WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

El Inspector de la policía de Nova, define el propósito de Expreso Nova: poner al descubierto y arrestar a los criminales de Nova: "Muestra quienes son y lo que hacen y harán si no se los arresta. Los gobiernos son mentirosos cobardes, colaboradores traidores"; el prometido jardin de las delicias es una "cloaca terminal", y aunque la policia consiga llevar a los criminales a las cortes biologicas, los jueces mismos son gente corrompida, adicta a las drogas y las practicas sexuales venusinas... Burroughs ha creado nuevamente una obra de fantasia y realidad, histeria y risas, una autentica feria de horrores cuya lema podria ser: "Que todos los jugadores muestren ahora las cartas", y que Burroughs presenta como ultima prescripcion literal en beneficio de la supervivencia y la cordura del hombre.

In 1944, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were charged as accessories to murder. One of their friends, Lucien Carr, had stabbed another, David Kammerrer. Carr had come to each of them and confessed; Kerouac helped him get rid of the weapon - neither told the police. For this failing they were arrested. Months later, the two writers - unpublished at the time - collaborated on "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks", a fictionalized account of the summer of the killing.

"Al segle XVII, el capità James Misson i la seva tripulació de pirates van retirar-se a l’illa de Madagascar, on van fundar la comunitat utòpica coneguda històricament com Libertàtia, una societat qu

Escritor estadounidense nacido en Saint Louis (1914), William S. Burroughs se rebeló contra su familia y su educación academicista (estudió en Hardvard y medicina en Viena). Durante la segunda década de la posguerra se dio a la droga y viajo por todo el mundo en ambientes marginales. En 1953 publico Yonqui. Despues de una cura de desintoxicacion, empezo a escribir novelas: El almuerzo desnudo (1959), La maquina suave (1961), Nova Express (1964). En estas obras, Burroughs -considerado el mas grande narrador de la generacion beat- somete la experiencia autobiografica a una implacable diseccion cientifica a traves de la tecnica del "cut up" -es decir, recortando e intercalando fragmentos de otros escritores y de impresiones fenomenicas de todo tipo en la estructura narrativa- para recomponerla, transfigurada y trastornada, en una serie de metaforas surrealistas, en las que el autor expresa su ansia de liberacion de la racionalidad. Tanto el radical experimentalismo de Burroughs como su alucinada vision -politica y de ciencia ficcion- de un universo abandonado por Dios, disputado por grupos de poder que usan la palabra para manipular la psique, y presa de tecnologias incontroladas, han tenido una profunda influencia en la imaginacion americana, no solamente en la narrativa. Sus obra siguientes: Los chicos salvajes (1971), Port of Saints (1974) y Ciudades de la noche roja (1981), estan recorridas por la misma inspiracion fantastica que caracteriza a la tetralogia.

A cultural landmark and the most shocking novel in the English language, Naked Lunch is an exhilarating ride into the darkest recesses of the human psyche.An unnerving tale of an addict unmoored in New York, Tangier, and ultimately a nightmarish wasteland known as Interzone, Naked Lunch''s formal innovation, formerly taboo subject matter, and tour de force execution has exerted its influence authors like Thomas Pynchon and J. G. Ballard; on the relationship of art and obscenity; and on the shape of music, film, and media in general.

This surreal fable, set in America''s Old West, features a cast of notorious characters: The Crying Gun, who breaks into tears at the sight of his opponent; The Priest, who goes into gunfights giving his adversaries the last rites; and The Nihilistic Kid himself, Kim Carson, a homosexual gunslinger who, with a succession of beautiful sidekicks, sets out to challenge the morality of small-town America and fight for intergalactic freedom.Fantastical and humorous, The Place of Dead Roads continues William Burroughs'' exploration of society''s controlling forces - the State, the Church, women, literature, drugs - with a style that is utterly unique in twentieth-century literature.

Beginning as surprisingly formal notes from the road to his friends Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the letters gradually deepen in substance and style. Burroughs' letters show the development of both the man and the writer, vividly documenting his (often turbulent) personal and cultural history. The collection provides a key to opening up and contextualizing Burroughs' fiction, but more than that it shows how letter-writing was itself integral to his life and creative process.

"Interzone" portrays the development of Burroughs' mature writing style by presenting a selection of pieces from the mid-1950s. His outrageous tone of voice represents the exorcism of four decades of oppressive sexual and social conditioning. Burroughs' close observations of humanity - its ugliness and ignorance - invites the reader to dispense with their traditional notions of decorum, and taste the world as he sees it.

"My Education" is Burroughs' last novel, first published two years before his death in 1997. It is a book of dreams, collected over several decades and as close to a memoir as we will see. The dreams cover themes from the mundane and ordinary - conversations with his friends Allen Ginsberg or Ian Sommerville, feeding his cats, procuring drugs or sex - to the erotic, bizarre and visionary. Always a rich source of imagery in Burroughs' own fiction, in this book dreams become a direct and powerful force in themselves.

Both heartwarming and meditative, The Cat Inside explores not only the personal relationship between Burroughs and cats, but the deeper relationship of cats with mankind, which Burroughs traces back to the Egyptians. This book of moving and witty discourse is for both Burroughs' fans and cat lovers alike.

A man, dispirited by ageing, endeavours to steal a younger mans face a doctor yearns for a virus that might eliminate his discomfort by turning everyone else into doubles of himself a Colonel lays out the precepts of the life of DE (Do Easy) and conspirators posthumously succeed in blowing up a train full of nerve gas.

A fascinating mix of autobiographical episodes and extraordinary Egyptian theology, Burroughs''s final novel is poignant and melancholic. Blending war films and pornography, and referencing Kafka and Mailer, The Western Lands confirms his status as one of America''s greatest writers. The final novel of the trilogy containing Cities of the Red Night and The Place of Dead Roads, this is a profound meditation on morality, loneliness, life and death.

An opium addict is lost in the jungle; young men wage war against an empire of mutants; a handsome young pirate faces his execution; and the world''s population is infected with a radioactive epidemic. These stories are woven together in a single tale of mayhem and chaos. In the first novel of the trilogy continued in The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands, William Burroughs sharply satirizes modern society in a poetic and shocking story of sex, drugs, disease and adventure.