In The Electronic Revolution, Burroughs’ describes the hands-free orgasm he achieved at age thirty-seven. Aided by an orgone accumulator, an insulated box that focuses magnetic energy, Burroughs claims to have climaxed in a localized, anti-entropic environment. The orgone accumulator, as I understand it (not very well), is one of those Wienerian islands of decreasing entropy, a seemingly opposite construct to Burroughs’ cut-up audio projects. Without the intrusion or imposition of a virus—that is, with a “ray gun” in a vacuum—it is possible to make “a direct connection with what is known as LIFE,” (13). However, Burroughs also points out that we know no life separate from the virus(es) infecting us, as we live in “a state of stable symbiosis” (6), unsuspicious and almost unconscious of the written word. Maybe orgasm is the only thing possible in a completely disillusioned state. Burroughs goes on to describe the “revolutionary” power of illusion, capable of making people hear, believe, and react to, behaviorally and biologically, more than what’s said. I’m interested in how Burroughs distinguishes one “life” from the other—say, LIFE A being aviral, blissful, sexual, anti-entropic, and LIFE B being constantly injected with and influenced by viruses, to LIFE B’s benefit or detriment (death?).

I wonder whether the apparent randomness of topics in his essay, as well as the “noise” introduced by his spelling mistakes and typographical errors, are fragments of his own attempt to splice together a viral text. How much of his writing is meant as just social disruption?