With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker

Way more fun to read than Naked Lunch or the Cut-Up Trilogy, but suffers from the same problem as all of Bockris's biographical works: inexactness. The awkwardly funny 1979 meeting between Burroughs and Lou Reed that was featured as an appendix in Transformer (Bockris's Reed bio) also turns up in this book...but here, it's supposed to have taken place during two separate dinners, and the wording is similar but not identical. What actually happened? Did a tape recording ever exist, or did Bockris piece the conversation together from memory? And were there two separate meetings or only one? We don't know. There's a photo of Burroughs and Reed together at the Bunker, so obviously they did meet, but the details are murky.

Lots of photos and show more interesting discussions--which Burroughs tended to monopolize--with musicians (Reed, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein), visual artists (Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat) and other writers (Allen Ginsberg, Susan Sontag). I'm sure that most of them are at least a fair approximation of reality; Bockris was, after all, a fan and faithful friend. However, if I were writing an academic paper or even a magazine article on Burroughs, I would avoid using any direct quotations from this book. show less

Burroughs, the eccentric, brilliant artist who burned the bridge with logic and wrote the classic Naked Lunch, has a court recorder in Victor Bockris. Bockris has collected into a cogent whole the man's most brilliant moments of conversation, thinking, and interview repartee. This fascinating material, gleaned from the fertile time at Burroughs's New York headquarters, the Bunker (which was located on the Bowery, three blocks from CBGB), encompasses the years 1974 to 1980, and also includes a 1991 Burroughs interview from Interview magazine. The Beats' devotion to subjective experience has left readers with a profound amount of objective material to analyze and debate. Choice public and private utterances, hallucinatory and prescient show more diatribes such as these, remain rich sources of literary history. As Americans we find the Beats' approach to life romantic, even heroic. Tearing the walls down in the name of freedom and spirituality strikes a particularly pilgrimesque chord. With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker is a fascinating compendium of Burroughs-speak, so complete it can be considered a credo. show less

With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker by Victor Bockris is a collection of interview notes from the 1970s and 1980s. Bockris is the author of several books on the people in the New York underground -- Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and John Cale. He wrote on the Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol, and Keith Richards.

Bockris is a man who was in the right place, at the right time, and with the right people. This is the second book of his I have read. The first was the unauthorized biography of Patti Smith which turned up nothing new nor, although a bit harsh, any real scandal that made it "unauthorized" in the contemporary muckraking definition of the term.

The book is a collection of notes presumably from recordings of meetings with show more Burroughs and Ginsberg, Lou Reed, Susan Sontag, Warhol, and a variety of other players in the New York scene. The discussions seem unscripted and flow as expected in a natural conversation. Burroughs talks about a variety of subjects from writing, politics, drugs, sex, and his wife's death. The discussions are usually interesting and it was fun to see Burroughs get irritated with Ginsberg over semantics. Burroughs also makes a stand against him being the godfather of the (New York) punk rock movement. He says he has little to do with it outside of being a Patti Smith supporter and fan.

The meetings take place in New York and are down to earth for the most part just people drinking (and sometimes using drugs) and talking about art and the problems in the world. It is common talk and not pseudo-intellectualism. It is the blending of the Beats and the rising "punk" generation. Burroughs bridges the generations and in a real way helped direct the younger group. Burroughs lived the life and quite a long one at that especially with the life he lived. Generally, he is either loved or thought of as a fraud. Myself, although I am still pretty baffled by Naked Lunch, Junkie was well ahead of its time. This collection of interviews is well worth the read for seeing Burroughs in a relaxed, natural environment. show less

I lived through the sixties, but was too young to appreciate its finer points. I have, therefore, been aware of William Burroughs, without fully understanding his role in the creation of modern culture. In deciding to approach him via this book, I reasoned that a return to sixties literature may be too dated, the ideas would might now seem quaint, an adjective guaranteed to strip any edge that they may once have held: relatively modern conversations with the man might be a better entrée.

You may find little to fault in my logic thus far, however, I failed to think through the likely result of sitting Mr Burroughs with various celebrities and a microphone. Everyone is very careful as to what they say, the pithy remark wins out too often show more against the worthwhile comment and the book becomes stilted. I suspect that people who admire Burroughs will relish this book whilst, those of us not already in the camp, will be left disappointed. show less

Ok, I hope Bockris never reads this review b/c I don't really want to hurt anyone's feelings but I just HAVE TO SAY THIS: by this point in Burroughs' career every moronic parasite in the world was trying to attach theirself to him & this bk exemplifies that. Bokcris cd take the most brilliant subject & trivialize it thru gossip & name-dropping 'til you'd feel like puking. All of Bockris' bks shd just be called "If I Drop These Names Will I Be Famous TOO?!" I mean, why not just get to the point? The cover portrait is by Robert Mapplethorpe - another artiste whose work I hate. This bk is SO New York in the worst way. Too bad the center of the publishing industry is there b/c we end up w/ idiocies like this: this bk MUST BE IMPORTANT b/c show more it has ALL the scenesters in it (no matter if half of them are idiots!)! The only thing that salvages this is that Burroughs is, yes, actually represented in it somewhat. If you're going to read everything connected to the guy, save this one for LAST. I'd hate to see you die w/ this one under yr belt & "The Book of Breeething" (eg) unread. show less