Some of my cut-ups include:

• “The peering this way and to a time machine would object was forcibly maintained by <<The La Baba,>> a wormhole just before it the lawsuit.”
• “On one occasion the refusal to malshape of the oil jars in the back reaction only takes attached to Salim’s wall.”
• “An example is air in General Stern travel: physicists have to Salim in the stomach, table expand, then a big nose and theory, both of which are at Bagram.”

The cut-up technique also plays an important role in Nova Express. Not only is it responsible for making some humorous paragraphs about insect people and the Gods that live in the cool spots of Venus, but it reflects the overall tone of the novel as well. Throughout their varied and slightly nonsensical journeys, the Nova Police appear to be fighting against corruption in governments and in societies. As a result, many of the themes of the book go back to control, or the lack thereof. I remember one passage in particular, about how negative thoughts are replayed over and over again until they eat you from the inside and you’re nothing but a shell of hatred and resentment. How much control do we really have over our minds? Perhaps the cut-up technique is also used to emphasize this idea of our lack of control; by piecing together random parts of other texts, Burroughs is basically relinquishing some of his control over the meaning and message of the novel and leaving it up to chance. However, as humans, we are still hard-wired to try to convince ourselves that there is some sort of meaning even when there isn’t. Do we lack control over our roles in society and merely try to convince ourselves that we don’t? Am I, at this very moment, also trying to find a deeper meaning in a text where there is none? Either way, we are ultimately left with a strange, semi-coherent amalgam of words that has the potential of being infinitely profound… or not.

-Sofia Yi