Book Description
The Yage Letters: an early epistolary novel by William S. Burroughs, whose 1952 account of himself as Junkie, published under the pseudonym William Lee, ended "Yage may be the final fix." In letters to Allen Ginsberg, an unknown young poet in New York, his journey to the Amazon jungle is recorded, detailing picaresque incidents of search for telepathic-hallucinogenic-mind-expanding drug Yage (Ayahuasca, or Banisteriopsis Caapé) used by Amazon Indian doctors for finding lost objects, mostly bodies and souls. Author and recipient of these letters met again in New York, Xmas 1953, pruned and edited the writings to form a single book. Correspondence contains first seeds of later Burroughsian fantasy in Naked Lunch. Seven years later Ginsberg in Peru writes his old guru an account of his own visions and terrors with the same drug, appealing for further counsel. Burroughs' mysterious reply is sent. The volume concludes with two epilogues: a short note from Ginsberg on his return from the Orient years later reassuring Self that he is still here on earth, and a final poetic cut-up by Burroughs, "I Am Dying Meester?"
Customer Reviews:
Autonomous Thinkers in a Bourgeois World.......2004-10-15
A great piece of history by the avant garde writers, in this case some letters, of autonomous thinkers (and doers) that depart from the mediocre bourgeois and robotic, patriotic, mind-melted citizen. Reading this book and I'm not sure if I should frown on Burrough's way of life or envy it. I don't favor much of his drug use and his tastes and sexual preferences, but at the same time, neither do I endorse our societal neurotic phobias and radical attacks under their Augustinian mentality. This is a culture under repression. Despite Burrough's rough edges (depravity or art?), there is that amazing element of spontaneity, of dangerous living, of freedom from the protective rational securities that so many of us weak Westerners so much rely on. Reading his accounts from town to town, from boy, pervert, hoar, food, social spots and Yage encounters, kind of puts you both there and in the mind of Burroughs to an extent. Everyone sees reality interpreted through their perceptional lenses and this is definitely colored glasses looking at the time, place and people. Since these are mostly personal letters to Ginsberg, they aren't the cut up collage style you'd find in Naked Lunch, however he does mention this in one of his letters and does a little of it in a poem and maybe his last statement aimed at all humanity.
Written 7 years later, there are a few letters from Ginsberg, questioning his experience with Yage and asking for Burrough's advise. He had a deeper and scarier experience than LSD and was afraid of entering deeper and deeper into the realm he was heading. And wrote some good poetic thoughts in his confusion. Apparently all went well with a later 1963 letter showing strength again and experiential confidence.
We Have a Latah to Learn.......2002-06-30
The Yage Letters is an interesting collection of correspondance from William S Burroughs to Allen Ginsberg spanning from Jan. 15 to July 10, 1953. In addition to capturing the essence of Burroughs style and subject matter, albeit in a rather raw form, the letters tell of his search for the mythic mind-altering natural drug Yage.
Incidentally, this search took place directly after Burroughs had fled from Mexico after the accidental death of his wife at his own hand. Although there are many jewels to be found in this small book for the dedicated fan of Burroughs' work, they are spread throughout with many tedious, repetitious and confusing entries. Ginsburg's contribution, which I hoped would lend a voice of explanation to the letters, is instead a spasmolytic account of his own experience on the same drug, seemingly penned when still under the influence of it.
All in all, an interesting account of one of America's most important author's experiences traveling through Latin and South America in the early 50's--a time of great upheaval and fervor in that region. Highly recommended for Burroughs fanatics and seems to prefigure his work Cities of the Red Night. However, for those not yet familar with his revolutionary writing style I recommend Cities of the Red Night, and Junky.
Fruit of the (Yage) Vine.......2000-06-03
This is the best collection of letters I have ever read, next to The Letters of William S. Burroughs. Bill's letters to Allen really TAKE YOU THERE, as he once said about Colette. Bill rants against the U.S. Point Four agrarian bureaucracy, missionaries living "the life of Riley", Peruvian boys who roll him for his money, eyeglasses, etc.; however, Bill said to Allen that he "shared with the late Father Flanigan - he of Boys Town - the deep conviction that there is no such thing as a bad boy." Overall, good reading and a good record of South America in the early 1950's.
Ancient Hallucinogens and Cut-ups.......2000-04-17
The Yage Letters was a correspondence between William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Burroughs describes his ongoing search for the ancient drug, starting in Mexico, and finishing in South America. Likewise, Ginsberg finishes where Burroughs left off and the rest is history. I enjoyed reading this book, and was pleased to learn about new cultures and info on hallucinogens. The book can become overwelming in some section, especially the last bit about the cut-up process; nevertheless, it's still an interesting idea, which Burroughs had utilized in every artistic medium. Also included are a few sketches by Ginsberg himself
words not drugs.......2000-03-18
Come on guys! Does it really matter what, if anything, Burroughs was on? The book is a slick pile of cold and raspy commentary from an extremely defensive--one might say hyper-skeptical--and yet, it seems, limitlessly curious, man. It is interesting to compare the Ginsberg descriptions of the yage experience with those of Burroughs. Notice elements of warmth either evident or missing in each writer. If ever you were looking for evidence that the writer as subject is not a fiction, this would be a place to start; looking to show that what purports to be objective journalism, really is not, this could be a starting place as well. Especially worth it is the description, if one believes it, of an early gay experience in, I believe, the books first letter, how Burroughs's narrative moves by playing with the reader's emotions as he chronicles his own betrayal and manipulation. Very little here about yage--which I applaud--more a really literate performance of how frozen, razor-sharp intellect and observation act both as assault weapons against the normalizing forces of socio-psychological conditioning/representation and as dehumanizing perversity. Funny, tragic, brilliant, pathetic.
Book Description
In January 1953, William S. Burroughs began an expedition into the jungles of South America to find yage, the fabled hallucinogen of the Amazon. From the notebooks he kept and the letters he wrote home to Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs composed a narrative of his adventures that later appeared as The Yage Letters. For this edition, Oliver Harris has gone back to the original manuscripts and untangled the history of the text, telling the fascinating story of its genesis and cultural importance. Also included in this edition are extensive materials, never before published, by both Burroughs and Ginsberg.
William S. Burroughs is widely recognized as one of the most influential and innovative writers of the twentieth century. His books include Junky, Naked Lunch, and The Wild Boys.
Customer Reviews:
interesting beat history.......2007-07-26
I found this to be very interesting when put into historical perspective.strange tales from both burroughs and ginsberg.I give this a high rating just because it's such an interesting read.You have many different avenues with witch to approach the many layers this has to offer. L Jordan
Fake Letters And Real Drugs........2007-07-18
'The Yage Letters Redux' is a contemporary update of 'The Yage Letters,' a lesser-known Burroughs epistolary text (or pseudo-epistolary text - more on which in a moment) from 1963. It mostly takes the form of letters from Burroughs to his lover and literary cheerleader Allen Ginsberg when, after the death of his wife Joan in the notorious much-debated shooting accident, Burroughs takes off to South America on a fractured internal amnesiac quest in search of Yage (pronounced 'Ya-hey'), the supposed 'Final Fix' (a powerful draw for such a hardcore drug addict) used by brujos for prophetic effect. In the letters the Harvard-educated junkie-cum-ethnobotanist describes the sights and sounds and smells and tastes of the country, giving us a vivid, sweatsoaked travelogue of the place and the people and places he finds there.
'Redux' is edited by Oliver Harris, who edited an excellent book of letters by Burroughs from 1945-1959, and for anybody interested in El Hombre Invisible it's a fascinating, revolutionary version of a revelatory text that is definitely worth checking out. Containing 40 new pages of text, it encompasses pieces of writing from 1953-1960, including some by Ginsberg, the book has a very tangled, complex literary history (expertly unraveled by sui generis Burroughs scholar Harris in the introduction). Long presumed to have been genuine letters between the two men, the epistolary nature of the text turns out to be an elaborate literary construction by Burroughs (hoping for a book that could have been published as a companion piece to 'Junkie,' published by Ace Press), to try and sell piecemeal material. In retrospect it's easy enough to see this when it's pointed out. Take, for example, this for a description of a priest from a 'letter' from Burroughs dated January 30th:
"There was no mistaking the neurotic hostility in his eyes, the fear and hate of life. He sat there in his black uniform nakedly revealed as the advocate of death. A business man without the motivation of avarice, cancerous activity sterile and blighting. Fanaticism without fire or energy exuding a musty odor of spiritual decay. He looked sick and dirty - though I guess he was clean enough actually - with a suggestion of yellow teeth, unwashed underwear and psychosomatic liver trouble. I wonder what his sex life would be."
That is far too studied and crafted a passage to merely be a passing comment on a person the writer met. And nobody but Burroughs would wonder what the sex life of so unappealing a character would be! And only he would write musings about music heard on his trip like "A phylogenetic nostalgia conveyed by this music - Atlantean?" because only he could believe that he could be nostalgic for music supposedly heard in Atlantis.
There are many examples in the text of upper class Burroughs being the ultimate rich 'Ugly American' abroad, and his condescension towards the South American natives he encounters is very obvious and sneering and supercilious, though becoming more ambivalent as his experience amongst them goes on and he becomes educated to their tardy ways. However. The text herein is divided into three sections: 'In Search of Yage' (1953), 'Seven Years Later' (1960) and 'Epilogue' (1963). Right at the end of the first section Burroughs takes Yage and experiences a complete literary and psychic overhaul. I was deeply surprised to encounter practically verbatim the 'The Market' section from 'Naked Lunch' here, written when Burroughs is under the influence of Yage and obviously inserted into the text for that seminal novel at a later date. It's an incredibly beautiful, strange, stunning piece of writing, visionary and exotic and unknown and unsurpassed (to my mind) and, in case you don't know what I'm talking about, I present here, in case you haven't seen it, one of my all-time favourite prose poetry passages in the English language, and one which has proved deeply inspirational to me in my own writings (the version here being slightly different to the one in 'Naked Lunch'):
"Followers of obsolete unthinkable trades doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, pushers of souped-up Harmine, junk reduced to pure habit offering precarious vegetable serenity, liquids to induce Latah, cut antiobiotics, Tithonian longevity serum; black marketers of World War III, pitchmen selling remedies for radiation sickness, investigators of infractions denounced by bland paranoid chess players, servers of fragmentary warrants charging unspeakable mutilations of the spirit taken down in hebephrenic shorthand, bureaucrats of spectral departments, officials of unconstituted police states; a Lesbian dwarf who has perfected operation Bang-utot, the lung erection that strangles a sleeping enemy; sellers of orgone tanks and relaxing machines, brokers of exquisite dreams and memories tested on the sensitized cells of junk sickness and bartered for raw materials of the will; doctors skilled in treatment of diseases dormant in the black dust of ruined cities, gathering virulence in the white blood of eyeless worms feeling slowly to the surface and the human hosts, maladies of the ocean floor and the stratosphere, maladies of the laboratory and atomic war, excisors of telepathic sensitivity, osteopaths of the spirit.
A place where the unknown past and the emergent future meet in a vibrating soundless hum. Larval entities waiting for a live one."
I could go on and on about that passage, and others in 'Naked Lunch,' (notably 'Atrophied Preface: Wouldn't You' and the description of the Composite City, the latter of which is in here too; these few passages alone make buying this book worthwhile) one of my all-time favourite books, for hours, content and structure and imagery and obsessions laid down and on and on and on, but I won't, so don't worry. But knowing that that beautiful, damaged, disturbing sequence was from Burroughs's South American adventure, and not from Tangiers, as I had always assumed, was an eye-opener, as was the knowledge he wrote it under the influence of Yage and that this drug and writing forever changed his outlook and writing style. It certainly comes off as being visionary, otherworldly writing, Burroughs out of his head on drugs and communicating back to us from the dense dripping green rainbow-bird primeval evil eye jungles of South America what the grinning sweating knowing mentally flying brujos have been getting off on for centuries. Gorgeous stuff indeed, and language unlikely to be replicated again in such a dreary regimented age of non-experimentation and drug paranoia and fear of the Unknown. But at least we had mad old Mr. Burroughs there to document it for us.
Some of the other stuff in the book is not so hot, ie a couple of letters from Ginsberg where he writes of drug trip and manages to waffle tedious fractured semi-religious nothing-meaning white syllabic noise for page after page - "- but God knows I don't know who to turn to finally when the chips are down spiritually and I have to depend on my own Serpent-self's memory of merry visions of Blake - or depend on nothing and enter anew - but enter what? - Death? - and that that moment - vomiting still feeling like a Great lost serpent-Seraph vomiting in consciousness of the Transfiguration to come - with the Radiotelepathy sense of a Being whose presence I had not yet fully sensed -" and blah blah blah and on and on and on. There's a Burroughs cut-up passage here too, 'I am Dying, Meester?' and that's pretty pointless as well, ultimately. I never ever liked Ginsberg and all his religious psychobafflebabble, and the cut-up is, to me, a pointlessly alienating parlour trick. But I suppose it's all literary history and we would never have heard of Burroughs without Ginsberg, so I suppose it all balances itself out. Sort of.
Non-fiction........2007-03-02
Of all of Bill Burroughs' works, I enjoy his fictions that were closest to his life as he lived it. QUEER and JUNKY are my favorites, as they deal so honestly with the very strange world in which he moved. I realize that his cut-outs and dream-like novels are important and quite moving to many, but they just never impressed me the way his earlier books do.
THE YAGE LETTERS recounts Burroughs' trip to South America to search out the legendary drug "Yage" which he hoped would enable him to grasp something like mental telepathy. Yes, it's a mad notion and this journey is certainly equally mad, as he moves freely among primitive folk and capitalist exploiters and thieves and holy men and jungle bureaucrats and fellow travellers and drug addicts. Ultimately, the feeling that I was left with was that Yage, like so many other drugs, was nothing but poison. WB lovingly details the search for the material, the preparation of the matter, and the nausea-inducing reactions to the drug that proved only to be a mild hallucinatory.
But it isn't the Yage itself that drives this book. Rather, it's the journey. I highly recommend joining Burroughs in this prose trek.
Average customer rating:
|
Yage Letters
William Burroughs
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NP6VGY |
Customer Reviews:
Early but good Brockmann SEAL story.......2006-08-30
The holidays aren't a great time for William "Crash" Hawken. Last Christmas, his cousin Daisy died of a brain tumor after finally tying the knot with Jake, her lover of 20 years. Daisy and Jake (a Navy admiral and former SEAL) were surrogate parents to Crash, who was abandoned by his distant father. Nell, Daisy's personal assistant fell for Crash the first time she saw him, but like any good SEAL who does not want to leave anyone behind, he kept his distance from her until he desperately needed comfort after Daisy's funeral.
A year later, he stands accused of treason in the murder of Jake his mentor. He knows it's a set up. He knows that a high ranking officer is behind it. He just does not know who. Nell's the only one who believes in him. She helps him escape from custody at the courthouse then tells his lawyers she will pay to have the ballistics tests rerun on the gun that killed Jake, knowing that Crash will be exonerated. This manages to put Nell on the bad guys watch list, and just as a hit man is about to strike, Crash puts a halt to it. His plan is to get the name of the top dog out of the gunmen's mouth, by any means necessary. But can her and Nell possibly have a future after she sees this other side to him?
One of Brockmann's better early offerings, she manages to make this more than a revenge fantasy. Despite Nell being a girly girl, she manages to prove to Crash and the reader that she is no shrinking violet.
My favorite in the TD&D series...so far.......2001-03-24
While I enjoyed the other first five books in this series, (Prince Joe, Forever Blue, Frisco's Kid, Everyday Average Jones, and Harvard's Education) this one in my opinion is the best of the six. Billy 'Crash' is arrested for the murder of his admiral and other agents. He's innocent and hunts down those that framed him. Backing up... Nell, personal assistant to Daisy, the Admiral's significant other appears at Crash's door to tell him that he is needed by the Admiral...Daisy is dying. I'm not giving anything away here. This is how it starts and it gets better. Nell, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Crash could never have killed his Admiral sets out to help him prove his innocence. I loved it! I know you will too.
Another great SEAL book.......2000-07-31
A year earlier, William "Crash" Hawken and Nell Burns were thrown together when his boss and surrogate father, Admiral Jake Robinson, and her boss, Daisy Owen, needed them. Daisy was dying of cancer and Jake's last request was that she marry him. As Crash deals with his grief, Nell goes about making arrangements for the wedding, and does everything she can to entice Crash. jake and Daisy think they'd be good together, but a lifetime of distancing himself from people makes Crash do his damnedest to avoid Nell, although he wants her more than life itself.
When Daisy dies, Crash and Nell, alone in their grief, turn to each other and share a night together, but Crash makes sure that Nell understands there can be nothing more between them. A devastated Nell leaves, and it's only a year later, when Crash is wanted for killing Jake, that she sees him again. She helps him escape and as much as he tries to resist her help, this is not something he can deal with alone.
This is another exciting book in Suzanne Brockmann's Navy SEAL series, and it didn't disappoint. I was saddened by Daisy's death, and happy when everything was revealed at the end. I highly recommend this book.
Brockmann is one of the *very* best romance writers today!.......1999-04-01
I have read almost all of Brockmann's books, and to me this is the very best of her many outstanding books. I strongly regret that I just read the book now, in March, 1999, too late to nominate it for the Romance Writer's of America's Favorite Book of the Year award. I do hope it wins the RWA published author award, the RITA. It surely deserves it!! This author just keeps getting better. The emotional intensity in this book was unbelievable. And the teamwork of the SEALS A-Team really added a whallop to her fantastic, action-packed climax. I really like this continuing series and am trying to find all the previous books I missed before I knew how great Brockmann is. By the way, in response to the remark of the other critiquer, it wasn't until you mentioned it that I realized this was packaged as a Christmas book. I didn't think about that at all. I was just so stunned by the book and Brockmann's genius. :)
Really like Brockmann, but this is NOT a Christmas book.......1999-01-31
I really like Brockmann and she is the only series author I buy - and I read alot. I have been working my way through her purlished list and especially like her SEALS books. So, when this one came up on Amazon.com as soon-to-be-released, I ordered it. And liked it. My complaint? It is packaged as a Christmas book, but has nothing to do with the season. The action, which takes place over two Christmas holidays a year apart, could have just as easily taken place at Valentine's a year apart or during the Fouth of July a year apart. Except to change the decorations for the big wedding held for secondary charaters to hearts or US flags, the season that the story took place in has nothing to do with the plot, charactor development or much of anything. In fact, it was depressing as a Christmas story. A really great adventure romance, but a bad Christmas story. I believe that Brockmann is releasing her first big format romance this spring (1999), so maybe she was rushed to get out a completed book for this Christmas, but packaging this book this way does a truly good story a diservice.
Book Description
Over 23 million viewers tune in each week to this network TV show, "Touched by an Angel." Now readers can get to know angels Monica and Tess in a touching Christmas novel based on one of the most beloved stories of the series. On Christmas eve, Monica comforts a developmentally disabled boy who blames himself for his brother's disappearance in a blizzard. But a tale of Mark Twain, lost faith, and a surprise ending help young Joey understand that the gift of Christmas is the gift of believing, even in our darkest hours. This high quality gift book edition includes black and white and full color pictures from the television episode.
Average customer rating:
|
It Came upon the Midnight Clear
Henry F. French
Manufacturer: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books | Action & Adventure | Children's Literature Guides | Classics by Age | Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths | General | Humorous | Literary Criticism & Collections | Poetry | Popular Culture | Read-Aloud | Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror | Short Story Collections
Christmas | Holidays & Festivals | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books | Fiction | Nonfiction
Early Reader | Series | Children's Books | Subjects | Books | A-Z Mysteries | All Aboard Reading | Amanda Pig | Amelia Bedelia | Andrew Lost | Babar | Berenstain Bears | Bob Books | Brand New Readers | Clifford | Dorling Kindersley Readers | Dr. Seuss | Early Step into Reading | Elvis the Rooster | Encyclopedia Brown | Ernestine & Amanda | Festival Readers | First Stepping Stone Books | Frances | Frog and Toad | George and Martha | Green Light Readers | Hello Reader | High-Rise Private Eyes | I Can Read Books | I Spy | Junie B. Jones | Let's Read and Find Out Science | Little Bill Books | Little Critter | Little Toot | Magic Elements | Magic School Bus | Magic Tree House | Marvin Redpost | Max | Minnie and Moo | Nate the Great | Puffin Easy-to-Read | Ready For Chapters | Real Kids Readers | Rugrats | Scooby Doo Readers | Shredderman | The Littles First Readers | Viking Easy-to-Read | Winnie-the-Pooh First Reader | Young Cam Jansen Mysteries
General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0806640502 |
Book Description
The Christmas celebration marks the beginning of what a Hollywood screenwriter once called “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” It would have to be a pretty great story to bear telling for some 2,000 years.
There is indeed something about this timeless story that grabs the mind and heart and soul and fills us with the promise of wonder and the promise of love. And so, in one way or another, we return to the story year after year, filled with a strange longing to hear it again and, having heard it, to tell it to others.
This little book is another telling of that amazing story, along with a few words about the story and about what happens when it is told. It is an invitation to hear the story again and to tell the story, perhaps in your own words, to someone you love.
—From the Preface
Thoughtfully told and charmingly illustrated, It Came upon the Midnight Clear is a beautiful retelling of the Christmas story. This little book describes God's concern for the well-being of people on earth, the angel Gabriel's discussion with Mary, and the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, where Jesus is born. Whether you read this book alone or aloud with loved ones around the Christmas tree, you'll want to reach for it year after year.
Average customer rating:
|
It Came upon the Midnight Clear
Katherine Jordahl Larson
Manufacturer: Fortress Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Instruments & Performers | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Hymns | Religious & Sacred Music | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Hymns | Music | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 080065501X |
Average customer rating:
|
Music - "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" Bulletin, Regular Size (Package of 50)
Manufacturer: Abingdon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Church Supplies | Accessories | Formats | Books
Church Materials | Ministry & Church Leadership | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Church Supplies | Book Accessories | Our Favorites | Gift Ideas
ASIN: 0687064295 |
Books:
- You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down
- You Remind Me of Me: A Novel
- A Cab at the Door & Midnight Oil
- A Factory of Cunning
- Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture (S. Mark Taper Foundation Imprint in Jewish Studies)
- After Many a Summer Dies the Swan: A Novel
- And Quiet Flows the Don
- Artemisia: A Novel
- As Tough as Necessary: Countering Violence, Aggression, and Hostility in Our Schools
- Atticus: Novel, A
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- This Jazz Man
- Our Changing Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Science and Global Environmental Change
- Mrs. Kimble: A Novel
- Imitation in Death
- Option Volatility & Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques
- On Human Nature
- Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills
- Pit's Letter
- Kinnikinnick, The Mountain Flower Book
- Into the Mirror: The Life of Master Spy Robert P. Hanssen
Queer: A Novel
My Education: A Book of Dreams
The Place of Dead Roads: A Novel
Cities of the Red Night: A Novel
The Long Trip: The Prehistory of Psychedelia (Arkana)
