1989, Ginsberg and Corso – The Conversation Continues – 20 (& Concludes)

William S. Burroughs, Manhattan, New York, 1953 – photo by Allen Ginsberg  –  (c) The Estate of Allen Ginsberg –  “We went uptown to look at Mayan Codices at Museum of Natural History & Metropolitan Museum of Art to view Carlo Crivelli’s green-hued Christ-face with crown of thorns stuck symmetric in his skull – here Egyptian wing William Burroughs with a brother Sphinx, Fall 1953 Manhattan.”

Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso’s 1989 interview/conversation continues from here – and concludes here

GC: This is nice, Burroughs as the sphinx.

AG: Yeah, I already saw him as the sphinx  So.. At the time he was interested in the Mayan codices,  That’s when he went off to the..

GC: (When he came back from) the chateau in France..

AG No, he went off to the Museum of Natural History to begin with… this is the Metropolitan Museum of Art

GC: Yeah, not the Museum of Natural History.

AG: It’s the Egyptian wing

GC: Yeah.

AG: But we went to look at the Mayan codices in the Museum of Natural History [Editorial note – some confusion here, there are only three codices in museums, in Dresden, Madrid, and Paris, (and only latterly in the 1970’s, too late for Allen to be referencing it, in Mexico). Perhaps he’s alluding to an early and mistaken visit New York’s American  Museum of Natural History? Anyway, yes, the image is taken in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Egyptian wing]

William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac – photo by Allen Ginsberg – (c) The Estate of Allen Ginsberg

AG: Now that’s an amazing photograph of Kerouac and Burroughs

GC: I love it

AG: They’re kidding each other!

GC: Yeah, he looks like Neal (Cassady) there very much

AG: Well look how he’s ga-ga- gagging for the camera   He’s looking around, his eye is on the camera while Burroughs is bending over him with a kris or some sort of.. what kind of knife is that?  dagger?-  scimitar?

GC:  The scimitar!

AG: Well that’s it.  We’re out of, we’re out of tape.

GC: Well Allen, what do you mean?  you covered up the sound!  You’re not over with that one (points to second recorder), this one..

AG: I wonder if I covered up the sound.

GC: I think that’s gonna be the end of the ballgame.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *