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Academia Letters, 2021
This article provides an introduction to the authorial problems in depicting the hallucinogenic t... more This article provides an introduction to the authorial problems in depicting the hallucinogenic trip. I take into account the narration of trips in both fiction and non-fiction, and I consider trips induced by mescaline and peyote as well as LSD. The principal problem about verbalising a trip is that, at best, it is a severely limited exercise and, at worst, an impossible task. The impossibility claim is upheld by Tom Wolfe and Aldous Huxley. In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test [KA], Wolfe writes, ".. you couldn't put it [the trip] into words … The whole thing [is] the experience … this certain indescribable feeling … Indescribable, because words can only jog the memory and … there is no memory of … that feeling!" (KA 45) Aldous Huxley in The Doors Of Perception [DP] theorises this verbal-expressive hole. According to Huxley, taking a mescaline trip releases the Mind at Large, which is unreachable under ordinary circumstances. He asserts that the primary function of the brain, nervous system and sense organs, is to symbolise and rationalise the tiny residue of sense data needed for survival. Huxley maintains that mescaline and other hallucinogens disengage the editing process and return the tripper to the Mind at Large (DP 11). He concludes that "We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves" (my italics). In making a distinction between the aboutness of a trip and the unmediated or sui generis nature of the experience,Huxley argues that it is possible to verbalise about a trip, but impossible to recreate its lived experience. Many attempts to write the trip do not always make clear if the objective is to mimeticise aboutness or the sui generis experience. Whatever the authorial intention, much of the
In this conference presentation, I consider the revolution in literary technique evident in the w... more In this conference presentation, I consider the revolution in literary technique evident in the writings of Céline and Burroughs where the former can be considered a mentor of the latter. This revolution concerns the Three Dot Technique, the Delirium Technique and so on. I also show how these techniques serve to reflect the iconoclastic pessimism shared by both authors.
A Paper Presented at the Great Writing Conference, Imperial College, July 2017
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned... more CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." In addition to the publication of articles, the journal publishes review articles of scholarly books and publishes research material in its Library Series. Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <clcweb@purdue.edu>
This chapter comprises a discussion on the praxis and teaching of writing romance. I begin with a... more This chapter comprises a discussion on the praxis and teaching of writing romance. I begin with an outline of the history of romantic fiction, signifying its importance as a genre, and then describe the praxis that this genre implies. After elucidating how heteronormativity informs writing romance, I discuss the difficulties of writing scenes in literary fiction that depict good sex. My next task is to posit the relationship arc so far as it follows the rules of tragedy as laid out in Aristotle's Poetics and in modern interpretations of plot design such as Robert McKee's Story. Using Anna Karenin as a paradigm of traditional romantic writing, I examine the portrayal of dysfunction in Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach and the affair in John Coetzee's Summertime. For purposes of teaching, I propose a schema for Vicissitude Analysis that I apply to Summertime. I conclude that writing romance has evolved from a classical to a modern era in terms of content, even if the technical apparatus has barely altered.
In this paper I analyse and evaluate the concept of addiction as employed by William Burroughs. ... more In this paper I analyse and evaluate the concept of addiction as employed by William Burroughs. In his early works, in particular in 'Junky', Burroughs holds to a narrow view, whereby he identifies addiction as the condition resulting from the prolonged use of opiates, taken intravenously or otherwise. In his letter to The British Journal of Addiction (1956) he states that “[t]he use of opium and opium derivatives leads to a state that defines, limits and describes ‘addiction’.”
However, in his middle and later phases of writing, for example, in the Cut-Ups and Western Trilogies, Burroughs’s concept of addiction widens to the view that he had rejected in the Letter. He considers such putative phenomena as control addiction, orgasm addiction, addiction to James Dean and so on. I draw attention to several inconsistencies that Burroughs’s ideas gives rise to, as well as show how his emerging view coheres with the medical widening of the concept as reflected in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. Finally, I question the validity of this extension and conclude that the narrow concept of addiction as advanced in Burroughs’s early phase of writing is the more tenable, since the attribute of chemo-physical addiction is presumed, whereas, say, in addiction to control, no such condition can prevail.
My thesis in this paper is that the conservative/subversive, exterior/interior of William Burroug... more My thesis in this paper is that the conservative/subversive, exterior/interior of William Burroughs is not only reflected in his mode of dress, but also in his mode of writing – the suit and psyche interpretation. In essence, I make the psychoanalytic point that Burroughs’s mode of self-presentation is mirrored in his literary masterpiece.
This paper challenges the authority of the test of an Original Contribution to Knowledge demanded... more This paper challenges the authority of the test of an Original Contribution to Knowledge demanded by examining bodies for the award of a PhD in creative writing in the UK. In its place, I propose the test of an Original Contribution to Culture.
Burroughs and Trocchi can be read as proposing a theory of addiction that identitifies 'homo hero... more Burroughs and Trocchi can be read as proposing a theory of addiction that identitifies 'homo heroin'. In 'Naked Lunch' Burroughs extends his hypothesis to the monstering of the addict in sic-fi terms. Trocchi echoes this extension.
My first task is to distinguish war writing and writing war. The former, I take, refers to the ge... more My first task is to distinguish war writing and writing war. The former, I take, refers to the genre of writing about war that has existed since Homer's Iliad and includes within its forms: the novel (e.g. Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage), satire (e.g. Joseph Heller Catch 22)
Academia Letters, 2021
This article provides an introduction to the authorial problems in depicting the hallucinogenic t... more This article provides an introduction to the authorial problems in depicting the hallucinogenic trip. I take into account the narration of trips in both fiction and non-fiction, and I consider trips induced by mescaline and peyote as well as LSD. The principal problem about verbalising a trip is that, at best, it is a severely limited exercise and, at worst, an impossible task. The impossibility claim is upheld by Tom Wolfe and Aldous Huxley. In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test [KA], Wolfe writes, ".. you couldn't put it [the trip] into words … The whole thing [is] the experience … this certain indescribable feeling … Indescribable, because words can only jog the memory and … there is no memory of … that feeling!" (KA 45) Aldous Huxley in The Doors Of Perception [DP] theorises this verbal-expressive hole. According to Huxley, taking a mescaline trip releases the Mind at Large, which is unreachable under ordinary circumstances. He asserts that the primary function of the brain, nervous system and sense organs, is to symbolise and rationalise the tiny residue of sense data needed for survival. Huxley maintains that mescaline and other hallucinogens disengage the editing process and return the tripper to the Mind at Large (DP 11). He concludes that "We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves" (my italics). In making a distinction between the aboutness of a trip and the unmediated or sui generis nature of the experience,Huxley argues that it is possible to verbalise about a trip, but impossible to recreate its lived experience. Many attempts to write the trip do not always make clear if the objective is to mimeticise aboutness or the sui generis experience. Whatever the authorial intention, much of the
In this conference presentation, I consider the revolution in literary technique evident in the w... more In this conference presentation, I consider the revolution in literary technique evident in the writings of Céline and Burroughs where the former can be considered a mentor of the latter. This revolution concerns the Three Dot Technique, the Delirium Technique and so on. I also show how these techniques serve to reflect the iconoclastic pessimism shared by both authors.
A Paper Presented at the Great Writing Conference, Imperial College, July 2017
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned... more CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." In addition to the publication of articles, the journal publishes review articles of scholarly books and publishes research material in its Library Series. Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <clcweb@purdue.edu>
This chapter comprises a discussion on the praxis and teaching of writing romance. I begin with a... more This chapter comprises a discussion on the praxis and teaching of writing romance. I begin with an outline of the history of romantic fiction, signifying its importance as a genre, and then describe the praxis that this genre implies. After elucidating how heteronormativity informs writing romance, I discuss the difficulties of writing scenes in literary fiction that depict good sex. My next task is to posit the relationship arc so far as it follows the rules of tragedy as laid out in Aristotle's Poetics and in modern interpretations of plot design such as Robert McKee's Story. Using Anna Karenin as a paradigm of traditional romantic writing, I examine the portrayal of dysfunction in Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach and the affair in John Coetzee's Summertime. For purposes of teaching, I propose a schema for Vicissitude Analysis that I apply to Summertime. I conclude that writing romance has evolved from a classical to a modern era in terms of content, even if the technical apparatus has barely altered.
In this paper I analyse and evaluate the concept of addiction as employed by William Burroughs. ... more In this paper I analyse and evaluate the concept of addiction as employed by William Burroughs. In his early works, in particular in 'Junky', Burroughs holds to a narrow view, whereby he identifies addiction as the condition resulting from the prolonged use of opiates, taken intravenously or otherwise. In his letter to The British Journal of Addiction (1956) he states that “[t]he use of opium and opium derivatives leads to a state that defines, limits and describes ‘addiction’.”
However, in his middle and later phases of writing, for example, in the Cut-Ups and Western Trilogies, Burroughs’s concept of addiction widens to the view that he had rejected in the Letter. He considers such putative phenomena as control addiction, orgasm addiction, addiction to James Dean and so on. I draw attention to several inconsistencies that Burroughs’s ideas gives rise to, as well as show how his emerging view coheres with the medical widening of the concept as reflected in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. Finally, I question the validity of this extension and conclude that the narrow concept of addiction as advanced in Burroughs’s early phase of writing is the more tenable, since the attribute of chemo-physical addiction is presumed, whereas, say, in addiction to control, no such condition can prevail.
My thesis in this paper is that the conservative/subversive, exterior/interior of William Burroug... more My thesis in this paper is that the conservative/subversive, exterior/interior of William Burroughs is not only reflected in his mode of dress, but also in his mode of writing – the suit and psyche interpretation. In essence, I make the psychoanalytic point that Burroughs’s mode of self-presentation is mirrored in his literary masterpiece.
This paper challenges the authority of the test of an Original Contribution to Knowledge demanded... more This paper challenges the authority of the test of an Original Contribution to Knowledge demanded by examining bodies for the award of a PhD in creative writing in the UK. In its place, I propose the test of an Original Contribution to Culture.
Burroughs and Trocchi can be read as proposing a theory of addiction that identitifies 'homo hero... more Burroughs and Trocchi can be read as proposing a theory of addiction that identitifies 'homo heroin'. In 'Naked Lunch' Burroughs extends his hypothesis to the monstering of the addict in sic-fi terms. Trocchi echoes this extension.
My first task is to distinguish war writing and writing war. The former, I take, refers to the ge... more My first task is to distinguish war writing and writing war. The former, I take, refers to the genre of writing about war that has existed since Homer's Iliad and includes within its forms: the novel (e.g. Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage), satire (e.g. Joseph Heller Catch 22)