The Muse

doi:10.1017/9781009554732.030

Chapter 28 - The Muse

Burroughs and Laurie Anderson

from Part IV - Modes of Creativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2026

Jeffrey L. Meikle

Edited by

Oliver Harris ,

Davis Schneiderman and

Alex Wermer-Colan

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Oliver Harris: Affiliation:
Keele University
Davis Schneiderman: Affiliation:
Lake Forest College
Alex Wermer-Colan: Affiliation:
Temple University

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Summary

Although recent scholarship emphasizes William Burroughs’s impact on rock musicians, his significance for performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson has not been explicated. She absorbed Burroughs’ works when asked to appear at the Nova Convention, a celebration of the writer in New York City in 1978. Based on archival research, this article reveals that “The Language of the Future,” Anderson’s Nova piece, was inspired by Burroughs’ The Ticket That Exploded for its rendering of electronic miscommunication and technological collapse. Anderson credited Burroughs for stimulating a new direction in her career. After meeting him at Nova, she adopted an androgynous performance persona, composed an homage song entitled “Language Is a Virus” as the central theme of United States (a six-hour multimedia presentation that cemented her reputation), and toured with Burroughs and poet John Giorno. The relationship was never personally close but remained intellectually significant until Burroughs’ death.

Keywords

William S. Burroughs Laurie Anderson Nova Convention performance art androgyny word virus Ticket That Explodedcommunication meme

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: William Burroughs in Context , pp. 370 - 382

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009554732.030 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2026

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References

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