The movie is fascinating, odd, reveals more on second viewing, and is faithful neither to Cronenburg nor Burroughs but an excellent mix of elements of both. Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder involving Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. This incident inspired Burroughs and Kerouac to collaborate on a novel titled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, completed in 1945. The two fledgling authors were unable to get it published, but the manuscript was eventually published in November2008 by Grove Press and Penguin Books.

WB: I would say that that was accurate ... Of course the beginning of writing, and perhaps of all art, was related to the magical. Cave painting, which is the beginning of writing ... The purpose of those paintings was magical, that is to produce the effect that is depicted." — William S. Burroughs [89] Since the word "magic" tends to cause confused thinking, I would like to say exactly what I mean by "magic" and the magical interpretation of so-called reality. The underlying assumption of magic is the assertion of "will" as the primary moving force in this universe – the deep conviction that nothing happens unless somebody or some being wills it to happen. To me this has always seemed self evident ... From the viewpoint of magic, no death, no illness, no misfortune, accident, war or riot is accidental. There are no accidents in the world of magic. [78] It made a very strong impression on me; the day after I saw the opening night of Naked Lunch (long before the "internet"), I established and sysoped a BBS that was the primary alternative discussion forum for onliners in Edmonton, Alberta for several years. It's name? The Interzone.During 1953, Burroughs was at loose ends. Due to legal problems, he was unable to live in the cities toward which he was most inclined. He spent time with his parents in Palm Beach, Florida, and in New York City with Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg refused his romantic advances, [38] Burroughs went to Rome to meet Alan Ansen on a vacation financed from his parents' continuing support. He found Rome and Ansen's company dreary and, inspired by Paul Bowles' fiction, he decided to head for the Tangier International Zone, [8] :232–234 where he rented a room and began to write a large body of text that he personally referred to as Interzone. [39] Burroughs, William S. (2001). Grauerholtz, James; Miles, Barry (eds.). Naked Lunch (the restored texted.). Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-4018-1. Lodge, David (1971). "Objections to William Burroughs". The Novelist at the Crossroads and Other Essays in Fiction and Criticism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd. pp.161–171. As a boy, Burroughs lived on Pershing Avenue (now Pershing Place) in St.Louis' Central West End. He attended John Burroughs School in St.Louis where his first published essay, "Personal Magnetism" – which revolved around telepathic mind-control – was printed in the John Burroughs Review in 1929. [15] He then attended the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, which was stressful for him. The school was a boarding school for the wealthy, "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens". [8] :44 Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. According to his own account, he destroyed these later, ashamed of their content. [16] He kept his sexual orientation concealed from his family well into adulthood. A common story says [17] that he was expelled from Los Alamos after taking chloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student. Yet, according to his own account, he left voluntarily: "During the Easter vacation of my second year I persuaded my family to let me stay in St. Louis." [16] William S. Burroughs' childhood home on Pershing Place in St. Louis Harvard University [ edit ] Chris Walas was hired to perform the special effects for the film. The film required fifty bug typewriters. [15] Music [ edit ]

During this time, Burroughs began using morphine and became addicted. He eventually sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit. Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was Benzedrine, an amphetamine sold over the counter at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. With urging from Allen Ginsberg, and also perhaps Kerouac, Burroughs became intellectually and emotionally linked with Vollmer and by summer1945, had moved in with Vollmer and her daughter. In spring1946, Burroughs was arrested for forging a narcotics prescription. Vollmer asked her psychiatrist, Lewis Wolberg, to sign a surety bond for Burroughs' release. As part of his release, Burroughs returned to St.Louis under his parents' care, after which he left for Mexico to get a divorce from Ilse Klapper. Meanwhile, Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis that resulted in her admission to Bellevue Hospital, which endangered the custody of her child. Upon hearing this, Burroughs immediately returned to New York City to gain her release, asking her to marry him. Their marriage was never formalized, but she lived as his common-law wife. They returned to St.Louis to visit Burroughs' parents and then moved with her daughter to Texas. [22] Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs' child. Their son, William S. Burroughs Jr., was born in 1947. The family moved briefly to New Orleans in 1948. [23] Mexico and South America (1950–1952) [ edit ] It's not the woman with her Kelvinator refrigerator, opening the door to show you how crisp the lettuce stays," says Waldman. "It's the 'naked lunch' ... where you see reality clearly, you see the lettuce decomposing." After the description of the four parties of Interzone, we are told more stories about AJ. After briefly describing Interzone, the novel breaks into sub-stories and heavily cut-up influenced passages. A masterpiece. A cry from hell, a brutal, terrifying, and savagely funny book that swings between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire' NewsweekMay 18 & 19: Naked Lunch". landmarkafterdark.com. 2007-04-16. Archived from the original on 2011-10-07 . Retrieved 2012-05-27. William S. Burroughs, Bill Morgan (ed.), Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1959-1974 (New York: Harper Collins, 2012), pp.360-386. I will examine the connections between so-called occult phenomena and the creative process. Are not all writers, consciously or not, operating in these areas?" — William S. Burroughs [88] Johnson, Rob (2009). "William S. Burroughs as "Good Ol' Boy": Naked Lunch in East Texas". In Harris, Oliver; MacFadyen, Ian (eds.). Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. p.46. ISBN 978-0-8093-2915-1.

Eventually he gets to Mexico where he is assigned to Dr. Benway; for what, he is not told. Benway appears and he tells about his previous doings in Annexia as a "Total Demoralizator". The story then moves to a state called Freeland, a form of limbo, where we learn of Islam Inc. Here, some new characters are introduced, such as Clem, Carl, and Joselito. Naked Lunch is considered a key influence on the cyberpunk genre. [44] William Gibson has cited it as one of the novels that most influenced his own writing. [45] Obscenity and censorship [ edit ]

Cyber incident

Lodge, David (1991). "Objections to William Burroughs". In Skerl, Jennie; Lydenberg, Robin (eds.). William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. p.78. ISBN 0-8093-1586-6. In the film William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, Ira Silverberg commented on Burroughs' development as a writer: Tytell, John (1991). "The Broken Circuit". In Skerl, Jennie; Lydenberg, Robin (eds.). William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. pp.155–156. ISBN 0-8093-1586-6. Naked Lunch has sometimes been classified as dystopian science fiction in the tradition of Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four. [28] [29] Marshall McLuhan considered the novel an "anti-Utopia" response to Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations. [30] Literary significance and reception [ edit ]