Yesterday I re-read this astounding William S. Burroughs interview from the Paris Review, while researching something else I'm writing, and towards the end he cites his intention to "wise up the marks."
He was speaking in political and perceptual terms that go way beyond wrestling, but I thought it interesting and coincidental that I hadn't caught this particular line/insight before. Burroughs might refer to my discovery as a "willful juxtaposition" because he doesn't put much stock in coincidences.
At any rate, I've read this interview three times now and it continually reveals something fascinating and new. Burroughs had a truly astonishing and expansive mind, and this interview reads like a blueprint explaining the philosophies, theories and obsessions he would explore in detail through his subsequent work, in addition to outlining the tools and techniques he would use to communicate them.
He's asked a question regarding the "carnival origins" of certain characters in Naked Lunch and he responds by saying:
The carny world was exactly the one I intended to create--a kind of midwestern, small-town, cracker-barrel, pratfall type of folklore...That world was an integral part of America and existed nowhere else, at least not the same form.
WSB-Paris Review Fall 1965 pp.19-20
Of course, this authentically American world of "pratfall folklore" spawned professional wrestling and its colorful carny lexicon forever embedded the word 'mark' in our vocabulary.
I think it's interesting that he depicts the carny world as an "integral part" of American identity and consciousness. And since wrestling originated in that world, by extension, we can reason that maybe, possibly, when making these connections explicit, some of wrestling's enduring appeal can be explained by viewing it within this context.
Something to think about as I ponder spending $55 dollars to watch Shawn/Undertaker II and Chris Jericho prove why he's truly "the best at what he does."
I think it's interesting that he depicts the carny world as an "integral part" of American identity and consciousness. And since wrestling originated in that world, by extension, we can reason that maybe, possibly, when making these connections explicit, some of wrestling's enduring appeal can be explained by viewing it within this context.
Something to think about as I ponder spending $55 dollars to watch Shawn/Undertaker II and Chris Jericho prove why he's truly "the best at what he does."
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