Wednesday, November 24

William S. Burroughs' Thanksgiving Prayer 1986

Please take no offense, but I know you will.



"To John  Dillinger in hope he is still alive.
Thanksgiving Day November 28 1986"

 
Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shit out through wholesome
American guts.


Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison. 
Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.
Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for
Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where
nobody's allowed to mind his
own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the
memories-- all right let's see
your arms!

You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.
 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds pretty right on. Like it or not.

Kwai Chang said...

If you cannot see anything to be Thankful for in Mr. Burroughs' edict, then be thankful that Buzz Aldrin (poor bastard, what did they do to him?) was the only Apollo astroNOT to ever really get to the moon!!!
If that's not enough, the piece of property that became Capitol Hill in Washington DeColumbia, is described thusly on the original paper document: Name - Rome; Owner - Pope! Now go marinade and say a prayer for Edwin!

Tommy said...

Yipes! Mr Caine, you've given us all food for thought. This is a huge coincidence, but Buzz Aldrin is my Uncle Eddie! Small world.

Please give us the rest of the NASA story, please....

Kwai Chang said...

Well, I am most proud to be acknowledged by Buzz's nephew. I must warn you that the story doesn't get any prettier. If there is nothing redeemable in it for the average American, then I would say: At least your uncle probably got to meet the awesome director Stanley Kubrick. Filming was done at 'NASA-East'(UK). If that is an imprudent prelude, then bear in mind that the NASA, like the CIA, is NOT a United States agency. Let's start there. I will be back!
We love you, Buzz!

Tommy said...

Kwai Chang you tease!

Kwai Chang said...

Glad to hear back from you, Tommy! It is impossible to understand the story of the NASA without understanding the parallel between the space race and the history of television. Both are awesome, but not fantastic. We have been told many things via the stern, majestic voice of authority (Walter Cronkite, et al). But, who is he? He is the filter that changes the utterly absurd into the patently accepted and acted upon (non)truth. It IS the realm of blurry, confusing, vague, double-speak complete with technicolor proof delivered to us within an adequate slurry of pride, patriotism, guilt, or fear. And so, where on October 4, 1957 the space-race heated up the cold-war, by September 12, 2001 television was so refined that it convinced the world that aluminum can pass through steel! You need not fill in the blanks, but how many times have you heard the phrase "question authority"? Thinking for oneself is certainly a state of vulnerability, but it certainly makes more sense than believing anything in the corporate owned (read complicit) mainstream media. Just who is Columbia, anyway?
For my money, the real feather in the cap of the space race was the SR-71. All else paled, and was quite slow, messy, exagerated, or UNBELIEVEably fantastic...like the ablities of the Saturn V - which by the way, can't be rebuilt because the blueprints cannot be located (or some such magic bullet theory).
I will close by saying that everything is a conspiracy...unless you are a hermit and have no contact with anyone. Goodbye, for now. Thanks, for reading this. Wisdom is not a flower to be plucked, but a mountain to be climbed.