Quote from: Peterson on June 10, 2012, 01:32:32 AM
Everyone on here should have already seen Naked Lunch. I found the book unreadable but the film did the concept justice. Sometimes the works of a degenerate junkie must be wrested from their hands in order to make sense and be relevant to anyone else, I guess. Hah.
The film has very little to do with the book. It's more about Burroughs' life generally framed in the setting of the book or something. The focal point of the film is shooting Joan, and how Burroughs felt that the shooting is what made him become a writer, which is totally absent in the book. He often talked about how he had to write himself out of his situation after that tragic night in mexico, but never in a novel. In the introduction to Queer, I think, he says that he and his wife have separated ;) Although I've seen it a number of times and don't hate it or anything, it's more of a Cronenberg film than a Naked Lunch adaptation. Burroughs wasn't particularly impressed with it.
I find it hard to believe that people get into industrial without being Burroughs fans first. Reading Electronic Revolution and Invisible Generation when I was young got me playing with tape recorders and whatnot, and I don't think industrial would have resonated with me if it weren't for that.
I hardly read Burroughs books anymore, unless it's something heretofore unreleased. I read Phil Baker's recent bio and found a number of errors that I emailed him corrections to. If there's a second printing I will be acknowledged for that. Very vindicating.
