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The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs
The Job is William S. Burroughs at work, attacking our traditional values, condemning what he calls "the American nightmare," and expressing his often barbed views on Scientology, the police, orgone therapy, history, women, writing, politics, sex, drugs, and death. His conversation splices images of death-by-hanging with elevators and airports, the story of his drug addiction and cure with ideas on the use of hieroglyphs.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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1302 people want to read
About the author
William S. Burroughs
449 books7,009 followersWilliam 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
June 25, 2022
Despite a disappointingly heavy flirtation with and espousal of Scientology that runs throughout this, there's still nothing quite like the Burroughs voice for a dose of oddly comforting reality.
'Q: Do you need the reader?
A: A novelist is essentially engaged in creating character. He needs the reader in that he hopes that some of his readers will turn into his characters. He needs them as vessels, on which he writes. The question frequently asked of a writer is: "Would you write if you were on a desert island and no-one would ever read it?"
I would say certainly, yes, I would write, in order to create characters. My characters are quite as real to me as so-called real people; which is one reason why I'm not subject to what is known as loneliness. I have plenty of company.
--
'What we see now is power exercised for purely destructive purposes. Whether they know it or not, the present controllers are bent on annihilation.'
'Q: Do you need the reader?
A: A novelist is essentially engaged in creating character. He needs the reader in that he hopes that some of his readers will turn into his characters. He needs them as vessels, on which he writes. The question frequently asked of a writer is: "Would you write if you were on a desert island and no-one would ever read it?"
I would say certainly, yes, I would write, in order to create characters. My characters are quite as real to me as so-called real people; which is one reason why I'm not subject to what is known as loneliness. I have plenty of company.
--
'What we see now is power exercised for purely destructive purposes. Whether they know it or not, the present controllers are bent on annihilation.'
May 19, 2018
There are a lot of very cool images and ideas in this mix of interview questions and excerpts from essays and books. Unfortunately, there are also places where Burroughs descends into his own brand of self-congratulatory nonsense or just straight-up nonsense. His sometimes unsettling prescience about things like internet memes (word-image viruses) and drug laws is mixed with his overly credulous views on Scientology and other pseudo-science/pseudo-religious stuff. There are times when the book becomes repetitive, yet it's worth the slog. There's no getting around it, Burroughs is a fascinating and troubling figure, possibly a genius, definitely a crank, occasionally profound, often obtuse.
January 31, 2024
This is, for me, the peak of Burroughs' articulation of his philosophy. All of the incredible ideas that he'd put into his novels that may've seemed a bit unclear b/c of the fantasticness of their presentation are presented here in a straight discursive form. Here's a sample of some classic Burroughs from page 75:
"Q: Any comments on the assassination of Robert Kennedy?
"A: It seems likely that the assassination was arranged by the far right, and that the arrangers are now taking this opportunity to pass anti-gun laws, and disarm the nation for the fascist takeover. That will certainly occur, if America is involved in a war with China. As to how such assassinations are arranged, there are very definite techniques for doing this. Assassins often hear voices telling them to kill. Are these voices necessarily imaginary? Directional mikes can project voices. Top secret research on lasers is concerned with sending thoughts."
As usual, Burroughs mixes fairly astute political observation (Bobby Kennedy probably was killed thru ultra-right machinations upset by his anti-mafia & pro-civil rights activities) w/ a projective sense of where technologies might be heading (making people hear voices is something discussed at greater lengths in later bks - such as "Paranoid Women Collect Their Thoughts"). As for "anti-gun laws"? Well I'm not really w/ Burroughs on this one AND we didn't go to war w/ China. "Fascist takeover"? Sometimes I think that w/ the assassinations of JFK, MLK, Robert Kennedy, & Malcolm X - & the placement of Johnson in office as the president + the succession of Texas & southern presidents since (exemplified by the Reagan/Bush era of the last 28 yrs) that the South got their revenge for losing the Civil War & that that's been a form of fascist takeover.
At any rate, if you're interested in Burroughs as a social critic & a philosopher, read this bk above any others. This is a great compliment to the novels.
"Q: Any comments on the assassination of Robert Kennedy?
"A: It seems likely that the assassination was arranged by the far right, and that the arrangers are now taking this opportunity to pass anti-gun laws, and disarm the nation for the fascist takeover. That will certainly occur, if America is involved in a war with China. As to how such assassinations are arranged, there are very definite techniques for doing this. Assassins often hear voices telling them to kill. Are these voices necessarily imaginary? Directional mikes can project voices. Top secret research on lasers is concerned with sending thoughts."
As usual, Burroughs mixes fairly astute political observation (Bobby Kennedy probably was killed thru ultra-right machinations upset by his anti-mafia & pro-civil rights activities) w/ a projective sense of where technologies might be heading (making people hear voices is something discussed at greater lengths in later bks - such as "Paranoid Women Collect Their Thoughts"). As for "anti-gun laws"? Well I'm not really w/ Burroughs on this one AND we didn't go to war w/ China. "Fascist takeover"? Sometimes I think that w/ the assassinations of JFK, MLK, Robert Kennedy, & Malcolm X - & the placement of Johnson in office as the president + the succession of Texas & southern presidents since (exemplified by the Reagan/Bush era of the last 28 yrs) that the South got their revenge for losing the Civil War & that that's been a form of fascist takeover.
At any rate, if you're interested in Burroughs as a social critic & a philosopher, read this bk above any others. This is a great compliment to the novels.
August 27, 2017
Acá Burroughs cede a la tentación de dar su propia versión de la literatura de la segunda persona. No toma la forma de la autoayuda - su variante dominante hoy día - sino otra que estaba en boga por entonces, el manual de estrategias contraculturales. Como una especie de Roger Trinquier al revés, Burroughs asume La tarea de despolicializar la vida psíquica mediante una serie de ejercicios, que incluyen en muchos casos a los grabadores. ¿Grabadores? Los grabadores vendrían a ser para él algo así como las computadoras para muchos de nosotros: un medio técnico de sometimiento convertido en instrumento de emancipación. Es un error muy torpe juzgarlo por sus referencias, que son a menudo abyectas (la cientología, la paranoia sobre los usos armamentísticos del infrasonido). Lo que vale en La tarea es el espíritu de experimentación salvaje, sin epistemología ni resultados replicables. El placer de pensar y actuar con el horizonte de una mayor capacidad de acción. Eso es lo que abunda en este libro y a lo que vale la pena prestarle atención.
July 4, 2022
For those who might not know, William S. Burroughs was associated with members of the original Beat Generation (he co-wrote a novel with Jack Kerouac and lived for a time with Allen Ginsberg). His best-known work is Naked Lunch, and in general his fiction is dystopic—sort of like J.G. Ballard, but with a lot more gangsters and cowboys. And heroin. And auto-erotic asphyxiation.
The Job reprints several interviews William S. Burroughs had with Daniel Odier in the late sixties. The questions and answers are edited so that different chapters are roughly about different subjects, including art, censorship, sex, drugs, and language. In addition to the interviews, the book reprints some of the stories Burroughs mentions to M. Odier; thus, there is a kind of movement in the text from fact to fiction and back to fact. This shifting between the factual and the fantastic is reflected within the interview as well, as Burroughs works from the realistic to the speculative and back again. For instance, at one point he talks about the possibilities represented by technologies as audiotape and film. Some of the realistic possibilities are associated with the creative process. However, he also suggests ways that audiotape and film might be employed to modify behaviour; these latter notions seem a little more fantastic.
Moreover, one of the great things about Burroughs’s writing is the way that that the probable blurs with the incredible; Burroughs can begin with very reasonable claims, and work his way to far-fetched claims, and in such a way that the reader frequently goes along with Burroughs’s argument, even when the argument itself has left the realm of the rational.
Many of Burroughs’s arguments reflect his interests in resisting dominant power structures. With regard to his views on government and social control, in fact, Burroughs can be fairly conspiracy-minded. In one section, for instance, Burroughs discusses the technologies that the government is developing but wants to keep secret—for example, a device that produces sound waves with lethal frequencies.
Burroughs has some pretty interesting ideas. At the time of these interviews, he was studying Scientology, and in this book he employs some of Ron Hubbard’s concepts to analyze not only the contemporary media but also the Mayan calendar—and how both are related to social control (note: Burroughs studied Mayan civilization at school, so he’s got some scholarly understanding of what he’s discussing. Also, here’s a strange thing: in three of Kerouac’s novels, the character based on Burroughs is surnamed “Hubbard.” Coincidence?)
Although he was many things (godfather of punk, gun freak, junkie, Nike spokesman), Burroughs is probably best known for his writing. In these interviews, he discusses his own writing and that of others. He talks about the creative process, and in some of the more philosophical passages, he discusses language, not only as a means of communication, but also as a technology that affects those who use it (in this respect, Burroughs is making observations similar to those of media and technology analyst Marshall McLuhan). Most famously, Burroughs compared language to a virus (that’s where performance artist Laurie Anderson got the title for that song); in addition to discussing in some detail the meaning of this suggestive metaphor, he also talks about the differences between ideogrammatic and syllabic systems of writing.
Pretty odd stuff, but certainly entertaining.
Acquired Apr 15, 2010
Powell's City of Books, Portland, OR
The Job reprints several interviews William S. Burroughs had with Daniel Odier in the late sixties. The questions and answers are edited so that different chapters are roughly about different subjects, including art, censorship, sex, drugs, and language. In addition to the interviews, the book reprints some of the stories Burroughs mentions to M. Odier; thus, there is a kind of movement in the text from fact to fiction and back to fact. This shifting between the factual and the fantastic is reflected within the interview as well, as Burroughs works from the realistic to the speculative and back again. For instance, at one point he talks about the possibilities represented by technologies as audiotape and film. Some of the realistic possibilities are associated with the creative process. However, he also suggests ways that audiotape and film might be employed to modify behaviour; these latter notions seem a little more fantastic.
Moreover, one of the great things about Burroughs’s writing is the way that that the probable blurs with the incredible; Burroughs can begin with very reasonable claims, and work his way to far-fetched claims, and in such a way that the reader frequently goes along with Burroughs’s argument, even when the argument itself has left the realm of the rational.
Many of Burroughs’s arguments reflect his interests in resisting dominant power structures. With regard to his views on government and social control, in fact, Burroughs can be fairly conspiracy-minded. In one section, for instance, Burroughs discusses the technologies that the government is developing but wants to keep secret—for example, a device that produces sound waves with lethal frequencies.
Burroughs has some pretty interesting ideas. At the time of these interviews, he was studying Scientology, and in this book he employs some of Ron Hubbard’s concepts to analyze not only the contemporary media but also the Mayan calendar—and how both are related to social control (note: Burroughs studied Mayan civilization at school, so he’s got some scholarly understanding of what he’s discussing. Also, here’s a strange thing: in three of Kerouac’s novels, the character based on Burroughs is surnamed “Hubbard.” Coincidence?)
Although he was many things (godfather of punk, gun freak, junkie, Nike spokesman), Burroughs is probably best known for his writing. In these interviews, he discusses his own writing and that of others. He talks about the creative process, and in some of the more philosophical passages, he discusses language, not only as a means of communication, but also as a technology that affects those who use it (in this respect, Burroughs is making observations similar to those of media and technology analyst Marshall McLuhan). Most famously, Burroughs compared language to a virus (that’s where performance artist Laurie Anderson got the title for that song); in addition to discussing in some detail the meaning of this suggestive metaphor, he also talks about the differences between ideogrammatic and syllabic systems of writing.
Pretty odd stuff, but certainly entertaining.
Acquired Apr 15, 2010
Powell's City of Books, Portland, OR
August 15, 2012
An extremely important book that should be taught to high school students.
Burroughs certainly did have some crackpot ideas such as his advocation of disintegrating the family unit as he believes it to be redundant. On the other hand, his knowledge of drugs is incredible and could do much good in a world in which drugs are vastly misunderstood.
His ideas on how cut-ups of the word and film can be applied in various ways are intriguing and seem to offer some promising possibilities on how to fight the system.
I also found myself almost agreeing with him on certain topics like the removal of censorship. My own position is that it should be removed for adults but not children, which of course is a more moderate position than his.
I had mixed feelings about Burroughs after reading this book. On the one hand, I thought the guy was an incredibly original thinker and revolutionary (being one of the central figures of the Beat Generation) who has opened up the discourse on areas such as drugs and enhanced people's awareness of certain issues such as the shitstem in which we all live and have to deal with every day. On the other hand, Burroughs' cold outlook on the family also made me a bit angry in light of what happened to his son, William Burroughs Jr. William Burroughs Jr. led a harrowing life, always trying to prove to his dad how bad he was through his incredible amount of drinking and was obviously a very talented but unbalanced young man. He was taken away from his dad after the famous William Tell accident and did not take him back under his wing until his grandparents, who effectively raised him, contacted Burroughs Sr. and asked him. I'm sorry this is getting a little off the topic of the book in question but I couldn't help but think why were the Beats such bad parents? Kerouac also was not exactly 'father of the year' as his daughter Jan was only able to see him TWICE in her lifetime. Jan Kerouac also led a very tragic life trying to find the love of her father which never came.
In short, Burroughs, like Kerouac, was an incredible artist who left an amazing legacy but you've gotta ask at what cost? And did he even care?
Burroughs certainly did have some crackpot ideas such as his advocation of disintegrating the family unit as he believes it to be redundant. On the other hand, his knowledge of drugs is incredible and could do much good in a world in which drugs are vastly misunderstood.
His ideas on how cut-ups of the word and film can be applied in various ways are intriguing and seem to offer some promising possibilities on how to fight the system.
I also found myself almost agreeing with him on certain topics like the removal of censorship. My own position is that it should be removed for adults but not children, which of course is a more moderate position than his.
I had mixed feelings about Burroughs after reading this book. On the one hand, I thought the guy was an incredibly original thinker and revolutionary (being one of the central figures of the Beat Generation) who has opened up the discourse on areas such as drugs and enhanced people's awareness of certain issues such as the shitstem in which we all live and have to deal with every day. On the other hand, Burroughs' cold outlook on the family also made me a bit angry in light of what happened to his son, William Burroughs Jr. William Burroughs Jr. led a harrowing life, always trying to prove to his dad how bad he was through his incredible amount of drinking and was obviously a very talented but unbalanced young man. He was taken away from his dad after the famous William Tell accident and did not take him back under his wing until his grandparents, who effectively raised him, contacted Burroughs Sr. and asked him. I'm sorry this is getting a little off the topic of the book in question but I couldn't help but think why were the Beats such bad parents? Kerouac also was not exactly 'father of the year' as his daughter Jan was only able to see him TWICE in her lifetime. Jan Kerouac also led a very tragic life trying to find the love of her father which never came.
In short, Burroughs, like Kerouac, was an incredible artist who left an amazing legacy but you've gotta ask at what cost? And did he even care?
November 8, 2007
Probably the first work of nonfiction that meant a lot to me. Burroughs's wild fiction and collections of sentences like Soft Machine got me started, but his ideas put forth in interviews did so much more for me. This is what made me into a serious person, curious about the world and the possible.
June 25, 2017
Más que entrevistas al estar retocadas por el mismo Burroughs resultan en monólogos a veces premonitorios, anticuados o demasiado limado lo cual amena una lectura que por momentos es depresiva por el mensaje de que el ideal de sociedad justa es una utopía. Por partes también juega con su literatura experimental y se suceden imágenes, descripciones crudas en oraciones de pocas palabras hasta cayendo en incongruencias. Lo extraño es que hay varias frases que repite textuales en distintas partes del libro. En resumen me quedan los pensamientos entre revolucionarios, conspiraciones de un drogadicto duro. No lo tenía tan misógino.
February 26, 2010
Very interesting and highly recommended. The format is interesting. He uses questions posed by an "interviewer" as a platform to discuss most everything - Scientology, cut ups, language, media, and other odd ramblings. Very interesting.
A few years ago, I made art from cutting up cardboard refuse and making collages, mostly abstract, from the refuse. Having not ever read Burroughs before, I found his theories on cut-up technique very interesting. His description of the "dreamachine" inspired me to create my own.
A few years ago, I made art from cutting up cardboard refuse and making collages, mostly abstract, from the refuse. Having not ever read Burroughs before, I found his theories on cut-up technique very interesting. His description of the "dreamachine" inspired me to create my own.
January 19, 2011
I loved this book. It offers a fairly deep insight in Burroughs' mind, even though he sometimes gave me the feeling he wasn't totally serious. Also sheds a new light on some of his work I read (before and after). He pretty much gives us a clearer perspective on the often incredible and outrageous ideas he put in his novels.
July 17, 2012
I'd read Naked Lunch, twice, as my introduction into Burroughs, which is like viewing Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns as an introduction into paint. To say the least, I'd been discouraged by this, after both reads. Now that I've read "The Job" I understand Burroughs on a level I wish I'd always known. He is a prophet, and a visionary madman. I'm glad. Excellent read.
April 1, 2012
This book has been a long and close companion to me. Such brilliance articulated with such dry wit. This collection of interviews delivers the fundamental philosophy which powers WSB's fiction work. This should be required reading in high schools.
March 20, 2018
The book begins with the sort piece “Playback from Eden to Watergate”, originally published by Harpers in 1973. In it he describes the concept of the word virus. As per Genesis, the word came first. Burroughs interprets this as the written word which infested man and evolved into perfect symbiosis with him, manifesting as human speech. He goes on into his playback reality manipulation method involving three tape recorders and/or a camera (this was written in the early 70s remember, cutting edge stuff then). By splicing various sounds from an area from the first two devices and then adding an idea with the third, one can manipulate an effect where you aim the playback, like a high tech voodoo curse. He claims that he has used this to start fires on buildings and shut down restaurants with health care violations and so on. Whether he believes this to be true, it is just wishful thinking, or him mixing up correlation with causation is anyone’s guess.
I can never tell how much Burroughs believes his theories (to misuse the term). Are they exultations of a true believer or an intellectual exercise penned with a sardonic smirk? He has always come across as rather intelligent, but susceptible to various weird alternate scientific and therapeutic ideas. His involvement with Scientology and adherence to Wilhelm Reich’s orgone chamber being a few examples.
“Translate the Mayan control calendar into modern terms. The mass media of newspapers, radio, television, magazines form a ceremonial calendar to which all citizens are subjected. The “priests” wisely conceal themselves behind masses of contradictory data and vociferously deny that they exist. Like the Mayan priests they can reconstruct the past and predict the future on a statistical basis through manipulation of media. It is the dates preserved in newspaper morgues that makes detailed reconstruction of past dates possible. How can modern priests predict seemingly random future events?”
The interviews in The Job take place in 1968 and as such several of his views are out of date. For example all of the technology he describes in his splicing technique are obsolete, replaced long ago by smartphones and pcs. Well before the silicon revolution, computers at the time were wall sized monstrosities operating on punch cards and magnetic tape. Your phone now has more computing power than the most sophisticated machine of the day. But don’t knock it, they put a man on the moon with this tech.
For those who are Burroughs aficionados there isn’t must new here. The book may well have been called a William S. Burroughs’s primer as he primarily reiterates all of his previous philosophical and sociological opinions from previous writings. In fact several times he simply substituted passages from the Nova Trilogy as his answers.
He makes several good points, as the second quote above demonstrates, on the manipulation of the media to create a false reality and the reshaping of history through images. However again he is out of date. He envisioned one right-wing message (whom he was afraid would use the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as an excuse to take away our guns) tapered across all mediums, controlled by hidden masters. He didn’t foresee the YouTube age with its constant multiple manipulative narratives overlapping and conflicting where one can create their own narrative and illusionary image of the world. At the time, the masses were only a group of receivers, he did not envision a day where everyone could input as well, thus becoming their own illusionary master. I think he would have approved.
But there is a lot in here that many would disagree with, his praise of Reich and Hubbard being mentioned earlier. He asserts that the concept of a nuclear family should be ended and that all children should be raised by state run institutions- the same institutions he describes as essentially amoral and evil a few pages earlier. As we all know, this idea worked out so well in its real life applications. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and their Killing Fields and the Romanian orphanages under Ceaușescu that festered with AIDS and mental disorders, being a few instances. Burroughs practiced what he preached however, having abandoned his own son at the age of six.
He continues on by stating all prisons should be abolished, with no more reasons given than they don’t really do anything more than punish. And eventually wraps up his criticism of the “American Nightmare” by stating that all institutions of Western Civilization must be destroyed. Ho-hum.
He is most eloquent on the subject of drugs. Advocating a general legalization of all drugs. Heroin, cocaine, and so on should be back to being over-the-counter medications as it was in the early 20th century before the Harrison Narcotics Act. However he believes that this is impossible due to the media’s scare and the money making industry that has sprung up around incarceration and treatment of addicts.
Drugs are not addictive, according to him, but the exposure to them is, if you can tell the difference. He deconstructs a bit here, by saying that the lifestyle associated with it. The clarity, the lack of responsibility, the absolute focus of your life on the next high means that your life will always have focus.
However if one wants to kick the habit he devotes fifteen pages to the apomorphine treatment, which he claims is a metabolic stabilizer and reduces the desire for the drug. In 1968 Apomorphine was primarily used to treat erectile dysfunction and, briefly, as a psychiatric cure for homosexuality. At a private clinic Burroughs and several others were administered the drug and said it was the best cure he ever experienced. There have been no clinical trials of the drug ever made. Currently it is used primarily to combat the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.
Burroughs writes here with his characteristic fluid style, though rarely becoming as hallucinogenic as in other works. He truly is a master of the word and is certainly one of the most poetic writers I have ever read, even when I am shaking my head at nearly all of his arguments. On reflection, I have never more enjoyed reading a person’s opinion that I almost completely disagreed with more.
I can never tell how much Burroughs believes his theories (to misuse the term). Are they exultations of a true believer or an intellectual exercise penned with a sardonic smirk? He has always come across as rather intelligent, but susceptible to various weird alternate scientific and therapeutic ideas. His involvement with Scientology and adherence to Wilhelm Reich’s orgone chamber being a few examples.
“Translate the Mayan control calendar into modern terms. The mass media of newspapers, radio, television, magazines form a ceremonial calendar to which all citizens are subjected. The “priests” wisely conceal themselves behind masses of contradictory data and vociferously deny that they exist. Like the Mayan priests they can reconstruct the past and predict the future on a statistical basis through manipulation of media. It is the dates preserved in newspaper morgues that makes detailed reconstruction of past dates possible. How can modern priests predict seemingly random future events?”
The interviews in The Job take place in 1968 and as such several of his views are out of date. For example all of the technology he describes in his splicing technique are obsolete, replaced long ago by smartphones and pcs. Well before the silicon revolution, computers at the time were wall sized monstrosities operating on punch cards and magnetic tape. Your phone now has more computing power than the most sophisticated machine of the day. But don’t knock it, they put a man on the moon with this tech.
For those who are Burroughs aficionados there isn’t must new here. The book may well have been called a William S. Burroughs’s primer as he primarily reiterates all of his previous philosophical and sociological opinions from previous writings. In fact several times he simply substituted passages from the Nova Trilogy as his answers.
He makes several good points, as the second quote above demonstrates, on the manipulation of the media to create a false reality and the reshaping of history through images. However again he is out of date. He envisioned one right-wing message (whom he was afraid would use the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as an excuse to take away our guns) tapered across all mediums, controlled by hidden masters. He didn’t foresee the YouTube age with its constant multiple manipulative narratives overlapping and conflicting where one can create their own narrative and illusionary image of the world. At the time, the masses were only a group of receivers, he did not envision a day where everyone could input as well, thus becoming their own illusionary master. I think he would have approved.
But there is a lot in here that many would disagree with, his praise of Reich and Hubbard being mentioned earlier. He asserts that the concept of a nuclear family should be ended and that all children should be raised by state run institutions- the same institutions he describes as essentially amoral and evil a few pages earlier. As we all know, this idea worked out so well in its real life applications. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and their Killing Fields and the Romanian orphanages under Ceaușescu that festered with AIDS and mental disorders, being a few instances. Burroughs practiced what he preached however, having abandoned his own son at the age of six.
He continues on by stating all prisons should be abolished, with no more reasons given than they don’t really do anything more than punish. And eventually wraps up his criticism of the “American Nightmare” by stating that all institutions of Western Civilization must be destroyed. Ho-hum.
He is most eloquent on the subject of drugs. Advocating a general legalization of all drugs. Heroin, cocaine, and so on should be back to being over-the-counter medications as it was in the early 20th century before the Harrison Narcotics Act. However he believes that this is impossible due to the media’s scare and the money making industry that has sprung up around incarceration and treatment of addicts.
Drugs are not addictive, according to him, but the exposure to them is, if you can tell the difference. He deconstructs a bit here, by saying that the lifestyle associated with it. The clarity, the lack of responsibility, the absolute focus of your life on the next high means that your life will always have focus.
However if one wants to kick the habit he devotes fifteen pages to the apomorphine treatment, which he claims is a metabolic stabilizer and reduces the desire for the drug. In 1968 Apomorphine was primarily used to treat erectile dysfunction and, briefly, as a psychiatric cure for homosexuality. At a private clinic Burroughs and several others were administered the drug and said it was the best cure he ever experienced. There have been no clinical trials of the drug ever made. Currently it is used primarily to combat the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.
Burroughs writes here with his characteristic fluid style, though rarely becoming as hallucinogenic as in other works. He truly is a master of the word and is certainly one of the most poetic writers I have ever read, even when I am shaking my head at nearly all of his arguments. On reflection, I have never more enjoyed reading a person’s opinion that I almost completely disagreed with more.
July 20, 2014
Interview format interspersed with stream of consciousness passages,mainly concerned with thought control through the word virus acting on the reactive mind perpetuating an unworkable establishment.Both readable and highly informative.
March 22, 2021
Bill Burroughs unplugged, on everything from war to Manchurian Candidate assassins to his literary influences. "There should be more riots and more demonstrations. Young people have been lied to today more than any other generation in history."
July 20, 2022
El discurso de Burroughs es interesante y estimulante buena parte de las veces y funciona mejor en formato entrevista, cuando las respuestas a las preguntas son breves y no se inserta uno de sus textos. La teoría del lenguaje como virus está muy expandida y pasa mucho más allá de frase resultona, con Burroughs pensando sobre los virus y cómo confabularse como éste, romper su influjo, quizá pensando en imágenes.
En la parte negativa, el libro se ha quedado muy desfasado en algunos temas y uno clama al cielo por un Burroughs contemporáneo que nos hable de la posibilidad revolucionaria de la tecnología de hoy. Lo de la tecnología es, además, una de las partes redundantes, no sé cuántas veces habla de las posibilidades de alterar el orden conocido mediante grabaciones hechas con magnetófono, textos e ideas que salen de La Revolución Electrónica o eso me parece recordar. Es increíble lo loco que se volvió con este tema y la de posibilidades con las que especuló, por eso dan más ganas aún de ver qué pensaría hacer este señor con un smartphone en la mano. También habla de proyecciones y cosas así que no tienen sentido de leer para una persona que vive en la misma línea temporal que la realidad virtual. Me encantaría escuchar a un Burroughs moderno que nos hable de nuestras posibilidades con las RRSS y demás, soy todo oídos, dime, ¿existe?
Otra de las partes redundantes es la de la apomorfina; Burroughs se pasa páginas y páginas hablando de sus virtudes con apenas pequeñas variaciones, aunque su visión de las drogas es por supuesto enriquecedora.
En cuanto a la misoginia, no se extiende mucho hablando de las mujeres, a las que se intuye que aborrece y quiere eliminar de la tierra, pero sí, las pocas líneas que hay respecto al tema dejan claro que fue una persona extremadamente misógina.
Aunque yo me lo he leído "entero" recomiendo una lectura diagonal, saltarse las partes redundantes o sus textos más farragosos para poder quedarse con lo interesante, que es mucho. Se podría haber hecho un mejor trabajo de edición del texto original en ese sentido.
En la parte negativa, el libro se ha quedado muy desfasado en algunos temas y uno clama al cielo por un Burroughs contemporáneo que nos hable de la posibilidad revolucionaria de la tecnología de hoy. Lo de la tecnología es, además, una de las partes redundantes, no sé cuántas veces habla de las posibilidades de alterar el orden conocido mediante grabaciones hechas con magnetófono, textos e ideas que salen de La Revolución Electrónica o eso me parece recordar. Es increíble lo loco que se volvió con este tema y la de posibilidades con las que especuló, por eso dan más ganas aún de ver qué pensaría hacer este señor con un smartphone en la mano. También habla de proyecciones y cosas así que no tienen sentido de leer para una persona que vive en la misma línea temporal que la realidad virtual. Me encantaría escuchar a un Burroughs moderno que nos hable de nuestras posibilidades con las RRSS y demás, soy todo oídos, dime, ¿existe?
Otra de las partes redundantes es la de la apomorfina; Burroughs se pasa páginas y páginas hablando de sus virtudes con apenas pequeñas variaciones, aunque su visión de las drogas es por supuesto enriquecedora.
En cuanto a la misoginia, no se extiende mucho hablando de las mujeres, a las que se intuye que aborrece y quiere eliminar de la tierra, pero sí, las pocas líneas que hay respecto al tema dejan claro que fue una persona extremadamente misógina.
Aunque yo me lo he leído "entero" recomiendo una lectura diagonal, saltarse las partes redundantes o sus textos más farragosos para poder quedarse con lo interesante, que es mucho. Se podría haber hecho un mejor trabajo de edición del texto original en ese sentido.
December 28, 2023
A long interview from 1968 where William Burroughs sometimes responds to the questions with a paragraph or two, or sometimes responds with sprawling repetitive excerpts from other things he has written.
Burroughs does have lots of interesting ideas and connects things in unique ways, he is filled with insight and has constructed his belief of reality from deep examinations into societies, history, and psychology while gathering experience and trauma from the path he took in life.
Overall, the sections I like the most are when he speaks on topics of addiction and language ("addiction is a disease of exposure", he emphasizes more than once). He goes on several times at length in this interview/book on his ideas of how to reshape reality/the minds of others with tape recorders and cut-up or "scramble" methods. These were a drudge to get through after my first encounter with them. Though, his ideas on this topic really are prescient in regard to the memetic warfare of today and the propaganda techniques exerted now throughout the internet/social media.
A lot of the interview is (obviously) dated, and Burroughs himself was not immune to being fooled by others. He makes numerous references to Scientology as a beneficial learning program, and quotes ideas from L. Ron Hubbard in the book (having been his acquaintance, it seems the two actually exchanged ideas and influenced each other, an interesting portal into the past - though Burroughs would disparage and condemn Scientology later in the years to come and most-likely highly regret his positive references to it existing in print in this book).
A funny part in the book comes early on when Burroughs discusses experimenting with "recording and playing-back" to a subject/place in order to psychologically attack it. With great (but amusing) pettiness he carried out such an operation on a cafe called Moka Bar in London because of "outrageous and unprovoked discourtesy and poisonous cheesecake".
Burroughs does have lots of interesting ideas and connects things in unique ways, he is filled with insight and has constructed his belief of reality from deep examinations into societies, history, and psychology while gathering experience and trauma from the path he took in life.
Overall, the sections I like the most are when he speaks on topics of addiction and language ("addiction is a disease of exposure", he emphasizes more than once). He goes on several times at length in this interview/book on his ideas of how to reshape reality/the minds of others with tape recorders and cut-up or "scramble" methods. These were a drudge to get through after my first encounter with them. Though, his ideas on this topic really are prescient in regard to the memetic warfare of today and the propaganda techniques exerted now throughout the internet/social media.
A lot of the interview is (obviously) dated, and Burroughs himself was not immune to being fooled by others. He makes numerous references to Scientology as a beneficial learning program, and quotes ideas from L. Ron Hubbard in the book (having been his acquaintance, it seems the two actually exchanged ideas and influenced each other, an interesting portal into the past - though Burroughs would disparage and condemn Scientology later in the years to come and most-likely highly regret his positive references to it existing in print in this book).
A funny part in the book comes early on when Burroughs discusses experimenting with "recording and playing-back" to a subject/place in order to psychologically attack it. With great (but amusing) pettiness he carried out such an operation on a cafe called Moka Bar in London because of "outrageous and unprovoked discourtesy and poisonous cheesecake".
January 20, 2022
If you ever want to read a book that peeks into the mind of a real-life character who is (approximately) equal parts brilliant and absolutely batshit crazy, this is the book for you. Burroughs's observations and opinions range from insightful and prophetic to completely unhinged. One moment he seems grounded in reality and personal experience; the next, he's off talking about Scientology, magic, and the mind-altering properties of using...a tape recorder. This coming from a guy who ingested just about every drug under the sun.
There are parts of this I skimmed through and some parts I skipped. You can only take so much of Burroughs's nonsensical cut-up rambling before it gets old. But when he's on point and on topic, answering the questions of the interviewer (which I suspect, at times, is just himself), he can be pretty great, and extremely amusing. In fact, one of my all-time favorite quotes comes from this book, which I leave you with:
"What does the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty, and, above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits quantity."
There are parts of this I skimmed through and some parts I skipped. You can only take so much of Burroughs's nonsensical cut-up rambling before it gets old. But when he's on point and on topic, answering the questions of the interviewer (which I suspect, at times, is just himself), he can be pretty great, and extremely amusing. In fact, one of my all-time favorite quotes comes from this book, which I leave you with:
"What does the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty, and, above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits quantity."
December 15, 2016
For me the best Burroughs books are his collected interviews. This book was designed, possibly, to some degree, to focus on control systems, and the responses needed to battle them. The interviews were conducted by Daniel Odier (also known by his pen name Delacorta, most famously known as the author of Diva) during the serious political climate years of 69, and 70. There was obviously some discussion between the two authors on what the book would concentrate on, and it's intent, (almost a manuel of revolutionary magic, and practical means of battling control systems.) Not to demean Odier, but the fact that he is credited as author of this book, is absurd. It's 98% Burroughs. But it's likely that authorship credit was arranged this way due to some legal publishing contract issue, if not a tongue in cheek smirk by Burroughs, distancing himself from control (as authorship) itself. Just thinking about this book, has now placed it on my top shelf of books to re-read. Very important for NOW.
September 30, 2019
Burroughs was always weird, but he was somewhat intelligible in this book which is part interview and part short stories. He clamied to be sober and drug free during the interview but still was prbably the stangest old dude around in 1973 when it was written. The topics cover drugs and the pupose of the war on drugs which he saw as being population control, the ideas of L. Ron Hubbard and Wilhelm Reich, his thoughts on nation and family, his desire to return to hieroglyphic based language, and whatever else popped into his head. He lost my interest a bit during his very long rants on ideas for mind control using sound recordings and videos. Don't get me wrong, it was fun at first and probably relevant in the age of the internet and short attention spans, but then he just went on and on and on for probably half of the book. So I docked a star.
March 24, 2023
I hope I save someone from wasting their time. I have read many Burroughs novels, admire his abilities, and consider myself a fan, but even for a fan this book's not worth the effort.
Nearly a third of the book is Burroughs obsessively expanding on the possibilities of the tape recorder and experiments in thought control related to it. The section on tape recorders and his frenzied arguments in favor of his experiments is tough to read and seems extremely antiquated.
There are a handful of insights and great quotes in this text but they are buried deeply in an otherwise rambling and incoherent argument in favor of anarchy.
Nearly a third of the book is Burroughs obsessively expanding on the possibilities of the tape recorder and experiments in thought control related to it. The section on tape recorders and his frenzied arguments in favor of his experiments is tough to read and seems extremely antiquated.
There are a handful of insights and great quotes in this text but they are buried deeply in an otherwise rambling and incoherent argument in favor of anarchy.
April 30, 2025
At times Burroughs was so progressive that he pushed past LANGUAGE as a whole/concept which was absolutely fascinating to read, but this book reeks of a violent misogyny that put a bitter taste in my mouth. How absolutely stupid William Burroughs was when it came to subjects of patriarchy, feminity, and power. Any book that dedicates entire chapters towards the hatred of women, especially going about such nastiness in an uneducated and stupid way is one I don't feel the need to finish. One star for the chaos magic and one star for the linguistic insanity of the "word virus".
August 17, 2018
I'm only part way into the final section "Academy 23," and I feel that this collection is dodgy in parts. In terms of consolidating the essence of Burroughs' thought, I don't think this book does a good job at it. Not only this, but his misogyny and outlandish conspiracy theories are in full force makes the reading even more of a slog for me. The "look for the vested interests" argument I feel has limited applicability at best and is not a general analytical description of how power operates.
June 16, 2018
The Job is a series of interviews done with William S. Burroughs. It's funny, prescient, full of ideas, and at time wanders all over the place. It's a book which speaks to the power of words and how to resist that power or use it. The insights of life observed are as relevant now as when the book was written.
June 24, 2023
His essays on language as a virus, mass control systems, mind control, techniques of conditioning, nightmare scientific experiments and other sorts of paranoia are weirder, more creative and interesting than most contemporary weird fiction authors. His proposed theories for the next evolution of society, opinions of women, geniune belief, practice and enjoyment of dark magic make his stuff scarier than most contemporary horror writers. An awful genius, like reading the notes of a real mad scientist crossed with a warlock
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August 19, 2023“If past performance is any indication they are not going to give you anything but bullshit, blacks and whites you have been sold out. If you want the world you could have in terms of discoveries and resources now in existence be prepared to fight for that world. To fight for that world in the streets.”
November 14, 2023
Burroughs is such a frustrating and frequently repulsive character, but he doesn't half write well. Some of his ideas, particularly that which is inspired by the language of film, are incredibly thought-provoking and elucidated with real clarity and style. But it would be a mistake to see any consistent or even appealing philosophy in what he writes.
May 3, 2019
It’s Burroughs. I still love the way he writes but this is more about his wild ideas than straight fiction and one can only read so much about Scientology and women being another species before it gets a bit tedious.
April 1, 2022
There's a lot to object to here with regard to some of the pseudosciences that Burroughs has bought into ...
Having said that, people on the fringes of society always have the most interesting things to say and Burroughs was certainly out there on the fringe.
Having said that, people on the fringes of society always have the most interesting things to say and Burroughs was certainly out there on the fringe.
May 9, 2021
Guy’s got an intriguing mind. Didn’t love it, but it was an interesting read.
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