William S. Burroughs' "The Revised Boy Scout Manual"
An Electronic Revolution
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Before the era of fake news and anti-fascists, William S. Burroughs wrote about preparing for revolution and confronting institutionalized power. In this work, Burroughs’ parody becomes a set of rationales and instructions for destabilizing the state and overthrowing an oppressive and corrupt government. As with much of Burroughs’ work, it is hard to say if it is serious or purely satire. The work is funny, horrifying, and eerily prescient, especially concerning the use of language and social media to undermine institutions.
The Revised Boy Scout Manual was a work Burroughs revisited many times, but which has never before been published in its complete form. Based primarily on recordings of a performance of the complete piece found in the archives at the OSU libraries, as well as various incomplete versions of the typescript found at Arizona State University and the New York Public Library archives, this lost masterpiece of satiric subversion is finally available in its entirety.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Burroughs's jarringly piecemeal satire on how to prepare for a revolution against powerful, oppressive institutions is strikingly timely, albeit difficult to follow. The text, assembled from multiple sources including recordings of Burroughs's readings, leaps about, including bizarre fantasies such as a Night of the Living Dead inspiredscenario and a testy conversation between Watson and Holmes about the latter's excessive drug use. Credited for creating terms such as "heavy metal" and the now ubiquitous "fake news," Burroughs was a talented wordsmith; readers who persist will find delicious phrasing here such as "the vote is a weapon" and "the weapons of illusion." Burroughs's sharp observations on the shaping of media narratives are particularly worth seeking out. This slender offering serves best as an opportunity to appreciate Burroughs's dark humor and insights into human nature "Can any human being live without enemies? No human being has ever done so yet" rather than as a lost classic. V. Vale's observation in an afterword that "if your language lives on, in a way, you live on" sums up what there is to admire here: Burroughs's gift for creating phrases that remain relevant.
