Talk:William S. Burroughs

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the William S. Burroughs article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3: 12 months

Biography: Arts and Entertainment

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	This article is supported by the arts and entertainment work group (assessed as High-importance).

Poetry High‑importance

	Poetry portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Poetry, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of poetry on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoetryWikipedia:WikiProject PoetryTemplate:WikiProject PoetryPoetry
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Crime and Criminal Biography Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Crime and Criminal Biography on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Crime and Criminal BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject Crime and Criminal BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Crime and Criminal BiographyCrime-related
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

LGBTQ+ studies: Person

	LGBTQ portal This article is of interest to WikiProject LGBTQ+ studies, which tries to ensure comprehensive and factual coverage of all LGBTQ-related issues on Wikipedia. For more information, or to get involved, please visit the project page or contribute to the discussion.LGBTQ+ studiesWikipedia:WikiProject LGBTQ+ studiesTemplate:WikiProject LGBTQ+ studiesLGBTQ+ studies
	This article is supported by the LGBTQ+ Person task force.

Missouri Mid‑importance

	Missouri portal This article is part of WikiProject Missouri, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Missouri. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.MissouriWikipedia:WikiProject MissouriTemplate:WikiProject MissouriMissouri
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

St. Louis Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject St. Louis (Culture), a project to build and improve articles related to St. Louis and the surrounding metropolitan area. We invite you to join the project and contribute to the discussion.St. LouisWikipedia:WikiProject St. LouisTemplate:WikiProject St. LouisSt. Louis
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Influence on popular culture

Burroughs is frequently referenced, sometimes explicitly, in popular culture and there seems to be no mention of it in this article. To begin with, there are numerous band names - Steely Dan, Soft Machine, and numerous others that are Burroughs references. The term "Blade Runner" also has its origins in Burroughs work, albeit, it had a very different meaning from what the scriptwriters of the film turned it into. Nevertheless, if I'm not mistaken, some royalties had to be paid to Burroughs for use of the name. In addition, Burroughs seems to have had some role in coining the term "Heavy Metal", though he wasn't referring to a musical genre. I think this topic merits a subsection under "Legacy". Peter G Werner (talk) 19:29, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yage and ayahuasca

I haven't read The Yage Letters. It seems like reliable sources agree that when Burroughs wrote about yage, he meant ayahuasca, but does he explicitly say in his writings that they're different names for the same thing? Prezbo (talk) 16:08, 13 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]