William S. Burroughs: "...The Lobotomy Kid..."(audio)

artwork by Charles Gatewood tattoo Mike made of Bromsilver

Doctor “Fingers” Schafer, the Lobotomy Kid, rises and turns on the Conferents the cold blue blast of his gaze:

“Gentlemen, the human nervous system can be reduced to a compact and abbreviated spinal column. The brain, front, middle and rear must follow the ade-noid, the wisdom tooth, the appendix…. I give you my Master Work: The Complete All American De-anxietixed Man….”

Blast of trumpets: The Man is carried in naked by two Negro Bearers who drop him on the platform with bestial, sneering brutality…. The Man wriggles…. His flesh turns to viscid, transparent jelly that drifts away in green mist, unveiling a monster black centipede. Waves of unknown stench fill the room, searing the lungs, grabbing the stomach….

Schafer wrings his hands sobbing: “Clarence! How can you do this to me?? Ingrates!! Every one of them ingrates!’

The Conferents start back muttering in dismay:

“I’m afraid Schafer has gone a bit too far….”

“I sounded a word of warning….”

“Brilliant chap Schafer… but…”

“Man will do anything for publicity….”

“Gentlemen, this unspeakable and in every sense illegitimate child of Doctor Schafer’s perverted brain must not see the light…. Our duty to the human race is clear….”

“Man he done seen the light,” said one of the Negro Bearers.

“We must stomp out the Un-American crittah,’ says a fat, frog-faced Southern doctor who has been drinking corn out of a mason jar. He advances drunkenly, then halts, appalled by the formidable size and menacing aspect of the centipede….

“Fetch gasoline!” he bellows. “We gotta burn the son of a bitch like an uppity Nigra!”

“I’m not sticking my neck out, me,” says a cool hip young doctor high on LSD25…. “Why a smart D.A. could…”

Listen the audio below: