William S. Burroughs
The One Of Many Fathers Of Beat Culture
Precocious Child into War Stricken young adult.
William enlisted in the army in early 1942, as the U.S. entered world war II, but when he was classified 1-A Infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother noticed his depression and got him a Civilian Disability Charge, which basically means he wasn't "mentally fit" enough to be in the army. When he was finally out of the army, he met the other beat writers, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and his later wife, Joan Vollmer. During this time, during the devastating effects of World War II and his sense of incompetency in the army, Burroughs became addicted to morphine, and his wife an addict too, but her drug of choice was benzedrine. Many arrests later, William and Joan finally moved to Conroe, Texas and had their son, with his own set of problems too. After escaping a mexican prison, writing books on alienation and drug culture, and abandoning his wife for men, he accidentally shot his wife.
Drugs cause stress, who knew?
"Love? What is it? The most natural painkiller there is!"
"The junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client."
"After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it."
I was going to title this citations, but I found this as one of his quotes which relates a lot still after more than 50 years that he has said it.