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A review by spaceisavacuum
The Place of Dead Roads by William S. Burroughs
dark
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
‘The Place of Dead Roads’ had originally been called ‘The Johnson Family’, in which the appendix of Queer he elaborates… “Just when you think the earth is exclusively populated by sh*ts, you meet a Johnson.” … ‘A Johnson honors his obligations. His word is good and he is a good man to do business with.’ The book meanwhile is about Kim Carsons, a reference to Kipling I suppose… he’s incurably intelligent, the renowned shootist, and inhabits a world exclusively made of Men. There are no women in this book. It’s a bit of Lord of the Flies. Burroughs in fact imagined a reverse-Amazonian world, in which masculinity, misogynist, male dominated world was his bread and butter. Make no mistake about it, Burroughs was the very definition of toxic masculinity, and he was very unapologetic about it.
“Being a Johnson is not a question of secret rites but of belonging to a certain species. “He’s a Johnson” means that he is one of us.”
Kim Carsons meanwhile is just navigating through life, facing challenges and tests from on high, he’s an alien here. (Kim will change her sex of course.) Kim is a writer of sorts, having published a book entitled ¿Quien Es? and contemplating that she wouldn’t mind being reborn a Mexican. “And the immortality of a writer is to be taken literally.” Burroughs elaborates on such enlightening topics as the anti-vaccination cultists at the turn of the century, art that attempts the impossible [this should be all things art], her wild band of picturesque outlaws called ‘the Wild Fruits’, and, in bullet points:
5. “The Industrial Revolution, with it’s overpopulation and emphasis on quantity rather than quality, has given them a vast reservoir of stupid bigoted uncritical human hosts. The rule of the majority is to their advantage since the majority can always be manipulated.”
Kim Carsons feels like she doesn’t quite fit in in this world. Much as Burroughs never did. Burroughs early neighbours were the Johnson Family, who were an upright sort of people who didn’t cross the line. Burroughs was anything but. But I don’t think the Johnsons ever gave him any trouble.
“Being a Johnson is not a question of secret rites but of belonging to a certain species. “He’s a Johnson” means that he is one of us.”
Kim Carsons meanwhile is just navigating through life, facing challenges and tests from on high, he’s an alien here. (Kim will change her sex of course.) Kim is a writer of sorts, having published a book entitled ¿Quien Es? and contemplating that she wouldn’t mind being reborn a Mexican. “And the immortality of a writer is to be taken literally.” Burroughs elaborates on such enlightening topics as the anti-vaccination cultists at the turn of the century, art that attempts the impossible [this should be all things art], her wild band of picturesque outlaws called ‘the Wild Fruits’, and, in bullet points:
5. “The Industrial Revolution, with it’s overpopulation and emphasis on quantity rather than quality, has given them a vast reservoir of stupid bigoted uncritical human hosts. The rule of the majority is to their advantage since the majority can always be manipulated.”
Kim Carsons feels like she doesn’t quite fit in in this world. Much as Burroughs never did. Burroughs early neighbours were the Johnson Family, who were an upright sort of people who didn’t cross the line. Burroughs was anything but. But I don’t think the Johnsons ever gave him any trouble.