"The Poetics of Minutes to Go" (2012)

Germany: Moloko Print (book, essay, primary), 2012.
9.5" x 5.5" x 0.375", 85 pages, softcover, ISBN 978-3-943603-05-7.

The Poetics of Minutes to Go by Oliver Harris and William S. Burroughs (and Robert Schalinski, not noted on the cover), as published in softcover by Moloko Print (Germany) in 2012. Uncommon book.

This is a combination of an essay by Oliver Harris on Minutes to Go – in both German ("Eigentlich ist Burroughs auch ein Poet: Die Poetik von Minutes to Go") and English ("'Burroughs is a poet too, really': the Poetics of Minutes to Go") – Cut-Up poems by William S. Burroughs – mostly from Minutes to Go – and "Permutations & Interferences" by Robert Schalinski. Translation from English to German by Pocaio.

The Burroughs material came from Minutes to Go (1960), from The Floating Bear #24 (1962), from A Descriptive Catalogue of the William S. Burroughs Archive (1973), from Pearl #6 (1978), and from A William Burroughs Birthday Book (1994).

This copy – which was acquired from Jeffrey Weinberg at Water Row Books – was inscribed by Oliver Harris to myself at the September 2023 European Beat Studies Network conference on Cut-Ups at the University of Chicago, Paris, France. When I spoke with Oliver, he noted that he appreciated the book, but was not involved in its publication – the essay was from a talk that he had done (also published in the Edinburgh Review in 2004), and the publication was a (welcome) surprise.

Contents: 

• Oliver Harris: "'Eigentlich is Burroughs auch ein Poet': Die Poetik von Minutes to Go" 
• William S. Burroughs: "Cancer Men...These Individuals Are Marked For..."
• William S. Burroughs: "Forced in the Stance" 
• William S. Burroughs: "Viruses Were by Accident?"
• William S. Burroughs: "The Actual Ma Viruses in Polio Photo for Fur Fuzz?" 
• William S. Burroughs: "Dish Soprano Made the Night for She Ovation"
• William S. Burroughs: "Others Kill Cells and Future for New Cancer Holes"
• William S. Burroughs: "'people are some bath tub.'"
• William S. Burroughs: "Mao Tze: Ta Ta Kan Kan... Kan Kan Ta Ta"
• William S. Burroughs: "From San Diego Up to Maine"
• William S. Burroughs: "'San Diego Up to Maine' Cut Up"
• William S. Burroughs: "Everywhere March Your Head"
• William S. Burroughs: "Sons of Your In"
• William S. Burroughs: "Dead Whistle Stop Already End"
• William S. Burroughs: "Spain & 42 St."
• William S. Burroughs: "Where Flesh Circulates"
• William S. Burroughs: "Cold Lost Marbles"
• William S. Burroughs: "Fear and the Monkey"
• Robert Schalinski: "Pistol Poem No. 2"
• Robert Schalinski: "Pistol Poem No. 3"
• Robert Schalinski: artwork
• Oliver Harris: "'Burroughs is a poet too, really': the Poetics of Minutes to Go"
• Works cited