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Investing Quote by William S. Burroughs

“In the City Market is the Meet Café. Followers of obsolete, unthinkable trades doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, pushers of souped-up harmine, junk reduced to pure habit offering precarious vegetable serenity, liquids to induce Latah, Tithonian longevity serums, black…” quote by William S. Burroughs
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““In the City Market is the Meet Café. Followers of obsolete, unthinkable trades doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, pushers of souped-up harmine, junk reduced to pure habit offering precarious vegetable serenity, liquids to induce Latah, Tithonian longevity serums, black marketeers of World War III, excusers of telepathic sensitivity, osteopaths of the spirit, investigators of infractions denounced by bland paranoid chess players, servers of fragmentary warrants taken down in hebephrenic shorthand charging unspeakable mutilations of the spirit, bureaucrats of spectral departments, officials of unconstituted police states, a Lesbian dwarf who has perfected operation Bang-utot, the lung erection that strangles a sleeping enemy, sellers of orgone tanks and relaxing machines, brokers of exquisite dreams and memories tested on the sensitized cells of junk sickness and bartered for raw materials of the will, doctors skilled in the treatment of diseases dormant in the black dust of ruined cities, gathering virulence in the white blood of eyeless worms feeling slowly to the surface and the human host, maladies of the ocean floor and the stratosphere, maladies of the laboratory and atomic war... A place where the unknown past and the emergent future meet in a vibrating soundless hum... Larval entities waiting for a Live One...””

William S. Burroughs

About This Quote

Source Novel: “The City Market” (fictional excerpt), William S. Burroughs, 1970s

A surreal, dystopian description of a market where illegal, experimental, and grotesque trades converge, symbolizing humanity’s chaotic pursuit of altered states and forbidden knowledge.

In simple terms: A bizarre market of illegal and experimental trades.

Key Takeaway

Question the ethics of seeking extreme experiences.

Themes

dystopia surrealism ethics human desire

Mood

dark provocative

Type

fictional philosophical

When to use this quote

  • underground economies
  • science fiction settings
  • philosophical speculation

Key Concepts

social decay technological excess psychological manipulation

Questions to Reflect On

  • What does this market reveal about societal values?
  • How do we limit harmful experimentation?
A Different Perspective

The vividness may obscure practical relevance.

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