Posthuman Blues

Can it possibly get much cooler than this? David Bowie and William Burroughs in the same picture!





Both of these guys have played an influential role in my life. Although I'm nowhere close to them in terms of stature, I feel indebted to them. Seeing Burroughs in person was a genuine high point; having read most of his books (and letters and diaries), I feel a sense of connection, a strange affinity -- as if, in some parallel universe, we used to hang out and swap wry observations. I still have dreams that I run into him at libraries and bookstores, apparently having forgotten that he was scheduled to die in 1996.

While I share many of Burroughs' attitudes and literary inclinations, I'm less certain why I feel a commonality with Bowie. Maybe because of his performance in "The Man Who Fell To Earth"; I feel an instinctual rapport with "aliens" of all sorts. It may be that Bowie is the closest thing to a genuine extraterrestrial that I'm likely to meet in this lifetime. (And to think I missed his Reality Tour stop in Kansas City. Never again.)