Jeffrey Varnado

Former Ebay Sellers vs. Ebay, Inc.
2014-03-03 15:11:20 (UTC)

William S. Burroughs on "word viruses"

William S. Burroughs on "word viruses" (akin to George Orwell's DoubleSpeak): Burroughs claimed that language is infectious and exerts limitations and controls over people's minds by it's very existence and utility. He believed that the ability to think and create was limited by the conventions of grammar and usage. For example, most people have not difficulty grasping the idea of a "kitchen sink," but a "sinking kitchen" gives most of us pause. Most words and phrases in our native language are indelibly linked to the concept they represent. What comes to mind when I say black cat. I'll wager it wasn't a white horse. I'll further suggest that it wasn't a dark-colored boat, a dominatrix's whip, or an African-American jazz musician. Yet all are possibilities. Burroughs thought that eventually, such associations would eventually lead to complete thought control, by limiting the mind's ability to free associate. All possibilities would be accounted for by existing words in expected patterns.
Burroughs made his living in the medium of words, but he reportedly believed that "'Word and image locks' and 'association blocks' lock the mind into conventional patterns of thinking, speaking, acting, and perceiving things."' This led him to use a variety of techniques for breaking out of the virus's control including cutting and folding word groupings to form such gems as "The great skies are open. Supreme bugle burning flesh children to mist."
I don't remember the source, but I'm pretty sure he meant the possibilities of language as an instrument of massive mind manipulation (by Governments, corporations, etc), as shown in many of his books




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