/lit/ - Literature

>>5292562
I like the one when he fights Cthulhu.

reminder that he lived off his mom for his whole life

>>5292581
So does everyone on /lit/.

>>5292581
Big whoop

>>5292612
tyrannosaurus
#rekt

I enjoyed Dharma Bums op, would recommend

>>5292617
Moreso than On the Road?

He's the best "beat stereotype" writer. Burroughs and Ginsberg were weirder and besides, each one wrote something different. They can't really be compared. Read'em all and see for yourself.

>>5292562
I think Big Sur was better than Dharma Bums, but they are both worth reading.

Besides the fact they Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac were all friends, writing crazy shit, I have a hard time comparing their writing. Kerouac especially seems out of place in that world of "beatniks." He was a fun of Christopher Buckley, and somewhat conservative on many things, whereas his buddies were basically communists. I have always found the fact that those writers could bear to be around Kerouac to be a confusing thing.

>>5292644
He was a FAN (not fun) of Christopher Buckley.

Damn I type like shit

>>5292644
I haven't read much on Ginsberg, but from what I've read Burroughs seems fairly liberal but overtly conservative in some aspects. He reminds me of Thompson, somewhat.

>>5292656
My favorite poem of Ginsberg's would be Kaddish. It was pretty heartbreaking to read about his mother's mental breakdown. I think you are right about Burroughs too. He flaunted his homosexuality and drug use for a profit, but that wasn't all he felt strongly about. I need to read more of his work.

There is a book called The Typewriter Is Holy that I read last fall. You might like it. It has short biographies of many known and not-so-known beats.

>>5292562
>Thinking about picking up Dharma Bums next. Maybe Big Sur.
On The Road, then Dharma Bums, then Big Sur. That's the perfect three in the perfect order for Kerouac. After that you can go where your fancy takes you.

>>5292644
>his buddies were basically communists
>>5292656
>Burroughs seems fairly liberal but overtly conservative in some aspects
Burroughs never voiced any political ideas directly. He did grab any opportunity he got to ridicule and/or vilify various systems. There's a transcript of an interview Corso and Ginsberg conducted with him over at realitystudio.org, in which it becomes pretty clear how he felt about politics:
http://realitystudio.org/interviews/1961-interview-with-william-s-burroughs-by-gregory-corso-and-allen-ginsberg/

>All political movements are basically anti-creative

etc - it makes little sense to label Burroughs as anything but anti-political.

>>5292562

Read Naked Lunch for the experience. Burroughs was the genius of the group, but that didn't necessarily make him the best writer. It is nothing like On the Road (which I do love) and the brilliance of the work supersedes the whole Beat movement. On a single dimension critique the book is just like Joyce plus Hunter S. Thopmson plus Illegal Porn.

>>5292952
I tried reading Naked Lunch but only got about 8 pages in before I realized that I had no idea what the fuck I was reading.
Continue anyway?

>>5292895
thanks for linking the interview, i will check that out. I haven't read much by him yet. My library has Naked Lunch and Junky, which should I read first?

I hate that they still to this day lump Burroughs in with the beats. He was around them and friends with them, but he is not one of them. Also after "On the Road" there isn't much more to him. That was his giant wad that he squirted and today that book is just so fucking lame.

>>5292961
Yes. If you have the new editions with the extra shit in it there should be a bit where Burroughs himself explains what the fuck is going on. The vignettes should be taken strictly as-is and you should appreciate the meaning you can derive from them, but also appreciate your disorientation. That is what Billy wants.

>>5292961
Your supposed to just take it all in and then make sense of it as you will.

>>5292973
Some people find it easier to digest the naked lunch having warmed up with Junky. For the smoothest transition, follow up with queer, maybe the yage letters, and only then dive into the real feast.

>>5292617
>>5292620
Another Anon here. I liked it more. Seemed less forced and more innocent.

>>5292961
You're not really supposed to know what the fuck you're reading

If that sort of stuff doesn't interest you then...

>>5292997
Naked Lunch was also speaking to lit history. So the effect is sort of lost today because most people only know if for being a "dirty" book.

>>5292979
>I think I know what I'm talking about

>>5294189
ayy lmao

>>5292999
Nopoe

I found his prose excellent but he was an ostentatious jackass as a person.
>hey maybe everybody will think I'm cool if I pretend to be Buddhist, namedrop terminology, make 'profound' statements that are bullshit, and then die from breaking one of its major rules too much
top gun

>>5292581
He would come back for a nice home-cooked meal. Later on I think he was living back home on a more regular basis. He was a very conflicted man.

>>5295638
So man in the ivory tower what was it about?

>>5292835
I second this.

Junky and Queer are great, but the Naked Lunch is one of the most over-rated pieces of shit that I've ever had the misfortune of reading. 180 pages of Burroughs' masturbation fantasies does not a classic make.

Kerouac lived down the street from my mother's family years ago, and at one point Kerouac's mother gave my mother a manuscript Kerouac had written and never published. Years later my mom lost it and now it's gone for good.

Sorry for blog post, I just think it's kind of neat my mom was responsible for the permanent loss of a potentially relevant work of art.

>>5295979
niqqaaaaaaaaaaaa

>finally read on the road
wow it's shit

>>5295979
>yfw it's an absolute masterpiece he wrote in his final years but didn't release it due to being such an idiot drunk

>>5295979
If this is true, fuck, man...