Had a good time this morning reading these selected letters from Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1959-1974. In addition to complaining to Allen Ginsberg that his mother won’t send him “Mother Money” so he can get back to the states, I enjoyed these bits:
On reading Rimbaud:
Nothing obscure in his poetry if you see it as IMAGES. Here is a book of his poems with the French translation opposite will improve your French. A game I play is to type out phrases from Rimbaud or any poet I fancy. Then I cut into sections. Rearrange putting section four with section one and section two with section three and select a new arrangement.Try it some time with Rimbaud or any writing.
Telling his son how to listen to music:
I hear you dig music. Try it with ear phones you can play it any time that way without bothering people around you. Besides music is different when you hear it right in your ear. It should be simple operation to plug your record player for ear phones.
On his letters being “ungrammatical”
it is not due to carelessness or accident. The English language—the only really adjustable language—is in state of transition.. Transition and the old grammar forms no longer useful..
betzistar
