07. The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin by Willian S. Burroughs, 1978

• Burroughs describes a technique used by Surrealists of the past that copies and pastes to create poetry
• There have been web-based "surrealist" poetry creators which generate texts by computerized randomizing of words = not what Burroughs intended.  Rather, he wanted such random selection to be used as a step in creating a text
• Cut-up method for writers is the same as collage for artists.
• "You cannot will spontaneity.  But you can introduce the unpredictable spontaneous factor with a pair of scissors" (90).