DDR: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

 

I read this some time ago. Well, "read." I got very little out of it, and only remember the "schlupping sound" (ewww) and someone fucking the eye socket of a skull. So unless memory really kicks in as I read, this will essentially be my first reading.

A long time ago, one of my high school teacher friends called and told me he had assigned Naked Lunch to a group of his English students. I was quite taken aback. "Have you read that book?" I asked. He had not. He'd just heard that is was "Great." I relayed the two things I remembered from it (see above). "I'd better get those books back," he replied. 

Holy shit!

I'm not sure of the page count, as I get vastly different numbers from various sources, so I'll wait until I have the book in my hands for that. (Both LFPL copies were out, so I had to go e-book on it. Interestingly, the library also had an audiobook. Not sure I ever want to hear THAT, but time will tell.)

Day 1 (DDRD 2,831),  August 2, 2025

Read to page 

In addition to the usual fol-de-rol gushes preceding the text of the book, here's one that surprised me:

I mean...John Fuckin' Ciardi, man! His words mean a lot more than some crrrrritic. 

🕺

🕺

🕺

🕺

Ahem. Take 2.

(In the voice of Pinnichio's

Geppetto): Now you're a REAL book!

289 pages. ☮ uh 🎂.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,838),  August 9, 2025

Read from page 197 to page 259.

I started with the back material of the book (199 to 289) because that's where they put 

and

In the same spirit that compels me to watch DVD Extras before I watch the movie. I feel that it gives me greater insight into The Show. 

For instance: Burroughs talks about The Algebra of Need, which is really at the heart of this story...and maybe all of Burroughs' stories. Hell, maybe at the heart of ALL stories. "The face of "evil" is always the face of total need. A dope fiend is a man in total need of dope. Beyond a certain frequency need knows absolutely no limit or control. In the words of total need: "Wouldn't you?" Yes, you would. You would lie, cheat, inform on your friends, steal, do anything to satisfy total need. Because you would be in a state of total sickness, total possession, and not in a position to act in any other way. Dope fiends are sick people who cannot act other than they do. A rabid dog cannot choose but bite." (201) 

Pretty grim. But that last metaphor reels in the words of Iggy Pop: "All the animals are running with the pack / I'm outside, I'll tell you why: I don't want to bite 'em back." ("Strong Girl," from the Instinct album)

And it's not just dope fiends, is it? All of us are bound by something: past abuse, insecurities, fear, desire...name your poison.

And actually,  Burroughs says the same thing (☝) a few pages later.

Now this: "The ill effects of marijuana have been grossly exaggerated in the U.S. Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use of any other drug with special horror. Anyone given over to these alien vices deserves the complete ruin of his mind and body. People believe what they want to believe without regard for the facts." (224)

William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination by Oliver Harris (which sounds interesting) was referred to, and I found it on Internet Archive. One of the other results was a thing called Human Identity - Reality and Illusion by Leghtnis Beine, and that sounds very interesting,  too. (See...this always happens. One book leads to another which leads to another...etc.)

Addendum: Read to page 289. Yep. Well...no kids this afternoon, and kind of tired after a 90° softball game,  so I just dug in and kept reading. Some pretty weird shit in the outtakes. It struck me that Burroughs was pretty nondescript about sexual matters in his first three books, preferring the fade out to the microscope. But that's all over with now; very vivid descriptions of sexual activity, most of which would be called perverse, some of which was definitely perverse. Not titilating for me, but kind of grotesquely fascinating, I suppose. 

Okay. Now on to the text of the book itself. Tomorrow,  that is.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,839),  August 10, 2025

Read from page 1 to page 65.

New word for me:

de·cor·ti·cate

/dēˈkôrdəˌkāt/

verb

past tense: decorticated; past participle: decorticated

1. 1.

   technical

   remove the bark, rind, or husk from.

   "tamarind seeds were cleaned, roasted, decorticated, and pulverized"
2. 2.

   Medicine

   subject to surgical decortication.

Origin

early 17th century: from Latin decorticat- ‘stripped of its bark’, from the verb decorticare, from de- (expressing removal) + cortex, cortic- ‘bark’.

From HERE.

That sounds very unpleasant.


And speaking of unpleasant: "A beastly young hooligan, has gouged out the eye of me of his confrère and fuck him in the brain." (34)

And my memory tells me there's more eye socket fucking to come. No pun intended. 

Later...

Eye Socket Fuck (henceforth ESF) #2: Referring to the method by which he fixes the President, our humble narrator tells us, "Now I sometimes have to slip my penis under his left eyelid." (57)

Read to page 65...which is 1/3rd of the way through the "novel." " " because I'm not sure that it is a novel. There are a few identifiable characters,  but no character development, no plot. Just a series of unconnected stories about using drugs, having sex, or both. Lots of descriptions of anal sex (which it hurts me to read about, even though I've never been a participant on either end of that activity) and ejaculating penises. I'm finding it hard to believe that this is an important work. 

Day 3 (DDRD 2,840), August 11, 2025

Read to page 96. Might go back for more later, but I need a little break from constant anal sex, oral sex, hangings, and spurting cocks. (It really has been non-stop...so if that's what you're looking for, here it is. As for me...not so much.)

Read this and remember that my friend had assigned this book to a group of minors in a public high school: "A Javanese dancer in ornate teak swivel chair, set in a socket of limestone buttocks, pulls an American boy--red hair, bright green eyes--down onto his cock with ritual motions. The boy sits impaled facing the dancer who propels himself in circular gyrations, lending fluid substance to the chair. "Wheeeeeeeeee!" screams the boy as his sperm spurts up over the dancer's lean brown chest, one gob hits the corner of the dancer's mouth. The boy pushes it in with his finger and laughs: "Man, that's what I call suction!" (66)

That ain't your daddy's American Lit.

P.S. I Googled Why is Naked Lunch Considered a Classic Work and one of the things that came up was This American Life 546: Burroughs 101. And it's narrated by Iggy Pop! (HERE if you wanna.) 

ADDENDUM: read to page 131 = 2/3rds point. Have to admit, though, that I'm not enjoying this book...and that my primary response to it is revulsion. It's just non-stop pornography, really.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,841), August 12, 2025

Read to page 186, The End. A pretty unsatisfying read, and I would strongly recommend that you not waste your time on it as Idid. Twice. There's really nothing here, just disconnected savings, most of them pornographic. It's not illuminating. It's not entertaining. Hell, it's not even interesting. You'd get more out of sittin a dark room and listening to the rain drum on the roof for four hours. Then you would get out of reading this book.

Nevertheless,  I'm thinking about reading The Soft Machine next.

Glutton for punishment, I guess.

Page 139: "a horrible schlupping sound."

"Americans have a special horror of giving up control,  of letting things happen in their own way without interference. They would like to jump down into their stomachs and digest the food and shovel the shit out." (179)