William S. Burroughs: A Man Within Page #9

blasting the spray paint

over the plywood.

And that was the start,

at least to my knowledge,

of the shotgun art.

[ Gunshot ]

[ Anderson ]

In my own feelings about guns...

over-the-top,

fake macho stuff.

It didn't have, for me,

richness as a work of art

that his writing did.

Fake macho is funny to me.

Part of art is all irony.

It's making fun of everything.

Contemporary art

is about ruining things.

So if he's ruining what

masculinity and guns are, good.

[ Man ] You mentioned your art.

Is it still the shotgun art,

or is it...

[ Burroughs ]

[ Man ]

Perfect.

That was a good one.

[ Aldrich ]

I went to the L.A. County Museum

where he had an art show.

And in the courtyard

of the museum, there were

all these glitterati.

And ABSOLUT had a booth and

they were serving "Burroughs,"

'cause, you know, his drink

is vodka and Coke.

And so, after we had

the little soiree,

they took us up

for a tour of the show.

So we started

going down the line

of all of the paintings,

and we got to one which

was this piece of plywood

that had this angle on it.

Well, I remember the guy's roof

that the plywood came off.

And I had to chuckle

because here it was,

this scrap of plywood that had

been sitting over there,

and now it's got a price tag

of, like, $7,000 on it...

and it's sitting in

the L.A. County Museum of Art.

"John Wheeler

of 'recognition physics' says,"

'Nothing exists

until it is observed.'

The artist observes something

invisible to others...

and puts on paper or canvas...

"something that did not exist

until he observed it."

[ Waters ]

Obviously he had some

"shorthoods" as a father.

Even though his son's books,

I think, were really,

really good.

He was very, very talented.

But you read that biography,

it was a terrible, terrible,

wounded life.

So was William

a good father? No.

[ Narrator ] Billy Burroughs Jr.

had little contact

with his father,

whom he tried to emulate.

His father continued

to neglect him,

so Allen Ginsberg

often came to Billy's rescue.

Billy wrote two books about his

struggle with alcohol and drugs.

He was one of the first people

in the United States

to get a liver transplant.

But by 1981, at the age of 33,

Billy was dead

of acute alcoholism.

[ Giorno ] He was here,

and James was here,

and I was upstairs...

when Billy died,

10:
30 in the morning,

James comes upstairs and knocks

on my door and says, "John,

I have to talk to you."

Something very serious happened.

Billy has died."

So we go downstairs and I come

in here, and I hugged William.

And it's the only

time in my life

I ever saw William crying.

I hugged him, and as I'm hugging

him, there are these things,

these great tears coming...

Not for very long.

I mean, William is William.

But he cried for a few minutes,

and we talked a little,

and then he went into

the bedroom and closed his door.

It was deep grief.

He was devastated.

And he felt incredibly guilty

about that...

that he knew he hadn't

been present enough

in William Jr.'s life,

had ignored him

for years on end...

and was finally

becoming his friend,

and it was too late.

And William Jr. was trying

to emulate his father

for approval...

in the most destructive

possible ways,

in the most simplistic ways.

If I become a junkie and write

a book about a drug,

then I'll be like Dad,

and Dad will love me.

And it was a tragic situation...

to see the youngest William

destroying himself,

very publicly,

in front of William Sr...

to try and be accepted

as an equal,

as a part of the beatnik family

rather than the blood family.

And William just didn't know

how to deal with that,

how to express himself.

[ Narrator ]

After Billy's death,

Burroughs adopted his companion

and secretary, James Grauerholz.

Together, the two left New York

and moved to Lawrence, Kansas,

where William spent

the remainder of his life.

Which way do you want

to go back?

[ Indistinct ]

[ Grauerholz ]

I came to Lawrence

with the intention...

of luring Burroughs

to Lawrence.

Because he was reaching an age

where it was kind of time

to retire.

Oh, this layout...

Expensive layout.

Look at that place.

A pig.

[ Grant Hart ]

It was an alternative to

the heroin scene of the Bowery.

And I think James undoubtedly

saved William,

if not from drugs,

from some other misadventure.

William and Bockris

might fantasize...

about being these impenetrable,

gray men with canes,

fighting off

young would-be attackers,

But he was vulnerable, and...

An old man with a cane is...

just as weak as an old man

without a cane.

I'm on the way

to the cemetery myself.

[ Man, Chuckles ]

I bought a plot

yesterday, man.

[ Woman On Microphone ]

What's your personal belief

on death?

Personal belief on death.

- [ Burroughs ] Well, um, hmm.

- [ Audience Chuckles ]

[ Woman ] I was just going

to say, those monsters are

projections of your own mind.

Exactly. Exactly, yes.

Not external.

He certainly became

much more...

explicitly lovable, you know,

in his final year.

Gentle and sweet tempered.

Not that he was so cantankerous

and difficult before, but he...

There was a transformation.

- [ Acoustic Guitar ]

- [ Patti Smith Singing,

Indistinct ]

[ Waldman ] I talked to William

when Allen died,

and it was incredibly hard.

And he, you know, died

just months later.

It was as if there was some...

Well, with both of them,

these sparks went out

of the world.

[ Patti Smith ] Not here

But near

When we saw James Grauerholz

just after William had passed,

we met in Ginsberg's apartment

in the East Village,

and he showed me...

a picture of William

just after he'd died...

that someone had taken.

And... it really upset me.

It surprised me.

I started crying.

And we said to James,

"What sort of frame of mind

was he in when he died?"

And James said,

"Well, look what he wrote,

the last thing he wrote

in his journal."

And we said, "Oh, thank God."

He managed to get there

before he passed away."

He finally managed to say that.

But it took him a lifetime...

before he could say out loud...

that love was part

of an equation of existence.

I do believe in kind of saints

that you can look up to...

when you're young

and you're starting out...

and you don't fit in anywhere

and you want to do something

in the arts.

And you know really early

you want to do it,

and you know that

you're gonna cause trouble

with what you want to do.

And you don't care really.

You don't want to fit in.

People don't like you in school,

but you don't care.

You don't want

to be those people,

and you don't want

to hang out with them

in the first place.

So William, for those people,

will always be almost

a religious figure.

And I think that's wonderful,

and I think he would like that.

[ Acoustic Guitar ]

[ Patti Smith ]

Ours is just another skin

Simply slips away

You can rise above it

It will shed easily

It all will come out fine

I've learned it

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