William Burroughs: The Ruined Temple

What is it that makes a man a man and a cat a cat? It was broken there. It stretched and stretched and finally broke. Look at these broken fragments: complete centipede man, Jaguar man, limestone plant bursting out between his legs even the pain is no longer pain of man. This has started before I came there. I found the temple in ruins the stellae broken and no one knew anymore how to use the calendar. Still the dead priests and their dead gods held us in a magic net and every day the overseer came from the ruined temple and told us what to do and for a while longer we did it in our minds and hands still heard still felt we could not do anything else. I was different from the others. I watched and waited.

from  The Wild Boys