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Fiction. Literature. HTML: Naked Lunch is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. Exerting its influence on authors like Thomas Pynchon, J. G. Ballard, and William Gibson; on the relationship between art and obscenity; and on the shape of music, film, and media generally, it is one of the books that redefined not just literature but American culture. Naked Lunch is the unnerving tale of Bill Lee, addicted to hustlers and narcotics, and his monumental descent into Hell. His journey takes him from New York to Tangiers, as he runs from the police and searches for a place to buy and take drugs. Ultimately, he enters the hallucinatory fantasy world of the "Interzone," a nightmarish urban wasteland where individual freedom confronts the forces of totalitarianism. Reedited by Burroughs scholar Barry Miles and Burroughs' longtime editor James Grauerholz, Naked Lunch: The Restored Text corrects errors present in previous editions and incorporates Burroughs' notes on the text, several essays he wrote about the book, an appendix of new material, and alternate drafts from the original manuscript. For the Burroughs enthusiast and the neophyte, this volume is a valuable and fresh experience of this classic of our culture..… (more)
User reviews
I did not enjoy this book one bit. It was, as I said, incoherent and nonsensical. It was also filled with degrading scenes and disgusting descriptions written simply for the sake of being shockingly nasty. I will never read this book again.
That said, I think it's important to be open minded about the point of the book. It wasn't meant to be a fun little fairy tale. It was supposed to portray the life of a junkie and that it does. It certainly has its intended effect, although I think that it could have the same effect with one third of the length.
I
I didn’t fully understand it at that point in my life. Who could with so little context and a lack of worldly experience? But I knew that I was reading something just as important today as it was when it was published in 1959. Here’s what I understood then: A society had gone terribly wrong; life was cheaper than sex; and sex wasn’t sex but some sort of trope (I guess it’s metaphoreplay, ha ha).
As I’ve gotten older, different images and scenes from the book pop into mind, like acid flashbacks, and I realize that I’m standing in what Burroughs was writing about. This book should be required reading for every college freshman if not for all high school seniors. I’m not saying they have to agree with it or even like it, but it’s an extremely important piece of writing.
Beware: [Book: Naked Lunch] is a gateway novel. It leads to reading other works by Burroughs, [Book: Cities of the Red Night] (1981), and it opens the flood gates of subversive literature. People who suffer an adverse reaction to this book are advised to read volumes 8 through 14 of the most recently printed versions of the U.S. tax law.
Naked Lunch is certainly not entertaining. It is not coherent, it is not logical, it is not pretty, it is not for the faint of heart, and it is not in any way concerned with making any sense whatsoever. In this paragraph, which in most of my reviews is devoted to plot summary, I say these things because I have nothing to say about the plot at all. What plot? What series of events? Often, Burroughs is content with merely offering vague ideas of scenes and then inundating us with scatological and sexual imagery, body parts and fluids and substances freakishly spewed across the page. Grammar need not apply in this world.
I've read other Burroughs before, so I probably should have expected this, but it's just not something I have a great deal of interest in or enthusiasm for. It is a trial just to read through the whole thing, and I like to think that I have a pretty strong stomach for the kind of graphic images that Burroughs thrives upon. It's just that, once you get past the grossness, I don't see much behind it. I don't feel the need or desire to dig deeper to understand the subconscious ideas underpinning the words. I don't care enough about what I've read to try and make sense of what happened. Burroughs wants us to see the horror of drug abuse and the disgust that is our capitalist lives, but nothing in the text makes me care all that much.
I will probably read the other Burroughs that are on the 1001 list, simply to say that I have, but I will confess that I simply don't get it. If that somehow makes this review useless to you, that's a risk I'm willing to take. Anyone who picks up Naked Lunch deserves to know in advance what they're getting themselves into--I did, and there's a part of me that wishes I'd never bothered in the first place.
The parts I found the most well written and clear, often revolved around descriptions of fictional dystopian communities. I found these sections chilling and they effectively communicated how little faith Burroughs held in humanity (or the “human virus”). Of these sections the descriptions of the world Annexia and that of the Divisionists and their replicas were my favourite and the paranoid idea of the future held within those passages made me want to keep reading.
I do believe that this book is an amazing piece of literature, even in the midst of chaos Burroughs manages to find moments of clarity which truly reveal the dark and twisted world he was buried in. For example on page 56, when he states “I woke up with someone squeezing my hand, it was my other hand”. Nevertheless, there were still parts that disgusted me or that I thought were unnecessary and although later a sober Burroughs tried to explain the satire of characters like the Mugwump, I am still not convinced.
It is a book that you need to go into being prepared for whatever it will throw at you. It is one for which you will need to forget what a novel is supposed to be. It will most definitely shock and surprise as you follow Burroughs twisted “narrative” to...well to nowhere really. If you get the chance, the afterword written by a sober Burroughs later in life is a sobering finale which reminds us that this wasn't just a book but a living nightmare. At the beginning of Naked Lunch, Burroughs himself unknowingly provides us with, what I think is the most accurate way to describe his writing. He states “be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary”. That is exactly what this book is, arbitrary and bizarre but at the same time the most accurate account Burroughs could give into the mind of a junkie.
In an age when every sensationalism has been brought into the artistic field, and little seems to shock, it is difficult to review this work fairly. In the 1960's, this would have been a decent warning about the excessive use of drugs; written by a self confessed addict, it does not preach and gives some idea as to the highs, as well as the lows.
It is probably true that a hardcore drug user has precious little self-esteem, but this leads to a problem: it is incredibly difficult to feel any empathy with any of the characters. I am fortunate enough not to need scaring away from potential drug abuse so, I am left with a feeling of being a voyeur upon unpleasant people at the bottom of the pile. I am not sure that I have gained anything but, it is undeniably, a powerful piece of writing.
I cannot recommend this book but equally, I would not advise against its reading.
In the book itself, however, there are only brief glimpses of this fluid style. These brief moments are often fantastic, but they are not enough to make up for the endless puerile fantasies about masturbation, semen and bodily functions, the unfunny jokes, the bizarre hallucinations, the utter incoherence of 90% of the book.
I can't help wondering whether this book would have received so much attention if it hadn't been banned for a few years by US and UK censors. Perhaps all that gratuitous sex did serve a purpose after all.
The only other explanation I can think of for this book's fame is the fascination the drug culture seems to hold for so many people. Incoherence is fine, nonsense is fine, lack of any believable characters or any point at all to the story is fine, as long as it's written under the influence of a drug or, preferably, a cocktail of drugs. I wonder if books like this hold any interest for addicts themselves, recovering or otherwise. Or are they just a voyeuristic thrill for those with more conventional lives, those who would never dare or even actually want to shoot heroin, but who want to know what it feels like from the safety of their living rooms?
Naked Lunch entered my life in early 1990
I now know Naked Lunch to be a novel by William S. Burroughs, first published in 1959 in Paris by Olympia Press, and considered one of the landmark publications of American literature. However, in 1990 all I knew was that it was a controversial novel involving the words “Naked” and “Lunch”, both amongst an eighteen year olds favourites. Combined they suggested a tempting piece of creative writing, and an even better film.
I decided to read this unfilmable book before seeing the film.
So one fine autumn day I wandered into my local library and perused the Fiction section, specifically the shelves containing authors with surnames starting with “B”. I no doubt saw books by Richard Bach, William Peter Blatty and Charles Bukowski that day. But no Burroughs. Undaunted, I asked a librarian to reserve a copy.
She informed me that not only did the library not have a copy but there was only one Naked Lunch in the entire state library system, kept under lock and key at headquarters, along with other books considered too dangerous to keep on shelves for the general public to see. She could order it in but warned that the lending period was a week with no possibility of extension. She looked at me closely, watching for any sign of weakness in my resolve to borrow this filthy volume.
Later that week I received a call from a librarian informing me Naked Lunch had arrived. I had hardly the time to say “thank you” before she added that I would be required to produce identification proving I was eighteen and sign a form waiving the state library service of any responsibility for pain and suffering incurred from reading the book. Naked Lunch was sounding more interesting all the time.
Back at the library, I spent longer reading over the waiver’s fine print than I later would for my Home Loan application form. As the librarian reiterated the special borrowing conditions, a warm flush came over me, as I felt secretly thrilled. Not only was I about to read an obviously controversial book but people were expending a lot of effort on my behalf in the bargain.
As I held my copy of Naked Lunch for the first time there was a sense of anti-climax. Nothing on the paperback’s cover suggested I was holding something the state government deemed too dangerous to have in public view. Nor was there anything in the look the librarian gave me that suggested I was about to be greatly confused.
I got home, put the kettle on and started reading. Soon after I put the book down and went outside for some fresh air. Memory can be an imperfect creature but I recall the plot, such as it was, to involve men sodomising Arab boys. I’m sure there were other elements, such as drug taking and perhaps sexual acts not involving Arab boys, but Arab boys being sodomised seemed to stick in the mind of this somewhat naïve eighteen year old.
I would read one page at a time before needing to put the book aside and do something that didn’t make me feel so sordid. Eventually, driven by the knowledge that the book’s return date was looming fast, I would hesitantly pick up Naked Lunch again, read another page before again placing it aside for the sake of my mental wellbeing.
By the time the week ended I was still only half way through but fearing repercussions by the library police, I hotfooted the book back to the library.
There were a lot of questions the Naked Lunch film needed to answer.
It didn’t answer anything. While there was a thankful absence of Arab boys being sodomised, an array of weird special effects appeared in their stead, including, but not limited to, talking buttocks. If anything, my confusion about Naked Lunch increased.
I briefly considered going through the process of borrowing the novel again, but decided against it as I didn’t want to become known as “the man who twice borrowed the book that sits next to Mein Kampf on the shelf”.
In the years since, I have noted the acclaim lauded upon Naked Lunch. Time Magazine listed the novel as one of the 100 all time greats. The film has gained a cult following. And a recent search of the library shows a copy of Naked Lunch is freely available to borrow.
Other Naked Lunch related facts hitherto unknown to me also became known during a delve into the Internet, some merely intriguing (the band Steely Dan took its name from a dildo mentioned in the book) while others discoveries were more disturbing. One site provided some scene descriptions of the book, including a boy being raped as he hangs dead in a noose, and a couple lighting themselves on fire and fornicating as they fall from a skyscraper. I don’t recall reading either of these vignettes, perhaps for the best, as my nightmares are already graphic enough.
It took the touchstone of modern culture, The Simpsons, to put into words my feelings about Naked Lunch. In one episode Bart gains a fake drivers licence and takes his friends Milhouse, Martin and Nelson on a cross-country drive. The four are seen leaving a cinema showing Naked Lunch. Looking about as disturbed I did a decade or so before, Nelson says “I can find at least two things wrong with that title."
Amen brother.
In those pre-Internet days when information was hard to come by, there could still exist a certain mystery and uncertainty about many things
Certain books were also far harder to source. Bookstores generally did not stock many cult titles because they needed the space for more fashionable authors. Books could be ordered naturally, but they had to be paid for in advance so you couldn't browse through a few pages to find out if the work suited your tastes.
There existed specialist independent bookstores, in fact far more than exist today, but they were notoriously located in hard to get to places or rough areas of the city not generally within easy reach of a young boy living in the suburbs.
When I eventually did buy one of the books I'd committed myself to liking before I'd read it; 'Catcher in the Rye' (see my review) is a good example of this, I was disappointed beyond belief! This, for a long time put me off taking another chance with my fantasy author list. Eventually, around the time that the Cronenberg film was released, I set out to track down a copy of Naked Lunch, aware that the movie I'd watched at the cinema had very little to do with the book of the same title (although for very different reasons, I actually enjoyed the film too).
I can tell you that as far as the book goes, it is one of those rare times where my expectations were completely satisfied in full. I adore this book, not because it is well written or that it has a good story; it is not and does not! In fact the syntax is so unconventional that many have argued that William Burroughs writes like a pre-teen, and an uneducated one at that! This is rather harsh and his use of words and the construction or rather deconstruction of some of his sentences unbalances the reader in a manner that, in my opinion, only adds to the disorientating atmosphere of his dystopian nightmare worlds; dark, seedy backstreets where pornography rubs up against filthy hospital wards where unlicensed surgeons gratify themselves by performing unethical procedures on the trash of society. Where taking exotic drugs are the norm. And where the reader loses themselves in a world more remote than any science fiction author could ever take you to on the furthest planet in the most distant galaxy.
This book was like getting the exact present you were hoping for on Christmas Day and being overjoyed!
Sadly, I mainly just hated it. The relentless gore, the disturbingly violent sex scenes, the terrifying medical operations... they didn't bother me nearly as much as the complete lack of plot and character. Yes, I realize that it's the point of the book and of Burroughs' cut-up-and-fold-in style, that it's basically the insane ravings of an addict in severe withdrawal, that it's better read as poetry than as a novel.... but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable to actually read. Being a straight male, it obviously didn't have any erotic appeal to me (but then I can't fathom anybody of any sexual orientation getting off to the horrifying fantasies presented here, unless they are violent psychopaths), and I ended up just found forcing myself from page to page, frustrated by the endless shifts to unrelated vignette every time I had managed to orientate myself to what was going on and desperately wishing for some to happen besides transvestites getting their throats slit after sex. Ultimately, for all of its shocking content, 'Naked Lunch' is really rather boring.
The only reason I have given this as many stars as I have is for the essays on the writing process and Burroughs drug experiences at the end of the book. They are genuinely fascinating and compelling, and far more interesting than the book itself. As an insight into the madness of a man going through heroin withdrawal, 'Naked Lunch' has merit - as a novel, it is, in my opinion, a complete failure. Instead, I recommend Burroughs' first novel, 'Junky', an utterly engrossing read which actually succeeds in both placing the reader into the mind of a drug addict and as a narrative in its own right.
Naked Lunch (published in 1959 by Grove Press) uncovers the filthy and depraved world of addiction, particularly drug addiction, though on a broader scale it can be applied to addiction of multiple and diverse forms. It is a fragmented exposition of the destructive effects of
Burroughs is modern American literature's final manifestation of genius, with Naked Lunch his most essential work. He was a brave investigator of the hidden depths of the soul, fearlessly observing his own thoughts and desires, particularly the powerful forces of evil festering deep within. He was a black magic chemist and demented psychologist, and an eerily precise prophet of post-apocalyptic proliferations of the nightmarish characteristics of human nature. Above all, Burroughs was a great eradicator of illusions. His grim approach to social change and recovery from addiction was transcended by his ferocious humor and primal nihilism, making him something of a Voltaire of his time. His writing is distinct for its viciously inventive prose, harsh ridicule, conceptual depth, and morbid humor. Underneath his dreary disposition festered a dangerous, anarchic spirit and adversary of forced submission through institutions of control, be it social, political, or personal addictions.
This book is a treasure discovered within the hellish dimensions of the self. It possesses an abundance of expressive virility on its way to destroying comforting schemes of deception. It is a catastrophically sardonic attack of authoritarian dishonesty, social barbarism, and malicious egoism rampant in modern society, exposing corruptive sources of control, celebrity obsession, meaningless violence, consumerism, dogmatism, and all types of irreverent deceitfulness.
Naked Lunch is a courageous work of tremendous force and literary honor, a penetrating and purposeful exploration for the realistic conditions of moral substance. It was written with profound accuracy and a fearless spirit, confronting the possibilities of literary form, and expanding established perceptions of human nature. It is a challenging read, contemptuous, imaginative, liberated, humorous, and grim. Fueled by sheer desperation and paralyzing anxiety, it is also filthy, sick, dirty, disgusting, and utterly disturbing.
"You were not there for The Beginning. You will not be there for The End... Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative..."
But this book? I could not read.
The book perfectly illustrates the mind of a junky: incoherent, scatty, bizarre, hallucinogenic, etc. Unfortunately, it’s
The reasons that I dislike this book – its incoherence, its illogical progression, its grittiness, and the fact that it seems to be graphic and vile purely for the sake of being graphic and vile – is the reason that many love this book.
This is definitely not for me, and I wish I had read some more reviews before tackling this book. It was short, but felt 100 times longer than it is in reality.
I’m open-minded on such topics, so am glad that I read the book, but I’m gladder that it’s over. It achieves its purpose well (stories of a junkie), but in a way that is pure pulp and un-enjoyable.