Ah Pook is Here! and Other Texts

by William S. Burroughs

En 1970 William Burroughs y el artista Malcolm McNeill comenzaron un pequeño proyecto conjunto, un cómic titulado The Unspeakable Mr. Hart, que se publicó en Cyclops, la primera revista inglesa de cómics para adultos. Poco después, los autores decidieron colaborar en una meditación más extensa sobre el tiempo, el poder, el control y la corrupción inspirada en los códices mayas y concretamente en Ah Puch, el dios maya de la muerte. Ah Puch está aquí incluía a su personaje Mr. Hart, pero se alejaría del modelo de cómic convencional para explorar diferentes yuxtaposiciones de imágenes y palabras. El objetivo era crear una obra que no cayera ni en la categoría de libro ilustrado convencional ni en la de cómic, un libro sin precedentes en aquella época, que ningún editor quiso arriesgarse a publicar con el particular formato propuesto por Burroughs y McNeill. La presente edición incluye la edición original sin los dibujos de McNeill y otros dos La revolución electrónica, donde el autor reflexiona acerca del uso de las videocámaras como instrumento de control social; y El libro de las respiraciooones, un texto conceptual ilustrado en forma de semicómic.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Comics

157 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

William 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.

Reviews

[Zoha Mortazavi]

یک عقب‌گرد برای به یاد آوردن مرگ. قرار بوده البته کتاب همراه تصویرسازی‌های مالکوم مک‌نیل منتشر بشود اما در نهایت علی‌رغم اینکه مک‌نیل تصاویر را کشیده بود، باروز مجبور شد فقط متن را منتشر کند.

«مرگ باید سنجه‌ای برای فراموشی با خود بیاورد. مایاها را دورافتاده
در ناحیهای کوچک در نظر بگیرید؛ شناخت خیلی زیاد مرگ میتواند مایة حیاتی نسیان را از بین ببرد. مرگ همیشه یعنی قهقرا، یکجور عقبگرد به کودکی و نطفه. پس چرا اینجا متوقف شویم؟ آنها باید هرچه‌ بیشتر به عقب برمیگشتند. درغیراینصورت مرگ به یاد آورده میشد و مرگ یادآوریشده دیگر کارگر نمیافتد. در نهایت، چهار میلیارد سال به عقب برگشتند. چه کسی یا چه چیزی این همه سال قبل وجود داشت؟ مشخص است که این بازة زمانی در واقعیت هیچ معنایی ندارد. با وجود این، اگر زمان یادآوریشده را مبنا بگیریم، این دست محاسبات نشان میدهند که مایاها در جهت یادآوری مرگ تا چه دوردستها رفته بودند.»

«زمان هیچ معنایی بدون مرگ ندارد. مرگ از زمان استفاده میکند. این یک فرایند افزاینده است طوریکه زمان هرچه‌ سریعتر مصرف میشود. تناظر دقیقی با تورم وجود دارد، چراکه پول زمان را میخرد. پس زمان هرچهبیشتری میگیرد تا هرچه کمتر بخرد. چگونه مایاها به این بن‌بست پاسخ میدادند؟ با عقب بردن تاریخ زمان. مانند این: دالر امروز مثال یکپنجم پنجاه سال پیش میارزد. پس تاریخ پول را پنجاه سال عقب میبریم. سپس یک هزار سال، یا چیزی مانند آن، در زمان به عقب برمیگردیم. دست آخر به نقطهای میرسیم که پول وجود نداشت طوریکه داریم تاریخ مفهوم پول ــ مفهوم زمان ــ را عقب میبریم.»

[Jim Ivy]

A bit like riding shotgun in a high voltage demolition derby with someone driving who is going balls out but doesn't really have the concept of shifting gears under control. Plus a hallucinogen.

[Tentatively, Convenience]

This begins w/ "Ah Pook is Here", is followed by "The Book of Breeething", & ends w/ "Electronic Revolution". I give it a 4 instead of a 5 b/c I like "The Book of Breeething" better by itself. "Illusion is a revolutionary weapon."

[Steve Duffy]

Actually a re-read - I wanted to re-familiarise myself with the Burroughs universe ahead of the imminent arrival, via Amazon, of GHOST OF CHANCE, one of the very few WSB titles I haven't yet read.

[Rand]

I liked the pictures.
Overall this book is a cogent explanation as to why the US grows soooo much corn.

[John]

I have no idea why I chose this as the first book I read by Burroughs. Why would I think an unfinished text and art project (which would have been the first literary original graphic novel) would be comprehensible.

But it's got a lot of interesting ideas with Death, Time and Control.

[mina]

مرگ یعنی قهقرا، یک‌جور عقبگرد به کودکی و نطفه‌.
این کتاب براساس الگوهای "مجموعه قوانین مایایی" نوشته شده. که نشون می‌ده مایاها در جهت یادآوری مرگ تا چه دوردست‌ها رفته بودند. از شکل‌های موقتی مرگ و این‌همانی ارگانیسم مرگ با ما به حرف میآد‌ــــ‌به صورت مقاربت عملی با مرگ‌ــــ‌مرگ که می‌تواند شکلی زنانه یا مردانه به خود بگیرد. خدای جوان ذرت رو می‌گاید و خدای ذرت چهارصد میلیون سال ذرت از بذرپاشی تا دِروش رو انزال می‌کند و یک الفبای تصویری الاهه‌ی ماه رو به تصویر می‌کشد که در حال مقاربت با فیگور مرگ است.

[Matteo Celeste]

Se avessi avuto modo di incontrare, e di parlare con, William Burroughs, gli avrei suggerito di non prendere in mano una penna, o di non approcciarsi a una qualunque macchina da scrivere, dopo aver assunto sostanze psicotrope o dopo aver mangiato una peperonata, la sera, non ben digerita e che avrebbe potuto farlo penare per tutta la notte, perché i risultati sono... be'... (giudizio volutamente lasciato in sospeso)

[Jordan]

Tragically overlooked. My cherished favorite of Burroughs, but that is certainly a rogue opinion. A progenitor of ‘mystical luddism’ of much the variety as would infect Land & Negarestani & their ever-fashionable entourage of imitators. The opening 60 pages are especially striking, but loses steam halfway down the track.

[Orianna]

Fragmentos, fluidos, balazos, muerte, tiempo, control, virus.

Todo medianamente controlable hasta llegar a conceptos extraídos de la cienciología. No lo recomiendo para nada como primera lectura de Burroughs, que fue mi caso.

[Pola]

Burroughs grz x questi trip

[Hex75]

tre cose in una: "è arrivato ah pook" è un racconto che sembra stare a metà tra la "trilogia nova" e quella della "notte rossa"; "il libro della respirazione" mette insieme pensieri sparsi, riflessioni (anche sul colpo di stato in cile: e non so quanti intellettuali americani vi abbiano dedicato qualcosa) e aneddoti con i disegni di malcom mcneill; "la rivoluzione elettronica" è l'ennesima riflessione sul potere del linguaggio e la sua decodificazione (che in tempi di dibattito sulla post-verità è ricco di spunti interessanti), ma in forma quasi più lucida del solito. ne esce fuori la solita anima culturalmente onnivora di burroughs: non vi erano aspetti del sapere che non lo interessassero, tutto poteva attirare la sua attenzione e trasformarsi in parte delle sue riflessioni.

[Mat]

The 'Ah Pook Is Here' main section of the book I found pretty much unreadable. I mean this is some of the worst writing I have seen from WSB - no wonder he didn't want to publish it himself in this form.
The only saving grace to this volume is the Book of Breeething which has some way cool pictures in it, based on a crude simplification of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Worth checking out the Book of Breeething but save your precious time and don't bother with Ah Pook Is Here.