RealityStudio.org

Anyone know who.what the reference is on Page 9 line 19 to "..Gould level..." ?

I'm guessing it's Joe Gould, who's mentioned in Naked Lunch and appears several times in Hippos. It's a little unclear from the context of the letter but Gould was widely perceived as a Greenwich Village bohemian and invented absurd poems to mock beatniks. See Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gould_(bohemian)

an excellent book on Joe Gould. Hope the link works.

http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Goulds-Secret ... 611&sr=1-1

Thanks for that.. it didn't seem right that it was the Stanley Gould referenced in Vol 1 p270.

My next puzzle is the ref. to The Pool on p38.. which I know of as sound recordings by Gysin and yet this letter seems to imply they are recordings by Paul Bowles. Would this be the substance of this essay in Rain Taxi - Vol. 5 No. 4, Winter 2000/2001 (#20)
Bowles or Gysin: The Murky Waters of The Pool An essay by Jon Carlson & Dave Cardeiro ?
The essay is in the print edition of the magazine, and not the digital edition.

I haven't seen the essay, but in the bibliography in "Back in No Time: The Brion Gysin Reader" Jason Weiss apparently suggests that The Pool tapes might have been made by Bowles, even though they apparently came from Gysin's archive. See this:

http://mugwump.pitzer.edu/~bkeeley/reality/BG_BIB.HTM

Burroughs' letter would support that viewpoint.

ok... next ones on my list are:

p43 line 13 of the letter ...Like a Cockney version of Steele complete with beard and C.P. writ all over him..
Steele I take to be the 18thC essayist , but C.P. - who he?

p50 line 21 Panitza ??

p51 line 14 and to master a long good night shouldn't this have been footnoted as a refering to BG's bio of Uncle Tom?

p93 last line minor bird I've clocked this one up already but if this is how it is typed then surely a footnote to correct to it to mynah would explicate to those who did not know that Paul Bowles had an aviary in his apartment

Could 'CP' be CP Snow? I know there is a reference to a Jack Smith in there, without explanation, that can only be the gay New York American filmmaker.

There are two references to Panitza in ROTW. (I'm not sure page numbers of UK and US editions are the same, btw.)

p 37 "When I mentioned you know Panitza he snapped. 'Better leave Brion out of this.'"

p 56 "So why not write up outline and take it to Panitza? Right along their uplift line isn't it?"

I suspect this refers to John D. Panitza, who was an editor at Readers' Digest and evidently was based in Paris from the 1950s onward.

In the first quote, WSB is talking about writing something about apomorphine for a popular magazine such as Saturday Evening Post. In the second, he mentions "their uplift line." Reader's Digest would fit in with both these.

This is Panitza:

http://www.aapafrance.org/?p=777

As I read through ROTW, there were a number of things I thought should have been footnoted. But I guess the idea was to be deliberately light-handed in adding notes, since the volume is targeted toward a mass audience. (Conversely, you could argue that the notes are even more necessary, since casual readers are less likely to be familiar with WSB's world. But I file this under "is what it is" department.)

"is what it is" .. agreed and a fair judgement. "to footnote or not to footnote?" - yes, indeed, a difficult choice - could get cluttered and become a concordance (now there's a publishing project for someone!!).
..
going over a bit further.. anyone tell me what the 8726 symbol might be? (p119).

In Towers Open Fire (1'20") Bill's left hand goes down to a page of bracketed glyphs (oh joy to be able to find that prop!) but why the ref to 8726 .. is there a numerology significance (I think we can skip the fact it is the PO Box number for the Pythagorean Numerology Newsletter).

p120 top line. Who or what might H.R. be?

p153 anyone any idea what the magazine was he sent David Solomon?

Jim,

It dont think the answer on Solomon is in here but I flicked through it quickly and may have missed something.

http://realitystudio.org/bibliographic- ... d-solomon/

pg. 256

WSB answers a letter from Kells Elvins son re: Kells' writings.

From what I can gather, the widow wouldnt part with them for publication. Anyone know the full story?

Whatever happened to Kells' archive, is it mouldering in a landfill?

I've done a little research on Kells but haven't pulled it together into anything meaningful yet. Kells did publish a few short stories. Burroughs tried to help sell one at the time of Kells' death in order to scrounge up a little bread for his widow. I don't know what became of Kells' archive but I suspect it passed to his son Peter. I'm not sure about this, but I think Peter was the opera singer Peter Elvins who died in 2004. It would be interesting to hear if anybody can confirm this and/or let us know whether Peter had any heirs.

There is a mention in ROTW of Jack Smith, but it's not explained. Smith was a gay underground filmmaker who made stuff like Flaming Creatures and who would pose deeply philosophical questions like: "Is there a lipstick that doesn't come off when you suck cocks?" A timeless classic. I reviewed a couple of books on Smith years ago and gave them to Bruce LaBruce, the gay filmmaker, who didn't know they existed and was ecstatic.

Graham: That's a nice pointer to Jack Smith .. I'd like to see something of his .. a quick search uncovers:
http://www.printedmatter.org/researchro ... rzines.cfm
plus
http://www.aabronson.com/art/gi.org/artinamerica.htm

and i'd love to turn the pages of "The Beautiful Book"... yet my cheque book has somehow gone and got its pages stapled together:

http://www.en.zvab.com/displayBookDetai ... 71&ref=add