred hand opened the gates for you will he hear from a group leaning on the fence in moscow united states audible click wasnt anything to say to the appropriate file annie laurie bring the bastards home and teach them to act like good human cattle

  the american consulate

  new

  of course the old consulate is now an unethical massage parlor and frankly young man do i seem the sort of person who would willingly frequent such an establishment and if you say no sir a bit too old for that i shall simply strip my makeup off put it on put it on chant the boys from the rear solemn new fold in technique you move fast there now marys shes kinda cut off there now since the 29 tornado name and address on the wind why she might have assassinated the president a police officials moaned stolidly so moving fast i see the blue harbor through the empty frame of what used to be a public map of the city very blue under a grey sky pulling rain across the harbor around the cafe de paris and down the hill in a pride of adolescent gooks all punching each other so young as far as the grand socco which isnt so grand i tell you its tough out here with the plasma running low strong men cried when we had to suck the lead dog fortunes of war said a j wiping off his chin with a red bandana its more decent that way you see a cool vampire never shows red as we say in the trade to return to my horrible confessions which have finished off three hardened police officials but what i say is its no more disgusting than anything speaking of which last power failure in the deep freeze brought a sharp reprimand from the board of health with oblique references to uh certain unsanitary conditions you know what i mean right enough you were making a filthy smell

  so the great thaw was on and thoughtful citizens did not like what they thaw whats that great thaw going to thaw out be so great when it thaw out they demanded and receiving only a spray of stinking sludge in reply the district supervisor put in an urgent request for heavy weapons and shock troops the tide is coming in at hiroshima seconds later he gave the order towers open fire you are a gun an instrument synchronized to open fire when you intersect enemy the pilot cannot make error he synchronized

  he turned left on third avenue unless its now avenue of the asias or something else wouldnt you if that is where you lived and you were going to meet your spanking new juicy boyfriend and you were synchronized to want it like i am it was no more disgusting than anything said the contessa which
was pretty disgusting in its own right like this gombeen man in inner ireland sets up the visceral calendar whereby he knows when any animal of the village would shit jack off pick his nose stick a banana up his ass and could slide an oblique references to uh piles of uh dubious uh antecedents heh heh heh while he weighed down your groceries and leaned heavy on the scale when he came to the point well jacky me boy sure and youre looking like a ripe apple been out in the fresh air behind the old spring house playing like a boy well havent you now lean lean lean there wasnt a living soul in that blighted country the man didnt lean on he knew it all so nasty visceral calendars are inexorable as the processes of which they speak the day rolls around when every living soul looks his fellow in the eye and says did he lean on you

  empty picture of a haunted ruin he lifted his hands sadly turned them out some boy just wrote last goodbye across the sky last goodbye whispering children on a dead star empty withered cut off exploded film scraps last awning flaps on the pier last man here now the youth structure of all your world broken twisted on electric fence at the barrier have i done the job here will he hear it a distant hand lifted 1920 window child fingers tap the glass all the dream people of past time are saying goodbye forever mister sad servant shadows of late afternoon against his back magic of all movies in remembered kid standing there face luminous by the attic window in a lost street of brick chimneys a little wind stirs dust around his bare feet silver ghostboy exploded star between us still there waiting searched from person to person unfound

  remember the shabby quarters mister write goodbye to your old friend in a furnished room over the florist shop dead old human papers i carry thin boy waiting on a 1920 bench voice so painful ive come a long way dont let me die like that hopelessly calling exploding star see the boy there hand lifted further and further away goodbye sir last human crying you heard didnt you ghostboy of exploded page far away obituary window closed you no longer want the dead boy before the mirror plays to a haunted attic books and toys put away you can look back along windy streets half buried in sand to a white shirt flapping gunsmoke

  the young man is received with cool reserve there is a wide desk between them empty except for a wire basket labeled it never happened on the mans left

  so you are a friend of mr d

  well yes in a way that is

  what do you mean friend of mr d in a way

  the young man began to titter he put his hand on the desk and leaned forward tittering the young man stopped tittering and looked at the end of his shoe as if he were trying to see his face there twisting the toe around i guess you think im just terrible for laughing like that without telling you why but well uh you see my special nickname is friend now i think thats funny dont you

  the mans answer drifted back over remote mineral landscapes of a dead star not very

  well i guess different people think different things are funny because different people are taking in consideration different things now I read about this big tycoon magnate float this stock on widows and orphans like me and when the orphans went to pick up well the man behind the desk just looks at me and says account sheets are empty many years pimpam justlikethat now i dont think thats fair do you

  the young man leaped on the desk thrusting his face inches in front of the man like an eager dog the mans chair moved back a foot in slow hydraulic recoil it was a way he had with visitors who leaned too far over his desk

  all right you can drop the kid act gimpy id know you under ganymede you come around to put the bite on somebody thats not smart its like tough you are not or worthy

  the gimp stands there face twisted with the hideous metal diseases of nova the mans chair moved back another foot you stink of burning apes gimpy he said the words falling heavy and cold seventy tons to the square inch

  and what you stink of you white nova junky

  we have the reverse order the bank will pay

  he drops the gimps file into it never happened a cleareyed young officer is standing before the desk

  well young man the colonel will have his little joke quite a character the gimp chap used to be with us clever at drawing did a comic strip for the post gazette called old gimp yes young man this squadron has a lot of traditions folklore you might say a spot of folklore can help a man out of a bad spot never without it myself he slips a bottle of pills from his vest pocket and swings the bottle in a slow arc but it stopped dead never to go again when the old man died

  i have been in desperate battle want to name terms legs out of the area

  well so you’re looking for the bellvue hotel are you young man used to be the bellreeve country club at one time and you can still see the old golf course kinda run down now well if you walk up along olive street till you come to the old flatiron building now that building was tore down around 1932 and used to set right opposite jeds livery stable on market street only it wasnt market street then it was just mark street named after the survey line run right through there and it turned out a heap of folks didnt own what they thought they owned after the big survey now the man did the survey was named arch bane and for quite some years there wasnt a less liked man in this valley than old arch always surveying some ones assets out from under him setting nice and cozy in your own living room and there is old arch with his plumb line and bad news writ all over him well nobody rightly knew where arch come from he just seemed to blow in with the 29 tornado when the old courthouse went up and all the records got scattered around and wasnt nothing for it but to survey every piece of property in the county so they called in arch to do the job and folks hereabouts figure that was the worst thing ever happened but i always say the worst things you never know when they happen well now arch lived in the bellvue hotel and you might say he surveyed hisself a room there cause one sizzling day in september sept 17 if my memory serves old judge farris president of the bellreeve country club stepped out and dove into what used to be the swimming pool and come up in the widow greens septic tank and closed the club right there well shortly after that some young feller name of mike spiegel took over the building and converted it into the bellvue hotel commanding a view of what used to be the golf course which is now what you might call a disputed area still under survey so what with one thing and another it isnt so easy to tell you just where the hotel is located but if you take a left just past the flatiron building depending of course which way you come on it and walk down the old branch line to where the tool bridge used to be then angle off due west past mary lus ethical massage parlor and the quicker the better now mary shes right hard pressed for clients since the saw mill closed down so right about where youll be if you move fast enough is a big red brick building stands a little back from the road well now that isnt it so bear straight on to the old signal tower now from the top of the signal tower though i wouldnt advise you to climb up there the state its in well you cant see the hotel but you can see the place where it is if the wind is right and thats about the closest way i know to tell you unless you want to see archs maps dont rightly think arch himself could make them out

  j brundige the newspaper man thanked the county clerk for taking up so much of his time reflecting that time seemed to be a commodity with which the clerk was well supplied he stepped out into a street swept by weather shifts alternate whiteouts of snow and sunlight walk in long ago boy until you come to where i finished last cigar so many actors you cant see the hotel bad news writ all over the dust wasnt nothing for it but to survey r2 and 2-12 and shut the county stand a little back from the game he decided nothing was to be gained by climbing the old signal tower sighted at random and proceeded until stopped by a high wooden fence he skirted the fence found a loose slot and pushed through into a vacant lot overgrown with weeds this must be the old golf course he decided and dove into the second gpm come up in the old septic tank sort of cool and clean if it had been there some reward for thirteen years of sweating out what you might call a disputed clearing process so what with one thing and another deep into the third goal which is just wh
ere the hotel is like the poet say long thoughts archs maps sort of leap out at you all at once

  in the lobby an old jew with grey fish eyes waved his cigar ive still got my cigar he said put it back in his mouth and looked out through hotel bellvue silver letters flaking off the glass

  a young man moved in and out of focus what do you want he snapped the hotel is completely full you understand no room none at all his voice cracked oh youve come for the pictures well all right

  he led the way through a smell of closed rooms as they walked muttering voices rose from old photos on rose wallpaper and gathered around the feet the boy kicked petulantly

  oh shut up you silly old things no i simply wont jack off in the outhouse its full of scorpions for one thing besides id sooner make fudge

  he dusted off a magic lantern now you see with this lantern on that screen it happens you know things that can be done and so easily except so many things have happened and there simply isnt room anymore

  dont ask questions and dont pass remarks longago boy walked through the dust kicking in sunlight silver grey and out of focus a thin boy gilt edged sepia typhoid witness in switzerland muttering dangerous no one wants to machine guns in baghdad agatha christie waiting all the old names would expect anything to happen canada yes definitely out of focus