William S Burroughs - Cities of the Red Night (Picador)

William Burroughs

CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT

William S. Burroughs, the world-renowned author of Naked Lunch, Junky, Queer,Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, The Western Lands, Interzone, TheCat Inside, My Education: A Book of Dreams and The Letters of William S.

Burroughs 1945-1959, is a member of the American Academy and Institute for Arts and Letters, and a Commandeur de l'Orde des Arts et des Lettres of France. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

First published in Great Britain 1981 by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd.

to Brion Gysin

who painted this book before it was written

to James Grauerholz

who edited this book into present time

to Steven Lowe

for his valuable work on the manuscript

to Dick Seaver

my publisher

to Peter Matson

my agent

to all the characters and their real-life counterparts living and dead Contents

Fore! 9

Invocation 13

Book One

The health officer 17

We see Tibet with the binoculars of the people 25

The doctor is on the market 29

Politics here is death 32

The rescue 38

Harbor Point 40

The private asshole 44

Fever spoor 57

The stranger 60

Shore leave 66

Lettre de marque 70

Are you in salt 75

Horse hattock to ride to ride 80

Port Roger 90

Mother is the best bet 99

Quin es? 108

Even the cockroaches 113

Firecrackers 117

Necesita automvil 126

Por convencin Zapata 133

Book Two

Cities of the Red Night 141

Get out of the defensive position 146

We are the language 151

A cowboy in the seven-days-a-week fight 158

The unconscious imitated by a cheesecake 161

We are coordinated The guard is manifold 165

Big Picture calling Shifty 173

Screen play/part one 177

Cheers here are the nondead 184

The sky is thin as paper here 192

tranger qui passait 194

Draft riots 198

Tamaghis revisited 203

Where naked troubadours shoot snotty baboons 208

Book Three

Locker room 213

It is difficult in train "A" 220

I can take the hut set anywhere 223

Please to use studio postulated to you 232

A lecture is being given 237

Afterbirth of dream 247

A walk to the end of the world 251

Moves and checks and slays 256

Will Hollywood never learn 261

Argue second time around such a deal 265

Minutes to go 274

We are here because of you 275

Return to Port Roger 286

Fore!

The liberal principles embodied in the French and American revolutions and later in the liberal revolutions of 1848 had already been codified and put into practice by pirate communes a hundred years earlier. Here is a quote from Under the Black Flag by Don C. Seitz:

Captain Mission was one of the forbears of the French Revolution. He was one hundred years in advance of his time, for his career was based upon an initial desire to better adjust the affairs of mankind, which ended as is quite usual in the more liberal adjustment of his own fortunes. It is related how Captain Mission, having led his ship to victory against an English man-of-war, called a meeting of the crew. Those who wished to follow him he would welcome and treat as brothers; those who did not would be safely put ashore. One and all embraced the New Freedom. Some were for hoisting the Black Flag at once but Mission demurred, saying that they were not pirates but liberty lovers, fighting for equal rights against all nations subject to the tyranny of government, and bespoke a white flag as the more fitting emblem. The ship's money was put in a chest to be used as common property. Clothes were now distributed to all in need and the republic of the sea was in full operation.

Mission bespoke them to live in strict harmony among themselves; that a misplaced society would adjudge them still as pirates. Self-preservation, therefore, and a cruel disposition, compelled them to declare war on all nations who should close their ports to them. "I declare such war and at the same time recommend to you a humane and generous behavior towards your prisoners, which will appear by so much more the effects of a noble soul and as we are satisfied we should not meet the same treatment should our ill fortune or want of courage give us up to their mercy...."

The Nieustadt of Amsterdam was made prize;, giving up two thousand pounds and gold dust and seventeen slaves. The slaves were added to the crew and clothed in the Dutchman's spare garments; Mission made an address denouncing slavery, holding that men who sold others like beasts proved their religion to be no more than a grimace as no man had power of liberty over another....

Mission explored the Madagascar coast and found a bay ten leagues north of Digo-Saurez. It was resolved to establish here the shore quarters of the Republicerect a town, build docks, and have a place they might call their own. The colony was called Libertatia and was placed under Articles drawn up by Captain Mission. The Articles state, among other things: all decisions with regard to the colony to be submitted to vote by the colonists; the abolition of the death penalty; and freedom to follow any religious beliefs or practices without sanction or molestation.

Captain Mission's colony, which numbered about three hundred, was wiped out by a surprise attack from the natives, and Captain Mission was killed shortly afterwards in a sea battle. There were other such colonies in the West Indies and in Central and South America, but they were not able to maintain themselves since they were not sufficiently populous to withstand attack. Had they been able to do so, the history of the world could have been altered. Imagine a number of such fortified positions all through South America and the West Indies, stretching from Africa to Madagascar and the East Indies, all offering refuge to fugitives from slavery and oppression: "Come to us and live under the Articles."

At once we have allies in all those who are enslaved and oppressed throughout the world, from the cotton plantations of the American South to the sugar plantations of the West Indies, and the whole Indian population of the American continent peonized and degraded by the Spanish into subhuman poverty and ignorance, exterminated by the Americans, infected with their vices and diseases, the natives of Africa and Asiaall these are potential allies. Fortified positions supported by and supporting guerilla hit-and-run bands; supplied with soldiers, weapons, medicines and information by the local populations ... such a combination would be unbeatable. If the whole American army couldn't beat the Viet Cong at a time when fortified positions were rendered obsolete by artillery and air strikes, certainly the armies of Europe, operating in unfamiliar territory and susceptible to all the disabling diseases of tropical countries, could not have beaten guerilla tactics plus fortified positions.

Consider the difficulties which such an invading army would face: continual harassment from the guerillas, a totally hostile population always ready with poison, misdirection, snakes and spiders in the general's bed, armadillos carrying the deadly earth-eating disease rooting under the barracks and adopted as mascots by the regiment as dysentery and malaria take their toll. The sieges could not but present a series of military disasters. There is no stopping the Articulated. The white man is retroactively relieved of his burden. Whites will be welcomed as workers, settlers, teachers, and technicians, but not as colonists or masters. No man may violate the Articles.

Imagine such a movement on a world-wide scale. Faced by the actual practice of freedom, the French and American revolutions would be forced to stand by their words. The disastrous results of uncontrolled industrialization would also be curtailed, since factory workers and slum dwellers from the cities would seek refuge in Articulated areas. Any man would have the right to settle in any area of his choosing.