Cut Up experiment

Pen N. Bolsillo

EXPERIMENTAL TEXT

Mountain Thirsty Café 2033

Sitting in a café, a fireplace flickers and the rain outside whispers sweet nothings to the six-foot windows. The presence of flesh is evident, yet, it’s only sound that matters. I sit listening. Now, this bears no relation to my research-integrated critical analysis of Brion Gysin and the Cut Up, where he proclaims something along the lines of no one owns words, use them as you will. However, it is where I am now reading many books, many pages of words, developing a dialog with them sitting around this little table. Minutes later I realized my mind was digesting photographic memories and everything seemed so familiar, so comfortable. I could just fall asleep.

Picture this. Waking to four or five conversations simultaneously creating chatter, each speaking to each other in the day-to-day, whether it’s face-to-face or to-phone. As smoothly as the lightly roasted, intensely sweet, and complex washed Geisha pour-over made it’s way through my system, I find myself listening with my pen. Jotting down the random happenings / emotions / feelings / objections / subjections / directions / rejections / opinions of the people surrounding me. Sporadic input aligned on the page in a structure that tells the story of not one, but of a culture. I was creating a new story, and I called it Mountain Thirsty Café 2033.

This is not necessarily the definition of a Cut Up, but it certainly seems to be a fine qualification for nomination in the evolution of the Cut Up, depicting the rawness of the age we live in, 2033. It was 1959 when Brion Gysin discovered the technique of cutting multiple texts and rearranging them back into one space — the Cut Up. He would say, “Don't blink.”

---

My favorite artist, a lessor-known Beat, Brion Gysin developed the Cut Up method, among other experiments, while living in the Beat Hotel in 1959. William S. Burroughs made it famous, and it is arguably inspired by Tristan Tzara and the Dada movement. Similar to Deconstruction, the Cut Up breaks down or changes something in order to create something redefined, something new. The literal act of cutting text and rearranging them presents a magical transformation of the words, oftentimes defining the future, giving a new perspective on the text, and 100 percent of the time creating something refreshed. Gysin said, “The poets are supposed to liberate the words — not chain them into phrases… Poets are meant to make words sing.” I respect him as a poet, painter, and all-around visionary.

Here, I experiment on my own:

Cut Up Method

---

EXPERIMENT EXECUTED

Mountain Thirsty Café 2033 Cut Up

Roasted, intensely sweet
and complex washed.
Sitting in a café, a fireplace
flickers and the rain finds
(it)self listening with my pen.
Jotting down windows.

The presence of flesh is
evident, yet, objections /
subjections / directions /
rejections bear no relation
to my research-integrated
critical input aligned
on the page
in a structure
that tells (proclaims)
something along the lines
of no one owns a new story

and I called it
Mountain Thirsty Café
where I am now
reading many books,
many pages,
this is not necessarily
the definition of a Cut Up
around this little table.

Minutes later I realized
nomination in the evolution
of the Cut Up, depicted
and everything seemed
so familiar, so comfortable
(in) 1959 when Brion Gysin
discovered the technique.

Picture this. Waking up
to four or five conversations
back into one space — the Cut Up.
He would say (with) each other
in the day-to-day,
whether it’s face-to-outside
whispers sweet nothings
to the six-foot Geisha pour-over
made it’s way through my system,
Is only sound that matters.

I sit listening. Now, this random
happenings / emotions / feelings /
analysis of Brion Gysin and the Cut Up,
where he opinions
of the people surrounding me.
Sporadic words, use them as you will.
However, it is the story of not one,
but of a culture.

It was creat(ion) of words, developing
a dialog with them sitting (in) 2033.
My mind was digesting
photographic memories
but it certainly seems to be
a fine qualification for
I could just fall asleep
(in) the rawness
of the age we live in 2033.

It was simultaneously
creating chatter,
each speaking
to cutting multiple texts
and rearranging them
face-to-phone.
As smoothly as the lightly
“don’t blink.”

---

Gysin says that this method reveals something about the original message — a determination of the future — of sorts, and I see what he means now. Liberating the words from their intended phrases opens a whole new can of mind expansion.

---

---