Death of a Cut-up

The dark philosopher William S. Burroughs died five years ago today.  Part of his legacy is the "cut-up" technique.  See William S. Burroughs and Cut-up, where it is noted that

"the Cut-up technique was inspired by the collage technique used by artists and photographers,"

and Cut-ups and the Internet, where it is noted that 

"The cut-up (or 'cutup') is a method of juxtaposition where a work (usually text) is cut into pieces and the pieces rearranged in a random order, similar to the montage or collage technique in painting."

The idea of hypertext (the "ht" in "http://," for "HyperText Transfer Protocol://") is not unrelated to the concept of the "cut-up"…

See Time Line and Contents at The Electronic Labyrinth.

Also from "The Electronic Labyrinth":

At Swim-Two-Birds

The question of beginnings and endings–how many of them to have and where to put them–has troubled many authors. Indeed, some have seen the singular linear path of traditional literature as cause for consternation. This is expressed by the narrator in Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds (1968):

One beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with.

See also the writings of Eric Olson on the collage method of  psychotherapy, the subject of "Aesthetics of Madness," my July 30, 2002, web journal entry below.