Houllebecq versus Burroughs
28 03 11 - 08:03
Slightly older, but:
On Society
Houellebecq
I don’t like this world. I definitely do not like it. The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.Burroughs
America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.The Future of Humanity
Houellebecq
Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movements of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure âVictorian fictions.â All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact, and radiant.Burroughs
Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.Youth and Dreams
Houellebecq
Adolescence is not only an important period in life, but that it is the only period where one may speak of life in the full sense of the word.Burroughs
As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.Influence
Houellebecq
I’ve lived so little that I tend to imagine I’m not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop.Burroughs
I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I donât care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.
Sex
Houellebecq
In a perfectly liberal sexual system, some people have an exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude.Burroughs
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.Love
Houellebecq
Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.Burroughs
Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is. LOVE. - Source: Thought Catalog
Reminds me to remind you to read this interview at the Paris Review.
eight comments
ever1!!!1 Adrian Loves Pantera - 29-03-’11 03:15
Much more light is shed in the previous post; of three shards, I choose that which reflects equanimously but cuts sharper unworn. KÄÅyapa - 01-04-’11 13:55
First of all, why are the less obvious ones automatically much worse than the more obvious?
Second, Metal has idiocy as part of its roots, going back to the beginning. It has evolved in some directions into a meaningful art form, but it's disingenuous to deny its other role, in other forms, as mindless escapist music. And it would be more detrimental to metal to try to destroy those elements than to tolerate them, because the former would probably lead to the death of the more meaningful types of metal as well.
Third, why focus on bands you don't like at all, whether mainstream or (more) underground? Dave (Email ) - 05-04-’11 16:43