salomeU2000
The Fly
[SIMG]http://bonovox.interference.com/reviews/nakedthumb.gif[/SIMG]
By Elizabeth Pagel-Hogan
Author: William Burroughs
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc
?But why the scrutable dog??
Though near the end, this is arguably the best line in a book full of amazing literary constructions. William Burroughs?s Naked Lunch is not an easy Sunday afternoon read but I don?t regret the few hours of my life I gave up to it.
The poetry of Burroughs? prose is inspiring and has had a tremendous impact on numerous other writers and musicians, U2 being one in a large crowd of admirers. There are portions that disgust and portions that delight. I didn?t think the book was an amazing end-to-all-books but it is certainly unforgettable. If Virginia Woolf?s Mrs. Dalloway was the novel that rescued the novel from itself and brought new life to modern fiction, then Naked Lunch is the book that seduced and corrupted that poor, helpless novel. Now it?s addicted and probably homosexual, too.
By writing about and in the voice of a drug junkie Burroughs addresses a social problem as pervasive and lasting as AIDS, and of course, the two are related. Bono and U2 addressed a similar topic in ?Running to Stand Still." They bring back the granddaddy of this theme, William Burroughs himself, to appear at the end of their ?Last Night On Earth? video.
The drug problem ain?t new and it ain?t gone yet either, kids. Addiction isn?t necessarily the problem in Burroughs's perspective. It?s how society reacts to the addiction and the addicts. Punitive treatment isn?t treatment. Rehab is the solution, specifically the apomorphine treatment. (Note: Apomorphine is a compound formed by boiling morphine with hydrochloric acid. It was discovered by an English doctor and Burroughs swore by it.)
To make things a bit stickier, Burroughs tells us the drug bureaus created to deal with junkies are just as addicted as the pushers and the users. Without the drug problem, the narcs have no existence. And so, they feed on their prey?but just enough to keep the system in balance. The big time drug war ?targets? in South America are like straw men. Eliminate one of them, says Burroughs, and another will step in. The only way to win the ?war? is to save the junkies from themselves and their habits. Save the addict from his or her addiction, don?t punish. And when the need is gone, so is the supplier.
Burroughs argues in convoluted and often incomprehensible ways that the relationship between the people suffering from the problem, with the problem, due to the problem and the causes of the problem are often blurred and blame is laid on the wrong persons.
His apparent misogyny and hate for homosexuals (he writes that, ?Homosexuality is a political crime in a matriarchy?) are in the same vein - pun intended - as Jonathon Swift?s ?A Modest Proposal? and other works that take a position to its radical, depraved yet humanly possible end. This also goes for that screwed up hanging scene and Burroughs's opinions about the worthlessness of capital punishment. Many called his writing obscene, but he countered that admonishment by reminding us that doctors describing the symptoms of an illness are not censured.
Burroughs was well educated and his esoteric references to classic images and world cultures recall the experiences of football fans trying to keep up with Dennis Miller. You know you should understand sentences like ?Paregoric Babies of the World Unite? but you don?t.
In his mind, the illness is addiction and drugs aren?t the only kind. Assimilation and duplication are his two greatest enemies and the result of marketing and consumerism. Control is anti-human. Burroughs, the addict, just doesn?t care about that unnatural little dog walking on his hind legs, doing things different. Burroughs is inscrutable.
It?s not all discomfort and coprophagia. There are some downright hilarious moments like the talking rectum and Violet the baboon that knew more medicine than the Mayo Clinic. (Although I wouldn?t trust that coming from Dr. Benway.) Oh, I almost forgot - you should definitely read the part where A.J., the last great spender, visits the haute couture restaurant. Amazing writing that.
But stop for a minute and look for the strange sections of pure beauty. You can almost hear Bono?s sensitive soul forming lyrics around images created by Burroughs. We are transfixed as ?the stigmata of his needle wounds glow with a soft blue flame.? Word crafters unite in worship and political theorists bow in recognition when he cries as a voice in the wilderness - ?the threat implicit in this enveloping benevolence stifled the concept of rebellion!? (Perhaps you can?t understand it the first time you read it, but savor the sound of the words. That?s some sick skill.)
Focus on the eyes that Burroughs brings to us, those undersea, insect, cancelled eyes?they are the windows to the soul. And with his spotlight he shows that which causes people to run in fear?exposing what they don?t wish to see. And his purpose - to turn over Sleeping Beauty and show us the hidden fungus that?s eating her away, leaving a putrid slime flowing down the bed - is carried along in a mundane shopping cart (an object used and abused and forgotten like the sickly vessel that held his soul).
By Elizabeth Pagel-Hogan
Author: William Burroughs
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc
?But why the scrutable dog??
Though near the end, this is arguably the best line in a book full of amazing literary constructions. William Burroughs?s Naked Lunch is not an easy Sunday afternoon read but I don?t regret the few hours of my life I gave up to it.
The poetry of Burroughs? prose is inspiring and has had a tremendous impact on numerous other writers and musicians, U2 being one in a large crowd of admirers. There are portions that disgust and portions that delight. I didn?t think the book was an amazing end-to-all-books but it is certainly unforgettable. If Virginia Woolf?s Mrs. Dalloway was the novel that rescued the novel from itself and brought new life to modern fiction, then Naked Lunch is the book that seduced and corrupted that poor, helpless novel. Now it?s addicted and probably homosexual, too.
By writing about and in the voice of a drug junkie Burroughs addresses a social problem as pervasive and lasting as AIDS, and of course, the two are related. Bono and U2 addressed a similar topic in ?Running to Stand Still." They bring back the granddaddy of this theme, William Burroughs himself, to appear at the end of their ?Last Night On Earth? video.
The drug problem ain?t new and it ain?t gone yet either, kids. Addiction isn?t necessarily the problem in Burroughs's perspective. It?s how society reacts to the addiction and the addicts. Punitive treatment isn?t treatment. Rehab is the solution, specifically the apomorphine treatment. (Note: Apomorphine is a compound formed by boiling morphine with hydrochloric acid. It was discovered by an English doctor and Burroughs swore by it.)
To make things a bit stickier, Burroughs tells us the drug bureaus created to deal with junkies are just as addicted as the pushers and the users. Without the drug problem, the narcs have no existence. And so, they feed on their prey?but just enough to keep the system in balance. The big time drug war ?targets? in South America are like straw men. Eliminate one of them, says Burroughs, and another will step in. The only way to win the ?war? is to save the junkies from themselves and their habits. Save the addict from his or her addiction, don?t punish. And when the need is gone, so is the supplier.
Burroughs argues in convoluted and often incomprehensible ways that the relationship between the people suffering from the problem, with the problem, due to the problem and the causes of the problem are often blurred and blame is laid on the wrong persons.
His apparent misogyny and hate for homosexuals (he writes that, ?Homosexuality is a political crime in a matriarchy?) are in the same vein - pun intended - as Jonathon Swift?s ?A Modest Proposal? and other works that take a position to its radical, depraved yet humanly possible end. This also goes for that screwed up hanging scene and Burroughs's opinions about the worthlessness of capital punishment. Many called his writing obscene, but he countered that admonishment by reminding us that doctors describing the symptoms of an illness are not censured.
Burroughs was well educated and his esoteric references to classic images and world cultures recall the experiences of football fans trying to keep up with Dennis Miller. You know you should understand sentences like ?Paregoric Babies of the World Unite? but you don?t.
In his mind, the illness is addiction and drugs aren?t the only kind. Assimilation and duplication are his two greatest enemies and the result of marketing and consumerism. Control is anti-human. Burroughs, the addict, just doesn?t care about that unnatural little dog walking on his hind legs, doing things different. Burroughs is inscrutable.
It?s not all discomfort and coprophagia. There are some downright hilarious moments like the talking rectum and Violet the baboon that knew more medicine than the Mayo Clinic. (Although I wouldn?t trust that coming from Dr. Benway.) Oh, I almost forgot - you should definitely read the part where A.J., the last great spender, visits the haute couture restaurant. Amazing writing that.
But stop for a minute and look for the strange sections of pure beauty. You can almost hear Bono?s sensitive soul forming lyrics around images created by Burroughs. We are transfixed as ?the stigmata of his needle wounds glow with a soft blue flame.? Word crafters unite in worship and political theorists bow in recognition when he cries as a voice in the wilderness - ?the threat implicit in this enveloping benevolence stifled the concept of rebellion!? (Perhaps you can?t understand it the first time you read it, but savor the sound of the words. That?s some sick skill.)
Focus on the eyes that Burroughs brings to us, those undersea, insect, cancelled eyes?they are the windows to the soul. And with his spotlight he shows that which causes people to run in fear?exposing what they don?t wish to see. And his purpose - to turn over Sleeping Beauty and show us the hidden fungus that?s eating her away, leaving a putrid slime flowing down the bed - is carried along in a mundane shopping cart (an object used and abused and forgotten like the sickly vessel that held his soul).
