Better Than Friday - 188
Good afternoon everyone, how are ya?
Currently finishing up the absurd nightmare poem of the Satyricon by Petronius.
It's a discordant, fragmented mess due to pieces of the book missing, but the narrative is so bizarre in the first place I'm not sure it matters.
Speaking of fragmented bizarre literary messes, something I really ought to review would be...
1. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Theoretically, I read this in my 20's and again, like 'The Sun Also Rises', I remember nothing.
More understandable given the nature of Burroughs' novel. It's an absolute mess.
I can't wait to get lost in there again.
2. Kathy Acker interviewing William S. Burroughs
Two fine authors having an interesting conversation.
A fine classic whose title is inspired by the Burroughs novel above.
"Let him kill me...Only let him rule."
What a line.
The Satyricon was written in the age of Nero (it's speculated), so I thought I'd brush up on the convoluted bloodbath that is the history of Roman Emperors.
5. Renaissance Periodization and Dr. Mike
Not to proselytize, but here are some excellent reasons to strength train, and the different approaches one should take depending on their age.
Also, Dr. Mike Israetel is extremely knowledgeable and frequently hysterical.
Comments (4)
Thank you for the post 🙏🏻 great stuff.
I made a second or third attempt to read The Soft Machine a few years ago and when I finished it all I could ask myself was "How did he know when he was done writing this?"
Naked Lunch is close to my heart. I first read it when I started to explore more serious literature at 16 or 17, after reading mostly horror, sci-fi and such. Today, the memory of being sucked into its world seems weirdly comparable to being sucked into the internet on your iPhone … just an endless spiral of extreme strangeness and profanity, violence, sex, politics, obscure communities … next to complete trivialities. I was so into Burroughs' writing at the time. I really ought to reread him.
In Martin Amis' The War Against Cliche he beautifully describes William Burrough's work as 'hallucinationary chaos'.