{"product_id":"24031-burroughs-william-s-the-soft-machine-signed-twice","title":"Burroughs, William S. (1914 - 1997) The Soft Machine - SIGNED TWICE","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e8vo. 182 pp. Black cloth in dustjacket with slight wear at spine ends, overall a fine copy, signed by Burroughs on the title page and with an additional signed sticker bookplate affixed to the ffe. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eOriginally published in Paris by the Olympia Press in 1961, of this first book in Burroughs' \u003cem\u003eNova Trilogy\u003c\/em\u003e, Joan Didion wrote: \"Burroughs voice is hard, derisive, inventive, free, funny, serious, poetic, indelibly American, a voice in which one hears transistor radios and old movies and all the clichés and all the cons and all the newspapers, all the peculiar optimism, all the failure. . . . It is precisely this voice–complex, subtle, allusive—that is the fine thing about \u003ci\u003eThe Soft Machine\u003c\/i\u003e and about Burroughs.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe densely poetic, abstract prose of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ccite\u003eThe Soft Machine\u003c\/cite\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis an enigmatic display of Burroughs’ talent, and his ability to channel the vast frontiers of his consciousness.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ccite\u003eThe Soft Machine\u003c\/cite\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ehas been variously compared with Joyce’s\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ccite\u003eFinnegan’s Wake\u003c\/cite\u003e—both for being a profoundly challenging read, as a masterful achievement in Burroughs’ development of a vernacular style of storytelling all his own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ccite\u003eThe Soft Machine \u003c\/cite\u003eis also an artifact of a particularly momentous period of productivity and artistic growth Burroughs undertook during his time in France. Much of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ccite\u003eThe Soft Machine\u003c\/cite\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ewas completed at the Beat Hotel in Paris, and the heavy influence of Brion Gysin (whose asemic calligraphy adorns the dust jacket) is evident through the cut-ups from which it was compiled, as is the influence of French poetry, notably Rimbaud, Lautréamont, and Saint-John Perse, the Dadaists and Surrealists.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA fine twice-signed volume from the primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be \"one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century.\" (2003 Penguin Modern Classics edition of Junky)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Schubertiade Music and Arts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":61982789337247,"sku":"24031","price":500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0512\/4826\/7423\/files\/Burroughs_WilliamSTheSoftMachineSIGNED24031a.jpg?v=1742830276","url":"https:\/\/www.schubertiademusic.com\/products\/24031-burroughs-william-s-the-soft-machine-signed-twice","provider":"Schubertiade Music and Arts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}