Notes from THE ADDING MACHINE, by William S. Burroughs
Artists do however have a degree of freedom. A writer has little power, but he does have freedom, at least in the West. Think very carefully about this. Do you want to be merely the spokesman for accomplished power movers? The more power, the less freedom. A politician has almost no freedom at all.
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I believe it was T.S. Eliot who said that if a writer has a pretentious literary style, it is generally because he has not read enough books.
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Writers operate in the magical universe, and you will find the magical law that “like attracts like”.
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Perhaps we can look forward to a time when the unconscious will merge with the conscious.
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Writing an honest book review is hard work. I know because I have written book reviews. A review of a thousand words takes me at least ten hours and many revisions to complete. I could turn out an unfair negative review in ten minutes. Anybody could.
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Death is that which, when it occupies you, you are dead. Death is eviction from the earth body. Death is an unbearable presence. People die to avoid it.
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From my point of view there is no such thing as a coincidence. But the word is charged with emotional significance. How many times in fiction, when faced by evidence of ESP or any manifestation beyond his rational understanding, the scientist hero cries out: “Coincidence! It has to be! Anything else is unthinkable!” What is the magic word that exorcises and banishes magic? I turn to Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary. “Coincidence: circumstance agreeing with another implying accident.” I do not understand exactly why this assertion of randomness produces such a potent sedative effect. It seems to convey a comforting conviction that there is no God in any heaven and what is happening here is no one’s plan, intention or responsibility. It just happened. Ask why it happened and why just at this particular time, and once again the magic word is invoked: “It was coincidence.” The universe is random, Godless and meaningless. Any belief in creators or purpose is wishful thinking. And when you point out that perhaps all thinking is wishful, reactions of intense irritation give evidence that we are dealing not with logic but with faith.
William S. Burroughs, The Adding Machine: Collected Essays, Grove Atlantic. Edição do Kindle
