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December 12, 2016 1:09 PM

23 Random Paragraphs From Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs William S. Burroughs reads 23 random sentences from Naked Lunch [wiki] [Previously.].
posted by Fizz (16 comments total)

if there was ever a literary artist whose work lent itself to the more or less random, certainly nonlinear nature of the online experience, it's Burroughs.

Now if we can just get Trump to tweet about this ...
posted by philip-random at 1:32 PM on December 12, 2016

    23 I made the round with him once for kicks. You know how old people lose all shame about
    eating, and it makes you puke to watch them? Old junkies are the same about junk. They
    gibber and squeal at sight of it. The spit hangs off their chin, and their stomach rumbles and
    all their guts grind in peristalsis while they cook up, dissolving the body’s decent skin, you
    expect any moment a great blob of protoplasm will Hop right out and surround the junk.
    Really disgust you to see it.
Cool. Thanks for this.
posted by pjmoy at 1:39 PM on December 12, 2016

I read all books randomly. Nice to have it automated...
posted by jim in austin at 1:44 PM on December 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

For folks lacking the context, Burroughs was a major proponent of the cut-up technique of writing. Naked Lunch itself was somewhat randomly assembled.

23 Skidoo!
posted by Nelson at 2:25 PM on December 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

if there was ever a literary artist whose work lent itself to the more or less random, certainly nonlinear nature of the online experience, it's Burroughs.

I was just reading about a new piece of malware that offers its victims a way to escape without paying. (Well, it's another form of payment, naturally. Never give anything away for nothing.) That escape? You're recruited into the machinery of transmission, the viral-informatic pyramid. The Agency. Infect two friends of yours, and you're out.

At the sole discretion of the Agency Higher-Ups, of course. (Never give more than you have to give. And who says they have to give anything?)

And it goes without saying that you're only out until the next time you're infected. (Always take everything back if you possibly can.)

Burroughs was some kind of a prophet.
posted by John T. Hat at 4:39 PM on December 12, 2016

Burroughs is a prophet.

I understand that the full manuscript of The Revised Boy Scout Manual is currently under consideration for publication. Until now only a partial transcript has been available as part of one of Re/Search's publications, and in collaboration with Brion Gysin. That piece proves Burroughs' paranoia was prescient and provides a handy guide for revolution though not in a coherent or executable fashion.
posted by Stanczyk at 5:27 PM on December 12, 2016

Burroughs was a privileged rich kid junkie who felt the need to justify his prosiac addiction with poetry.

He was a very good writer too, but let's not get carried away with the hagiogrophy.
posted by jonmc at 6:08 PM on December 12, 2016

He had just about the best voice ever.
posted by dng at 6:14 PM on December 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

More honest depiction of heroin addiction
posted by jonmc at 6:20 PM on December 12, 2016

Burroughs was a privileged rich kid junkie who felt the need to justify his prosiac addiction with poetry.

He was a very good writer too

Seems to me that this particular post is about the writing, not the junk.
posted by John T. Hat at 7:12 PM on December 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

Burroughs was a very talented poet. In his personal life he could often be a moody weirdo. David Cronenberg made a film about him. The scene in the film where his buddies leave him at the bus station in Tangiers is sad.
posted by ovvl at 8:45 PM on December 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

I didn't know he wrote poems.
posted by thelonius at 12:26 AM on December 13, 2016

I read all books randomly. Nice to have it automated...

I did this, for a while, with Infinite Jest, after the second time I quit trying to read it straight. (The first time, I gave up at once (tennis? mold eating?); eventually I read it straight through). It was surprisingly fulfilling. Sometimes I'd just read the endnotes for a while.
posted by thelonius at 3:28 AM on December 13, 2016

I didn't know he wrote poems.

He probably wrote some poetry, but it's certainly not what he's most known for? but I just took it to mean that there's a poetry-like quality to his prose in any case.
posted by juv3nal at 6:02 AM on December 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

> ...a handy guide for revolution though not in a coherent or executable fashion.

Not actually handy, then.
posted by ardgedee at 6:48 AM on December 13, 2016

I just took it to mean that there's a poetry-like quality to his prose in any case.

No doubt. I have only read "Naked Lunch", years ago, and some of the dream journals he published late in life.
posted by thelonius at 7:57 AM on December 13, 2016