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Observed While Falling: Bill Burroughs, Ah Pook, and Me
Observed While Falling is the account of the creative interaction between author William S. Burroughs and artist Malcolm McNeill - a collaboration that began when McNeill was still in art school in London in 1970, and continued beyond the point when Burroughs himself was dead.
The primary focus of their endeavors was Ah Pook is Here, a 'Word/Image Novel' concerning the Control of Time and the possibilities of 'traveling' within it. This was the overt fictional medium for a deeper enquiry into the inherent nature of words and images themselves. Ah Pook was a form of Metafiction, a literary device in which the author deliberately places himself within the narrative in order to set up a dialogue of creative exchange between fiction and fact - an attempt as Burroughs described it "...to make it happen". Over the course of almost four decades Ah Pook is Here did indeed "happen", and many of its fictional elements were realized as fact. Given that the principle character Ah Pook, is the Mayan god of Death and regeneration, these facts often bordered on the uncanny...
In keeping with Ah Pook's essential character, Observed While Falling was unexpectedly brought to life by a dead another English artist who had also collaborated with an American writer on the subject of the Maya 160 years before. In effect, an individual, whose creative and personal life trajectory often matched McNeill's precisely, 'traveled' forward in Time to confirm Ah Pook's underlying premise, and revive a project that had been lost to the record for more than 30 years. This unlikely fictional/factual exchange resulted in a unique Observed While Falling is the record of an inexplicable correspondence in Time... an unusual insight into the nature of words and images and the energies that compel them... a rare intimate portrait of one of the twentieth century's iconic literary figures... a detailed account of the making of an unusual proto-typical graphic novel before the term existed...
Black & white throughout
192 pages, Hardcover
First published October 5, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 16, 2015
I have never read a biography like it.
The author and Burroughs begin their collaboration by meeting to study a copy of one of the few Mayan codices not destroyed by brutal censorship. The suggestion grows in the reader’s mind that the Mayan books are related to the nature of time itself, that time can be folded in the manner of the long codex pages, that different points on time’s path can touch and influence each other.
The decades of gestation of Burroughs’ and McNeill’s own book then become a demonstration of that idea, as McNeill discovers the way his own life has exactly synchronized with that of the first Western artist who entered the jungle in 1836 to document the Mayan ruins.
In the end, what would have been the first graphic novel falls prey to the same censorship or “Control” that tried to eliminate the codices.
Whether the reader has never read a word of Burroughs, or has and didn’t care for him, or thinks he was a genius…has no bearing on what this book has to offer.
It’s about words as literal magic. The powers they unleash. And the powers in this world that will go to any lengths to deprive us of that magic.
Stunning.
The author and Burroughs begin their collaboration by meeting to study a copy of one of the few Mayan codices not destroyed by brutal censorship. The suggestion grows in the reader’s mind that the Mayan books are related to the nature of time itself, that time can be folded in the manner of the long codex pages, that different points on time’s path can touch and influence each other.
The decades of gestation of Burroughs’ and McNeill’s own book then become a demonstration of that idea, as McNeill discovers the way his own life has exactly synchronized with that of the first Western artist who entered the jungle in 1836 to document the Mayan ruins.
In the end, what would have been the first graphic novel falls prey to the same censorship or “Control” that tried to eliminate the codices.
Whether the reader has never read a word of Burroughs, or has and didn’t care for him, or thinks he was a genius…has no bearing on what this book has to offer.
It’s about words as literal magic. The powers they unleash. And the powers in this world that will go to any lengths to deprive us of that magic.
Stunning.
February 10, 2015
"Observed While Falling is a fascinating book. This review in INTERNATIONAL TIMES sums it up perfectly:
"Colin Wilson read this extraordinary book at a single sitting. He can’t have been an exception. Malcolm McNeill’s ‘Observed While Falling: Bill Burroughs, Ah Pook and Me’ sweeps you up into a multi-layered adventure that presses almost every button: it’s philosophy; it’s science fiction and it’s science fact. It plays astonishing tricks with reality. It’s a wild phantasmagoria but, more specifically, it’s an account of the creation of that legendary graphic novel, ‘Ah Pook Is Here’, the great ‘lost book’ of the last century. It’s a literary case history that belongs on every counter-cultural bookshelf."
The complete review is here:
http://internationaltimes.it/the-curs...
"Colin Wilson read this extraordinary book at a single sitting. He can’t have been an exception. Malcolm McNeill’s ‘Observed While Falling: Bill Burroughs, Ah Pook and Me’ sweeps you up into a multi-layered adventure that presses almost every button: it’s philosophy; it’s science fiction and it’s science fact. It plays astonishing tricks with reality. It’s a wild phantasmagoria but, more specifically, it’s an account of the creation of that legendary graphic novel, ‘Ah Pook Is Here’, the great ‘lost book’ of the last century. It’s a literary case history that belongs on every counter-cultural bookshelf."
The complete review is here:
http://internationaltimes.it/the-curs...
January 8, 2013
Fantastic insight on Burroughs as an individual, for those of you concerned. One of the more humane portraits of Burroughs around, actually. At times feels like your sitting right there with Bill -- particularily enjoyed the restaurant scene and Bill's cigarette routine. How a man can smoke so much is beyond me!
But the subject of the book, the ever-in-progress Ah Pook is Here is really quite something. I have not read Ah Pook (the text is available) and am glad that I will go into it with the insights here gained.
The final essays that wrap the book up are beautifully written, pertinent, enlightening -- really eye opening stuff. They are concerned with pre-destination, synchronicity, re-incarnation...
Highly recomended.
But the subject of the book, the ever-in-progress Ah Pook is Here is really quite something. I have not read Ah Pook (the text is available) and am glad that I will go into it with the insights here gained.
The final essays that wrap the book up are beautifully written, pertinent, enlightening -- really eye opening stuff. They are concerned with pre-destination, synchronicity, re-incarnation...
Highly recomended.
May 5, 2013
This book was so good, it was so insightful. It felt like two glorious books in one. First a very humorous and personal accounting of McNeill's struggles as an artist, and his relationship with Burroughs. The depth of their friendship, Burrough's esteem for McNeill is illustrated in the fact that he becomes Godfather to Malcolm's son.
The second part of the book delves more into theory and explanation for Ah Pook, for coincidence for relativity, much headier stuff, but some great ideas and intrigues. Got me thinking I must say. One of the focus's is the coincidences between McNeill and Catherwood, that stuff was goose pimply eerie.
Now I Have finished this book I am excited to buy and look through Malcolm McNeill's companion book to this ...The Lost Art of Ah Pook is Here.
The second part of the book delves more into theory and explanation for Ah Pook, for coincidence for relativity, much headier stuff, but some great ideas and intrigues. Got me thinking I must say. One of the focus's is the coincidences between McNeill and Catherwood, that stuff was goose pimply eerie.
Now I Have finished this book I am excited to buy and look through Malcolm McNeill's companion book to this ...The Lost Art of Ah Pook is Here.
July 26, 2016
Fascinating different take on Burroughs, the "lost" graphic novel of Ah Pook is Here, and the synchronicity within. Really enjoyed it, and although I'm a Burroughs completist, I think could definitely be interesting for the more casual Burroughs fan as well. Ordering the Lost Art of Ah Pook soon.
June 21, 2018
Fascinating...
December 12, 2012
Observed While Falling is not a great book. Its not even a good book, it's decent. For the most part I feel Malcolm McNeill is riding the coat tails of Burroughs while simultaneously sneaking in and trying to force an autobiography of himself, portraying himself as a starving artist of the '60s. It comes off as rather self-aggrandizing to me. Also, the problem is that McNeill is not a good writer (he's decent at some parts) and comes off dull and boring in many parts; though he might be a good illustrator, I'm not sure...The examples seem to show that he IS indeed pretty damn good at illustrating... In any case, he repeatedly describes putting down Burroughs sexual advances; probably the only somewhat interesting parts of the book... My response to this is.....ITS FUCKIN BURROUGHS! YOU BLOW THE DUDE IF HE WANTS YOU TOO! Shit, if he had two dicks, you should have blown one of them while giving a handy jay to the other! The dude is a legend... I would totally have blown Burroughs, just so I could have told an awesome drugged out, homoerotic story!..Maybe if McNeill's banged Burrough's, instead of being a fag about it, the book would not have been so boring and dull...Just imagaine "Burrough's dick turned into a Emerald Tree Boa right before my drug induced eyes!!" See how much cooler that is... Clearly, McNeill is a total square and a closet homosexual...The book leaves you wanting to hear more about Burroughs than McNeill's boring, cliche problems with the law and ladies; typical of hippy stories at this time.... Does have some good quotes from time to time, mostly by Burroughs...Also there are some major grammar mistakes, which I usually bypass. But these are bad, for example this one....
"The "We" of his letter to me back then was now very apparent." I don't have a fuckin' clue what this means...This is just bad grammar...Oh, wait, now I get it after rereading 8 times...whatever...
and this one is another example of shit grammar....
"I would one of the first ones on it."
I would expect better if I was going to drop $29.99 for this book.....This is just sloppy work.....Luckily I would never pay this much for anything and just drunkenly annoy librarians via email at 4am until they unwillingly order books for me....
Surprisingly the chapter entitled "Here" was pretty fascinating and has left me curious about Mayan civilization. He starts going off on paranoid rants about 2012 and the collapse of society...This is all necessary and good stuff I can appreciate...He then compares the circular (rather than linear) idea of history and how the current present time is a repeat of the past...Ranging from politics to technology...Examples...Telegraph to internet... Really well written chapter...
Oh, here are some cool quotes...
"Bill was no fan of book reviewers...He compared them to the Egyptian 'Assayers of Scribe,' the court historians who enforced the interests of their employers and forestalled opposition. They were the arbiters of taste, the controllers of information, the ultimate censors. It was they who determined what would be read and who would read it. Bill wanted to 'put a curse on all of them.'"
"GPS, CCTV surveillance 24 hours a day, more and more cops, more and more security, relentless word/image 'programming' and 'monitoring' through media, results in an increasing behavioral conformity, political correctness, and identical, cultural, religious mindset...But such a level of control in the long run produces a dull, homogenous, non-resistant human product."
"Hollywood indoctrinated audience."
"The "We" of his letter to me back then was now very apparent." I don't have a fuckin' clue what this means...This is just bad grammar...Oh, wait, now I get it after rereading 8 times...whatever...
and this one is another example of shit grammar....
"I would one of the first ones on it."
I would expect better if I was going to drop $29.99 for this book.....This is just sloppy work.....Luckily I would never pay this much for anything and just drunkenly annoy librarians via email at 4am until they unwillingly order books for me....
Surprisingly the chapter entitled "Here" was pretty fascinating and has left me curious about Mayan civilization. He starts going off on paranoid rants about 2012 and the collapse of society...This is all necessary and good stuff I can appreciate...He then compares the circular (rather than linear) idea of history and how the current present time is a repeat of the past...Ranging from politics to technology...Examples...Telegraph to internet... Really well written chapter...
Oh, here are some cool quotes...
"Bill was no fan of book reviewers...He compared them to the Egyptian 'Assayers of Scribe,' the court historians who enforced the interests of their employers and forestalled opposition. They were the arbiters of taste, the controllers of information, the ultimate censors. It was they who determined what would be read and who would read it. Bill wanted to 'put a curse on all of them.'"
"GPS, CCTV surveillance 24 hours a day, more and more cops, more and more security, relentless word/image 'programming' and 'monitoring' through media, results in an increasing behavioral conformity, political correctness, and identical, cultural, religious mindset...But such a level of control in the long run produces a dull, homogenous, non-resistant human product."
"Hollywood indoctrinated audience."
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews