Many contemporary critics consider Brion Gysin (1916-1986) to be a modern-day Renaissance man. Esteemed as a novelist, poet, inventor, painter and songwriter, Gysin is perhaps best known for his influence on William Burroughs' development, but he was in the forefront of experimentation in the art and literary worlds for almost fifty years. / Gysin delves into some of the fundamental questions of twentieth century art and literature which include an exploration of the nature of reality, and whether there is a validity in differing visions of reality. / Although Gysin experiments with various media, his work retains a cohesive structure. Gysin's primary theme is that reality is inextricably linked with the process of change. / This study is organized into six sections, augmented by a series of personal and taped interviews with Gysin. The first section sets Gysin's work in the historical perspective of Dadaism and Surrealism which influenced him to a certain extent. The second section gives a detailed look at Gysin's literary inventions, the cut-up and the permutation, showing how they illustrate Gysin's basic themes. The cut-up's influence on William Burroughs is also discussed. Thirdly, a study is made of two of Gysin's unpublished screenplays of Naked Lunch, comparing and contrasting them with Burroughs' novel upon which they are based. Gysin's interpretations reflect his preoccupation with the nature of reality. In the fourth section, Gysin's ideas of reality are shown through magic, a concept which is specifically developed in The Process, a quasi-autobiographical novel set in the Sahara desert. The fifth section discusses the idea of reality and its relationship to death in Gysin's final novel, The Last Museum, which was published posthumously. Finally, the theme of the changing nature of reality is seen through Gysin's painting and his invention, the DreamMachine, designed to be the drugless "turn-on" of the sixties. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1767. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76106 |
| Contributors | ANDERSON, CAROL MARIE., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 220 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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