i have one question. i love his books and am reading soft machine and nova express. but.... am i supposed to completely get them? i like the fact that i cant get a full grasp on what the book in its entirety is about (seems like various bits and pieces to me)
Junky is like my favourite book of all time, its a bitch trying to get a copy though. Yeah, but you are not supposed to completely get them. Cities of the Red night I read like half a dozen times and still didnt really get what the fuck was going on, he must have been really off his face writing that one
I've read alot of burrough's work including the entire Nova Trilogy You're not really supposed to get everything, and you can't read it the way you would read a novel. you should pay more attention to the juxtapositions he makes in between lines. You have to pay attention to the characters and which side they're on (are they Nova Mob or Nova Police?). and also what are they doing to promote thier sides goal (to control humans or to free humans). also pay attention to his allegories of "junk" use. Nova Mob represents junk, Nova Police represents apomorphine (he talkes about this quite a bit from what i remember). Apomorphine cuts "junk lines" by doing the exact opposite of what junk does (junk depresses the back brain, apomorphine stimulates the front brain). So the Nova Police stop the Nova Mob by doing the exact opposite of them (to use the language metaphor, Nova Mob use language to controls us, Nova Police cut "word lines" to free us from control [the way they cut word lines is by creating "cut-ups" which is how the entire trilogy is writen])
I was wondering the same thing when I read Naked Lunch. Junky was easy enough to understand, and it's one of my fave beat books.
I only have read Naked Lunch, and I really enjoyed it. Also the movie was excellent! My boyfriend is probably his biggest fan out their so I've learned a lot about him. He also was best friends with my favorite author...Jack Kerouac. If you read William, you should try Jack out too. He's magnificent!
junky and queer are two great books. vanilla gorilla, i think you can get copies on half.com? we have the penguin version of the book at our house so i know they print it, but some bookstores probably don't stock the books for their own dumb reasons
burroughs didnt write much more after Junky in the straight novel style. He really got into cut ups. writing a novel or story and just dissecting it and splicing it together randomly which is why you will never fully understand the book because random lines from the beginning are in the end and so on. crazy motherfucker burroughs
that's a good quote by "Abbie" Hofmann. Is this Psilocybin? or something else. Mushrooms are the best path to oneness with nature (man, the whole universe). there are too many people in this world who use their intelligence in a predatory way(why then call it intelligence?), to advance their own selfish needs. one of their characteristics is that they are insensitive. i met (ha, had an encounter with) a person like that. it made me feel old if i had a rocket launcher..... unfortunately i don't believe in violence these kinds of people make me feel sad. you can bet that their religion is materialism. converting them to anything else would be a futile attempt. ps, ilike the way mescaline looks.
damn ive only read Junky too---might see if the library has anything else---if you like drug stories like junky--his son wrote a book called "speed" it was a good but totally about speed instead of H
My favorite WSB book is "Cities of the Red Night" - That and his tales of Mexico where he tries to say tapping his wife with a pistol was an accident... lol.
