Nova Express
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57“the criminal escapes to other coordinates”: a very early typescript continues: “Now a word about Madame D herself—We have never been able to touch her—In fact she may not be Madame D Unlike other members of the mob she is without vices, can occupy innumerable any coordinate points, and there is no way it is difficult to follow her colorless trail—” (Berg 11.47).
58“Get that writer”: Burroughs wrote several different versions of this paragraph, including: “Get that writer—He is too close—Bribe him—Scare him with the ovens—Give him the orgasm drug—” (Berg 11.22).
59“contacted our Tangier agent”: one typescript continues: “Shuddering from The Ovens he asked for biologic transfer in any direction. He volunteered for any assignment he cared to name. He gave us all the information he had which was considerable. After a short training period he was absorbed into the department. As it turned out this was not in all respects a fortunate decision. Willy had an uncontrollable temper and no patience. He immediately aroused the local partisans, seized an enemy installation, set up TOWERS and opened fire armed only with a transistor radio and a few photo collages. The resulting melee narrowly skirted total disaster” (Berg 11.27).
URANIAN WILLY
Under its former title, “THE NOVIA EXPRESS,” this was the first section Burroughs wrote, and he identified the original three-page typescript as “Chapter I 1st Version” of his March 1962 MS (OSU 2.3). Writing from Tangier, Burroughs quotes from this section when describing his new novel for the first time to Gysin: “Describes military action against imaginary invader: ‘Area mined—Guards everywhere—can’t quite get through’” (Burroughs to Gysin, August 18, 1961; Berg 85.5).
Parts would appear in two little magazines: “One Chapter from The Novia Express” in The Second Coming 1.3 (March 1962), a short-lived avant-garde magazine from New York, and “Novia Express” in Rhinozeros 6 (July 1962), a German magazine that made striking use of typography and to which Burroughs made several contributions. Using one passage from near the beginning and another from the end of the section published in Nova Express, nearly a third of “Uranian Willy” appears in Rhinozeros with very few differences. The case of The Second Coming is more complicated: its “One Chapter” turns out to be Chapter One of Burroughs’ manuscript combined with a version of its then Chapter Three (“Towers Open Fire”; see below); a line divides the two parts. Comparing the magazine version with Burroughs’ archival typescripts, it is clear how he progressively edited down his material: the earliest source (OSU 2.3) has almost 250 words more than “Uranian Willy” in Nova Express; the Second Coming version restructured the entire section and cut nearly 150 words of this extra material; the final typescript, on which Burroughs canceled the original title and wrote in “Uranian Willy” (OSU 4.9), cut a further 50 words. Comparing the first manuscript with the published text clarifies the extent of Burroughs’ redrafting: sixteen separate cuts, six substitutions of single words, seven small inserts, seven punctuation changes that made one sentence out of two and seven structural relocations. Under the same title Burroughs used much of this section in The Soft Machine (1966 and 1968 editions).
59“Uranian Willy The Heavy Metal Kid”: both the March 1962 MS and Second Coming begin with a preceding first line: “His larval flesh shuddering from The Ovens Of Minraud, metal scars on his face cross the wounded galaxies he was wanted for Novia in three solar systems:” (OSU 2.3).
59“chance on a crash out”: both the March 1962 MS and Second Coming continue: “He would not be falling for any more sweet Venusian con. A heavy narcotic effluvia they spin from green disk mouths. Cruel idiot smiles. Camp followers of The Green Octopus. The colorless vampire creatures from a land of grass without mirrors. From the sewage deltas of Venus. He had been there prisoner for forty years. The memory sickened his flesh” (OSU 2.3).
59“One hope left in the universe: Plan D”: the March 1962 MS, which refers to Plan D elsewhere, has here: “ESCAPE” (OSU 2.3).
60“THIS IS WAR TO EXTERMINATION”: although not part of a draft for Nova Express, a two-page typescript overlaps this section precisely and continues with references to a key concept in Scientology that Burroughs would edit out: “The planet earth has been invaded—This is war to extermination—The entire planet is infected by virus weapons of the enemy—The enemy is in you controlling thought feeling and apparent sensory impressions—Fight cell by cell through bodies and mind screens of the earth […] Who and what is the enemy?—Even told with symbols it sickens—They are known as Thetans—They run on Theta brain waves which are the brain waves of pain and deprivation—They eat pain—Your pain—Organism is precisely anti-human—it is also completely parasitic” (Berg 15.51).
60“Life-Time-Fortune”: present in the Second Coming version, this is one of the few phrases not in the earlier manuscript (OSU 2.3).
60“Release Silence Virus—”: the March 1962 MS continues with two more paragraphs, which did not appear in Second Coming: “He switched off the screen and listened to a brief technical report on Bone Writing. Control gimmick of The Limestone God. Venusian Virus occupying the spinal column.
Uranian Willy picked up his old grey hat and cursed for the Nth time his body prison. A little present from The Venusians. ‘Stupid assed, three dimensional people. A body yet!’” (OSU 2.3).
61“mirror streets and shadow pools”: the March 1962 MS continues: “Old photo crinkling cracking—‘Far shudder of space shaking an iron tree’” (OSU 2.3). Burroughs here quotes from Canto VI of St.-John Perse’s Anabasis in the T.S. Eliot translation.
WILL HOLLYWOOD NEVER LEARN?
The section goes back to 1960 in recycling several phrases from Minutes to Go, including the one that gives the section its title, and it was almost certainly part of the March 1962 MS. The earliest draft (Berg 36.3) is much shorter and reveals how extensively Burroughs moved material around within the section. His restructuring is further shown in a heavily annotated three-page typescript (OSU 3.5), which also has numerous variant and unused lines. The final typescript (OSU 4.9) includes a longer title which Burroughs canceled: “WILL HOLLYWOOD NEVER LEARN?—UNIMAGINABLE DISASTER.”
63“liquidated the Commissar”: an early draft has the extra line, canceled: “But you can’t hang me—I’m the Home Secretary” (OSU 3.5). Variations on this theme in other typescripts include one with a pointed political allusion: “ZUT ALORS I SAID ELIMINATE LES ALGERIENS PAS LES ALSATIANS” (Berg 48.22).
64“blats of Morse Code”: corrects NEX 63 (“blasts”): the apparent error was corrected by the copyeditor on the final typescript, but OSU 3.5 confirms that, as elsewhere (p. 85; NEX 82), this is not a typo for “blasts.” One instance, “color blats” (p. 100), was not corrected in the galleys and remained in the 1964 edition (NEX 95).
64“speed-up movie”: the early typescript continues: “Enemy advance we retreat—Move back what?—Shadow mirrors and doorways—” (OSU 3.5). In this unused line, Burroughs cites part of Mao’s “sixteen character” formula of guerrilla war tactics (“Enemy advance we retreat”), which he used in other texts, including The Ticket That Exploded.
66“Calling partisans of all nation”: corrects NEX 65 (“nations”), restoring an apparent error that was corrected by the copyeditor on the October 1962 MS; other manuscripts confirm that the ungrammatical singular was sometimes intentional, and other instances here (pp. 68, 94, 175) have been uncorrected when supported by manuscript witnesses. The phrase is decisively associated with Nova Express and in one related page is followed by “Enfants de la Patrie,” from “La Marseillaise” (Berg 36.8).
66“Room— . —”: corrects NEX 65 (“— — — . —”); the Morse code (which only appears on OSU 4.9) spells out “Word falling photo falling,” but Burroughs appears to have first typed the letter “K” (“— . —”), which was misread by the typesetter, who incorporated the double dash he typed after “Room.” Burrou
ghs twice refers to learning Morse code in letters to Gysin (May 16, 1960 and February 20, 1962; ROW, 28, 99).
TOWERS OPEN FIRE
One of the earliest sections written for Nova Express, “Towers Open Fire” was identified by Burroughs as “Chapter III” of the March 1962 MS. He quotes several lines, including one of the most recurrent phrases in early drafts (“Bleep Blop Splat”), in a letter from early September 1961, the night after watching the film Hiroshima Mon Amour with Timothy Leary (Burroughs to Gysin, nd; Berg 85.5). The section was partially published in Evergreen Review (January 1962) and in The Second Coming magazine, although in different forms: Evergreen published what Burroughs identified as “Ch III abbreviated version,” a one-page redacted typescript (OSU 2.3) that includes a variant final paragraph; in The Second Coming, the whole section appeared, almost verbatim, but as the second half of “Chapter One,” following what would become the “Uranian Willy” section. Two very similar four-page typescripts (Berg 12.7 and a later draft, OSU 2.3) are substantially longer and include variant passages.
66“Lens googles”: an apparent error for “goggles,” but confirmed in all manuscript witnesses.
67“Coordinates 8 2 7 6”: these “coordinates” would recur in numerous texts; that they add up to Burroughs’ special number, 23, is not coincidental.
67“Operation Total Disposal”: in one quite early draft, K9 has an extra piece of equipment: “Pilot K9 examined the bottles with his eye torch—” (ASU 7).
68“Return to base immediately”: a late draft continues with a variant paragraph that again uses Mao’s guerrilla formula (see “Will Hollywood Never Learn?”), concluding: “All pilots—Stay away from that Time Flak—Return to base—Enemy advance we retreat—Return to base” (OSU 2.3).
68“The Technician mixed”: the one-page “abbreviated version” has an alternative final paragraph discussing military tactics, which appears near verbatim in Evergreen Review: “This operation destroyed enemy installations in the area of Gothenburg. And served a useful purpose in alerting the partisans and organizing partisan activity. However, the risks involved in such total attack was considered disproportionate to the gains realized. Remember that total war is precisely what we have been called in to prevent. Willy was sharply reprimanded in The School of Total Responsibility and transferred to paper work in another area—Fadeout—” (OSU 2.3).
69“Towers, open fire—”: the four-page draft (OSU 2.3) continues with more text and with an unevenly spaced layout variation: “A tidal wave of defectors pouring in. And a cry from those trapped behind enemy lines—‘For God’s sake come and get them’
Ground forces moving in—Shift cut tangle word lines—Dismantle Time Machine—Bleep Blop Bleep—Death to the guards—Prisoners of the earth come out—
TOWERS OPEN FIRE
Coordinates Bleep bleep death to the Vampire air hammers
Bleep 8 2 7 6 stutter FIRE guards Bleeeeeeeep
On Board books TOWERS OPEN FIRE Light flak
Tourists— bloop cutbleeeeeepp Vibrate
FIRE Vibrate shift FIRE
FIRE Death dwarfs— tangle FIRE Bloop spuut
Stab cut Bleeeep Death to The BLeeeeeep
Pound shift TOWERS OPEN FIRE Novia Guard FIRE
Flicker blast tangle cut word lines
stab light blasts shift Photo falling
word falling in Grey Room Taken
Break through Board Books Blue
Word Break Taken Movies
Falling through
Photo in grey
Falling room
TOWERS OPEN FIRE
BLEEEEPBLEEEEPBLOOOPSPUTT!”
Crab Nebula
CRAB NEBULA
This section must have been completed shortly before Burroughs submitted his March 1962 manuscript, because it quotes from the February 12, 1962 issue of Newsweek. That issue’s cover would have caught Burroughs’ eye since it featured “GUERRILLA WARFARE,” a report on the escalating war in Vietnam, which admits that guerrilla war is “a dirty, no-holds-barred kind of business, but it’s one the U.S. has to learn how to master.” The original title of the section, up to and including the October 1962 MS, was “PLANETS OF THE CRAB NEBULAE.” A complete eight-page typescript (OSU 2.2) includes a small number of variant passages. The quotation from Newsweek was also used as a footnote to “They Just Fade Away” in Evergreen Review 8.32 (April 1964).
72“have escaped with the prisoners”: one early typescript continues: “And formed underground movements in the alien planet called earth—” (Berg 4.42).
73“smouldering slag heaps”: the full eight-page typescript has “shag heaps” here and in what follows (OSU 2.2). Both “slag” and “shag” were used in The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded.
75“carbon dioxide withdrawal”: the eight-page typescript continues with lines that were partially canceled, beginning, “‘Sick picture calling Hospital—Sick Picture calling Hospital,’” and concluding: “Patient out of control—Need means of restraint—Need apomorphine—” (OSU 2.2).
78“Three thousand years of flesh”: the eight-page typescript has a longer variant: “Two thousand years of flesh—Look at the word and image bank of life time fortune—Enough word and image there to start the whole show rolling some place else—” (OSU 2.2).
79“keep the show on the road”: the eight-page typescript continues with the canceled line: “Never was a technician myself—” (OSU 2.2).
A BAD MOVE
Shortly before submitting the March 1962 MS, Burroughs mailed Gysin a two-page typescript, illustrating his new “fold-in” method, that overlaps this section and includes its specified literary source texts: “Enclose sample of juxtaposed closing page of The Great Gatsby and The Soft Machine [. . .] I intend to use these preparation[s] in Novia Express” (Burroughs to Gysin, March 2, 1962; Berg 85.6). While the typescript enclosure has fragments from the end of Fitzgerald’s novel not used in Nova Express (e.g., “boats against the current” and “borne back into the past”), it has other phrases that were used (e.g., “word scrawled by some boy”). This cut-up section is especially dense with words from a range of literary sources, from Shakespeare to Wordsworth, as well as from Burroughs’ own Soft Machine and Naked Lunch, and he reworked this material many times. The section’s genesis is reflected in its manuscript history, which comprises scattered variant passages and fragments in numerous miscellaneous cut-up pages (OSU 2.2), before he produced the final, near-verbatim three-page typescript (OSU 4.9).
83“flesh-smeared counter orders”: one typescript page continues with a rare self-reflexive fragment: “Form a cut up of it” (OSU 2.2).
84“dont”: here (and on p. 187) the lack of punctuation seems to have been intended; Burroughs often typed “dont” and let copyeditors insert the apostrophe, but these two instances were not corrected on the galleys and seem consistent with the use of “dont,” three times, in Nova Express material published in the January 1962 issue of Evergreen Review.
THE DEATH DWARF IN THE STREET
The first draft of this section was “Chapter 16” of the March 1962 MS, so that, as well as lightly revising it, Burroughs moved the section from near the end toward the middle of his October 1962 MS. He also drafted numerous variant pages, parts of which clarify the narrative scenario, extend ideas and make explicit one of his key sources: Rimbaud.
85“Biologic Agent K9 called for his check”: K9 enters (and leaves) a café in “Crab Nebula,” so Burroughs seems to have let stand a continuity error, the result perhaps of cutting the longer scenario in an earlier draft: “K9 walked into the cafe and saw an enemy telepath at the end of the bar—he immediately put on a talk record and left it on while he monitored the mind screen and implanted juxtaposition formulae—” (Berg 4.35).
85“L’addition—Lad
ittion—Laddittion”: the incorrect French punctuation and spelling are in all witnesses and long galleys.
85“Garcon—Garcon—Garcon”: corrects NEX 82 (missing the last em dash), but again letting stand the incorrect French (lacking the cedilla).
86“sliding in suggestion insults”: several typescripts continue with an illustration: “(Walked in a fag bar and ordered a dry Martini ‘Dry Martini—Dry Martini—Veddy dwy Martini—’ The Green Octopus perfect that art along fag lines of the earth)” (OSU 3.5, Berg 48.17).
86“in the right—in thee write”: the longest of several variant drafts of this passage is probably the earliest: “RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT—Forming nerve patterns to the insult building you into the patterns—Any tape recorder can do the same they are tape recorders machine manipulated by distant fingers—Others can dissolve erogenous holes and leave the sex words tattooed in flesh and bone and spine—Or spit out supersonic light blats of derogatory down grade image of you that burn into the being like acid leaving horrible festering open sores—So the plague of the virus people flashed round the world through the devitalized hosts eaten by The Erogenous sucking dummies and softened for the tearing supersonic buzz saws of the Talk dummies—” (ASU 7).
86“Agent K9 was with The Biologic Police”: one draft has “Agent William ‘K9’ Lee” (Berg 48.17), a line later canceled (on OSU 3.5), clarifying Burroughs’ identification with the agent via his fictional alter ego and former nom de plume.
87“K9 left the café”: the first draft typescript has: “Biological Lee left the cafe and walked to the corner repeating at supersonic frequencies: ‘Billy in a Taxi—Billy ina Taxi—Billyinataxi—’ A taxi swerved over to his feet and he got in muttering: ‘Billy in a taxi’” (OSU 3.5).
88“The basic law of association”: one miscellaneous draft continues: “From this principal our agents learn to read newspapers and magazines for the juxtaposition statements rather than the contents of individual news items—and we can express these statements in association formulae—There are of course many ways of reinforcing a juxtaposition association—One is the short time hyp—The commonest is sexual images used in all advertisements” (Berg 48.19).