WorldVignettes — Rebel writer dead

KANSAS CITY: William S Burroughs, the stone-faced godfather of the `Beat Generation' whose experimental novel `Naked Lunch' saw the birth o...

KANSAS CITY: William S Burroughs, the stone-faced godfather of the `Beat Generation’ whose experimental novel `Naked Lunch’ saw the birth of a strange world defying narration, has died.

He was 83.Burroughs died yesterday evening in Lawrence, Kansas, at Lawrence memorial hospital, about 24 hours after suffering a heart attack, said Ira Silverberg, his longtime New York publicist.

The passing of William Burroughs leaves us with few great American writers. “His presence in the American literary landscape was unparalleled,” Silverberg said.

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Published in 1959, `Naked Lunch’ used unconventional writing techniques to depict an underground world fighting a technological society that was self destructing.“Naked Lunch” was both praised as literary genius and dismissed as indecipherable garbage because Burroughs wrote it without standard narrative prose, used abrupt transitions, placed the chapters in random order and wrote in a stream-of-consciousness style.

Woman’s revolt

TOKYO: In a sign of widening acceptance for women’s rights, a court has ruled that a working woman who divorced her husband after he demanded she do all of the housework will not have to pay him compensation.

The 38-year-old man sued his ex-wife for 4 million yen (38,000 dollars), claiming she reneged on their marriage arrangement when she packed up and left, saying she was fed up with juggling chores at home with the long hours she put in at the office, local media reported this week.

The Tokyo district court ruled in her favour, saying the woman had sound reasons for all of her actions. She will, however, have to return her wedding ring and a cash gift of one million yen (8,000 dollars). The court, which handed down the ruling on Thursday, did not release the names of the litigants. After the couple married in 1995, the woman reportedly acquiesced to some of her husband’s demands, agreeing to cook meals, clean the house and press her husband’s trousers on condition that they move to a house close to her workplace.

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Soon afterward, the woman filed for divorce. The presiding judge was quoted as saying the woman was not responsible for breaking up the relationship.The ruling was seen as a small triumph for women in Japan who are increasingly turning away from their traditional roles subordinate to the men they marry.

Cook, wife split

LONDON: Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has said that he is leaving his wife Margaret after 28 years of marriage.Cook, 51, made his statement to News of the World, a mass-circulation tabloid which reported on his relationship with another woman in its Sunday edition.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said the separation was a personal matter and did not affect Cook’s position as foreign secretary.