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3.5 

The Ticket That Exploded

By William S. Burroughs
The Ticket That Exploded by William S. Burroughs digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

As this new edition reveals, the cultural reach of The Ticket That Exploded has expanded with the viral logic of Burroughs’s multimedia methods, recycling itself into our digital environment. A last chance antidote to the virus of lies spread by the ad men and con men of the Nova Mob, Burroughs’s book is an outrageous hybrid of pulp science fiction, obscene experimental poetry, and manifesto for revolution—as fresh today as it ever has been. Edited from the original manuscripts by renowned Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris, this revised edition incorporates an introduction and appendices of never before seen materials.

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21 Reviews

3.5
“Only Burroughs could use the same handful of words and phrases over and over and over again and have them seem new and profound every time.”
“RATING: 3.5 Another fascinating experiment in language and structure, The Ticket That Exploded is a fitting conclusion to this very unconventional trilogy. This book builds on the experiments of the first two novels, repeating text from them in new ways, and then becomes metatextual by providing instructions for readers to try their own experiments. (The instructions for readers are for splicing audio clips, whereas Burroughs was splicing text, but the idea is the same.) The "plot" is hard to decipher, but is concerned with mind control, metamorphoses, speculative science, and weird sex (again, as with the other two books). This is probably the most cohesive of the three, but no one is going to read this for the plot. Anyone curious about this trilogy is interested because of the experimentation. And for the love of words. Literally every page has multiple phrases that are interesting, provocative, unusual, elegant, and beautiful in their own horrid, repugnant way. I'd say this is better than the second book, but not as good as the first.”

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