=THE UNOFFICIAL= WILLIAM B URROUGHS HOMEPAGE WILLIAM B URROUGHS CUT-UPS

   General procedure: Read and learn
   all you can about problem. Look at
   problem from a point of zero preconception. 
Devise variations and alternative solutions. 
Check back to see if your solution has workable 
advantage over  solutions  previously  arrived
   at . . . 'To carry the method a step further 
   than solution of purely technical
   problem where purpose is implicit in
   the artifact: devising more efficient
   gun, tool, boat, signal system, medical
   or interrogation procedure.

  Consider a long range problem like
relation of the many to the few. We are
an elitist conspiracy. How has this
problem of the relation between an
elite and the general populace been
solved in the past? The elite kept the
populace  down  with  physical  and
psychological coercion, held them in
slavery, peonage, serfdom, kept them
in ignorance, forbade them to carry
weapons. This solution like all solutions 
that do not alter the basic problem 
led to further problems: Eventual
revolt. The few are unable to contain
the  many.  The  few  bring  in
mercenaries.  Mercenaries  become
another problem known as protection
from the protectors. No society has
come up with a basically different solution in the past.
   


 At a surrealist rally in the 1920s
Tristan Tzara the man from nowhere
proposed to create a poem on the spot
by pulling words out of a hat. A riot
ensued wrecked the theatre. Andre
Breton expelled Tristan Tzsra from the
movement and grounded the cut-ups
on the Freudian couch.---
  In the summer of 1959 Brion Gysin
painter and writer cut newspaper articles-
into sections and rearranged the
sections at random. "Minutes to Go"
resulted from this initial cut-up experiment.  "Minutes  to  Go"  contains
unedited unchanged cut-ups emerging
as  quite  coherent  and  meaningful
prose.



  ALL WRITING IS IN FACT CUT-
 UPS OF GAMES AND ECONOMIC
 BEHAVIOUR OVERHEARD? WHAT
 ELSE?  ASSUME  THAT   THE
WORST   HAS  HAPPENED   EX-
PLICIT   AND  SUBJECT   TO
STRATEGY IS AT SOME POINT
CLASSICAL  PROSE.  CUTTING
AND  REARRANGING  FACTOR
YOUR OPPONENT WILL GAIN IN-
TRODUCES A NEW DIMENSION
YOUR STRATEGY. HOW MANY
DISCOVERIES  SOUND  TO
KINESTHETIC ?  WE  CAN  NOW
PRODUCE  ACCIDENT  TO  HIS
COLOR OF VOWELS. AND NEW
DIMENSION TO FILMS CUT THE
SENSES. THE PLACE OF SAND.
GAMBLING SCENES ALL TIMES
COLORS  TASTING  SOUNDS
SMELL STREETS OF THE WORLD.
WHEN YOU CAN HAVE THE BEST
ALL :  '' POETRY IS FOR
EVERYONE" DR NEUMANN IN A
COLLAGE  OF  WORDS  READ
HEARD INTRODUCED THE CUT- 
UP SCISSORS RENDERS THE PRO-
CESS  GAME  AND  MILITARY
STRATEGY,  VARIATION CLEAR
AND  ACT  ACCORDINGLY.  IF
YOU POSED ENTlRELY OF REAR-
RANGED CUT DETERMINED BY
RANDOM A PAGE OF WRITTEN
WORDS NO ADVANTAGE FROM
KNOWING IN TO  WRITER
PREDICT THE MOVE. THE CUT
VARIATION IMAGES  SHIFT
SENSE ADVANTAGE IN PROCESS-
ING  TO  SOUND  SIGHT  TO
SOUND. HAVE BEEN MADE BY
ACCIDENT IS WHERE RIMBAUD
WAS GOING WITH ORDER THE
CUT-UPS COULD "SYSTEMATIC
DERANGEMENT" OF THE
GAMBLING C SCENE IN WITH A
TEA HALLUCINATION: SEEING
AND PLACES. CUT BACK. CUT
FORMS. REARRANGE THE WORD
AND IMAGE T0 OTHER FIELDS
THAN WRITING. 
             - William Burroughs
             
             


  All writing is in fact cut-ups. A 
  collage of words read heard overheard.
What else? Use of scissors renders the
process explicit and subject to exten-
sion and variation.  Clear classical
prose can be composed entirely of rearranged
 cut-ups. Cutting and rearranging a page of 
 written words introduces a new dimension into writing
enabling the writer to turn images in
cinematic variation. Images shift sense
under the scissors smell images to
sound  sight  to  sound  sound  to
kinesthetic. This is where Rimbaud was
going with his color of vowels. And his
"systematic  derangement  of  the
senses."  The  place  of  mescaline
hallucination:  seeing  colors  tasting sounds smelling forms.