More Space Bandits Talk

[Max Wilcox]

HERBERT119 at DELPHI.COM wrote:
>
> On  4-NOV-1996 17:05:20.1 BOC-L said to HERBERT119
>    >Bryan Pitkin wrote:
>    >The other point is the ammount of Burroughs influence in Calvert's
>    >stuff. There's Hassan i Sabbah, Flying Doctor, Orgone Accumulator, to
>    >name a few off the top of my head. Can't recall if there's any more, but
>    >it seems that he was a bit of a Burroughs fan.
>    >I don't realy blame him.
>    >-Max Wilcox
>
> What is the connection between William Burrough's and these songs, I wonder?
> Not too familiar with Burrough's, except I've read the beginning of the Soft
> Machine. Seemed kinda pointless and pretty difficult...
>
> Chuck
        Well, Hassan i Sabbah is the Arab chap who started the assassins in the
middle ages, I think. They ate hash all the time thus calling them the
Hashhishans or somethin like that. Burroughs got his catchphrase from
him "nothing is true, everything is permitted".
        The Orgone Accumulator is mentioned in heaps of Burroughs' books, and
the plans are available, as well as the "dream machine" which  is in
effect a light that flashes at a certain frequency that replicates a
certain wave pattern in the brain, and brings on halucinations. (An
interesting note is that Kurt Cobain and some other silly teen idol, I
think from Hole or 4 non blondes, or whatever their name is, whichever
ones killed themselves, and all of them used this dream machine. Cooh, I
hope it's a plan of Burroughs' to wipe out all the crap music in the
world...) Anyway, back to the topic.
        Flying Dr is almost word for word Doctor Benway from Naked Lunch.
        So there you have it.
        On the topic of the Burroughs books read, definately don't start with
the Soft Machine. In fact, the trilogy that is from is in my opinion his
lowest point, though it's still bloody amasing when you eventualy get
into it. My recomendation is to first ATTEMPT to read Naked Lunch, you
may not suceed, then read Junky and Queer, then go back to NL and you'll
be on you way. He's certainly worth the effort (at least in my opinion)
        Anyway, sorry for rambling on, late nights, dont' ya know....
-Max Wilcox