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Ουίλιαμ Μπάροουζ: El hombre invisible
Ο Ουίλιαμ Μπάροουζ θα παραμένει μια τεράστια και αναπόφευκτη παρουσία στο χώρο της αβανγκάρντ.
Συνεχιστής ιστορικών πρωτοποριών, αέναος πειραματιστής με κάθε μέσο που είχε στη διάθεσή του (γραφομηχανή, χαρτί και μολύβι, ψαλίδια και κόλλες, μαγνητόφωνο, φωτογραφία, κινηματογράφος, ζωγραφική), ωθώντας συνεχώς τις ιδέες του στα άκρα, οικοδόμησε τη δική του μυθολογία και λειτούργησε σαν καταλύτης, επιτρέποντας στα πράγματα να συμβαίνουν, εμπνέοντας τη δημιουργία και την απελευθέρωση στους ανθρώπους.
Ο ίδιος καταδύθηκε σε τρομακτικά βάθη απόγνωσης, με μόνο στήριγμα το γράψιμο, που δεν αποτελούσε προγραμματικό σχέδιο, αλλά ουσιαστικό κομμάτι της ύπαρξής του, ο Ουίλιαμ Μπάροουζ έπρεπε να γράφει.
Υπήρξε ένας από τους πιο ριζοσπαστικούς καλλιτέχνες της εποχής μας, ασεβής εραστής της απόλυτης ελευθερίας και προκλητικός πολέμιος όλων των συστημάτων.
Με το μαύρο χιούμορ του, τις φουτουριστικές προφητείες του και την αναρχική του στάση ενάντια στο κατεστημένο, όλο του το έργο, σε μεγάλο βαθμό αυτοβιογραφικό, συνθέτει ένα εφιαλτικό κάτοπτρο των δεινών που βιώνει η ανθρωπότητα, αποτελώντας μια άσπλαχνη διακωμώδηση της χυδαιότητας του συστήματος, μια αμείλικτη καταγγελία, και συγχρόνως μια ηθική προσταγή, ένα όραμα.
Ο άνθρωπος που αντίκρισε την άβυσσο και γύρισε για να μας την περιγράψει: Ουίλιαμ Μπάροουζ, el hombre invisible.
Ο Μπάρρυ Μάιλς, φίλος με τον Ουίλιαμ Μπάροουζ από το 1964, παρακολουθεί τη ζωή τού μεγάλου Αμερικανού συγγραφέα, στις περιπλανήσεις και τις αυτοεξορίες του στη Λατινική Αμερική, την Ταγγέρη, το Παρίσι, το Λονδίνο και την επίδραση που άσκησαν στη σύγχρονη κουλτούρα η ζωή του και το έργο του.
Συνεχιστής ιστορικών πρωτοποριών, αέναος πειραματιστής με κάθε μέσο που είχε στη διάθεσή του (γραφομηχανή, χαρτί και μολύβι, ψαλίδια και κόλλες, μαγνητόφωνο, φωτογραφία, κινηματογράφος, ζωγραφική), ωθώντας συνεχώς τις ιδέες του στα άκρα, οικοδόμησε τη δική του μυθολογία και λειτούργησε σαν καταλύτης, επιτρέποντας στα πράγματα να συμβαίνουν, εμπνέοντας τη δημιουργία και την απελευθέρωση στους ανθρώπους.
Ο ίδιος καταδύθηκε σε τρομακτικά βάθη απόγνωσης, με μόνο στήριγμα το γράψιμο, που δεν αποτελούσε προγραμματικό σχέδιο, αλλά ουσιαστικό κομμάτι της ύπαρξής του, ο Ουίλιαμ Μπάροουζ έπρεπε να γράφει.
Υπήρξε ένας από τους πιο ριζοσπαστικούς καλλιτέχνες της εποχής μας, ασεβής εραστής της απόλυτης ελευθερίας και προκλητικός πολέμιος όλων των συστημάτων.
Με το μαύρο χιούμορ του, τις φουτουριστικές προφητείες του και την αναρχική του στάση ενάντια στο κατεστημένο, όλο του το έργο, σε μεγάλο βαθμό αυτοβιογραφικό, συνθέτει ένα εφιαλτικό κάτοπτρο των δεινών που βιώνει η ανθρωπότητα, αποτελώντας μια άσπλαχνη διακωμώδηση της χυδαιότητας του συστήματος, μια αμείλικτη καταγγελία, και συγχρόνως μια ηθική προσταγή, ένα όραμα.
Ο άνθρωπος που αντίκρισε την άβυσσο και γύρισε για να μας την περιγράψει: Ουίλιαμ Μπάροουζ, el hombre invisible.
Ο Μπάρρυ Μάιλς, φίλος με τον Ουίλιαμ Μπάροουζ από το 1964, παρακολουθεί τη ζωή τού μεγάλου Αμερικανού συγγραφέα, στις περιπλανήσεις και τις αυτοεξορίες του στη Λατινική Αμερική, την Ταγγέρη, το Παρίσι, το Λονδίνο και την επίδραση που άσκησαν στη σύγχρονη κουλτούρα η ζωή του και το έργο του.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
335 pages, Paperback
First published November 19, 1992
7 people are currently reading
516 people want to read
About the author
Barry Miles
73 books152 followersBarry Miles is an English author best known for his deep involvement in the 1960s counterculture and for chronicling the era through his prolific writing. He played a key role in shaping and documenting the London underground scene, becoming a central figure among the poets, musicians, and artists who defined the decade’s rebellious spirit. A close associate of figures such as Allen Ginsberg and Paul McCartney, Miles not only witnessed the cultural revolution firsthand but also actively participated in it through ventures like the Indica Gallery and the alternative newspaper International Times.
In the early 1960s, Miles began working at Better Books in London, a progressive bookshop that became a hub for the avant-garde. While there, he was instrumental in organizing the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965, an event that marked the emergence of the British underground movement and featured prominent poets like Allen Ginsberg. The same year, Miles co-founded the Indica Bookshop and Gallery, which became a gathering place for creatives and countercultural icons. It was here that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono, at one of her art exhibitions.
Miles also played a role in launching International Times, one of the UK’s first underground newspapers, which Paul McCartney discreetly funded. Miles introduced McCartney to the people behind the project and facilitated many of his early connections with the underground scene. In 1967, he co-organized The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a legendary multimedia event at Alexandra Palace featuring Pink Floyd, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon, among others.
Later in the decade, Miles took on the management of Zapple Records, an experimental subsidiary of Apple Records. During this time, he produced poetry albums, including one by Richard Brautigan. However, his personal relationship with Brautigan became strained after Miles became romantically involved with Brautigan’s partner, Valerie Estes. The fallout led to communication only through legal representatives. Although Zapple closed before releasing the Brautigan album, it was eventually issued by another label in 1970.
Miles also produced a recording of Allen Ginsberg’s musical interpretation of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, which was released in 1970. He briefly lived with Ginsberg in New York before returning to England following the breakdown of his first marriage. He later married travel writer Rosemary Bailey and continued to live and work in London.
In addition to his memoirs In the Sixties and In the Seventies, Miles has written definitive biographies of cultural icons such as Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now), Frank Zappa, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg. He is also the author of Hippie, a visual and narrative exploration of the 1960s counterculture. His writings often reflect a mix of personal experience and historical documentation, offering insight into the worlds of rock, literature, and art.
Miles is known not only for his historical accounts but also for his critical views, including pointed commentary on musicians like Rush and Frank Zappa, examining the political and commercial aspects of their work. With a career that spans over five decades, Barry Miles remains one of the most insightful chroniclers of the countercultural and musical revolutions of the 20th century.
In the early 1960s, Miles began working at Better Books in London, a progressive bookshop that became a hub for the avant-garde. While there, he was instrumental in organizing the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965, an event that marked the emergence of the British underground movement and featured prominent poets like Allen Ginsberg. The same year, Miles co-founded the Indica Bookshop and Gallery, which became a gathering place for creatives and countercultural icons. It was here that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono, at one of her art exhibitions.
Miles also played a role in launching International Times, one of the UK’s first underground newspapers, which Paul McCartney discreetly funded. Miles introduced McCartney to the people behind the project and facilitated many of his early connections with the underground scene. In 1967, he co-organized The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, a legendary multimedia event at Alexandra Palace featuring Pink Floyd, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon, among others.
Later in the decade, Miles took on the management of Zapple Records, an experimental subsidiary of Apple Records. During this time, he produced poetry albums, including one by Richard Brautigan. However, his personal relationship with Brautigan became strained after Miles became romantically involved with Brautigan’s partner, Valerie Estes. The fallout led to communication only through legal representatives. Although Zapple closed before releasing the Brautigan album, it was eventually issued by another label in 1970.
Miles also produced a recording of Allen Ginsberg’s musical interpretation of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, which was released in 1970. He briefly lived with Ginsberg in New York before returning to England following the breakdown of his first marriage. He later married travel writer Rosemary Bailey and continued to live and work in London.
In addition to his memoirs In the Sixties and In the Seventies, Miles has written definitive biographies of cultural icons such as Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now), Frank Zappa, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg. He is also the author of Hippie, a visual and narrative exploration of the 1960s counterculture. His writings often reflect a mix of personal experience and historical documentation, offering insight into the worlds of rock, literature, and art.
Miles is known not only for his historical accounts but also for his critical views, including pointed commentary on musicians like Rush and Frank Zappa, examining the political and commercial aspects of their work. With a career that spans over five decades, Barry Miles remains one of the most insightful chroniclers of the countercultural and musical revolutions of the 20th century.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 10, 2013
I am not a Burroughs fan. This would doubtless be a scintillating read for those who are. I read it because my wife brought it home and I had so thoroughly enjoyed reading Subterranean Kerouac, and I hoped it would be similar. It isn't; it's as much a study as it is a biography, and it is written by someone far more convinced of Burroughs gifts and genius than I am. There is too much hagiography here for my tastes, too much willingness to shine over Burroughs difficult personality, his drug abuse, the sordid tale of the killing of his wife, etc. I generally love the Beat writers, I very much like the novels of Jean Genet, and I am convinced that Nelson Algren is a neglected American literary giant, waiting for a champion to rediscover him, so by all rights I should love Burroughs...but I don't. I did like this book though. Sorry, that's not much of a review. Cut it up and repaste it together randomly and maybe it will be Shakespeare.
August 22, 2012
I first got this from the library in 1994. I highly recommend it as the most concise biography of Burroughs, written by a personal friend of his who was there in the 1960s. Barry Miles also wrote biographies of the Beatles and a few rock musicians. Since 1994 it's been revised and updated with a chapter on his legacy and funeral, including the extraordinary claim that a woman was seen french kissing Burroughs' corpse at his funeral.
This is a useful companion piece to Ted Morgan's "Literary Outlaw" (which went into great detail but for some reason used pseudonyms for the names of real people). Morgan's biography is worth reading for the detail this one misses out, such as descriptions of the early days of the Beat Generation when they embarked on their road trip to see the volcanoes of Mexico.
This is a useful companion piece to Ted Morgan's "Literary Outlaw" (which went into great detail but for some reason used pseudonyms for the names of real people). Morgan's biography is worth reading for the detail this one misses out, such as descriptions of the early days of the Beat Generation when they embarked on their road trip to see the volcanoes of Mexico.
January 4, 2013
despite many occurrences in Burroughs' life that lowered my opinion of him to a degree, Miles' biography tells it like it is, warts and all, and that's how I want it. The drugs, the illicit sex with random boys, the constant search for the next hallucinogenic medium, all form the life of Bill Burroughs. Oh, right, and there was the writing bit, which is in there as well, but plays second fiddle to the adventures in Bill's daily sideshow of an existence. Read Miles' Ginsberg biography and his Beat Hotel piece right after this one, it'll help you piece together the fascinating, and real, story of the Beats as they existed in their natural environments.
September 20, 2008
A respectable biography. Kind of sad his son Billy Jr. a very good writer who died a miserable alcoholic junkie in Denver only gets a page or two. One thing I never knew is that toward the end of his life, Burroughs contacted the aforementioned Whitley Strieber for an in-depth alien confab, and came away convinced of the phenomenon's reality, if none the wiser about its true nature.
June 5, 2012
I found this book mildly entertaining, and only mildly because I am not all that familiar with Burroughs' work. Sure I've read 'Junky' and 'Naked Lunch, but this book has a lot to do with his work as a whole, his unusual lifestyle, and his way of thinking and creating. I've learned a great deal of WSB and will continue to read and research this wonderfully interesting, American icon
April 30, 2007
Good Burroughs Bio. A lot of it concentrates on his actual work. This gets a little thick if you haven't read all his work. The actual bio parts are good.
August 29, 2019
Don't know if I said this before: Unlock the doors. Unscrew the doors from the jambs themselves!
November 21, 2023
Very informative and well done.
April 7, 2013
Even as a long-time Burroughs addict who has read the first volume of his letters several times over, devoured countless articles and pored over interviews, I found much I didn't know in Miles' biography.
I've long thought Burroughs has been unfairly maligned as a mean, curmudgeonly old goat – a view often predicated on his distant relationship with his troubled son, Billy – preferring to instead view him as an emotionally remote but essentially well intentioned oddball. Miles' book pokes through the mythologised, cartoonish image of Burroughs the junk addled deviant and reveals an awful lot of humanising detail which, for me, went a long way to validating what I'd begun to fear was far too sympathetic a view.
The one detraction is the quality of writing. The prose is clunky, suffering at times from the "laundry list" approach that biographies in general are so prone to. Occasionally important details are introduced non-sequentially, almost as afterthoughts, which at times forces the reader to go back and re-read segments in order to tie them together. Nevertheless it's by no means awful and, in my view, the quality and extent of information provided more than compensate.
I've long thought Burroughs has been unfairly maligned as a mean, curmudgeonly old goat – a view often predicated on his distant relationship with his troubled son, Billy – preferring to instead view him as an emotionally remote but essentially well intentioned oddball. Miles' book pokes through the mythologised, cartoonish image of Burroughs the junk addled deviant and reveals an awful lot of humanising detail which, for me, went a long way to validating what I'd begun to fear was far too sympathetic a view.
The one detraction is the quality of writing. The prose is clunky, suffering at times from the "laundry list" approach that biographies in general are so prone to. Occasionally important details are introduced non-sequentially, almost as afterthoughts, which at times forces the reader to go back and re-read segments in order to tie them together. Nevertheless it's by no means awful and, in my view, the quality and extent of information provided more than compensate.
February 17, 2008
I've always meant to read several of Burroughs books but so far I've only read "Ghost of a Chance" and "Naked Lunch". However, after hearing Naked Lunch contained lots of autobiographical material (as well as most of Burroughs books). I wasn't really suprised, shocked or horrified by any of the details given in this book. It really was an interesting read all the way through I thought. I didn't become bored or annoyed with it at any point. William Burroughs was truly a one of a kind genius...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2015
The story of a weird, wild, wacky, yet wondrous personality, William Burroughs chronicles the exploits, routines, and posturing of the guy who invented the fragmented, demented life. Especially intriguing are the last couple of chapters dealing with Burroughs's visual art and his Ugly Spirit. Miles clearly knows his subject, perhaps too well. What I take from this biography is the old adage that the writer who creates is separate from the person who suffers.
January 27, 2017
not just a biography but full with extracts and references to his writtings, paintings, recordings and so on. too bad that there were not enough photos to accompany this read. Really enjoyed that, read it in a greek translation that was also very cool which is rare for books of this kind. recommended both to fans as well as for an introduction
October 24, 2012
Fascinating how intrigued Burroughs was with Scientology and Reich's orgone box. Best to be familiar with most of his fiction before reading this book as it goes into detail about his writing techniques and when and where he was while writing .
March 12, 2014
This is one of the better Burroughs biographies. It assumes familiarity with the author's works, and takes Burroughs fascination with scientology and other of his quirky detours seriously and give a nice reading of the author and his work, for a biography that is really entertaining.
May 5, 2008
what a cut-up. or so was his writing style in later years. what else can i say about a man who chose to live in the best college basketball town ever....ROCK CHALK!!
March 27, 2012
Super interesting. What an odd, odd life. I loved it
September 24, 2012
I found the last 2 chapters informative. now to find the new edition to read the extra chapters.
January 3, 2014
General vg overview of Burroughs, his writings and the connections between the books and his life.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews