Talk:William S. Burroughs Jr.

[endorsement]

about time; bravo :D —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.27.184.51 (talk • contribs) 05:59, 7 February 2005

Returned?

Returned to Palm Beach? when was he there before? 24.91.43.225 09:05, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

His grandparents moved with Billy to Palm Beach, relocating their store, Cobblestone Gardens, to the Florida city when he was an elementary school student. Consequently, he lived in the community for much of his life, departing to Tangiers, New York City (run away) and Kentucky (Lexington Prison)--Mikerussell 2005 June 29 19:17 (UTC)

This wasn't in the article, I'm editing it in, hope you don't mind. 24.91.43.225 3 July 2005 11:41 (UTC)

Woa there cowboy

Talk about unecessary flourishes :P

Without exaggeration, narcotics were in his blood before birth. His mother was addicted to amphetamines, and his father was a heroin addict. Herbert Huncke, a friend of his parents, relates that when Joan was pregnant he would drive into Houston to obtain an amphetamine inhaled drug called Benzedrine for her. It is both telling, all too obvious, and kind of sad, that her son’s first novel was called Speed, a novel she would never get to read.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.42.175.89 (talk • contribs) 16:07, 24 September 2005

The indented passage is from the article at the time: all but the 1st sent, of the 1st 'graph of the first titled section "Early Life".
--Jerzy•t 21:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

• I'm not sure you have made a clear point, Ms/r 'P'. The paragraph is included because a person familiar with the subject's life would know he had liver failure at an early age. The undeniable historical fact is his mother was addicted to amphetamines while she was pregnant. In Ted Morgan's biography- partially based on Huncke's eye-witness account- the author states Joan did not receive any prenatal medical care; she just went to the hospital to give birth. Throughout her pregnancy she was daily inhaling large amounts of Benzedrine. There is some valid speculation raised in books about Burroughs' son that his early liver failure at age 28 was partially due to his prenatal exposure to his mother's addiction, which may have weakened his liver in utero. Although his alcohol intake was another contributing factor. As far as his father- let's not keep up the pretenses Burroughs himself was fond of, or felt necessary to produce for interviews and PR agents, that he quit herion in the sixties. Burroughs died on methadone and was a junky for about 50 years. --Mikerussell 05:59, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
  • (For the record, unless the above colleague was ignorant that " :P " is a text smiley, use of "Ms/r 'P'" is a CIV violation.)
    --Jerzy•t 21:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
    
• I agree that is worth mentioning in this piece that Burroughs Jr was addicted to drugs before he was born - cursed from birth. The fact that his liver gave out at 30 years old is very telling. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.26.110.65 (talk) 02:38, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
• Seems to take POV, unnecessary language (like, unlike, unfortunately, etc.) Antilog (talk) 06:05, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
  • Indeed. And the "like" and "unlike" phrases, if not already fixed, are signs of probable SYN and if that is actual, explicitly denounced as part of POV.
    --Jerzy•t 21:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
    
• Removed (appropriately) at some point:

Without exaggeration, narcotics were in his blood before birth.

and

It is both telling, all too obvious, and kind of sad, that her son’s first novel was called Speed, a novel she would never get to read.

--Jerzy•t 21:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

List Of Works

There seems to be some missing out of this section, there are even works mentioned in the article which do not appear on it (such as junky). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.226.221.231 (talk) 08:52, 10 February 2006

• Junkie (novel) was written by his father, which makes it unsuitable for anything beyond (at most) a lk'd mention.
  --Jerzy•t 21:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
  

Terminology issues

This article reads like it was written to evoke pity in the reader. Terminology varies between "Billy" and "Burroughs;" a serious problem. Whoever he is, he's not someone with whom the reader is on a first name basis with. This article needs help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.208.132.221 (talk) 05:37, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

• Without noticing this talk secn, i added a CU tag, saying

  CU needed: 10s of refs as "Billy", incl re death@34. Vios g-lines, PoV:infantalizes adult. Fix nds thot, in grafs where surname could confuse w/ relatives

That is, it includes dozens of references as "Billy", going so far as to describe his death at age 34 with his childhood name. This violates guidelines that call for referring in subsequent references to the surname alone (IIRC, with exceptions where needed to avoid ambiguity). It also violates NPOV, by treating an adult (and an adolescent) like a child, in the later portions of the article. The correction of this, however, requires thinking thru the paragraphs where using only the surname would cause confusion between him and various relatives (primarily his famous father).

--Jerzy•t 20:56 & 21:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Buried or scattered?

The article currently states:

Burroughs was cremated and his ashes were buried in Boulder, Colorado. Burroughs ashes were not buried but scattered in Colorado, close to where he once lived.

Well, it can't be both, so I will remove this until somebody sorts it out. HairyWombat 20:59, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Later. Cursed From Birth includes at the very end a short letter from Allen Ginsberg to Burroughs Snr. which begins, "We buried Bill Jr.'s ashes up ...." That seems clear. HairyWombat 20:33, 6 September 2010 (UTC)