"Cut up is a technique... made famous by Burroughs in his work, but it is also a tool anyone can use for whatever purposes of their own. It can provide insight into texts written by yourself and others.... With the advent of computers we have a powerful tool for breaking down the barriers that we believe exist in language. One experiment, suggested by Umberto Eco in "Foucault's Pendulum" is to take a text in a word processor and do a find and replace on key words or letters. By breaking down the forced meanings we can gain a different understanding of language and its purpose."
