Has anyone read Naked Lunch? If so, do you recommend it?

Yes. It is marvelous to read.
Even more so to read while stoned.
Even more so to read aloud with friends who are also stoned.

It is an iconic piece of American Literature, but like Finnegan’s Wake, I found it unreadable. Try the first 25 pages and see what you think.

It helps to read about the goings-on during the time period when it was written.

Here’s to you, @gailcalled, for being brave enough to say out loud that you couldn’t read Joyce’s acknowledged masterpiece. You are one of our most cultivated and able readers, and if you are stymied, I don’t feel bad to say that I am too. (I haven’t attempted The Naked Lunch, so I can’t comment.)

Not that I would discourage anyone from trying to read anything that interests them. Go for it, @leogirly4life. People respond to things in all kinds of ways.

I had exactly the same problem with it as @gailcalled. Couldn’t get into the film, either.

If you like reading about doing heroin with a safety pin and an eyedropper, “rimming”, and men being raped by other men, then read Naked Lunch.

I gave up on the book after the 3rd or 4th male rape (and still no discernable plot), but I thought the movie was ok.

It’s meant to be enjoyed on drugs.

Otherwise you won’t have a damn idea what is going on.

I did enjoy it though, but that’s just because I’m a pretentious college student.

Try it. You never know.

I was going to read that last year until my friend who’s book it was said not to bother.
Maybe i’ll take it on a trip to the tropics for a hallucinogen and rum bender next time i have the chance.

Neat! I’m reading it for the first time right now.

I can usually tear through books in a sitting or two, even ones I don’t exactly like. Naked Lunch is different; I’m having to read it a few pages at a time here and there. About halfway through at this point.

So far, there doesn’t seem to be a plot; I’d say it’s more a string of loosely connected events, a stream of consciousness, or a series of images. The imagery is hard to describe. Most of the episodes are about sex and drugs. Usually, when we think of those two things, we imagine getting some sort of pleasure out of it, even if it’s a guilty pleasure. There’s none of that here. It’s all things like the hunt to find a usable vein, deviant sex acts, body fluids, the sickness of drug addicts, different kinds of drugs, dirty city streets, and violence- but told through the eyes of someone who is really, really fucking high, so there is a constant thread of very inventive trippyness and departures from reality.

As far as there being no narrative- it goes past that. Burroughs plays with language, like inventing slang and then defining it (like in the SNL sketches with Stefon where he says “It’s that thing where…” I love those) or repeating the same phrase in slightly different ways.

Definitely different from anything I’ve read before.

Read it. Never let the threat of complexity stop you from reading anything. (Although for the record this is not really a complex novel.)

Prepare yourself for ass-raping monsters and pedophilia and drugs, et cetera, though. I mean textually. Do not try to understand it. You’re not really supposed to. People make the mistake of trying to understand it and when they can’t they dismiss it. But it’s an experience, not a lecture or a lesson. It’s only ‘complicated’ reading if you try to make sense of it.

@gailcalled – (Apostrophe check.)

@Jeruba – Although of course there’s no consensus re: Finnegans Wake as ‘masterpiece’ of course.

If you enjoy the idea of being dragged along on someone’s endless drug hallucinations, go right ahead.

Personally, I don’t make the mistake of ascribing complexity (which has the implication of deep thought) to the chaos of a drug scrambled brain. Chaos is chaos. Its not complexity.

I certainly haven’t the slightest bit of guilt over avoiding this book because supposedly my mind just isn’t up to par enough to appreciate it’s dubious intricate “complexity”.

If I want to experience a drug-addled hallucination, I’m perfectly capable of creating my own rather than meandering around in someone else’s. Thank you very much. I believe I’ll tale a pass.

But everyone has different tastes. If you decide it’s not for you, it certainly isn’t anything to lose any sleep over or feel inadequate about.

But if it appeals to you, enjoy.

Thank you everyone for your responses. They have very helpful & I do plan to read this book. Currently though I am going to start reading Catch 22 then Naked Lunch. William S Burroughs to me seems like a mad genius. I haven’t read anything by him, yet…But I can tell by the way he writes & what he writes about, that it will intrigue me none the less & open my mind to new worlds of chaos & shock value in many different ways. So yes I will read this book this Spring & I thank you all for being so helpful :)

Ruth

I was 17 and sober when I tried to read it…

One other thing from that book stuck in my mind. There was an assertion that our society is a matriarchy, and that all matriarchies are homophobic.

What do y’all make of that?

@absalom:Point apostrophe taken.

@leogirly4life: Catch 22 is a legitimate traditional linear novel, well-written…with plot, character, scenery, dialog, interior monolog and original ideas.

Every sentence makes sense, both linguistically and dramatically. I still remember the first line, which I memorized years ago.

“It was love at first sight.|” I can cite the next line, but I don’t want to ruin your pleasure.