The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
emcee_othello's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I donât think William S. Burroughs meant for anyone to understand Naked Lunch. I doubt even he completely understood what heâd made, especially if weâre to trust his assertion that he wrote most of it while strung out on heroin. But even after heâd sobered up and began editing, I think Burroughs recognized the hallucinogenic potency of his words and decided that the toxic prose contained in Naked Lunch was the only true and unabridged way to represent the life of a junkie.
Burroughs insisted that drug addiction was a diseaseâa âjunk virusâ that threatened humanity as much as any other deadly ailment. But he also recognized that heroin abuse could only be promulgated in a capitalist system. Drugs are the perfect commodity. They sate a primal appetite for pleasure, turn ordinary people into lifelong customers, and most importantly transform a curious mind into one wholly dependent on product. Addicts move at the whims of pushersâdesperate to feed a fix, made to wait for hours or days, and always in the losing position in a bargain. It could be an allegory for consumerism if opioid abuse wasnât still an epidemic today.
If Naked Lunch is about anything, itâs about the miserable life of an addict. The paranoia, the sickness, the lethargy of being hooked on heroin. But itâs also about the world that addiction createsâthe âperfect capitalismâ of the drug market. Naked Lunch is as much about sickness as it is about how drug pushers both illegal and corporate exploit and experiment on people. Burroughs insinuates that the pusher, the pharmacist, the CIA are all just as addicted to power and control as their customers are to their product. See the junkies go ape as they tear each other apart and hang themselves for sex. See the scientist observing from a window, hands soaked in blood, shaking his head in disappointment. See it here, then look around you; you might be eating at the same lunch, too.
Burroughs insisted that drug addiction was a diseaseâa âjunk virusâ that threatened humanity as much as any other deadly ailment. But he also recognized that heroin abuse could only be promulgated in a capitalist system. Drugs are the perfect commodity. They sate a primal appetite for pleasure, turn ordinary people into lifelong customers, and most importantly transform a curious mind into one wholly dependent on product. Addicts move at the whims of pushersâdesperate to feed a fix, made to wait for hours or days, and always in the losing position in a bargain. It could be an allegory for consumerism if opioid abuse wasnât still an epidemic today.
If Naked Lunch is about anything, itâs about the miserable life of an addict. The paranoia, the sickness, the lethargy of being hooked on heroin. But itâs also about the world that addiction createsâthe âperfect capitalismâ of the drug market. Naked Lunch is as much about sickness as it is about how drug pushers both illegal and corporate exploit and experiment on people. Burroughs insinuates that the pusher, the pharmacist, the CIA are all just as addicted to power and control as their customers are to their product. See the junkies go ape as they tear each other apart and hang themselves for sex. See the scientist observing from a window, hands soaked in blood, shaking his head in disappointment. See it here, then look around you; you might be eating at the same lunch, too.
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Violence
Itâs some crazy stuff! Very obscene.
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