Cities of the Red Night

Cities of the Red Night
Hardcover edition by Viking Press
Author(s)	William S. Burroughs
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Cities of the Red Night trilogy
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	1981
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-312-27846-2 (US Paperback)
OCLC Number	46887518
Followed by	The Place of Dead Roads

Cities of the Red Night is a novel by American author William S. Burroughs. It is part of his final trilogy of novels, known as The Red Night Trilogy, followed by The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands, and was first published in 1981. It was his first full-length novel since The Wild Boys a decade earlier. The plot revolves around a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Mission. In near present day, a parallel story follows a detective searching for a lost boy, abducted for use in a sexual ritual. The cities of the title mimic and parody real places, and Burroughs makes references to the United States, Mexico, and Morocco.

Plot introduction

The plot follows a nonlinear course through time and space. It imagines an alternate history in which Captain James Mission's Libertatia lives on. His way of life is based on The Articles, a general freedom to live as one chooses, without prejudice. The novel is narrated from two different standpoints; one set in the 18th century which follows a group of pirate boys led by Noah Blake, who land in Panama to liberate it. The other is set in the late 20th century, and follows a detective tracing the disappearance of an adolescent boy.

Origin of the title

The title refers to the six cities of the red night: Tamaghis, Ba'dan, Yass-Waddah, Waghdas, Naufana, and Ghadis. One must make the Pilgrimage through all six cities which, it is said, may take multiple lifetimes. Each reveals a different permutation of the famous aphorism of Hassan i Sabbah: "Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted." This is apparently in reference to the sixth chapter of the third book of an Arabic magical text, the Ghayat al-Hakim or the Picatrix.

The disease

In the novel, the world is plagued by a viral disease that destroys humanity and has a relationship to sex.

Art

The cover art for the 1981 Holt-Rinehart-Winston first edition is Pieter Brueghel the Elder's 1562 painting "The Triumph of Death".

Footnotes

External links

• http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/08/09/specials/disch-burrows.html