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It was William Burroughs preoccupation with the
deconstruction of words and language, most notably through the
cut-up and fold-in techniques that he began to develop in 1959
with artist Byron Gysin, which constitutes his most significant
contribution to the fragmentary, non-linear approach to contemporary
narrative.
Borrowing from the collage technique of
visual artists, his method links fragments of texts in surprising
juxtapositions, offering unexpected leaps into uncharted territories
that attempt to jar and ultimately transform the consciousness
of the reader. For this reason, Burroughs refers to himself
as "a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas."
For Burroughs, narrative operates as a vast,
multi-threaded network that reflects the associative tendencies
of the mind, collapsing the boundaries of time and space, drawing
attention to previously undetected connections, drawing attention
to the links between disparate ideas and elements.
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