Manifestes d'Interzone / Interzone's Manifestos
Illustration: Paul O'Donovan
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" The Johnson Family" was a turn-of the century expression to designate good bums and thieves. It was elaborated into a code of conduct. A Johnson honors his obligations. His word is good and he is a good man to do business with. A Johnson minds his own business. He is not a snoopy, self-rightous, trouble-making person. A Johnson will give help when help is needed. He will not stand by while someone is drowning or trapped under a burning car. The only thing that could unite the planet is a united space program... the earth becomes a space station and war is simply out, irrelevant, flatly insane in a context of research centers, spaceports, and the exhilaration of working with people you like and respect toward an agreed-upon objective, an objective from which all workers will gain. Happiness is a by-product of function. The planetary space station will give all participants an opportunity to function." William Burroughs ,"The Place of Dead Roads". |
La Famille Johnson" était une expression du tournant du siècle pour désigner de sympathiques oisifs et de bons larrons. Elle a été élaborée en un code de conduite. Un Johnson respecte ses engagements. C'est un homme de parole et on peut faire affaire avec lui. Un Johnson s'occupe de ses propres affaires. Ce n'est pas un fouineur ni un pharisien ni un fomentateur de troubles. Un Johnson donnera un coup de main quand on a besoin d'aide. Il ne restera pas planté quand quelqu'un se noie ou est bloqué dans une voiture en feu. La seule chose qui pourrait unir la planète serait un programme spatial commun... la terre devient une station spatiale et la guerre est simplement abolie, absurde, complètement insensée dans un contexte de centres de recherche, de bases spatiales où vous avez la joie de travailler avec des gens que vous aimez et respectez dans un but convenu, un objectif où tous les travailleurs seraient gagnants. Le bonheur est un dérivé de la fonction. La station spatiale planétaire donnera à tous les participants une occasion de fonctionner... The Place of Dead Roads . Publié par Christian Bourgois sous le titre : "Parages de Voies Mortes" |
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" Gysin: When you associate two minds... Burroughs: There is always a third mind... Gysin: A third higher mind... Burroughs: Like an invisible collaborator. " "The Third Mind" William Burroughs - Brion Gysin |
"Gysin : ... lorsque vous associez deux esprits... Burroughs : ... Il y a toujours un tiers esprit... Gysin : ... Un tiers esprit supérieur... Burroughs : ... Comme un collaborateur invisible." "Œuvres Croisées". |
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NON-ARISTOTELIAN FUNCTIONS OF WRITING We attempt to use writing independently on the literary criteria, applyting its non-Aristotelian functions experimented by Burroughs and Gysin : Time-binding function described by Alfred Korzybski, the inventor of general semantics, which consists in binding the author and the readers through time-space,And the magic fonction (Brion Gysin : "Writing is about making it happen"), which consists , for the author, to write a scenario of reality, which his readers can then make happen if they want to ("Mektoub: it is written"") : see the chapters Burroughs dedicated to writing in the "Essays", published by Christian Bourgois. Hence the importance of the consequences of this experiment, which puts in question the doctrinal opposition between "fiction" and "reality", as well as the Newtonian vision of the nature of reality it fooliows that "reality" does not exist beyond us nor independently of us, and that before being actualized in the physical world, it is a creation of our mental structure. In other words, "reality" depends on us, and not us on it : we are creatoirs of reality. |
FONCTIONS NON-ARISTOTELICIENNES DE L'ECRITURE Nous tentons d'utiliser l'écriture indépendamment des critères admis en littérature, en appliquant les fonctions non-aristotéliciennes de celle-ci expérimentées par Burroughs et Gysin : - la fonction de time-binding, décrite par Alfred Korzybski, le découvreur de la sémantique générale, qui consiste à relier l'auteur et le lecteur à travers l'espace-temps;- et la fonction magique (Brion Gysin : "Writing is about making it happen"), qui consiste pour l'auteur à écrire un scénario de la réalité, que ses lecteurs peuvent ensuite faire arriver s'ils le souhaitent. ("Mektoub: c'est écrit") : voir à ce sujet les chapitres que Burroughs a consacrés à l'écriture dans ses Essais, publiés par Christian Bourgois. D'où l'importance des conséquences de cette expérimentation qui remet en cause l'opposition doctrinale entre "fiction" et "réalité", ainsi que la conception newtonienne de la nature de cette dernière : il en découle que "la réalité" n'existe pas au-delà de nous ni indépendamment de nous, et qu'avant de prendre corps dans le monde physique, elle est une création de notre structure mentale. En d'autres termes, "la réalité" dépend de nous, et non nous d'elle : nous sommes des créateurs de réalité. |
Words and Images
From Rick Gentry - September 29th 1997
To : Gary Leeming; BAUDRON Isabelle; ¤É¤­¤ó¤Á¤ã¤ó
Objet : word and image
Hola companeros,
I find this discussion of images very interesting. There's a special irony in the fact that B & B were such appropriators of word and image. Brion said "... steal everything in sight." I mean, the lines get increasingly blurred the more deeply one investigate who owns images. And I appreciate the fact that the image police jealously guard their offspring, rightly enough. It is there that there power resides and they know it. Most people don't inquire into the nature of word and image; we are more or less aware of the process, we understand that their toothpaste won't make us popular with the opposite (or same) sex ( tho' don't neglect your hygiene!) and that their tennis shoes won't complete our self-image. They always angle for the lowest common denominator in pursuit of their true god ($$), thereby a priori preventing any real act of creativity. By the way, I do not intend to make light of the fact that some people feel they own images and want to get paid for them- their record for ruthlessness precedes them- but in the case of Gary's example of the museum and their "watermark," how do they intend to enforce this? The web is a gigantic area to try to police with only a few cops. But I'm rambling. What I want to ask is at what point does an image become sufficiently changed so that it is no longer itself? For example, the animated gif of the Burroughs stamp that Jeff Klein sent: who does this image belong to? I think it was a photograph originally. Is it his or her image? Then someone made a "stamp" out of it. Is it now his image? Then someone comes along and colorizes it ala the image that Yana sent of Bill on the roof. Whose is it now? Then someone adds animation. Now what? This is an area as unclearly defined as "obscenity." Who decides and by what standards? It is clear that pursuing the question of image-ownership leads to deeper and deeper levels of absurdity the farther one takes it. An image that someone creates- a painting for example- is composed out of the contents of one's "consciousness," which is nothing but a great image chain stretching back to birth. Or if it is a painting of a thing, a tree for example, at what point does it become the painter's? In the case of those wonderful collages of Agent Zero, when do all those separate images that he appropriated and rearranged into a combined whole, when is this his artwork? Very interesting questions to ponder. Whose now image is it? Now image, it is whose? Now is whose image, it? Whose image is it now? B & B saw that those word and image lines are what keep us bound to time and place, that the structure of our finite consciousness is literally composed of word and image. So if you don't like the image ( And I do not), cut, paste and rearrange... "Kick that man habit, man." Indeed.
This leads me to comment on Foe's idea of making ridiculous images and websites, etc. Yes. Hopefully sublimely ridiculous. Satire is still sound as method. All these images that we have inherited do not belong to us; so we take the images the Spectacle has used to control us, reflect them through our funhouse mirrors and give them back to them distorted or metamorphosed or we drop them in pieces at their feet. In pieces.
"
Again and again some people in the crowd wake up,They have no ground in the crowd,
And they emerge according to much broader laws.
They carry strange customs with them
And demand room for bold gestures.
The future speaks ruthlessly through them."
-- Rainer Maria Rilke
Great love to all,
Agent Ricochet out.
December 1997 :
The concept of the Zone as a psychic refuge
:Dot Zero
I would like to expand on this concept of THE ZONE as a psychic refuge for artists,
example: when the gang helped me block off the evil forces that where threatening my creativity to create my magazine.
Hey sister,
I want you to know you are now an official member of THE ZONE!
The Zone is being created to protect creative artist from the
uncaring masses, politicos and art flunkies.
OUR SLOGAN :
THE ZONE PROTECTS IT'S OWN!
While the Zone is against all forms of physical violence
any member who is physical threatened or stalked by
demonic forces will protected by any means neccessary.
love
THE ZONE IDEA, BUILDING IT AS A VISUALIZATION , IN HAWAII THEY HAVE A PLACE CALLED CITY OF REFUGE. IF SOMEONE WAS A CRIMINAL AND COULD REACH THE CITY OF REFUGE HE COULD NOT BE HARMED INSIDE THE CITY.
SO THE ZONE IS A PLACE WE GO AND ARE PROTECTED, IF ALL MEMBERS OF THE GROUP
START BUILDING THE VISUALIZATION WE MAY BE ABLE TO CREATE A GROUP MIND PLACE THAT EXISTS AND ANY MEMBER CAN GO THERE BY USING CREATIVE
VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES.
LOVE A.
I propose that one of us should paint or collage or otherwise construct a visual temple of some sort to house our collective stillness and integrity and purity of purpose. We could also use an image or building or idea that already exists. I think A. was pointing to this with the City of Refuge that exists in Hawaii, on the other hand, it might be best if it was constructed by one or a group of us, to be used by us.
We could make "deposits" into our Psychic Temple when we are happy and centered, just take a couple of minutes to visualize the Temple and channel our best energies into it. Then, when we are psychically clogged or out of sorts in any way, we can visit the Temple and avail ourselves of the energies that are stored there. It would function as a zone of protection and support and enlightenment. Has anyone ever conducted an experiment of this nature? Will it work? What will happen? "I don't know. Let's see."
R.
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We have decided... July 98 : Rick We have decided, individually and collectively, that social "reality," as it exists at the end of the 2nd millennium, does not satisfy our aesthetic or practical needs. We hereby intend to write a future that will accommodate the liberation of our desires. We seek an art with teeth. And we seek a society that will not only accommodate our desires but support us in their expression. This medium will not concern itself with commerce except as a means of survival. We live only one life. Must we live it bound against ourselves, impotent against the forces of conformity? -Dick Shea, Bureau Chief, Interzone Psychic Hygiene |
NOUS AVONS DECIDE ... Juillet 98 Rick "Nous avons décidé, individuellement et collectivement, que la réalité "sociale" telle qu'elle existe à la fin du deuxième millénaire, ne satisfait pas nos besoin esthétiques ni pratiques. En conséquence nous avons l'intention d'écrire un futur conforme à la libération de nos désirs. Nous sommes à la recherche d'un art mordant . Et nous sommes à la recherche d'une société qui non seulement sera conforme à nos désirs, mais qui nous soutiendra dans leur expression. Ce médium n'aura pas de rapport avec l'argent si ce n'est comme moyen de survie. Nous ne vivons qu'une vie. Devons-nous la vivre enchaînés contre nous-mêmes, prisonniers des forces du conformisme ?" Rick Gentry,Chef du Bureau de l'Hygiène Psychique d'Interzone |
From: subterranean61 <clubs-mail@yahoo-inc.com>
To: <baudron@interpc.fr>
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2000 6:16 PM
Subject: InTerZoNE [Yahoo! Clubs: THE INTERZONE COFFEE HOUSE]
InTerZoNE
For me this place exists in everone's mind somewhere, it's a faraway land, one of constant travel and intrigue, of dark and hidden secrets, and of realized and forgotten anguish. It's dusty, and hazy..sunny orange haze. It's a place where one might go to become anonymous and blend into the wall with all of the other "perversives" or maybe just to blindly walk along. It's a place to escape for some, it's a place you cannot escape for others. No matter the place, no matter the reference we all have it, no matter what you may think. We all have our Tangier.
Here's what Interzone was for William S. Burroughs, give a look at the link if you wish, it's quite an interesting read :
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