''Cities of the Red Night'' is a 1981 novel by American author

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

. His first full-length novel since '' The Wild Boys'' (1971), it is part of his final trilogy of novels, known as The Red Night Trilogy, followed by ''

The Place of Dead Roads ''The Place of Dead Roads'' is a 1983 novel by William S. Burroughs, the second book of the trilogy that begins with ''Cities of the Red Night'' (1981) and concludes with '' The Western Lands'' (1987). It chronicles the story of a gay gunfighte ...

'' (1983) and ''

The Western Lands ''The Western Lands'' is a 1987 novel by William S. Burroughs. The final book of the trilogy that begins with ''Cities of the Red Night'' (1981) and continues with '' The Place of Dead Roads'' (1983), its title refers to the western bank of the N ...

'' (1987). The plot involves a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Misson. In near present day, a parallel story follows a detective searching for a lost boy, abducted for use in a sexual ritual. The cities of the title mimic and parody real places, and Burroughs makes references to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

Plot

The plot follows a nonlinear course through time and space. It imagines an alternate history in which Captain James Misson's

Libertatia Libertatia (also known as Libertalia) was a purported pirate colony founded in the late 17th century in Madagascar under the leadership of Captain James Misson (last name occasionally spelled "Mission", first name occasionally "Olivier"). The ma ...

lives on. His way of life is based on ''The Articles'', a general freedom to live as one chooses, without prejudice. The novel is narrated from two different standpoints; one set in the 18th century which follows a group of pirate boys led by Noah Blake, who land in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

to liberate it. The other is set in the late 20th century, and follows a detective tracing the disappearance of an adolescent boy.

Development

In a March 15, 1966 letter to

Brion Gysin Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices. He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the ...

, Burroughs describes a project he was working on at the time: This project would become the basis of the chapter "We See Tibet with the Binoculars of the People". The phrase "we see Tibet with the binoculars of the people" first appeared in the essay "Ten Years and a Billion Dollars," in ''

The Adding Machine ''The Adding Machine'' is a 1923 play by Elmer Rice; it has been called "... a landmark of American Expressionism, reflecting the growing interest in this highly subjective and nonrealistic form of modern drama." Plot The author of this play ta ...

'', amongst a group of random phrases selected from

Konstantīns Raudive Konstantīns Raudive (1909 in Asūne parish, Asūne, Vitebsk Governorate – 1974), known internationally as Konstantin Raudive, was a Latvian writer and intellectual, and husband of Zenta Mauriņa. Raudive was born in Latgale in eastern Latvia (th ...

's book ''Breakthrough''. Several of those phrases became chapter titles in ''Cities of the Red Night''.

Reception

Burroughs's biographer Ted Morgan writes that one of the book's themes is "the cities themselves, imaginary cities located in the

Gobi Desert The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world. Geography The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...

100,000 years ago, the names of which were magic words that Brion Gysin had once taught him, saying, 'If you want to get to the bottom of something, you should repeat those words before going to sleep.' Their ultimate source is the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, better known in the west as the

Picatrix ''Picatrix'' is the Latin name used today for a 400-page book of magic and astrology originally written in Arabic under the title ''Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm'' ( ar, غاية الحكيم), which most scholars assume was originally written in the midd ...

, specifically the Invocation of the Perfect Nature within that text. The city of Waghdas is in the grip of a cholera epidemic, which turns out to be a virus that is sexual in origin". Morgan notes that while this disease is similar to

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

, the novel was written when AIDS was unheard of. Morgan concludes that ''Cities of the Red Night'' is, "certainly the most compelling and inventive of Burroughs' books since ''

Naked Lunch ''Naked Lunch'' (sometimes ''The Naked Lunch'') is a 1959 novel by American writer William S. Burroughs. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, intended by Burroughs to be read in any order. The reader follows the narr ...

''."Morgan, Ted. ''Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs''. Henry Holt and Company, 1988, pp. 565–567.

Footnotes

External links

Thomas M. Disch's review of the book from the ''New York Times''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cities Of The Red Night 1981 American novels 1981 fantasy novels 1980s LGBT novels American LGBT novels Holt, Rinehart and Winston books Nonlinear narrative novels Novels by William S. Burroughs