The Valley, 1989
The Valley (Page 5)
by William Burroughs
The Valley is narrow, only six hundred yards across at the widest point, so that there is sun in the valley for only a few hours each day. They have developed a strain of corn that grows by the light of the moon and the stars, a pale blue corn with a metallic taste, that emits a faint luminescence. The corn is nutritious, but it rots the gum, the teeth fall out, and the corn attacks the palate… finally the tongue and the gums and lips are eaten away to the bone so that the corn-eaters resemble gummy skulls, their contaminated flesh glowing in the dark. Most of us avoid the deadly corn, knowing where it leads as the corn attacks the bones, until the spinal column is eaten through… even so, the head still lives for some hours.
The only thing that keeps us alive is music,