Comments on: The Soft Machines

By: vince

vince — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 03:41:24 +0000

In the film by Fennella Greenfield – William Burroughs interviewed by Kathy Acker – Burroughs complains to Acker that Grove Press had no interest in publishing the revised British edition. Acker promises to put in a word with the editors at Grove about this. I’m assuming from this clip that Burroughs considered the third revision as ‘definitive’. But some enterprising soul should publish both the Olympia and the British versions some day …

(URL for the interview with Burroughs below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN7ZZYKQZqs

By: WilliamLee

WilliamLee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:31:51 +0000

Memo From Turner always had a burroughsian feel to me, maybe me being misled by the verse: “You’re the man who squats behind the man who works the soft machine.”

By: WilliamLee

WilliamLee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:25:35 +0000

Thank you very much for this insight into the variations of The Soft Machine!

By: Davee mac

Davee mac — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:48:00 +0000

ah, i understand! :)

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:38:35 +0000

Oliver’s unpublished work is a large collection of notes, but not a completed piece, so to speak. He has done a lot of work on this book, but it’s not something I think he would make public without revising it.

By: Davee mac

Davee mac — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:15:53 +0000

This article is like a bolt from the blue – I knew there were revisions but had NO IDEA the original edition was SO drastically different! Red, Green, Blue, White….???!?! I also never knew that the ‘Apomorphine’ bit is a ‘Deposition’-style afterthought. It’s weird, because next time I read the book I know and love, there’s going to be this ghost hovering above it..

The note says Oliver Harris’ ‘Soft Machines’ is unpublished manuscript… any chance of hosting this?? …?? (bats eyelashes)