Please mind the gap. Introduced in 1969 on the London Underground, the same year as the 1st edition appeared titled The Job, William S. Burroughs. Both acts as a warning to passengers to take caution while crossing the gap at various levels. However as a word of caution you first need to identify them, as gaps only become visible by means of what surrounds them.Word and text is not the same thing in the same way that space and void could be opposites similar to the experimental view vs. perspective.
I find the explanations of William S Borroughs technique to the word as a serious of objects and the cutting and pasting of text fascinating. He’s projected idea of delivering a twisted or dystopian vision to his audience on the real “event and sound” by showing a movie. Using their doubt and lack of confidence to the original detail Borroughs convinces his audience that he, the director are god by letting them doubt themselves as they believe in his image of reality…as he holds the truth, captured for all to see. Their voices of rebellion will not be heard even if they speak as those around them will doubt them.
It’s either doubt yourself or be in doubt by others…
It’s about controlling perception from within an individual. Burroughs presented a book that had to be read as a metaphor of a metaphor of a metaphor. Although he tries to convince his interviewer that he’s after more clarity for all to see in his writings…he doesn’t mean a word of it. He’s playing from within, and he knew it.
The world is an experiment for some and without the mass image words and illusions of another kind remain in the order of day in the artist’s way. Writers’ weather they aim to be seen as an artist or not the public might perceive it differently and Burroughs took no shame in the fact that once he’s tricked or convinced the audience that he was wrong. Burroughs words was one of these not be seen or confused with an end product but instead to be seen as an order or an experiment to achieve logic and to prove a point, which came prior to him suggesting solutions on how to save the world from the bourgeoisie way of controlled thinking, teaching and accumulation.
He was by no means completely insane and no one ever suggest this, the world would rather brand him by his previous book titled “Junky”…but then I’d imagine Burroughs will take this as a compliment. He analysed the world of a certain time, in our case it’s historical but nevertheless one that still replicates the basic connections and condition between the complicated DNA of cultivating control.
Burroughs never aimed to give his hierarchy a formula to a solution as he admits “it dangerous” but in the end he realised there’s no escaping the machine as it stands…he realised he’s been absorbed by the silence. The only solution would be cut off the machines “supply and demand” from the proletarian line which feeds the bourgeoisie. If all fails it’s simply because you’ve been taught the wrong values by your parents…and to see or realise or escape these principles which you can’t…well then… take drugs (but do make sure it’s the right ones). He goes into great depth about the right drugs and shows he still cares about he’s own theory from the Chapter 1 interview “not to be judged” which is why he back it up. He realises he still haven’t escaped the machine and that he’d still be judged by an audience with “distorted values”.
He hates the idea of a family and the woman. And as woman remains the key to nurturing and teaching their young by making them disciples of the machine. For that reason he most probably hates gardening as it paints the same picturesque image of family life. He’s solution is not one to change the way of thinking to the masses but to change their chemical or molecular body structure either physically or chemically. He’s not highlighting the machine as the problem to be changed but insinuate that people are the problem as they need to change first in order to change the machine instead of the other way around. After all it's a problem created by people.
If Burroughs was a god he’s solution would be to stop the human reproduction cycle and family completely. Produce them artificially and let boys be raised by their fathers and girls by their mothers…as parents influence their young by injecting them with the same virus of words imprinted on their artificial parental DNA for survival or need…most probably confused with tradition. This was inevitable and is impossible to stop…hence” screw humanity”.
Burroughs takes on the role of a child throwing a tantrum in this book. Maybe he knew this which is why the books start with a quote from the diary of a six year old. He’s in a state of being the dominating child displaying toxic behaviour instead taking the lead role as that of the controlling parent. The display of toxic behaviour acts as the solution that will influence those around him to the point where the only solution is to stop all human reproduction. Even his arguments remains structured in a childlike fashion by saying “I’m serious but here’s a joke for you” in his satirical writing style, whilst being cleverly artistic on the words as an object hidden within the text itself. Word and text is not the same thing.
However he does make valid points but nothing more straightforward than what’s already been said in books like the “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Freiderich Engels. On his artistic abilities as a writer he’s brilliant and well ahead of competition at the time. Burroughs is an artist whether he’d turn in his grave for me saying this or not. He considers techniques of discovery and exploration to the word mixed up with other scientific formulas and thoughts to paint a new sea of text within reality, driven by his formed hallucination techniques.
People fear what they don’t understand and fear is a form of control. As mentioned in the beginning “it’s either doubt yourself or be in doubt by others…” thus the fear of rejection. Rejection = Death
Burroughs had an interesting view on silence (not death) but he said the obvious, that: "anyone who prays in space is not there". He’s giving into space, the silence of the world’s words…the invisible text as explained in my previous article titled “The Job: Space Age Experiment I – II”, which highlights the invisible ink thus creating a sense of silence to a page.
However by indicating to the world a message of HOPE that these “invisible blanks” within his work represents another future and that they’ve not been written yet…although it might seem already printed.
We hear it every day…”please mind the gap”...perhaps Burroughs could've written or inspired that line to mock society with a scotoma, where the mind chooses what it wants to see. To help us to recognise the gaps and to remind us to play an active part in writing our new futures whilst were on a daily journey to enslave our souls within the machine.
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