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/lit/ - Literature

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4266327 No.4266327[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Just finished Naked Lunch.
Can't tell if genius metaphor or heroin induced babble.
Either way I enjoyed.

>> No.4266669

>>4266327
steely dan

>> No.4266870

Mainly heroin and LSD induced babble. Not genius by any means, but there's some good commentary in there.

>> No.4266872

>>4266870

To add, just enjoy it for the writing and be entertained by an lost in the weirdness of it. Try to think of its main purpose as a way to experience a bunch of hard drugs like that without actually having to take them.

>> No.4266887

>>4266872

Yes, like porno!

>> No.4266915

>>4266669
heh. have you heard their version of "East St Louis Toodle-oo"? i wonder what burroughs thought of it.

>> No.4267402
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4267402

Just finished Valis.
Can't tell if genius metaphor or schizophrenia induced babble.
Either way I enjoyed.

>> No.4267410

I haven't read it since I was in highschool, but I remember being annoyed that the last chapter removed a lot of the ambiguity in the book. Sort of like the ending of Psycho.

>> No.4267415
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4267415

Just finished Slaughterhouse Five.
Can't tell if genius metaphor or PTSD induced babble.
Either way I enjoyed.

>> No.4267423

>>4267415
>>4267402
this isnt funny

>> No.4267425
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4267425

Just finished the Iliad.
Can't tell if genius metaphor or wine induced babble.
Either way I enjoyed.

>> No.4267444

>>4266327

God, I pity you hipsters.

>> No.4267452

>>4266327
Just finished The Stranger.
Can't tell if genius metaphor or existential induced babble.
Either way I enjoyed.

>> No.4267453

>>4267444
Not him but, reading Burroughs (and his most famous work precisely) is being a hipster now? How so?

>> No.4267458

Edgar Rice Burrows > Billy Burrows

>> No.4267475

>>4267453
It's pretentious garbage.

>> No.4267500

>>4267475
>I don't like something, therefore it objectively has no value and so anyone who claims to like it must be lying or deluded!
i see this attitude way too much on this board
grow up or fuck off

>> No.4267510
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4267510

>>4267453
Burroughs was actually part of the original hipster movement, the Beatnik's, right?

Personally I struggle to see any merit in Naked Lunch. It's critical endorsements I imagine would largely come from the scandal of it, the author's first rate connections and it's novelty. Reading it is like trawling through a condensed, novel length /b/. Immature, ugly and idiotic.

>> No.4267538

>>4267510
>It's critical endorsements I imagine would largely come from the scandal of it, the author's first rate connections and it's novelty
see >>4267500
srsly guys, sometimes people have opinions that aren't the same as yours, and that's ok!!!
personally i thought liked naked lunch for the beautiful crazy unique imagery, the grotesque humour, and the manic sense of enthusiasm i got from the way he wrote, but apparently i've been fooling myself. silly me.

>> No.4267543

>>4267500
I see this attitude way too much irl as well. Like when I told my friend I don't watch the new Simpsons he was like "don't be such a hipster".

>> No.4267551

>>4267543
He also calls me a hipster for my taste in movies. Its like there's something wrong with me if I prefer The Sacrifice over Pacific Rim.

>> No.4267558

Tarantula to me was a much more comprehensible version of Naked Lunch- it soared past all of the failures of the first

>> No.4267559

>>4267543
>I don't watch the new Simpsons

Everyone with average IQ cant watch Simpsons after 10th season - it is shit.

Dont know who is to blame, but they fucked the show up a long time ago.

>> No.4267590

>>4267559
Ppl like him have this attitude that if you aren't accepting commonly consumed media on his terms than your a tryhard and insult to everyone else. Its like when I say I don't like I say I don't like family guy but when I put on Paths Of Glory he'll blurt out "this movies boring" a half hour in and change it while I'm enjoying the movie. Hes also a redditor so take that as you will.


Why am I ranting right now?

>> No.4267593

>>4267590
*I don't like family guy he gets annoyed*

>> No.4267657

I think you're supposed to read it on heroin. then it makes sense

>> No.4267666

>>4267559
>Dont know who is to blame

After 10 years, all the possibilities are exhausted.

>> No.4267681

>>4266327
never read Naked Lunch but I recently read Junky and enjoyed it. Would I get super excited about it and say how great it is? probably not. is it a great/entertaining look at heroin use back in the beatnik days? prolly

>> No.4267705

>>4267681
Junky is like a story Burroughs wrote after kicking H. Naked Lunch was written in the depths of abuse. I liked them both but Naked Lunch was just bizarre

>> No.4267761

>>4267705
Nah, Junky was writ while he was addicted too. People like to equate crazy shit and drug abuse but it's really not that simple. People can be addicted to H and still completely lucid. If Burroughs was 'crazy' when writing Naked Lunch (not just experimenting with writing) it probably has more to do with the death of his wife, other drugs (e.g. alcohol and psychedelics) and his general turbulent lifestyle than any direct chemical effect of the heroin. There was a news story about some doctor who stole morphine for decades and was only found out when people realised he'd been fiddling his accounts to cover it up.

>> No.4268405

>>4266872
I dunno about that, the strangeness was really taking me out of the experience instead. It felt like Nietzche's ramblings shortly before he died, but even less coherent...if that's possible.

I'd probably get it more if I read this book for merely being bored/stoned, but I'm hardly either of those things, so having this as a recommendation was big letdown.

>> No.4269254

>>4268405
oh ya. this book high is quite entertaining. I dont think i got it more, but it was definitely interesting

>> No.4269285

>>4266327
The main theme of the work is control and how control can be manipulated. I haven't read it in a while but I thought it was wonderful and really funny. I understand that it isn't very coherent but I do think that there is a kind of merit to its complete chaos.

>> No.4269299

>>4269285
I should add that it is similar to something like the Waste Land in which there are heap of broken images which tries to represent living through a multiple scope. But unlike Eliot's work, Burroughs favors a more kaleidoscopic approach to the portrayal of a person's life. Watching some of his interviews really help to demonstrate what he is truly getting at. I was listening to a recorded lecture by Ginsberg in which he describes Burroughs work as being something like another step in cubism, but Burroughs is looking at it from multiple angles and different lenses like newspapers and radio transmissions, just about everything because ones consciousness is constantly being impeded with information everywhere.