William S. Burroughs' crystal ball re Truman Capote

[HiPointDem]

On July 23rd, 1970, four years after publishing his novel In Cold Blood (which was considered the peak of his literary career), Truman Capote received a letter from fellow writer William Burroughs. At the time Burroughs was 56-years-old, to Capote's 46, and stated that he had been following the author through his literary development. Then he brought the hammer down:

"The early work was in some respects promising — I refer particularly to the short stories. You were granted an area for psychic development. It seemed for a while as if you would make good use of this grant. You choose instead to sell out a talent that is not yours to sell. You have written a dull unreadable book which could have been written by any staff writer on the New Yorker — (an undercover reactionary periodical dedicated to the interests of vested American wealth).

You have placed your services at the disposal of interests who are turning America into a police state by the simple device of deliberately fostering the conditions that give rise to criminality and then demanding increased police powers and the retention of capital punishment to deal with the situation they have created. You have betrayed and sold out the talent that was granted you by this department. That talent is now officially withdrawn.

Enjoy your dirty money. You will never have anything else. You will never write another sentence above the level of In Cold Blood. As a writer you are finished. Over and out. Are you tracking me? Know who I am? You know me, Truman. You have known me for a long time. This is my last visit."

http://gothamist.com/2012/08/02/william_s_burroughs_trashes_truman.php


I thought this was a particularly succinct statement of the state's MO, too:

"interests who are turning America into a police state by the simple device of deliberately fostering the conditions that give rise to criminality and then demanding increased police powers and the retention of capital punishment to deal with the situation they have created"

[DCKit]

1. He'd have written millions of words about the Patriot Act. nt

[sadbear]

2. Did In Cold Blood really have this effect on the U.S.?

I'd never heard that before, but I can see how the events could align.

[TheManInTheMac]

3. Not surprising that a murderer would not like a book that bolstered support of the death penalty.

[frylock]

6. anything that bolsters support of the death penalty should be called out..

personal interests aside. the death penalty is state-sanctioned murder.

[TheManInTheMac]

7. I respect your opinion regarding penalties for murderers because you are not a murderer.

William Burroughs was a murderer who happened to get away with it. A criminal doesn't deserve input into what the maximum penalty for his crime should be.

[frylock]

12. if burroughs were to have been charged it would've been negligent homicide or manslaughter..

neither of which is eligible for the death penalty afaik. of course, the incident did occur in mexico, so he would've been sentenced along their guidlines, whatever those may be.

[DeSwiss]

8. Exactly. n/t

[Nevernose]

11. He was an accidental killer

That is not the same thing as a murderer.

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. K&R #5. n/t

[randome]

5. So we've been in a police state for 42 years now?

News to me.

[msanthrope]

10. Apparently, interference in one's guns and morphine sales constitutes

a 'police state.'

[msanthrope]

9. Any surprise that a convicted killer didn't like "In Cold Blood?"

Yeah...Hickock and Smith were just victims of the state. Right.

[David Zephyr]

13. Truman Capote was an author and a brilliant talent.

HiPointDem, first thank you very much for passing along this fascinating piece and link about William Burroughs and his letter to Truman Capote.

I am a fan of both writers. I would like to point something out here for all that read this to ponder.

Burroughs grew up in great wealth and privilege with all the fine trappings that go with it. He had what aristocrats would have called "pedigree". Indeed his later-in-life entry into the world of being a "bohemian" and living poor was not his first choice. No, rather he ambitiously planned and sought out a proud career with all the trappings of social status and power that he'd grown up with. He miserably failed at that. And found himself chemically dependent, and became what back then was called "a drug addict".

Contrast that to this:

Tragically flawed, deserted by both of his parents as a young boy, stunted in physical growth, a homosexual who couldn't (and really never tried) to "pass" in a very hostile piece of time/space fabric (the South in the first half of the 20th Century), ground down by the humiliating boot of poverty and class, Truman Capote (like so many others who had lived their lives, from early childhood, on the edge of hate and violence and ridicule) left behind a legacy of literature and story telling that is monumental compared to most of what we are peddled today under the euphemism of books.

And as quaint and silly as it may sound, the truth is that Truman was probably "in love" with one of the condemned in his book. He never was the same after the execution. We will never know, but my library is filled, not just with all of Trumans books, but also almost every book (and there are many) that have been written about him, and I believe that he was indeed in love with Perry Smith. And my library has the great talent of William Burroughs, too.

Still, here's the rub: That child that no one wanted (John Lennon also suffered the same fate) and who later came to New York and was laughed at as a poor, white trash, hick with an accent and "queer", wound up having the world's jet set eating out of the palm of his very hand...and then he dared to write about them, perhaps subconsciously to expose them, causing them to ostracize him. In any event, Truman bit down on that smug, aristocratic class with all the bite that his unwashed teeth could muster and they hated him for it.

Anyone who reads Capote or Tennessee Williams will find a powerful sub-text of "class" layered throughout their work. Sometimes literature can be as corruptive and as dangerous to the status-quo as a political rally. In many ways, Capote and Williams were just as "dangerous" to the status quo of the times as Emma Goldman was in her day.

Burroughs' letter only reveals to me a lot of self-hatred and professional jealousy with regards to Truman's literary success. It seems to me that Burroughs' old aristocratic smugness was stinging at this lower class youngster who surprised the world.

[HiPointDem]

14. agreed on the class angle; but i'd say capote's attitude toward the social register was ambivalent;

he spent most of his life after 'blood' as a courtier to the social register (& also a drug addict, just like burroughs). and imo, his success killed his writing. i think his non-productivity was part of the impetus for printing tittle-tattle about the social register.

[David Zephyr]

15. Unanswered Prayers.

I don't disagree with a word you wrote. However, I think that the courtier charge went both ways. The Paleys and crowd were also his courtiers. Like the brilliant line from Bob Seeger's "Night Moves": "I used her, she used me, neither one cared, we were getting our share" it was clearly symbiotic.

What remains is his work. I like you. A well-informed reader!

[HiPointDem]

16. agreed. association with the higher arts give cachet to the trust-fund class & helps justify their

class rule.