Comments on: Henry Miller and William Burroughs: An Overview

By: RealityStudio

RealityStudio — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 02:54:45 +0000

“bill burroughs plays henry miller in the period of sexus” — Piero Heliczer, “Money” (collected in Little Caesar 9)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 18 May 2016 10:17:04 +0000

Excellent piece thanks. On that slant, though contemporaries TOlstoy & Dostoevsky never met though once were in the same building – a theatre or hall, can’t remember – but Tolstoy asked not to be pointed out. Though to mention by contrast, Dostoevsky & Turgenev did have a very volatile relationship.

By: Ond?ej Skovajsa

Ond?ej Skovajsa — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 12:13:58 +0000

Great article and so is the Ian MacFadyen’s response! I wish to add two things: Tropic of Cancer should have been available at the 42 Street New York Public Library already back in the 1930s to be read on the spot. I am from a different corner of the world, but there may be a possibility to confirm it. I got the information from my wonderful Miller teacher and scholar and writer Thomas Nesbit who is unfortunatelly no longer here with us.
Also, I want to add that Whitman’s method of writing, as shown recently by Matt Miller in his Whitman: A Collage of Himself (2010), was — like Miller’s and Burroughs’ also very much “cut up”. I believe Whitman and Miller used similar formulaic sewing techniques of the oral bards as described by Antoine Meilet, Marcel Jousse and Walter Ong (1982) and others. Burroughs, on the other hand, seems much more “textual”, not trying to “write voice” with its bodily and bardic and social interferences, as Whitman and Miller did.

By: Rand Bon

Rand Bon — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:21:16 +0000

This is the best comparison of the two writers that I’ve come across yet – very well informed with references to boot.

By: Doniphan Blair

Doniphan Blair — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 06:01:12 +0000

Fabulous exegesis on the two true originators of abstract literature, the Picasso and Pollack of the form, eclipsing Celine and Joyce—but what happened to my longer comment from yesterday.

By: Doniphan

Doniphan — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 05:51:25 +0000

I’m only half way through and I must exclaim brilliant and remarkable analysis of the divergence between Henry and William. But of course they are in direct parallel, the Picasso and the Pollack of literature, who eclipse Celine and Joyce in the formation of the ‘abstract’ and ‘liberated’ novel, bringing it to a ‘male’ and intellectual and autobiographical perspective from the emotional and female explorations of the 19th century. Although they will be forever conjoined that adventure, they are spectacularly different as this author beautifully illustrates. Bravo!