Brion Gysin: Here To Go

Rating:
Summary: Review of Here To Go
Review: A great piece to have, I recommend it to anyone interested in Brion Gysin, as well as for any serious reader of W.S. Burroughs. The conversations are comprehensive, Terry Wilson is obviously not just some rube who happened to speak with Gysin. It covers philosophy, art, life, music, permutations, cut-ups, religion, nearly everything across the board, with some excellent stories by Mr. Gysin appearing throughout. It's a shame that so little information about this man is readily available. Undoubtedly one of the most important artists/people of the 20th century. Now all we need is for The Third Mind to be reissued, along with everything else. (Anyone heard of a guy named "Flash Allen"? Supposedly there is a film called "Brion Gysin" made by him, but there seems to be no information about this anywhere.)

a.n.

(the book also has hard to find excerpts by Mr. Gysin and Mr. Burroughs from no longer extant writings as well as photographs)
(I gave it 4 stars because some of the calligraphy is noticeably pixelated, which gave it an amateurish kind of look, though the photographs do not have the same problem)

Rating:
Summary: Here to Go: Planet R101. Brion Gysin interviewed by Terry Wi
Review: A title that was lost to Savoy during the Savoy Books Ltd raids and eventual collapse of 1981. The book was conceived, commissioned, and co-edited by Michael Butterworth, who was left uncredited by Terry Wilson. WSB wrote the introduction. Butterworth commissioned a first interview for his small press magazine Wordworks, but other interviews followed after Butterworth conceived the idea of publishing a book based on Gysin's life and ideas similar to the Third Mind, a book Gysin co-wrote with Burroughs compiling their cut-ups and collaborations. Genesis P Orridge who published it in RE/Search finally found the book. The book covers such topics as the cut-up discovery, mirror-staring (a step leading to personality switching), drugs, sex, days in Northern Africa, Hassan I Sabbah, transcendentalism, viruses, and space travel. Claimed to be far superior to Bockris's book, Here to Go presents both artists with more insight and less heavy-handed pedantry. Wilson writes with many positive qualities that stand out, leaving the readers curious for more. A good introduction into the minds of two fascinating artists.