[NewMusic] Message from WSB

[Tim DuRoche]

That's much more avuncular than the messages I get from WSB.  He did send a Christmas Card, but it had a picture of a naked Peter Orlovsky on the front, but he wrote this inside:
"Cut word lines — Cut music lines — Smash the control images — Smash the control machine — Burn the books — Kill the priests — Kill! Kill! Kill!"

. . . oh, and a giftcard for Starbucks.

Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net> wrote: Dear bListers,

The weirdest thing - this guy always emails me stuff and signs
everything William S. Burroughs...

Anyway, he just sent this to me, and I thought I would forward it to
everyone on the list. Seems appropriate somehow.

Cheers,
PG





Dear Friends,

I know that most of you think I'm just a cranky old fart with an
enormous obsession for sex drugs and rock n' roll, but I must tell you
even if that highly generalized description captured me in life, it no
longers captures me in death.

Indeed. I have grown soft. I have perhaps become sentimental. 

I grow weary of fighting the word lines, even long after my death.
Because the word lines don't go away - and the Nova Mobs have grown in
alarming numbers. They have arrested our leaders and are posing at the
highest forms of control. 

There was once a time when the battle was 50 - 50 - a fair fight, so to
speak. Now the Nova Police are outnumbered...and the really frightening
thing is that no one seems to have noticed. The idea that there would
actually be someone on the lookout for toxic levels of lies, corruption,
unchecked greed and mass murder all in the name of liberation seems out
of date.

It's the youngsters I worry about most. They have never lived in times
when peace not only seemed possible but the reasonable thing to ask.
They have never lived in times when their leaders were even remotely
sincere. They have never seen hope on their parents' faces, because hope
isn't a popular item on the marketplace at the moment. The existential
concerns that focus on compassion and understanding have been rubbed
out.

I have been warning people for a long time that word lines are shifting
and the truth will become more and more difficult to locate. You have to
look deep within, fellow space travellers, to find space - to find
silence. That is where the truth resides - in silence.

I am not speaking of a silence of complicity, nor a silence of apathy. A
silence that occurs only when the roar of capitalism and consumerism
have subsided. A silence that occurs when desire has been quelled. A
silence that occurs when someone has more than ten minutes a day to
think for themselves. A silence that eliminates the cost of things. A
silence that allows for the individual to emerge from the herd. A
silence that exists in the Western Lands. 

This writing can never be finished. The word lines continue to weigh
upon us. Feel free to question these very words from every angle. Feel
free to ask your own questions. Feel free to pursue silence. Feel free
to pursue space, for there is freedom in space, just as there is freedom
in silence.

I say this knowing full well that silence is impossible to acheive. Yes,
I have read the writings of John Cage. You might do well to do the same,
but that is just a suggestion. I realize no one reads anymore - no one
has the time for Woolf or Joyce or Baldwin or Kristeva or Politkovskaya
or Gogol or Oe or Genet or Tutuola or for Willie the Shake. No one has
time for Rilke, nor has anyone time for the Tao te Ching or the
Upanishads. In America, all you have time for is Advertising. It is a
part of nearly everything you perceive.

If I had any reason to start writing this, I have forgotten what it was.
I have no intention of writing a conclusion. There is no resolution.
There is only word virus, and it is closing in. It's that time of
year...and winter can be hard, even if global warming will soon
eliminate cold weather altogether.

And, So, Take Care of YourSelves - and treat yourselves right. You have
to live right to play right and you have to play right to live right.

I am not a Christian, so please don't misconstrue these sentiments as
just another "season's greeting"... but I wish all of you all the love
that I could possibly deliver in this current cyber-format to each and
every one of you that reads these words.

Be good to yourselves. Be good to those around you. We are all much more
fragile than anyone realizes.

Good night,
William S. Burroughs

_______________________________________________
Bay Area New Music Discussion Group
NewMusic at music.mills.edu
http://music.mills.edu/mailman/listinfo/newmusic


 
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