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Naked Lunch: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|"[[Non Indicative Title|I can think of at least two things wrong with that title.]]"|[[The Simpsons (
My God, how do you summarize the 1959 novel ''Naked Lunch'' in mere words? The seminal work of [[The Beat Generation|beat generation]] author, [[William S. Burroughs]].
A [[Dystopia|dystopian]] sci-fi meets [[Divine Comedy|Dante's Inferno]], but experienced by a [[Immune to Drugs|heroin addict]] in the [[The Fifties|1950s]]. A carnival of everything middle-class America apparently feared at the time: [[Fetish Fuel|experimental sexuality]], [[Drugs Are Bad|drug abuse]], [[Evil Foreigner|foreigners]], [[White Dude, Black Dude|interracial relations]], [[Science Is Bad|'forbidden sciences']], [[Police Are Useless|gang violence and mob rule]]. A [[Take That]] against traditional American values and [[Hypocrite|perceived hypocrisies]] which reads like a collaboration between Allen Ginsberg and Encyclopedia Dramatica.
Some editions of the book include an author's foreword, where Burroughs [[Don't Explain the Joke|explains the title]]. The phrase "naked lunch" is meant to describe the [[Cassandra Truth|unvarnished truth about what people do to survive in society]]. The specific lunch that Burroughs wants to unclothe is the custom of [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|capital punishment]]. He objects to the fact that many [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner|people who endorse capital punishment]] are still reluctant to pull the switch, throw the first stone, or otherwise take on the moral responsibility for what he considers murder. In a sense, "naked lunch" is the opposite of euphemism. Thus his famous quote, "Let them see what is at the end of that long newspaper spoon." Of course, Burroughs, by his own admission, [[This Is Your Premise
[[File:naked_lunch.jpg|frame]]
[[David Cronenberg]] released a 1991 film adaptation of 'Naked Lunch' [[Pragmatic Adaptation|that used very little of the book's material]], claiming a literal adaption would be not only impossible, but "[[Banned in China|banned]] [[Up to Eleven|in every country in the world]]". Instead, he creates a [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story|heavily fictionalized biopic]] about William S. Burroughs, in which Burrough's long time [[Author Avatar|avatar]], William Lee, is working as exterminator and [[Everybody Must Get Stoned|gets high off his bug powder]]. He later flees to Interzone after the now-legendary [[I Just Shot Marvin in
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=== Contains examples of: ===
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* [[Culture Clash]]: Interzone, although primarily Tangiers, seems to incorporate elements of the American Deep South (Cunt Lick County), the South American rainforests (The Upper Baboonsasshole), and socialist Europe (Annexia).
* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]
* [[Death
* [[Deleted Scene]]: The ''Restored Text'' edition of Naked Lunch contains an appendix that collects some material omitted from the original version of the novel, most memorably the conclusion to Carl's examination by Dr. Benway.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The reptiles giving oral to the Mugwumps for a drug that prolongs life.
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* [[Fur and Loathing]]: 'Guard in a uniform of human skin...'
* [[Genre Roulette]]: An undercover look at drug culture, raunchy porn, biting social satire, science-fiction and some hard boiled noir thrown in for good measure.
* [[A Good Name for
** The group Clem Snide took theirs from a recurring Burroughs character who appears for the first time in ''Naked Lunch''.
* [[Gorn]]: Lots of it.
* [[Sociopathic Hero|Heroic Sociopath]]: A.J. again. He's not actually heroic at all, but he's slightly less evil than most of the other characters (with the exception of Lee himself).
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: The movie has Peter Weller (aka [[
* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]: The Mugwumps and the Typewriters in the film all sound a lot like Burroughs.
* [[I Just Shot Marvin in
** Burroughs went on to write the book for ''[[The Black Rider]]'', a stage musical (with songs by [[Tom Waits|Tom goddamn Waits]]) whose plot also revolves around a man being supernaturally manipulated into shooting his own wife. In the opera on which it's based, ''[[Der Freischutz]]'', the bullet is deflected by the wife's wedding wreath and there's a happy ending. In the Burroughs' version... not so much.
* [[Immodest Orgasm]]: Described as 'like a shooting star'.
* [[Interspecies Romance]]: The Mugwump and a blonde boy in the book, Cloquet and Kiki in the film. Cloquet looks human enough... at first.
* [[
* [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]]: Whether or not there even ''is'' a plot is up for debate. Regardless, every scene reveals something more is going on then we're being told.
* [[Kill It
* [[Large Ham]]: '''THE GREAT SLASHTUBITCH!'''
* [[Mad Scientist]]: Dr. Benway, played hilariously straight.
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** And then there's Doctor Berger, of the ''Mental Health Hour'', who claims proudly to have cured the neuroses of all kinds of patients, from homosexuals to writers. "I got enough health for the whole fuckin world!"
* [[Magic Genetics]]: The Divisionists cut off chunks of their flesh and grow full replicas of themselves in petri dishes.
* [[Making Love in All
* [[Mind Screw]]: ''Literally'' at one point ("This brain atrophy already").
* [[Multiple Endings]]: While not present in the book, a short in the Burroughs anthology, ''Interzone'' contains a story called ''The Conspiracy'' that acts as an alternate ending to the ''Hauser and O'Brien'' section. Instead of calling the police station from a desolate payphone, Lee hides at a female acquaintance's apartment for a few days and muses about his fate.
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* [[Walking the Earth]]: Essentially what Burroughs did in the fifties, migrating from Chicago to New York to Mexico to South America to Tangiers to London. ''Junky'', ''Queer'', and ''Naked Lunch'' are all based on these experiences.
* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: Burroughs wrote in the preface that the hanging scenes were a tract against capital punishment 'in the style of Jonathan Swift'. One would find that easy to believe if he hadn't gone on to write about three more books about hanging, which makes the whole thing dubiously reek of [[Author Appeal]].
* [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made
** This is referenced [[Invoked Trope|in the movie]], where Lee has no memory of writing his manuscript, and suspects that it may not have even been him.
* [[What Might Have Been]]: At one point, [[Frank Zappa]] approached Burroughs with the idea of adapting the novel as a musical - an idea that Burroughs quite liked.
* [[William Telling]]: In [[The Film of the Book]], William Lee is shown shooting a glass of whiskey off of Joan Lee's head in what they called their "William Tell act." That's... basically how it happened in real life.
* [[Word Salad Title]]: Created accidentally by Burroughs' friends Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac; while the work was still in progress, Ginsberg was reading aloud from the book (a portion, ironically, that was cut in later drafts), and Kerouac misheard two words and blurted out something like: '"Naked ''lunch?''" What the hell does ''that'' mean?'
* [[Writer
* [[Zero-G Spot]]
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