The Dream Machine
“We must storm the citadels of enlightenment. The means are at hand.”
~W.S. Burroughs
I’ve been thinking alot about Burroughs lately. W.S. Burroughs was my introduction to the beat generation. I can remember picking up Naked Lunch which I read in it’s entirety while working the night shift in a noisy factory. The setting was perfect, the repetitive machine sounds made the perfect atmosphere for what my mind was consuming.
So it was interesting to me that just as I was thinking about him, I see the film FLicKeR sitting on the shelf at the local video store.
Now, I have to say, as a Canadian, it bugs me that I don’t even hear about this stuff before it’s finished. FLicKeR is a National Film Board Of Canada production and I search for stuff like this all the time. How am I missing it?! I digress, I’ve literally just finished watching it and it was brilliant, very insightful. It’s actually much more of a doc about Brion Gysin, who’s always been a bit of a mysterious character to me, and the dream machine, and cut-ups, which I was under the impression where a creation of Burroughs’. Great interviews with Marianne Faithful, Genesis P. Orridge, Iggy Pop and more, as well as archival footage of Gysin and Burroughs. Now my desire for a dream machine has been renewed. I have to have one. I’m on the hunt now. Gysin and Burroughs together were so much further ahead than…well everyone it seems. These guys were operating on a whole different level.
Couldn’t find a trailer but here’s a clip.
Tags: Brion Gysin, Dream Machine, FLicKeR, Genesis P. Orridge, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithful, naked lunch, the cut ups, W.S. Burroughs
