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Can I read The Soft Machine on EtoBox?
The Soft Machine by Willam S. Burroughs is a work of fiction available to read on EtoBox.
What is The Soft Machine about?
The main plot appears in linear prose in chapter VII, The Mayan Caper. This chapter portrays a secret agent who has the ability to change bodies or metamorphose his own body using "U.T." (undifferentiated tissue). As such an agent he makes a time travel machine and takes on a gang of Mayan priests who use the Mayan calendar to control the minds of slave laborers used for planting maize. The calendar images are written in books and placed on a magnetic tape and transmitted as sounds to control the slaves. The agent manages to infiltrate the slaves and replace the magnetic tape with a totally different message: "burn the books, kill the priests", which causes the downfall of their regime.
Who reads The Soft Machine?
It is typically read by readers looking for immersive, entertainment-first reading.
Common subject areas: fiction, literature, genre fiction.
- Author
- Willam S. Burroughs
- Published
- 1961
- Language
- EN
- Category
- work of fiction
- Subjects
- History, Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction
- Rating
- 3.45 / 5 (121 ratings)
- Updated
- 2026-03-14
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Browse all works by Willam S. Burroughs
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