note: i plan to flesh this outline out, but for now, listen to the deep dive and skim through the outline.

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a cartography of creative subversion, a map into the literary underworld Burroughs navigated with scissors and tape:

I. Origins of the Cut-Up Method

A. Discovery in Paris (1959)

• Introduced to Burroughs by painter Brion Gysin
• Inspired by Gysin’s experimentation with collage in text, similar to Burroughs’ earlier technique in Naked Lunch
• Burroughs recognised parallels with:
  • Tristan Tzara (Dadaist)
  • Gertrude Stein (automatic writing, repetition)
  • T.S. Eliot (fragmented modernism)
  • John Dos Passos (newsreel and montage)

B. Early Publications and Experiments (1960–1965)

• Minutes To Go (1960) – with Gysin, Sinclair Beiles, Gregory Corso
• The Exterminator – with Gysin
• Purpose: introduce cut-up technique to public

C. Multimedia Collaborations

• With filmmaker Antony Balch:
  • Towers Open Fire
  • Cut-Ups
  • Bill and Tony (1965)
• The Third Mind (collaborative manifesto/book, finalized in 1965, published in English 1978)
  • Part history, part manifesto of the method

II. The Cut-Up Method Defined

A. Mechanical Juxtaposition

• Cut-up passages from various texts (his or others)
• Rearrange to form new meaning
• Literary version of collage

B. Extensions into Other Media

• Tape splicing: audio cut-ups
• Film montage: cinematic cut-ups
• Mixed media: juxtaposing texts with TV, film, live events

III. Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations

A. Language as Control

• The “Word” as an instrument of addiction and control
• Language locks perception; cut-ups aim to disrupt these locks
• The method serves as:
  • A liberation tool for both reader and writer
  • A “deconditioning” of mental constructs

B. Impersonal Inspiration

• The cut-up as non-authorial creation
  • Like action painting, aleatory music, happenings
  • Collaboration with chance and chaos

C. Parallels in Theory and Art

• Resembles:
  • Structuralism, Deconstruction in literary theory
  • Pop Art and postmodern intertextuality

IV. Application in Burroughs’ Novels

A. The Cut-Up Trilogy

• Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, The Soft Machine
• Direct use of cut-up text
• Interweaves elements from:
  • Popular science & literature
  • Science fiction (esp. time/space travel, conspiracies)
  • Reich’s orgone theory, Scientology, infrasound
  • Mayan calendar, Hassan I Sabbah

B. Juxtaposition of High and Low Culture

• Cut-ups from:
  • Shakespeare, Kafka, Eliot, Conrad, Coleridge
  • Intermixed with pulp, sci-fi, pop culture

V. Techniques Explained by Burroughs

A. Basic Cut-Up Process

“Take a page… cut it into four sections… rearrange…”

• Can be used on:
  • Literary texts
  • Political speeches
  • Poetry (Rimbaud, Shakespeare)
• Produces:
  • Surprising juxtapositions
  • New layers of meaning
  • “Code messages” for the creator

B. The Fold-In Method

• Fold one page into another
• Read across both texts simultaneously
• Allows:
  • Temporal shifts (like flashbacks in film)
  • Induced déjà vu
  • Clarity and narrative depth through disruption

VI. Expanded Philosophy of Cut-Ups

A. Spontaneity and Accident

“You cannot will spontaneity. But you can introduce the unpredictable spontaneous factor with a pair of scissors.”

• Reframes creativity as discovery, not invention
• Collage = literary chance operation
• Writers gain access to accidents photographers already know to embrace

B. All Writing is Already Cut-Up

“A collage of words read heard overheard…”

• Cut-up method merely makes this explicit
• New dimensions through:
  • Cross-sensory effects (smelling colors, tasting sounds)
  • Rimbaud’s “systematic derangement of the senses”

VII. Applications Beyond Writing

A. In Other Art Forms

• Music: repetition and reordering of themes
• Film: montage, intercutting timelines
• Visual art: collage, assemblage

B. In Science and Strategy

• Referenced in game theory:
  • Random action in military/strategic planning (Neumann)
  • Introducing randomness to confuse opponent

C. As a Method for Innovation

• Scientific serendipity through intentional disorder
• Useful for data reprocessing and exploratory analysis

VIII. The Cut-Up as Democratization of Art

A. Poetry for Everyone

“Poetry is a place, and it is free to all.”

• Echoes Dadaist/Surrealist values
• Encourages readers to become creators
• Cut-ups are:
  • Accessible
  • Immediate
  • Experimental

B. Mediumistic Connection

• Cut-ups as a kind of channelling:
  • “Table tapping? Perhaps.”
  • Reanimates dead poets through recontextualized text
  • Rimbaud’s voice “comes through”

IX. Using the Cut-Up Method in Your Own Writing

A. Source Material

• Use:
  • Newspapers
  • Your own previous drafts
  • Books, speeches, poems

B. Techniques

• Cut into:
  • Sentences
  • Phrases
  • Individual words
• Rearrange at random or with thematic guidance

C. Creative Benefits

• Generates:
  • New prompts
  • Unexpected metaphors
  • Disruption of habitual thought patterns
• Enhances:
  • Spontaneity
  • Insight
  • Reader engagement

X. Final Reflections

“Cut-ups are for everyone.”

Burroughs invites us not only to read differently but to see differently. The cut-up is more than a trick—it is a philosophy of rupture, a way of warping linear thought, interrupting ideology, and listening for the secret frequencies beneath language. In an age of algorithmic determinism, the cut-up remains an analogue revolt: a blade against the code.