William S. Burroughs' "The Revised Boy Scout Manual": An Electronic Revolution (Bulletin) - Tapa blanda

"The Revised Boy Scout Manual offers easy-to-read proof that the uncensored human imagination, when allowed to freely extrapolate about future social change, can offer outrageous scenarios and fresh language capable of inspiring readers decades into the future." --V. Vale, founder and publisher of RE/Search

"It's all there all the time with Burroughs." --Marc Maron

"Here we have Bill Burroughs' voice coming through loud and clear, like a conversation after his first large whiskey, London c. 1972. His preoccupations at the time: weaponry, viruses, tape recorder cut-ups, Scientology techniques, the Mayan calendar, and Korzybski's General Semantics are utilized as means to deal with 'the shits.' Never has a text been more apposite. As usual his ideas are developed into hilarious routines, but at heart he is deadly serious: 'I mean every word I say.' It is wonderful to see this legendary text in print at last." --Barry Miles, author of Call Me Burroughs

"He's up there with the pope . . . you can't revere him enough . . . he's the greatest mind of our times." --Patti Smith

"The most important writer to emerge since the Second World War." --J. G. Ballard

"Well, he's a writer." --Samuel Beckett

"Burroughs's jarringly piecemeal satire on how to prepare for a revolution against powerful, oppressive institutions is strikingly timely." --Publishers Weekly

Before the era of fake news and anti-fascists, William S. Burroughs wrote about preparing for revolution and confronting institutionalized power. In this work, Burroughs' parody becomes a set of rationales and instructions for destabilizing the state and overthrowing an oppressive and corrupt government. As with much of Burroughs' work, it is hard to say if it is serious or purely satire. The work is funny, horrifying, and eerily prescient, especially concerning the use of language and social media to undermine institutions.
 
The Revised Boy Scout Manual was a work Burroughs revisited many times, but which has never before been published in its complete form. Based primarily on recordings of a performance of the complete piece found in the archives at the OSU libraries, as well as various incomplete versions of the typescript found at Arizona State University and the New York Public Library archives, this lost masterpiece of satiric subversion is finally available in its entirety.