I liked Naked Lunch -- Hogalum Discussion

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Subject:

I liked Naked Lunch

Author:
John

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Date Posted: 17:08:29 06/12/02 Wed
In reply to: Ken 's message, "Mere Mortals..." on 09:30:35 06/12/02 Wed

I think Jeff expected the book to be similar to David Cronenberg's film. Now that you're reading the book, Jeff, you can see that no one can make that into a movie. Cronenberg created something original that would evoke the essence of the book Naked Lunch, steal elements from the novels Exterminator and Queer, capture something of Burroughs's life through the semi-biographical character of Bill Lee and finally to express themes present throughout Cronenberg's own body of work. Burroughs's friends Allan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac also appear fictionalized in the Cronenberg film.

Burroughs was living in Tangier, Morocco in 1954 while writing his third novel. The working title was Interzone and it would in time become Naked Lunch. Burroughs wrote in a letter to Kerouac "I am having serious difficulties with my novel. I tell you the novel form is completely inadequate to express what I have to say. I don't know if I can find a form. I am very gloomy as to the prospects of publication."

Even though Burroughs makes a dramatic departure from traditional form he finds a way to articulate his ideas about addiction, conspiracy and madness and infuse it with his dark twisted humor. You may not know that Burroughs had intimate knowledge of heroin addiction and also abused a number of other serious substances. It always amazed me that he could live to such an old age.

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