#William s Burroughs queer

[bloodybloodyvamp]

Who up yearning rn

[anyataylorjoys]

I want to talk to you. Without speaking.

QUEER (2024) dir. Luca Guadagnino

“In the dark theater Lee could feel his body pull towards Allerton, an amoeboid protoplasmic projection, straining with a blind worm hunger to enter the other’s body, to breathe with his lungs, see with his eyes, learn the feel of his viscera and genitals. Allerton shifted in his seat. Lee felt a sharp twinge, a strain or dislocation of the spirit. His eyes ached. He took off his glasses and ran his hand over his closed eyes.” —William S. Burroughs, "Queer", 1985

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Queer (Luca Guadagnino, 2024)

[princesspierpaolo]

queer (2024) dir. luca guadagnino

[cedarxwing]

Queer (2024), dir. Luca Guadagnino

[pommedepersephone]

The final song in Queer is "Vaster Than Empires", which draws its lyrics from William S. Burroughs' final journal entry.

As a long time Reznor & Ross fangirl, I find all of their film scores compelling. But THIS song is a gorgeous composition that I cannot stop listening to. From the GQ interview with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross about scoring Queer -

Anyway, like every other part of this film, the score is amazing and you should absolutely go take a listen to the full thing.

[theater-of-delirium]

William S. Burroughs wielding a sword

[providence-park]

QUEER

2024 | Dir. Luca Guadagnino

[televangelism88]

Burroughs’ reflecting on his wife’s death in the introduction to the 1985 edition of Queer / Queer (2024) dir. Luca Guadagnino

[knightspell]

i want to talk to you without speaking

[jareckiworld]

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) — Ten Gauge City [house paint on wood panel with gunshot holes in a plexiglass case, 1988]

[ghost-run-free]

To me, Queer is a tragedy. It's an apology. To lovers who find themselves unsynchronized more often than they are. To self-hating addicts who dream of finding love and connection. To explain, in a series of funny and dark humored stories and unfortunate events, how hard it is to live in a daze and not knowing yourself. Your identity. Your sexuality. How you feel about all of it. To explain wanting to be vulnerable and pliant but also wanting to assure dominance and command, symbolized by a pistola on your hip. To describe how hard it is to look into a mirror. Really, really look. Until you think that there's no escape for you except in someone else. To try, and try, and try again. To go into the depths of the jungle and leaving your entire life behind to find the answer. Finally finding a mirror, an escape to look into only to find yourself looking at a shell. A ghost. Just as vacant as you are, or even more so. It is not so simple a love story. It is the mention of Joan Vollmer in the introduction, and the fact that it was absent before the official version is a testament to Bill trying to make a point and emphasizing what he wants the reader to know as soon as they open the book. Bill writing the entirety of Queer while awaiting trial for Joan's murder. Joan Vollmer haunts Queer. She's lurking in every corner of the Ship Ahoy. Every shot glass is a call back to the tragic William Tell act. It's tragic and bleak and hopeful and funny and apologetic and unapologetic in the way it apologizes. My first time reading the book truly felt like rubbing salt in the wound times and times over.

But of course I don't mind at all the way Luca interpreted it as a love story the way he did. "A new love story by Luca Guadagnino" in the trailer makes for a reasonable distinction between the book and his adaptation. He's putting his own true, original meaning into it. Getting the rights for a book you've always wanted to make for the cinema since you were seventeen and getting to weave in your favorite art pieces and interpretations is a dream many would kill to have. I'm forever thankful that dream came to the visionary that is Luca Guadagnino. I get emotional every time I get to talking about Queer, the book and the movie. I want to live in it forever.

[kolaicendionysos]

Queer (2024) dir. Luca Guadagnino | Last Words : the Final Journals of William S. Burroughs

[danielcraigupd]

New stills of Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in QUEER (2024).

[pommedepersephone]

I watched Queer yesterday and I have FEELINGS about all of it. First of all, brava, it was amazing. The acting, the costumes, the cinematography, the soundtrack, it all worked for me. I am going to be gnawing on this for a while. But to satisfy my immediate urge to scream into the void about this movie, I want to talk about cameras, in both the book and the movie.

In the intoduction to the 1985 edition of Queer, William S. Burroughs wrote-

What Lee is looking for is contact or recognition, like a photon emerging from the haze of insubstantiality to leave an indelible recording in Allerton's consciousness... Lee does not know that he is already committed to writing, since this is the only way he has of making an indelible record, whether Allerton is inclined to observe or not.

For context, the semi-autobiographical Queer makes Burroughs into Lee, and Eugene Allerton is the fictional version of Lewis Marker (seen here with Burroughs in 1951), who Burroughs pursued intensely.

In a letter to Allen Ginsburg, Burroughs states, "I wrote Queer for Marker." Their relationship fell apart in the course of writing the book, with Burroughs penning repeated letters to Marker in an attempt to reconnect. The longing for "recognition", to leave an "indelible record", is pervasive in the narrative. And the camera serves as a physical manifestation.

🚫 SPOILERS FOR "QUEER" BELOW THE CUT 🚫

In the book, the camera makes its first appearance immediately after Allerton and Lee first sleep together. Lee mentions that Allerton's camera is in pawn, and he offers to buy it back for him.

After they get the camera out of hawk, Allerton does not express any gratitude, and becomes "nervous and irritable" and after a tense conversation the the cafe he abandons Lee, refusing to make future plans.

In the movie (at least the theatrical cut, I mourn for that lost hour) the camera just appears as an object belonging to Allerton. However, the tense scene in the cafe remains, and ends with Allerton getting up to abruptly leave, nearly leaving the camera. Lee stops him, handing him the camera before he goes.

Lee in the book sees the incident with the camera as indicative of their relationship, saying -

He forced himself to look at the facts. Allerton was not queer enough to make a reciprocal relation possible. Lee's affection irritated him... Allerton did not recognize friends who made six-hundred-peso gifts, nor could he feel comfortable exploiting Lee. He made no attempt to clarify the situation. He did not want to see the contradiction involved in resenting a favor which he accepted. Lee found that he could tune in on Allerton's viewpoint, though the process caused him pain, since it involved seeing the extent of Allerton's indifference. "I liked him and I wanted him to like me," Lee thought. "I wasn't trying to buy anything."

While the story of their trip I to the jungle is vastly different from book to movie (which I am sure will be its own future ramble) they end very much the same - abruptly and with no closure.

While Lee wanted reciprocal affection, when he realizes that is unlikely to happen, he does buy Allerton's attention by paying for their trip to South America. In the book, the camera isn't mentioned during their journey, but its inclusion in the movie feels like a solid artistic choice. Allerton is along as an observer, after all, giving Lee the recognition and indelible record he longs for.

The final chapter, in the book and the movie, finds us back in Mexico City, two years after Lee's trip with Allerton and an extended absence by Lee himself. In the book, Lee is seeking subjects to take pictures of, but mostly resorts to snapping portraits of unwilling people. He says -

There is in fact something obscene and sinister about photography, a desire to imprison, incorporate, a sexual pursuit of intimacy.

The movie, though, offers an absolute gut punch. Two years have passed in the literal blink of a cinematic eye, spitting Lee back out with a camera and Allerton's haircut. It is as if he has become the observer he so desperately wanted, but still he is seeking out Allerton. It made me think of a line from Burroughs' introduction to the book -

While it was I who wrote Junky, I feel that I was being written in Queer.

One of the things I find fascinating is the self editing that took place between when Queer was written in 1952, and published in 1985. Burroughs writes in the introduction about how the death of his wife had influenced the book, and never once mentions Marker. But his memory clearly still stuck with Burroughs, as the editor of the 2010 edition of Queer notes that Allerton appears as a character in My Education and The Soft Machine.

Annnnnyway, I can promise I will be revisiting Queer. AND if you are like me and could not get into Junky, I highly suggest still giving Queer a read.

[esqueletosgays]

QUEER (2024)

Director: Luca Guadagnino Cinematography: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom