/lit/ - Literature

Just finished this fucker. Easily one of the most disturbing and strange things I've ever read. Not sure how to feel about it, but it was a worthwhile experience and quite beautiful a times. Is there anything else by burroughs with a bit of a more comprehensive story though? I understand that Naked Lunch was intended to be chaotic and frightening, but I would love to read a more structured novel if he has ever written one.

what the fuck

This is one of the most unsastisfying readings of my life. And definitely, the biggest let-down.

I've read 3/4 of the book, going to finish it because that's what i always do, but i can't expect a conclusion that "saves" the whole book.

>>3870756
>The trail blazed by radicals and subversives fifty years ago has become really warm and comfortable by now
Not really. I mean, the radicals aren't nearly as shocking now as they were - but they're not exactly 'warm and comfortable' either.

Get this version.

Hey there.
I am new to /lit/ and decided to check out the refereed book list for /lit/. Books I have read before are too little and I was ashamed of that, which is why I looked at the list, in hopes to culture myself at least a little bit.
And naked lunch. I heard of it a couple years ago when at a local store, they were screening the movie in protest of censorship. I never went to see it, but I was always curious what made the movie censored. Then I heard it was a book, and with little surprise, that turned out to be controversial as well.
Since my attempt to culture myself, I have reread Catcher in the Rye, my favorite book, and as well as fight club, survivor, and NAKED LUNCH.
I read it, and I didn't understand much. I took "breaks" between passages trying to put that passage into context.
Definitively a difficult read.
My question from all this is, what context am I missing asides from it being a story about a man who is addicted to drugs? It seems the story portrays his travels and what he hallucinates, but it seems like I am missing something. The only thing I know about the author is he used to be a heroine addict.
If I am not missing anything, then, discussion?

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. It has 4 different plots that rotate throughout the book.

Despite all of it's great publicity, I'm finding it hard to really see any of the literary ingenuity this novel supposedly has. Thoughts, /lit/?

Is this a hipster novel?

So I just started reading Naked Lunch, or I should say I'm trying to read it because Burrough's prose is fucking confusing as shit.

Am I reading it wrong? I understand that the strange diction is kind of the point but I just don't fucking get it. I have to read every page a couple times and then guess what's going on.

Am I retarded?

Naked Lunch was first published in Paris (1959), so

would that make it french literature or is it American

literature ?

Current reading this book; and wow, this is some novel... It's visceral, disturbing, occasionally beautiful, humorous, incoherent... and pretty fucking sweet. I love the part in Annexia where the subjects from the R.C. are released... It is an absolutely ridiculous scene... My only question is the relevance between people getting fucked then hanged (or vice versa), I mean is there any sort of symbolism here? It has shown up a couple times... But yeah, how you you all feel about this book and Burroughs in general?

sooo, what does /lit/ think of Burroughs? I haven't lurked much at all...