4chan archive /lit/ (index)
2012-09-05 09:44 2958454 Anonymous (naked-lunch.jpg 475x305 31kB)
I just started to read Naked Lunch but I'm not getting shit. I'm not a native speaker, but I usually don't have any problems reading in english. Should I keep going ?

3 min later 2958459 Anonymous
Don't worry, lots of people don't know what the hell is going on in this book.

4 min later 2958461 Anonymous
>>2958454 >I'm not getting shit >Should I keep going? I believe the answer is clear.

7 min later 2958473 Anonymous
Burroughs is one of my favourite authors and I couldn't finish Naked Lunch.

10 min later 2958479 Anonymous
>>2958473 how the fuck can he be one of your favourite authors if you haven't even completed his best book?

14 min later 2958487 Anonymous
>>2958479 Because it's not necessary to read all books by an author to get to like him.

18 min later 2958494 Anonymous (1263860566127.jpg 323x323 93kB)
>>2958487

31 min later 2958527 Anonymous
>>2958473 Not sure if good troll or pretentious retard

41 min later 2958547 Anonymous
>>2958479 I consider Burroughs one of my favourites and I haven't even read the first two books.

46 min later 2958561 Anonymous
>>2958547 (I HAVE read Naked Lunch about four or five times, which is probably the most rereads I have ever given a book)

57 min later 2958596 Anonymous
Do not go into Naked Lunch expecting it to be a typical novel that follows the exposition->conflict->resolution flow. Go into it like you would a long prose poem, taking in the disjointed language and jumps in setting like you're going through the depths of a drug addled mind which you really are. If you find yourself liking the noir/pulp elements (know this is not the appropriate term(s) but it will have to do) read his early work (Junkie/Queer), if you want more hallucinatory drug/sex addled work go into the Nova trilogy (Ticket../Soft Machine/Wild Boys) and then tackle The Red Night trilogy (his best work in my opinion)

1 hours later 2958637 BarbadosSlim
>>2958596 Junkie was the first thing I read by him and I loved it. Then I decided to try Naked Lunch. Oooh boy... I aim to finish it

1 hours later 2958642 BarbadosSlim
I have been beating it to the book so much though the pages are starting to stick together. Ahhhh a good book

1 hours later 2958651 Anonymous
>>2958642 Nice work. Is the site leaking codes or something?

1 hours later 2958657 Anonymous
If by "not getting shit" you mean "I have no idea what is happening in this book" then you're doing it right. It makes no sense at all and nothing is explained, it's mostly hallucination.

1 hours later 2958676 Anonymous
>>2958454 There is an abridged audio book read by Burroughs himself. I don't recommend it, he talks much like you'd expect an old man with a history of drug abuse and buggery to sound.

1 hours later 2958735 Anonymous
>>2958454 It was not written as a Book. You can start reading at the end and end at the beginning, and it will be the same. It was compiled by Ginsberg if i remember correctly, from scraps of Writing Burroughs had done while shooting half the heroin in Tangier. The story goes that he stayed on his couch for months, doing nothing but Heroin. I only remember one part that looked more coherent, when two policeman go to the house and try to arrest Lee.

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