Tuesday, January 6, 2009

On Burroughs' Legacy

Jonathan Jones in the Guardian summarizes what my subconscious suspected after reading William Burroughs' books:

"Some cultural figures achieve vast proportions in their lifetime not so much by their works as their voice, attitude, persona. This is a phenomenon we take for granted in popular culture... Burroughs is the modern writer adored by people who don't read enough modern writing. Everything he did was done better by others."

Burroughs writing, while always interesting, never really seemed to capture me mainly due to his meandering (or non-existent) plots and obscene bits. He's really meant to be read in small doses, and even than is more interesting then an author I would go back to again and again.

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