A Matter of Electricity: William Burroughs and Rock Music (original) (raw)
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In a letter to Allen Ginsberg sent in 1955, William Burroughs claims that his novel Naked Lunch sketches ‘the sick soul, sick unto death, of the atomic age’ (Burroughs, 1994b, 255). In response to the discontent of the ‘atomic age’ Burroughs forges his own aesthetic arsenal that he will later claim supersedes the power of nuclear weapons. By using literature as a means to ‘change fact’ (Burroughs, 2010, 55), alter consciousness and ‘make things happen’ (Burroughs, 1994a, 32), Burroughs will, in 1970, come to realise techniques for attacking political opponents, creating ‘fake news’ and altering the course of the Cold War (Burroughs, 2005, 17). William Burroughs moves from forging aesthetic techniques aimed at carving out a niche for authentic subjectivity in the modern age to suggesting guerrilla methods for mass media control
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William S. Burroughs, one of the founding members of the counterculture literary movement of the Late-Modernist period known as the Beat Generation, added fuel to the Beat fire when he published his novel, Junky, in 1953, ushering in a heavy dose of in-your-face reality, offering himself as the heroin-ripened sacrifice. The novel, with its self-deprecating, dark subject matter written in linear prose, is an essential example of what makes a novel “Beat” and represents the epitome of Late-Modernism as a departure from other, more mainstream modernist novels. Fast forward six years to Naked Lunch, and we see a Burroughs who has abandoned linearity for radical literary experimentation while still holding fast to his go-to theme of massive drug abuse, though with the added element of exuberant homoerotic exercise. The differences between the two novels are as extreme and uncompromising as artistically possible. Therefore, by comparing the subject matter and linear cohesiveness of his first novel, Junky, to that of his nonlinear, severely disjointed, and often stomach-churning second novel, Naked Lunch, it can be concluded that Burroughs left behind what could be considered Modernism, and moved the world with all literary abandon into a brand new era beyond even Late-Modernism.
2015
The Beat Generation, being a social and literary movement led by young male artists in mid 20th Century North America, has often been synonymous with rebellion and non-conformity. Those principal traits, while they could be construed as a manifest desire to breach the fixed postwar social and literary code, may be interpreted differently. The present research paper will endeavor to offer this opportunity by approaching the Beats from a new angle, based on an analysis of the inner motifs behind their rejection of mainstream American society and literature, and thus through each of On the Road, Howl and Junky, written respectively by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. The post-war multiple climates as well as many events have historically given birth to the Beat movement. Therefore, whether the Beats' new social identity is a sign of Americanism or anti-Americanism will be enquired. Likewise, the present study will attempt to disclose how the Beat writers inten...
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System of a Down is an Armenian-American heavy metal band who participated in a counterculture around the turn of the millennium, both through its music and through its members’ participation in activism. I situate both the band’s sound and identity portrayal through analysis of the music and the socio-historical context which made them popular. System of a Down was labelled a “Nümetal” band primarily due to the touring circuit participated it in. I investigate the sonic signifiers of this subgenre of heavy metal through examples from the band’s first album. I then compare contemporary Nümetal to songs from the band’s eponymous album and am able to identify what makes the band unique among its peers in terms of musical conventions used. System of a Down’s music participates in a culture opposed to global warfare and injustice. This thesis opens the door to further in-depth study of this band’s important music.