Fünfzig Jahre nach der Erstveröffentlichung des Klassikers der Beatgeneration erscheint eine deutsche Neuausgabe. In Tanger, wo William S. Burroughs sein Buch schrieb, ist heute von der damaligen Atmosphäre nicht mehr viel zu spüren.
William S. Burroughs würde sich wohl im Grabe umdrehen, bei den Kids, die sich jedes Wochenende im «TangerInn» treffen, bevor sie für den Rest der Nacht in die schicken Clubs am Strand der marokkanischen Hafenstadt verschwinden. Verwöhnte, neureiche Jugendliche: Vom Papa ein Auto zum Geburtstag, das Frühstück vom Hausmädchen und teure Privatschule sind die Eckpfeiler ihrer Welt. Dass einige von ihnen auf der Toilette der Bar Koks schnupfen, wäre da für Burroughs wenig tröstlich. Eher schon die Stricher unter den Gästen, die mit ihrem unverwechselbar unschuldigen, breiten Lächeln nach europäischer Kundschaft Ausschau halten. Ein Stück homosexueller Dissidenz in einem Heer von heterosexueller Mittelmässigkeit. But these young men do not know who is William S. Burroughs, even if he (assuming they are young enough) courted. Large photos of him and Allen Ginsberg, the other icon of the Beat Generation, hang on the walls, but for the history of the House is interested here with loud music and no one much alcohol.
heard the "TangerInn» Muniria to the pension, which is immediately above it. A small hotel, even with only a few rooms in the new city of Tangier, on a hill to the harbor. From the upper floors have a wonderful view to Spain on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar. Only to put William S. Burroughs no value, as of 1954 he to 1956 in the "Muniria" and lived on the manuscript of "Naked Lunch" was working. A novel that is now considered classics of American literature, history and world's more than a million copies were sold. tolerance was fashionable
Burroughs lived in the basement, in room number nine with access to a small farm surrounded by a high wall garden, from which today still known by old photos of tall palm tree stands. "No, no, had neither the interest nor the garden on the terrace," John told me in 1991, the owner of the inn Muniria, shortly before his death. "The shutters were almost always closed, a quiet tenant, of which we often do not knew if he was at home or on the road. "Sutcliff, a former officer in the British army in India, the hotel building, bought with his severance pay from the army. He knew, of course, the drug habits of its unusual tenant, but tolerance was fashionable in those days. "You know, at that time was still an international zone Tangier, where you as a Westerner was able to make pretty much anything you wanted. That was just part of this city. "
Burroughs, Harvard graduate and industrialist's son from the house of Burroughs Adding Machine, wrote monomaniac in his darkened room in his routines, his literary improvisation. In the first year under the influence opiates such as Eukodol, a German pharmaceutical product. For months, wants the U.S. author, by his own admission, took a bath, let alone changed clothes. "Only every hour just pulled out a shirt or pants, to drill a needle into the flesh." He did absolutely nothing and was "eight hours look at the shoe lace."
After treatment for addiction in London, the Burroughs 500 dollars from his wealthy parents funded, it went on with Marjoun in Tangier, a traditional Moroccan hashish jam. A thick paste, which usually provides for psychedelic inspirations. Not quite incomprehensible, Burroughs years later said he did not even state how his novel had come.
work in shifts
A complete digestion is the genesis of "Naked Lunch" Now a new German edition of the novel in the publishing and nail Kimche, the 50th Jubilee is the first publication (1959 Olympia Press in Paris) appeared. The original text, translated by Michael Kellner new and the dry, droll tone Burroughs more abreast, are now delivered in German unpublished textual variants, letters of the U.S. author and a detailed afterword about the history. It is learned that Burroughs is not the only author of the book. His friend Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ansen had in a unübersichtlichen Wust von Mauskripten, Notizen und Briefen erst Ordnung bringen, bevor ein Buch entstehen konnte. «Wir bearbeiten riesige Mengen von Material im Schichtdienst, geben auch Sachen zum Abtippen weg, ein Teil von 120 Seiten abgeschlossen», schreibt Allen Ginsberg in der dritten Maiwoche 1957 in einem Brief an Lucian Carr. «Nun kommt der härtere Teil des Jobs, seine Briefe von 1953 bis1956 durchgehen und das Material integrieren, Autobiographisches, Routines und Erzählfragmente. Richtige Arbeit - wir ackern sechs Stunden oder mehr am Tag, blödeln rum, trinken, abends koche ich grosse Mahlzeiten.»
In Tanger entsteht so das erste Urmanuskript von «Naked Lunch», das von den Freunden danach in Venice and Paris for the issue of the Olympia Press will be revised several times yet. Including Brion Gysin, who is considered the founder of Cut-up technique, a literary technique that reassembled in different texts and is also found in Burroughs book reflected.
"Naked Lunch" tells the stories of the agent William Lee, of Dr. Benway and speaking fantasy creatures Burroughs, the Mugwumps, and the stories are set in the U.S., Mexico and Tangier. This wild and consciously change perspectives are the usual linear narrative structures broken. The book describes, but simultaneously also the end of the "world-powerful author" who alone, in sich zurückgezogen, im kreativen Elfenbeinturm seine Literatur «erschafft».
Die neue Welt der Subkultur
«Naked Lunch» ist so sehr ein Produkt von Burroughs wie auch der Gruppe von Freunden, zu der er gehört, die ändern, kürzen, auswählen, weglassen und umschreiben. Ein kollektiver Prozess, der in dieser Form nur durch ein verbindendes Sendungsbewusstsein möglich war. In den vierziger Jahren hatten sich die angehenden Schriftsteller in New York gefunden. Nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs waren sie dort auf der Suche nach einem vollkommen neuen Menschentypus, wie auch nach einer nicht weniger revolutionären Literatur. Zuerst fanden sie den Stricher, Dieb und Junkie Herbert Huncke in the area of 42nd Street, around Times Square. From him to let the young greenhorns the language and culture of the underground teach. He introduced them to the jazz clubs in Harlem, to which White usually were not admitted, gave Burroughs his first shot groundbreaking and provided the other drugs.
After the initiation into the new world of subculture of the street was the new literature, which raised the usual scheme of the heap. It called itself "The Beat Generation," a term based on Jack Kerouac Herbert Huncke "I Am Beat" created. The best-known works of the Beat generation, the poem "Howl" (1956) by Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac's "On the Road "(written 1951, published in 1957) and later just Burroughs>" Naked Lunch "(1959). With the help of third parties, it is unique in evil, such as dry clay, and includes dark pornographic depictions of the author. Jack Kerouac was before publication of the book in 1957 already convinced that Burroughs "the greatest book since Jean Genet \u0026lt;Notre lady of Fleurs> written" have.
"Swiss watches, Scotch, Sex &
John Sutcliff, the former owner of the inn Muniria, remembers well the young 'Beats", the first in 1957 and later again in 1961 (for the U.S. edition of "Naked lunch ") at his home Abtippten manuscripts. Then there was a guy, I think the name was Gregory Corso, and fell in \u0026lt;TangerInn> repeatedly from a chair. I asked him what was wrong, whereupon he advised me that I should sometimes go on a trip. I told him what was always meant to trip for me is not having to pass me again on the floor. "Or were all young men polite, courteous and kind have been added, the trembling of the hands of old man .
1953, Burroughs traveled for the first time in Tangier, in the "white city" in the Straits of Gibraltar. Two years earlier he had shot his wife while driving drunk in Mexico City in a William Tell game. Er suchte nun einen Ort, an dem er endlich zur Ruhe kommen konnte. Die «internationale Zone» Tanger schien für den damals 39-Jährigen perfekt zu sein. Haschisch wurde auf der Strasse geraucht, harte Drogen gab es in der Apotheke ohne Rezept, die Polizei hielt sich bei allem möglichst im Hintergrund, Homosexualität und auch Päderastie schienen hier völlig normal zu sein. Für alle nur erdenklichen sexuellen Präferenzen gab es nicht nur massenhaft Prostituierte, die sich anboten, sondern auch Bordelle, die völlig unbehelligt betrieben wurden. Bevor Burroughs in die Pension Muniria einzog, wohnte er in der Calle de los Arcos Nummer eins, sehr praktisch, direkt über einem dieser Freudenhäuser für Männer. One of the young prostitutes working there, Kiki, was his constant companion.
"In Tangier, there is this doomsday scenario," one reads in one of the many letters Burroughs to Allen Ginsberg, "with the flood of nylon shirts, Swiss watches, Scotch, Sex and opiates, which are sold over the counter. Evil is laissez faire. "
A mixture, which then attracted many other artists. In addition to Paul Bowles and his wife Jane, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Francis Bacon, or Brion Gysin, just to name a few. William S. Burroughs, however, had no contact with them. They preferred the company of the glitterati Tangier, chic restaurants, Bars and swanky parties, of which there were to visit some day.
Unwashed Junkie Burroughs was a monthly $ 200 check his underprivileged parents, lived in a shabby inn and knew, except pharmacists, dealers and lovers, hardly anyone. "There is no writer colony there," wrote the current grand master of the underground and the avant-garde, to his friend Allen Ginsberg in New York. "If so, then they are living somewhere in secret." The first contact with Paul Bowles, who remained until his death in 1999 in Tangier, came about in 1961, two years after the Paris debut release of "Naked Lunch". They met in the hotel Muniria, together with the other beats.
The invisible man
During his stay in the fifties was Burroughs, despite his sexual adventure a lonely man who apparently slipped unseen through the streets and alleys of Tangier. Not for nothing was called "el hombre invisible" (the invisible man). Got to face it is sometimes in one of the cafés of Tangier. Including the Café Hafa Marshan in the district. There he sat at one of today's still wobbly, blue-painted wooden tables, smoking kif (marijuana), drink tea, quoted or wrote letters to Allen Ginsberg. On the numerous small terraces located directly above the cliffs of the Mediterranean cafes he could easily undisturbed Cookies can find. Today meet there during the day only female students and students who stare at the passing ships and the coast of Spain. Strange types like William S. Burroughs can be seen here any more.
The weekly newspaper from 07.05.2009
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