Nova Express

Nova Express is a 1964 novel by William S. Burroughs. It was written using the 'fold-in' method, a version of the cut-up method, developed by Burroughs with Brion Gysin, of enfolding snippets of different texts into the novel. It is part of The Nova Trilogy, or "Cut-Up Trilogy,' together with The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded. Burroughs considered the trilogy a "sequel" or "mathematical" continuation of Naked Lunch.

Nova Express was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965. It is listed in David Pringle's 1985 book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels.

Grove Press printed a 'Restored' edition in 2014, edited by Oliver Harris, which made a number of corrections and added an introduction and extensive notes. The introduction argued for the care with which Burroughs used his methods and established the text's complex manuscript histories.

Interpretation

Nova Express is a social commentary on human and machine control of life. The Nova Mob—Sammy the Butcher, Izzy the Push, The Subliminal Kid, and others—are viruses, "defined as the three-dimensional coordinate point of a controller." "which invade the human body and in the process produce language." These Nova Criminals represent society, culture, and government, and have taken control. Inspector Lee and the rest of the Nova Police are left fighting for the rest of humanity in the power struggle. "The Nova Police can be compared to apomorphine, a regulating instance that need not continue and has no intention of continuing after its work is done." The police are focused on "first-order addictions of junkies, homosexuals, dissidents, and criminals; if these criminals vanish, the police must create more in order to justify their own survival." The Nova Police depend upon the Nova Criminals for existence; if the criminals cease to exist, so do the police. "They act like apomorphine, the nonaddictive cure for morphine addiction that Burroughs used and then promoted for many years."

Nova Express (album)

Nova Express is an album composed by John Zorn and inspired by William Burroughs prose which was released in March 2011 on the Tzadik label.

Track listing

All compositions by John Zorn

Personnel

References

Nova Express (fanzine)

Nova Express is a Hugo-nominated science fiction fanzine edited by Lawrence Person. Nova Express, established in 1987, is a sercon fanzine with a focus on written science fiction, featuring interviews, reviews and critical articles. The magazine is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Many professional science fiction writers and major critics have contributed to it over the years, including John Clute, Jack Dann, Stephen Dedman, Andy Duncan, Howard V. Hendrix, Fiona Kelleghan, Ken MacLeod, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Mike Resnick, Justina Robson, Brian Stableford, Bruce Sterling, Jeff VanderMeer, Howard Waldrop, and Don Webb.

Writers who have been interviewed by Nova Express include Stephen Baxter, James P. Blaylock, Pat Cadigan, Bradley Denton, Paul Di Filippo, Steve Erickson, Neil Gaiman, K. W. Jeter, John Kessel, Joe R. Lansdale, George R. R. Martin, Pat Murphy, Tim Powers, Kim Stanley Robinson, Pamela Sargent, William Browning Spencer, Bruce Sterling, Sean Stewart, Howard Waldrop, Walter Jon Williams, and Gene Wolfe.