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{{Short description|1959 novel by William S. Burroughs}}
{{About|the book|the film|Naked Lunch (film)||Naked Lunch (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Naked Lunch
| image = NakedLunch1stedition.jpg
| caption = 1959 [[Olympia Press]] edition, with original title
| author = [[William S. Burroughs]]
| country = France
| language = English
| genre = {{hlist | [[Science fiction]] | [[Surrealism]]}}
| publisher = [[Olympia Press]] (Europe)<br />[[Grove Press]] (US)
| pub_date = 1959
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover]] & [[Paperback]])
| isbn = 978-3-548-02843-9
| isbn_note = (reprint)
| oclc = 69257438
}}
'''''Naked Lunch''''' (first published as '''''The Naked Lunch''''') is a 1959 [[novel]] by American author [[William S. Burroughs]]. The novel does not follow a clear linear plot, but is instead structured as a series of non-chronological "routines". Many of these routines follow William Lee, an [[opioid]] addict who travels to the surreal city of Interzone and begins working for the organization "Islam Inc."

Burroughs wrote ''Naked Lunch'' while living in the [[Tangier International Zone]], which inspired the book's Interzone setting. There, he witnessed escalating tensions between European powers and the [[Moroccan Nationalist Movement]], which are reflected in Interzone's fictional political struggles. Burroughs also struggled with opioid addiction, which the novel describes extensively, although critics disagree whether the novel uses opioids as a metaphor for broader forms of control.

The novel was highly controversial for its depictions of drug use, sadomasochism, and [[body horror]], including a famous description of a man's talking anus taking over his body. The book was considered obscene by the [[United States Postal Service]], the state of [[Massachusetts]], and the city of [[Los Angeles]], each leading to separate legal challenges. In the Massachusetts trial, now recognized as a landmark censorship case, defense attorney [[Edward de Grazia]] called writers such as [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[John Ciardi]], and [[Norman Mailer]] to testify to the book's literary merit. Although the court initially ruled the book was in fact obscene, this decision was overturned by the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]], which allowed the book to be sold.

''Naked Lunch'' has received a divided critical response. The book's admirers have compared it to the satires of [[Jonathan Swift]] and the religious works of [[Dante Aligheri]] and [[Hieronymous Bosch]]. Its detractors have compared it to pornography, often calling it monotonous and boring. The book has been considered [[Utopian and dystopian fiction#Dystopian fiction|dystopian science fiction]], [[postmodern literature|postmodern]], [[parody|parodic]], and [[picaresque]]. Its experimental techniques have been highly influential on rock music and the [[cyberpunk]] genre. ''Naked Lunch'' is considered one of the defining texts of the [[Beat Generation]].

==Background==
[[File:Africa,_administrative_divisions,_1950._LOC_97687633.jpg|thumb|This 1950 map of Africa shows the [[Tangier International Zone]] in the Northwest, just below the [[Strait of Gibraltar]]. Today, the area is part of [[Morocco]].]]

In 1923, European powers established the [[Tangier International Zone]] in Northern [[Morocco]]. To ensure the area's neutrality, the Zone was overseen by representatives from multiple European nations alongside the [[List of rulers of Morocco|sultan of Morocco]].{{sfn|Mullins|2002|p=12}} This government was unable to effectively regulate drugs or prostitution,{{sfn|Mullins|2002|p=4}} and American residents were not subject to Moroccan laws.{{sfn|Mullins|2002|p=10}}

[[William S. Burroughs]] moved to the Tangier International Zone in 1954, shortly after the publication of his first novel ''[[Junkie (novel)|Junkie]]''. Burroughs was attracted by the zone's reputation for allowing drug use and homosexuality, as portrayed in the works of [[Paul Bowles]],{{efn|A minor character in the novel named Andrew Keif is directly based on Paul Bowles.{{sfn|Finlayson|2015|p=212}}{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=113}}}} and declared his intention to "steep myself in vice".{{sfn|Finlayson|2015|pp=185–187}} In Tangier, Burroughs became severely addicted to [[Oxycodone|Eukodal]],{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=258}} eventually using the drug every two hours.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=262}} He had previously been addicted to [[heroin]] while writing ''Junkie''.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=190-102}} Burroughs also began a sexual relationship with a teenage boy named Kiki, which would last until Kiki's death in September 1957.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=254}}{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=282}}

In May 1954, Burroughs began work on what would become ''Naked Lunch''. He mailed his early drafts to his friends [[Allen Ginsberg]] and [[Jack Kerouac]], who were the core members of the [[Beat generation]] along with Burroughs himself.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=274}}{{sfn|Sterritt|2013|p=35}} In a letter to Ginsberg, Burroughs explicitly identified Interzone as a stand-in for the Tangier International Zone.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=275}} However, the novel's Interzone is also closely related to the fictional "Composite city" Burroughs described in his earlier ''[[The Yage Letters]]'', which he wrote before visiting Tangier.{{sfn|Foster|1992|pp=156–157}}

While living in Tangier, Burroughs witnessed violent clashes between Moroccan nationalists and [[French protectorate in Morocco|French authorities]] over its political status. Burroughs did not take a strong stance on the conflict, at one point calling himself "the most politically neutral man in Africa". He defended the riots as just and denounced the brutality of European [[imperialism]], but worried about the impact of Islamic rule on individual freedom.<ref name="Natives">{{cite book |last1=Hemmer |first1=Kurt |editor1-last=Harris |editor1-first=Oliver |editor2-last=MacFadyen |editor2-first=Ian |title=Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays |date=2009 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-2915-1 |pages=65–72 |chapter="The natives are getting uppity": Tangier and Naked Lunch}}</ref>

In 1955, Burroughs attempted to quit Eukodol by checking himself into [[Haim Benchimol#Benchimol Hospital|Benchimol Hospital]], where his experiences helped inspire the character of Dr Benway.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=279–280}}{{efn|An earlier version of Benway appeared in Burroughs' 1938 story ''Twilight's Last Gleaming'', in which he drunkenly performs surgery aboard a sinking ship.{{sfn|Foster|1992|p=157–158}}}} In 1956, Burroughs successfully mitigated his drug dependency using [[apomorphine]].{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=284–285}} Burroughs replaced his opioid use with [[cannabis]], and continued writing sections of the novel and mailing them to Ginsberg.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=290}} Burroughs later stated he "wrote nearly the whole of Naked Lunch on cannabis".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bates |first1=William |editor1-last=Hibbard |editor1-first=Allen |title=Conversations with William S. Burroughs |date=1974 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |location=Jackson |isbn=1-57806-182-2 |chapter=Talking with William S Burroughs |page=93}}</ref>

In early 1957, Kerouac and Ginsberg visited Burroughs in Tangier, where they helped Burroughs type his manuscript and assemble the fragments he had mailed them over the years.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=301–305}} In the recollection of Paul Bowles, who met Burroughs in 1954, {{blockquote|Allen Ginsberg came in '57 and began to supervise the retrieving of the endangered manuscript of ''Naked Lunch'', which was scattered all over the floor of Bill's room at the Muniriya. The pages had been lying here for many months, covered with grime, heelmarks, mouse-droppings. It was [[Alan Ansen]] who financed the expedition, and between them they salvaged the book.<ref>{{cite interview |last= Bowles|first= Paul|subject-link=Paul Bowles |date=1981 |title= Paul Bowles|url= https://archive.org/details/beatwritersatwor0000unse/page/200/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater|work= Beat Writers at Work|interviewer-last= Bailey|interviewer-first= Jeffrey |location= [[Tangier]]|publisher =  [[The Modern Library]]|access-date=29 June 2025|editor1-last=Plimpton|editor1-first = George | editor1-link = George Plimpton | isbn=9780375752155|oclc=1165434915|page = 200}}</ref>}} However, Ginsberg worried the lack of character development or a clear narrative would make the book impossible to publish.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=308}} That summer, Burroughs spent three weeks in Copenhagen, which inspired additional sections of the novel set in "Freeland".{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=309-311}}

==Publication history and legal challenges==

In 1957, Allen Ginsberg submitted the ''Naked Lunch'' manuscript to [[Olympia Press]], which had a reputation for publishing controversial novels such as [[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|''Tropic of Cancer'']] and ''[[Lolita]]''. Olympia rejected the manuscript, arguing that it was inaccessible and lacked structure.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=6–8}} Ginsberg then sent the manuscript to [[Irving Rosenthal]], editor of the ''[[Chicago Review]]''. Rosenthal published excerpts from the novel in the ''Review'''s Spring 1958 and Autumn 1958 issues.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=8–9}} [[Jack Mabley]], a columnist for the ''[[Chicago Daily News]]'', publicly criticized the ''Chicago Review'' for publishing "obscenity".{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=10}} In response, the University of Chicago insisted that material from Burroughs and [[Jack Kerouac]] could not appear in the upcoming Winter issue.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=19–20}} Irving Rosenthal resigned from the ''Review'' and founded a new literary magazine with Pete Carroll called ''Big Table'', which published the suppressed material in its first issue.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=24}}

===Post Office hearing===

Rosenthal and Carroll planned to mail the first issue of ''Big Table'' in March 1959. However, the US Post Office considered the magazine obscene, which made it un-mailable under the [[Comstock laws]].{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=26–27}} On June 4th, 1959, the Post Office launched a formal hearing over ''Big Table'''s obscenity, with a particular focus on Burroughs' ''Ten Episodes from Naked Lunch'' and a short story by Jack Keruoac titled "Old Angel Midnight".{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=31}}

Joel Sprayregen, ''Big Table'''s attorney, advocated for the magazine's literary value and insisted it was not obscene under the criteria established in ''[[Roth v. United States]]''.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=35}} Pete Carroll, the magazine's co-founder, testified that he considered Burroughs a satirist in the tradition of [[Jonathan Swift]] and [[Nathanael West]]{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=45}} and that his social criticism required vulgar language.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=51}} William Duvall, the hearing examiner,{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=37}} admitted that Burroughs' work had some "intelligible satire", but felt its vulgarity outweighed any literary merit. He ruled that the magazine was in fact obscene and could not be mailed.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=78–79}}

In February 1960, ''Big Table'' filed a federal complaint, arguing that the Post Office's decision violated the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]].{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=89–90}} On June 30, 1960, the [[United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois]] overturned the Post Office's findings. The Post Office did not appeal this decision.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=97–101}}

===European and American publication===

Inspired by the attention around ''Big Table'''s excerpts, Olympia Press reconsidered its rejection and published the novel. Olympia first published the English-language ''Naked Lunch'' in France in July 1959.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=36}}

[[Grove Press]] bought the American publication rights, and initially planned to exclude the chapters describing Hassan's "Rumpus Room" and A.J.'s party.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=143–144}} Burroughs himself had called those sections "pornographic" and expected they would be cut from a US release, although he also felt they constituted a political argument against capital punishment.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=134–137}} Ultimately, Grove decided to publish the novel uncensored, encouraged by the praise the book had received from [[Norman Mailer]] and [[Mary McCarthy (author)|Mary McCarthy]]. ''Naked Lunch'' was first published in the US on November 20, 1962, and sold over 14,000 copies in the first 4 months.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=157–158}} The US edition included a new appendix by Burroughs titled "Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness".{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=146}} Burroughs originally wrote the deposition in response to a legal hearing in Paris; the text asserts that he and his novel do not promote the use of drugs. Allen Ginsberg criticized this appendix; he found it overly moralizing and felt Burroughs was avoiding responsibility for his own work.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=356}}

In 1962, the novel was translated into German, but the publishers intentionally left the most explicit sections in untranslated English.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ploog |first1=Jürgen |editor1-last=Harris |editor1-first=Oliver |editor2-last=MacFadyen |editor2-first=Ian |title=Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays |date=2009 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-2915-1 |pages=127–128 |chapter=A Bombshell in Rhizomatic Slow Motion: The Reception of Naked Lunch in Germany}}</ref> In 1964, it was published in the United Kingdom by [[John Calder]]. Calder avoided selling the book to wholesalers and only distributed small print runs at a high price to avoid legal attention, and successfully avoided prosecution.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sutherland |first1=John |title=Offensive Literature: Decensorship in Britain, 1960 - 1982 |date=1982 |publisher=Junction Books Ltd |location=London |isbn=0-389-20354-8 |pages=48–49 |url=https://archive.org/details/offensiveliterat0000suth}}</ref>

===Boston Trial===
[[File:Hieronymus_Bosch_-_The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights_-_Hell.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Hell]] as depicted by [[Hieronymous Bosch]] in ''[[The Garden of Earthly Delights]]''. During the Boston trial, authors and professors compared ''Naked Lunch'' to the religious works of Bosch, [[Dante Aligheri]], and [[Augustine of Hippo]].]]

''Naked Lunch'' was [[banned in Boston]], and in January 1965 the novel was tried ''[[In rem jurisdiction|in rem]]''. William Cowin represented the state of Massachusetts, while [[Edward de Grazia]] represented Grove Press.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=171–177}} Cowin argued the book's vulgarity overwhelmed any literary value it had, and that nearly every page contained something obscene. His prosecution emphasized the novel's lack of structure, arguing that the most explicit passages could be judged in isolation without considering the book as a whole.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=212}}

De Grazia called authors and professors to testify about the novel's social value and literary merit. [[Norman Mailer]] praised Burroughs' literary talent and defended the novel's structure by comparing it to ''[[Finnegans Wake]]''.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=198–199}} [[John Ciardi]] compared the book to a hellfire sermon akin to the works of [[Dante Alighieri]] and [[Hieronymous Bosch]] and argued its vulgarity was a key part of its effect. He also argued that Burroughs' uncontrolled writing process did not undermine the novel's artistry.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=180–184}} Professor Norman Holland agreed with Ciardi's interpretation and suggested [[Augustine]] might have written a work like ''Naked Lunch'' if he were still alive.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=190–191}} Professor Thomas Jackson also compared the novel's explicit passages to Dante Alighieri's scenes of [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] and scatology,{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=208–209}} and the novel's structure to [[Ezra Pound]]'s ''[[The Cantos|Cantos]]'' and [[T.S. Eliot]]'s ''[[The Waste Land]]''.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=214}} [[Paul Hollander]] argued the novel showcased the depravity of addiction,{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=184–187}} and John Sturrock suggested it helped readers understand drug-induced [[psychosis]].{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=202–203}} [[Allen Ginsberg]] discussed the book as a metaphor for addiction in general, analyzed connections between the novel's depictions of sexuality and drugs, and read his poem "On Burroughs' Work" from the stand.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=216–222}}

In his [[cross-examination]]s, William Cowin suggested the novel was anti-Catholic,{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=187}}{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=193}} quizzed the witnesses on whether they could remember its characters,{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=187–189}} and challenged them to interpret provocative passages like the talking anus scene.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=201–202}} He did not call any witnesses to testify against the book.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=228–230}}

On March 23, 1965, the court ruled that the novel was in fact obscene.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=235}} Grove appealed this decision to the [[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court]]. On July 7, 1966, based on new obscenity guidelines from the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] in ''[[Memoirs v. Massachusetts]]'', the state supreme court overturned the ban, arguing that the testimony had demonstrated the novel's social and literary value.{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=239–243}} In a dissent, Justice [[Paul Reardon]] insisted the book was "literary sewage".{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=244}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Attorney General Vs. A Book Named "Naked Lunch."|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/massachusetts/supreme-court/volumes/351/351mass298.html |publisher=Justia |access-date=4 August 2023 |date=7 July 1966}}</ref>

Grove Press exploited the trial as a marketing strategy. Grove compared ''Naked Lunch'' to ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'', ''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover]]'', and ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]'', which had also been challenged for obscenity, and included transcripts of the court testimonies in a new edition of the book.<ref name="Dirty">{{cite book |last1=Glass |first1=Loren |editor1-last=Harris |editor1-first=Oliver |editor2-last=MacFadyen |editor2-first=Ian |title=Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays |date=2009 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-2915-1 |pages=177–187 |chapter=Still Dirty After All These Years: The Continuing Trials of Naked Lunch}}</ref>

===Los Angeles Trial===

On January 28, 1965, the city of Los Angeles tried two people for selling copies of ''Naked Lunch'', arguing they had violated California's obscenity statute. Municipal Judge Alan Campbell described the novel as "repugnant" and argued that the chapter describing A.J's Party may have qualified as obscene, but found that the book as a whole did not appeal to a "prurient interest" and therefore did not violate the statute. Instead, the judge wrote that "its predominant interest is to complete boredom".{{sfn|Goodman|1981|pp=232-233}}

==Plot summary==
In New York City, William Lee hides from a narcotics agent. He and fellow heroin user Bill Gains agree that law enforcement has become too aggressive and decide to leave New York. Lee travels to Mexico City, then a period of time wandering around Latin America and finally to the surreal city of Interzone.

Lee finds that Interzone is centered around a black market of drugs and giant centipede meat, and its residents include monstrous creatures called Mugwumps. The city is contested by four rival political parties: Liquefactionists, who want to merge everyone into one protoplasmic entity; Senders, who want to control everyone else through telepathy; Divisionists, who subdivide into replicas of themselves; and Factualists, who oppose the other three.

A.J., a Factualist, and Hassan, a Liquefactionist, both support a mysterious organization called Islam Inc. This organization hires Lee to find and recruit the sociopathic Doctor Benway, who previously established a dystopian [[police state]] in Annexia. Lee meets Benway in Freeland, where he performs psychological experiments at a "Reconditioning Center". He agrees to work for Islam Inc. These events are interspersed with non-chronological vignettes about Lee's criminal history and drug use, A.J.'s and Hassan's sadomasochistic parties, Benway's unethical experiments, other characters' grotesque transformations, and abstract [[cut-up]] sequences with no clear narrative arc.

Back in New York, Lee shoots two police officers who try to arrest him, then calls the police department, which tells him those officers didn't exist. Lee considers himself "occluded from space-time" and believes he will no longer interact with the surreal world of Interzone.

The novel ends with an "Atrophied Preface" about the book itself, followed by a sequence of disjointed and impressionistic closing lines.

==Title==
[[File:Allen Ginsberg 1979 - cropped.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Allen Ginsberg]] ''(pictured in 1979)'' inadvertently coined the novel's title. Ginsberg later incorporated the title into a poem, which he read in court during one of the book's obscenity trials.]]

Burroughs originally called his manuscript ''Interzone''.{{sfn|Sterritt|2013|pp=60–61}} He also considered several titles involving the [[Sargasso Sea]], including ''Meet Me in Sargasso'' and ''The Sargasso Trail'', possibly inspired by [[William Hope Hodgson]]'s ''[[Sargasso Sea Stories]]''.<ref name="Insect">{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Timothy S. |editor1-last=Harris |editor1-first=Oliver |editor2-last=MacFadyen |editor2-first=Ian |title=Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays |date=2009 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-2915-1 |pages=223–232 |chapter=Random Insect Doom: The Pulp Science Fiction of Naked Lunch}}</ref>{{efn|Burroughs' own nickname for Tangier's Café Central was "The Sargasso",{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=295}} and near the end of the novel, the protagonist William Lee describes himself as "occluded from space-time like an eel's ass occludes when he stops eating on the way to the Sargasso".<ref name="Ayers">{{cite journal |last1=Ayers |first1=David |title=The Long Last Goodbye: Control and Resistance in the Work of William Burroughs |journal=Journal of American Studies |date=1993 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=223–236 |doi=10.1017/S0021875800031546 |jstor=40467261 |s2cid=145291870 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40467261 |issn=0021-8758|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{sfn|Burroughs|1992|p=180}}}}

The term ''naked lunch'' began as a mangled quote from Burroughs' unfinished novel ''[[Queer (novel)|Queer]]''. Allen Ginsberg misread the phrase "a leer of nakedlust wrenched" as "a leer of naked lunch", and [[Jack Kerouac]] encouraged Burroughs to use Ginsberg's version as a title. Burroughs originally planned to use the title for a compilation of three earlier works, before ultimately using it for his novel.<ref name="EndlessNovel">{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Oliver |editor1-last=Harris |editor1-first=Oliver |editor2-last=MacFadyen |editor2-first=Ian |title=Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays |date=2009 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-2915-1 |pages=14–25 |chapter=The Beginnings of "Naked Lunch, an Endless Novel"}}</ref> Olympia Press first published the book as ''The Naked Lunch'', but later editions removed the definite article.<ref>{{harvnb|Burroughs|2001|loc=Editors Notes, p. 240–242}}</ref>

Burroughs explained the title by saying it "means exactly what the words say: ''naked'' lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork."{{sfn|Burroughs|1992|p=199}} Ginsberg interpreted the title in his poem ''On Burroughs' Work'', published in the collection ''Reality Sandwiches'':<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ginsberg |first1=Allen |title=Reality Sandwiches |date=1963 |publisher=City Lights Books |location=San Francisco |page=40 |url=https://archive.org/details/realitysandwiche00gins |access-date=4 August 2023}}</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>A Naked Lunch is natural to us, 
    we eat reality sandwiches.
But allegories are so much lettuce.
    Don't hide the madness.</poem>|author=Allen Ginsberg, ''On Burroughs' Work''}}

==Style==
{{quote box | width = 25em
|quote = You can cut into Naked Lunch at any intersection point... I have written many prefaces. They atrophy and amputate spontaneous like the little toe amputates in a West African disease confined to the Negro race and the passing blonde shows her brass ankle as a manicured toe bounces across the club terrace, retrieved and laid at her feet by her Afghan hound...

Naked Lunch is a blueprint, a How-To Book... Black insect lusts open into vast other-planet landscapes... Abstract concepts, bare as algebra, narrow down to a black turd or a pair of aging cojones...

— Atrophied Preface, ''Naked Lunch''{{sfn|Burroughs|1992|p=187}}
}}

The majority of ''Naked Lunch'' does not follow any clear structure, chronology, or geography.{{sfn|Tanner|1966|p=552}} Instead, it abruptly jumps between a series of loosely connected episodes (called "routines" by Burroughs), which can be read in any order.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/welcome-interzone-william-s-burroughss-centennial/
|title=Welcome to Interzone: On William S. Burroughs' Centennial|first=Sand|last=Avidar-Walzer|magazine=Los Angeles Review of Books|date=31 January 2014|access-date=4 July 2023}}</ref> These routines are improvisational and often comedic, likely inspired by burlesque and vaudeville.{{sfn|Foster|1992|p=158–159}} Although the novel is book-ended with a realistic crime story, most of these routines are abstract and surreal, blurring any distinction between fantasy and reality.<ref name="mcconnell">{{cite book |last1=McConnell |first1=Frank |editor1-last=Skerl |editor1-first=Jennie |editor2-last=Lydenberg |editor2-first=Robin |title=William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale and Edwardsville |isbn=0-8093-1586-6 |page=99 |chapter=William Burroughs and the Literature of Addiction}}</ref>{{sfn|Sterritt|2013|pp=60–61}} These routines are sporadically interrupted by parenthetical asides, which comment on or clarify the text. For example, when describing a scene as taking place "...under silent wings of the [[Anopheles]] mosquito," Burroughs adds the parenthetical "(Note: This is not a figure. Anopheles mosquitoes ''are'' silent.)"{{sfn|Burroughs|1992|p=39}}{{sfn|Lydenberg|1987|pp=13-15}} Many scenes are described as though  on film, using the language of stage directions and editing techniques.{{sfn|Mullins|2002|p=63}} This structure builds on that of Burroughs' incomplete previous novel ''Queer'', which began as a conventional narrative before fragmenting into its own series of episodic routines.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Oliver |title=Can You See a Virus? The Queer Cold War of William Burroughs |journal=Journal of American Studies |date=1999 |volume=33 |issue=2 |page=255 |doi=10.1017/S0021875899006106 |jstor=27556645 |s2cid=145305927 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27556645 |quote=The origins of The Naked Lunch in Queer are tied to the development of the routine as a form of humorous and horrific excess. Queer starts off as straight narrative, and you might say the text only becomes itself through its own narrative disintegration, its steady collapse into a series of barely connected episodes. Lee's routines turn increasingly autonomous. Given the form of The Naked Lunch, which disconnects its routines from any anchoring subjectivity or interpersonal relations, and short-circuits narrative continuity and closure, the fragmented incompleteness of the Queer manuscript is less a measure of failure, than a sign of things to come.|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Burroughs struggled to organize the routines into a coherent narrative. [[Brion Gysin]], staying in Paris' [[Beat Hotel]] alongside Burroughs, suggested he view the work as a painting observed all at once rather than a traditional novel, which can only be read linearly.{{sfn|Ginsberg|2017|p=194}} Following this advice, Burroughs mostly arranged the book's chapters arbitrarily; however, he consciously moved the "Hauser and O'Brien" chapter to the end, creating a frame narrative in which William Lee evades "the heat" of the law.<ref name="EndlessNovel"/>{{sfn|Foster|1992|p=160}} Lee's escape from the agents at the end of the book is portrayed as "spiritual and linguistically radical" freedom.<ref name="Ayers"/> Ron Loewinsohn interprets the book's structure as a [[katabasis]]. The novel begins with Lee descending into an underground subway, becomes increasingly surreal until Lee reaches the chaotic Hell of Interzone, then ends with Lee emerging back into the world above.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=566}}

{{quote box |left | width = 25em
|quote = On stools covered in white satin sit naked Mugwumps sucking translucent, colored syrups through alabaster straws. Mugwumps have no liver and nourish themselves exclusively on sweets. Thin, purple-blue lips cover a razor-sharp beak of black bone with which they frequently tear each other to shreds in fights over clients. These creatures secrete an addicting fluid from their erect penises which prolongs life by slowing metabolism.

— ''Naked Lunch''{{sfn|Burroughs|1992|p=46}}
}}

Burroughs' writing aims to provoke disgust.{{sfn|Lydenberg|1987|p=143}} The novel contains many explicit sexual scenes, emphasizing "sterile, inhuman, malevolent" acts of [[castration]], [[sodomy]], [[pederasty]], and [[sadomasochism]];<ref name="hassan">{{cite book |last1=Hassan |first1=Ihab |editor1-last=Skerl |editor1-first=Jennie |editor2-last=Lydenberg |editor2-first=Robin |title=William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale and Edwardsville |isbn=0-8093-1586-6 |pages=53–67 |chapter=The Subtracting Machine: The Work of William Burroughs}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Oxenhandler |first1=Neal |editor1-last=Skerl |editor1-first=Jennie |editor2-last=Lydenberg |editor2-first=Robin |title=William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale and Edwardsville |isbn=0-8093-1586-6 |pages=133–147 |chapter=Listening to Burroughs' Voice}}</ref> in particular, the novel features recurring imagery connecting [[hanging]] with [[orgasm]].<ref>{{harvnb|Tanner|1966|p=550}}: "And the torments of deprivation are portrayed by the image of "the orgasm of a hanged man when the neck snaps" which becomes a veritable obsession in Naked Lunch."</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stimpson |first1=Catharine R. |title=The Beat Generation And The Trials Of Homosexual Liberation |journal=Salmagundi |date=1982 |issue=58/59 |pages=373–392 |jstor=40547579 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40547579 |issn=0036-3529 |quote=Repetitive images of necrophiliacs getting it off as young men ejaculate on the gallows are meant to gag}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Mullins|2002|p=63}}: "While representations of sex acts are absent from Burroughs's first three books, one sex act is repeatedly—almost obsessively—represented in Naked Lunch and later books. The various hanging scenes in Naked Lunch and the cut-up trilogy that follows all figure strangulation as the coming together of sex and death, of orgasm and metamorphosis."</ref> In most cases, the novel portrays sex as exploitative rather than consensual.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=255–256}} Many "routines" involve [[body horror]], especially grotesque transformations of humans into insects or amorphous blobs.<ref name="hassan"/> Many of the novel's grotesque images revolve around consumption: people are described as animals like vampire bats and boa constrictors, trade giant centipede meat, and depend on the secretions of monsters called Mugwumps.{{sfn|Tanner|1966|pp=553–554}}{{sfn|Burroughs|1992|p=45}}

===Genre===
Biographer Barry Miles and Burroughs himself have called ''Naked Lunch'' a [[Picaresque novel]].{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=352}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rivers |first1=J.E. |editor1-last=Hibbard |editor1-first=Allen |title=Conversations with William S. Burroughs |date=1976 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |location=Jackson |isbn=1-57806-182-2 |chapter=An Interview with William S Burroughs |page=105}}</ref> Other critics consider the book a  [[parody]] with elements of [[spy fiction]], [[detective fiction]], [[science fiction]], and [[horror fiction]].,<ref name="Newhouse"/>{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=573}} or a [[dystopian]] [[science fiction]] novel in the tradition of ''[[Brave New World]]'' and ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tytell |first1=John |editor1-last=Skerl |editor1-first=Jennie |editor2-last=Lydenberg |editor2-first=Robin |title=William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale and Edwardsville |isbn=0-8093-1586-6 |pages=155–156 |chapter=The Broken Circuit}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Moorcock |first1=Michael |title=The Cosmic Satirist|url=https://realitystudio.org/criticism/the-cosmic-satirist/ |access-date=5 July 2023 |magazine=New Worlds |date=February 1965}}</ref> [[Marshall McLuhan]] considered the novel an "anti-Utopia" response to [[Arthur Rimbaud]]'s ''[[Illuminations (poetry collection)|Illuminations]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=McLuhan |first1=Marshall |title=Notes on Burroughs|magazine=The Nation |date=28 December 1964}}</ref> The novel has been described as [[Postmodern literature|postmodern]]{{sfn|Baldwin|2002|p=159}} and "proto-postmodern".{{sfn|Yu|2008|p=49}}

The novel is partly autobiographical. The first chapter retells events previously described in Burroughs' semi-autobiographical first novel ''[[Junkie (novel)|Junkie]]''.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=568}} This retelling introduces a new character called "the fruit", who serves as a parody of the  implied reader of ''Junkie''; the fruit presents himself as [[hipster (1940s subculture)|hip]] and street-smart, but Lee mocks his naivety and plans to sell him [[catnip]] by claiming it's [[cannabis]].{{sfn|Harris|2003|p=49}} Other routines are also based on Burroughs' real life, such as Lee's interactions with a racist County Clerk<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Rob |editor1-last=Harris |editor1-first=Oliver |editor2-last=MacFadyen |editor2-first=Ian |title=Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays |date=2009 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-2915-1 |page=46 |chapter=William S. Burroughs as "Good Ol' Boy": Naked Lunch in East Texas}}</ref> and his addiction to [[oxycodone|Eukodal]].{{sfn|Finlayson|2015|p=192}} Dr. Benway's dehumanizing Rehabilitation Center parodies the real-life [[Federal Medical Center, Lexington|Lexington Medical Center]], which once treated Burroughs for opioid addiction.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=569}} Loewinsohn interprets Interzone and its political power struggles as "a metaphor for Burroughs himself",{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=571}} with the political parties reflecting Burroughs' romantic struggles, his history of self-harm, and his attempts to communicate with his readers.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=573–575}}

==Analysis and themes==
The novel describes Interzone's four political parties: the Liquefactionists want to physically dissolve and absorb other people, the Senders want to control other people's minds via [[telepathy]], and the Divisionists want to endlessly replicate themselves. These parties each represent threats to individualism, and are opposed by the fourth party, the Factualists, to which Lee belongs. The novel is especially critical of the Senders, describing them as "the Human Virus", interested in control solely for its own sake, and the root cause of "poverty, hatred, war, police-criminals, bureaucracy, [and] insanity".{{sfn|Tanner|1966|pp=556–557}}{{sfn|Burroughs|1992|p=141}} The novel showcases the struggle between authoritarian, bureaucratic control, epitomized by Dr. Benway, and individual freedom, represented by the Factualist Party. AJ and Lee, both Factualists, fight back against these systems of control with violence and absurd humor. However, Burroughs undermines these characters' heroism: AJ and Lee work for Islam Inc., which has unclear goals of its own, AJ may be a double agent, and Lee is himself controlled by addiction.<ref name="Newhouse">{{cite book |last1=Newhouse |first1=Thomas |title=The Beat generation and the popular novel in the United States: 1945-1970 |date=2000 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson (N.C.) |isbn=0-7864-0841-3 |pages=112–117}}</ref>

Robin Lydenberg observes that all three non-Factionalist parties represent homogenization and opposition to individual expression. Likewise, Dr. Benway and other scientists attempt to "improve" humanity, but show contempt for the diversity and complexity of human life.{{sfn|Lydenberg|1985|p=61–62}} The novel describes its characters in behaviorist terms, emphasizing stimuli and responses rather than emotions and internal states. The novel depicts humans as mechanical beings, creating what Edward Foster describes as a "Pavlovian nightmare". In particular, Dr Benway uses behavioral conditioning for evil ends, inverting the utopian ideals described by [[B. F. Skinner]] in his book [[Walden Two]].{{sfn|Foster|1992|pp=161–163}} Edward Foster sees the Factualists as representing older [[libertarian]] values from the [[Wild west]].{{sfn|Foster|1992|pp=164–165}} In contrast, Benway turns drugs and sex into tools of regulation and control, rather than freedom and liberation.{{sfn|Yu|2008|pp=50–52}} Ron Loewinsohn identifies the political parties as representing different methods of international control: Liquefactionists as [[fascism]], Divisionists as [[colonialism]], and Senders as the [[soft power]] and cultural influence of the United States.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=572}} He notes that the Factualists, who infiltrate and undermine the other parties, mirror Burroughs' understanding of how apomorphine works to relieve opioid addiction.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=565}} He also notes that this undercover infiltration often leads to the Factualists acting similarly to their opposition, such as AJ and Hassan both staging sadomasochistic parties, but with crucial differences: Hassan's cruelty is real, while AJ's is simulated.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=580}} Meanwhile, Freeland, the novel's stand-in for [[Scandinavia]], is described as a "police state without police"; its citizens have become so neurotic that they obsessively monitor themselves.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=569–570}}

Interzone is also marked by a violent struggle between Nationalists and Imperialists, reflecting the political situation Burroughs observed in Tangiers. The novel does not align itself with either side. One of the book's most political routines mocks the Nationalist Party Leader, describing him as a "gangster in drag" who cares only about his own position, not the residents of Interzone. However, the Capitalists who oppose him are equally unconcerned with Interzone's residents, whom they see as merely targets to exploit. This skepticism of both sides reflects Burroughs' own ambivalence towards [[Moroccan nationalism]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hibbard |first1=Allen |editor1-last=Grace |editor1-first=Nancy M. |editor2-last=Skerl |editor2-first=Jennie |title=The Transnational Beat Generation |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-230-10840-0 |pages=20–23 |edition=1st |chapter=William S. Burroughs and U.S. Empire}}</ref><ref name="Natives"/> Within Interzone, the racial and national hierarchies of colonialism are superseded by unrestricted capitalism. Hassan, who owns multiple passports and is racially ambiguous, hosts a "rumpus room" in which bodies and sex are commodities and white boys are sexually dominated by boys of other races.{{sfn|Yu|2008|pp=50–52}}

The novel's routines emphasize [[addiction]], especially to [[heroin]], which can be read as a metaphor for broader social problems and obsessions.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Woodard |first1=Rob |title=Naked Lunch is still fresh |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/apr/16/naked-lunch-william-burroughs |access-date=6 July 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=16 Apr 2009}}</ref>{{sfn|Sterritt|2013|pp=60–61}}{{sfn|Tanner|1966|p=552}} David Ayers interprets heroin as Burroughs' "paradigm" for understanding systems of control.<ref name="Ayers"/> However, Frank McConnell argues that ''Naked Lunch'' is straightforwardly about heroin addiction in itself, and should not be read as symbolic.<ref name="mcconnell"/> Lydenberg argues that Burroughs' parenthetical asides challenge the reader's instinct to "evade" the darkness of the book by treating its disturbing elements as symbols or [[allegories]], and instead show that Burroughs insists on a literal reading.{{sfn|Lydenberg|1987|pp=13-15}} Frederick Whiting emphasizes that the novel's drug motif should be seen as a [[metonym]] for social and economic issues, not a metaphor.{{sfn|Whiting|2006|p=165}}

The novel has been described as "an essentially nihilistic work"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lodge |first1=David |editor1-last=Skerl |editor1-first=Jennie |editor2-last=Lydenberg |editor2-first=Robin |title=William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale and Edwardsville |isbn=0-8093-1586-6 |page=78 |chapter=Objections to William Burroughs}}</ref> and "consistently hostile, contemptuous, forcefully hateful [...] without joy."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hoffman |first1=Frederick |title=The Mortal No: Death And The Modern Imagination |date=1964 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, New Jersey |pages=487–488}}</ref> Robin Lydenberg suggests that the novel advocates "a violent rejection and undermining of the entire dual system of morality."{{sfn|Lydenberg|1987|p=6}}

Barry Miles interprets the recurring hanging scenes as critiquing sexual exploitation, racist lynchings, and capital punishment in general.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miles |first1=Barry |title=William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible: A Portrait |date=1993 |publisher=Hyperion |location=New York |isbn=9781562828486 |pages=90–91 |edition=1st}}</ref> Burroughs himself considered his novel a Swiftian argument against the death penalty.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Corso |first1=Gregory |last2=Ginsberg |first2=Allen |editor1-last=Hibbard |editor1-first=Allen |title=Conversations with William S. Burroughs |date=1999 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |location=Jackson |isbn=1-57806-182-2 |page=4 |chapter=Interview with William Burroughs}}</ref>

===The man who taught his asshole to talk===

One of the novel's most famous routines describes "the man who taught his asshole to talk".{{sfn|Burroughs|1992|p=110}} Armed with the power of speech, the anus takes over the man's body and brain. Tony Tanner sees this routine as a paradigm for Burroughs' general theme of humans decaying into lower forms of life.{{sfn|Tanner|1966|p=555}} Wayne Pounds reads it as a parody of [[behaviorism|behaviorist]] engineering and the pursuit of efficiency.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pounds |first1=Wayne |title=The Postmodern Anus: Parody and Utopia in Two Recent Novels by William Burroughs |journal=Poetics Today |date=1987 |volume=8 |issue=3/4 |pages=611–629 |doi=10.2307/1772572 |jstor=1772572 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1772572 |issn=0333-5372|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Robin Lydenberg reads it as challenging the notion that language differentiate humans from animals.{{sfn|Lydenberg|1985|p=58}} Loewinsohn sees it representing zero-sum domination, contrasted against another anus-centered story shortly afterward which represents positive-sum cooperation.{{sfn|Loewinsohn|1998|p=582}} Manuel Luis Martínez considers it a political allegory for Burroughs' [[libertarianism|libertarian]] beliefs. The anus claims to want equal rights before taking over the body, and the routine is juxtaposed with Dr. Benway calling democracy a cancer, suggesting that egalitarianism can become authoritarian.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Martínez |first1=Manuel Luis |title=Countering the Counterculture: Rereading Postwar American Dissent from Jack Kerouac to Tomás Rivera |date=2003 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison |isbn=0-299-19284-9 |pages=34–37}}</ref> Burroughs himself considered the scene a metaphor for ever-expanding [[bureaucracy]].{{sfn|Goodman|1981|p=113}}

Jamie Russell interprets the routine as expressing Burroughs' view of homosexuality. Burroughs believed that men were coerced into a binary of either heterosexuality or effeminacy, as the "[[sissy]]" archetype was the only role society recognized for gay men. He considered this feminine mimicry self-destructive, not empowering or subversive, and believed it created a marginalized identity akin to schizophrenia. Russell observes that the anus is originally used for a [[Ventriloquism|ventriloquy]] routine. This mirrors a description in Burroughs' first novel ''Junkie'', in which effeminate gay men are derided as "ventriloquists’ dummies who have moved in and taken over the ventriloquist".{{sfn|Russell|2001|pp=43–52}}

Barry Miles interprets the anus as Burroughs himself, reflecting his anxieties and frustrations after being romantically rejected by Allen Ginsberg. He interprets the routine as Burroughs empowering himself in the relationship dynamic.{{sfn|Miles|2014|p=277}}

==Literary significance and reception==
[[File:Jonathan_Swift_by_Charles_Jervas_detail.jpg|thumb|Critics have compared ''Naked Lunch'' to the works of [[Jonathan Swift]], who wrote political satires such as ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' and ''[[A Modest Proposal]]''.]]

Along with ''[[Howl (poem)|Howl]]'' and ''[[On The Road]]'', ''Naked Lunch'' is considered one of the defining works of the Beat generation.<ref name="Cambridge">{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Oliver |editor1-last=Belletto |editor1-first=Steven |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Beats |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781316877067 |page=128 |chapter=William S. Burroughs: Beating Postmodernism}}</ref>

[[Mary McCarthy (author)|Mary McCarthy]] was an early proponent of the novel. She wrote that Burroughs was one of only two authors who had recently interested her (along with [[Nabokov]]), defended his crudeness by placing him in the satirical tradition of [[Jonathan Swift]], and praised his "broad and sly" humor by comparing it to [[vaudeville]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCarthy |first1=Mary |title=The Writing on the Wall and Other Literary Essays |date=1970 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |location=New York |isbn=978-0156983907|pages=42–53 |chapter=Burroughs' Naked Lunch}}</ref> [[John Ciardi]], defending the book against charges of obscenity, praised it as "a masterpiece of its own genre" and "a monumentally moral descent into the hell of a narcotic addiction."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ciardi |first1=John |editor1-last=Skerl |editor1-first=Jennie |editor2-last=Lydenberg |editor2-first=Robin |title=William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale and Edwardsville |isbn=0-8093-1586-6 |pages=21–22 |chapter=The Book Burners and Sweet Sixteen}}</ref> [[Norman Mailer]] praised Burroughs' "exquisite poetic sense" and considered ''Naked Lunch'' a powerful religious work, describing it as "a vision of how mankind would act if man was totally divorced from eternity" and akin to the work of [[Hieronymus Bosch]].<ref>{{cite web|date=June 1965 |work=[[Evergreen Review]] |first1=Joe|last1=Maynard |first2=Barry|last2=Miles |title=The Boston Trial of Naked Lunch |url=http://realitystudio.org/texts/naked-lunch/trial}}</ref> [[J. G. Ballard]] considered the novel (along with ''[[The Soft Machine]]'' and ''[[The Ticket That Exploded]]'') to be "the first authentic mythology of the age of [[Cape Canaveral Space Force Station|Cape Canaveral]], [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Hiroshima]] and [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Belsen]]" and favorably compared Burroughs' work to ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' and ''[[The Metamorphosis]]''.<ref name="Ballard">{{cite book |last1=Ballard |first1=J.G. |editor1-last=Vale |editor2-last=Juno |editor2-first=Andrea |title=Re/Search: J.G. Ballard |date=1991 |publisher=Re/Search Publications |location=San Francisco, CA |isbn=0-940642-08-5 |pages=105–107 |url=https://archive.org/details/jgballard0000unse |chapter=Mythmaker of the 20th Century}}</ref> [[Richard Kostelanetz]], while admitting the novel was "wildly uneven" and "among the most horrifying and terrible books ever written", praised its intensity and imagination, calling it by far the greatest novel of the Beat movement and "perhaps among the greatest literary works of our time".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kostelanetz |first1=Richard |title=From Nightmare to Seredipity: A Retrospective Look at William Burroughs |journal=Twentieth Century Literature |date=1965 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=123–130 |doi=10.2307/440856 |jstor=440856 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/440856 |issn=0041-462X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In contrast, [[John Wain]] called it "a prolonged scream of hatred and disgust" and "the merest trash, not worth a second glance".<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Wain |first1=John |title=The Great Burroughs Affair |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/116474/great-burroughs-affair |access-date=2 July 2023 |magazine=The New Republic |date=December 1, 1962}}</ref> [[Lionel Abel]] compared the work to a film that spliced together pornography with footage of Nazi concentration camps, writing "Now it is foolish, I think, to justify Naked Lunch as literature. Its descriptions of hallucinatory states under drug addiction are neither beautiful nor exquisite nor brilliant nor informative. I even wonder whether they are true."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Abel |first1=Lionel |title=Beyond the Fringe |url=https://bu.userservices.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/delivery/01BOSU_INST:AlmaGeneralView/121027668920001161?lang=en&viewerServiceCode=AlmaViewer |access-date=3 July 2023 |magazine=Partisan Review|date=Spring 1963}}</ref> [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]] admitted that Burroughs had "a certain literary talent", but felt that the novel's initial excitement quickly became boring, confused, and unsatisfying. He considered comparisons between Burroughs and Swift "either naive or disingenuous".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lodge |first1=David |title=The Novelist at the Crossroads and Other Essays in Fiction and Criticism |date=1971 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd |location=London |pages=161–171 |chapter=Objections to William Burroughs}}</ref> In an anonymous review, [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] panned the book as "the grotesque diary of Burroughs’ years as an addict."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Books: King of the YADS |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=November 30, 1962 |volume=LXXX |issue=22 |url=https://time.com/archive/6625775/books-king-of-the-yads/ |access-date=13 January 2025}}</ref>{{efn|:{{note|Alpha|α}} Burroughs retaliated three years later by using a collage with that issue's cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine as the cover of his [[cut-up]] pamphlet, ''[[Time (Burroughs book)|Time]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19621130,00.html/ |title=Jawaharlal Nehru <nowiki>{{!}}</nowiki> Nov. 30, 1962 |access-date=January 14, 2025 |archive-date=February 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228064956/https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19621130,00.html/ |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>}} [[John Willett]] wrote an anonymous review in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' simply titled ''Ugh...'', in which he called the book disgusting and monotonous and wrote "If the publishers had deliberately set out to discredit the cause of literary freedom and innovation they could hardly have done it more effectively."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Willett |first1=John |editor1-last=Skerl |editor1-first=Jennie |editor2-last=Lydenberg |editor2-first=Robin |title=William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale and Edwardsville |isbn=0-8093-1586-6 |pages=41–44 |chapter=Ugh...}}</ref> This led to the longest set of responses the ''Literary Supplement'' had ever received.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lydenberg |first1=Robin |last2=Skerl |first2=Jennie |editor1-last=Skerl |editor1-first=Jennie |editor2-last=Lydenberg |editor2-first=Robin |title=William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989 |date=1991 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale and Edwardsville |isbn=0-8093-1586-6 |page=3 |chapter=Points of Intersection: An Overview of William S. Burroughs and His Critics}}</ref>

Charles Poole, reviewing the book for ''[[The New York Times]]'', criticized its "glaringly gaudy" approach of "using shocking words by the shovelful and concentrating on perverted degeneracy to a flagrant degree."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Poole |first1=Charles |title=Books of the Times |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/11/20/87043693.html?pageNumber=31 |access-date=4 February 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=20 Nov 1962 |language=en}}</ref> A review in [[Commentary (magazine)|''Commentary'']] described Burroughs' novel as a more readable version of the work of [[Alain Robbe-Grillet]], but felt that Burroughs' writing fell short of works by [[Henry Miller]], [[George Orwell]], and the [[Marquis de Sade]], and that the novel ultimately resembled a child's tantrum.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Commentary |last=Chester |first=Alfred |date=January 1963 |title=Burroughs in Wonderland |volume=15 |issue=1 |url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/commentary-bk/naked-lunch-by-william-burroughs/ |access-date=4 Feb 2024}}</ref>

Fans of Beat Generation literature, [[Donald Fagen]] and [[Walter Becker]] named their band [[Steely Dan]] after a "revolutionary" steam-powered dildo mentioned in the novel.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.steelydan.com/mojo.html |title=The Return of Steely Dan |access-date=2019-08-07 |archive-date=2018-03-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180302151843/http://www.steelydan.com/mojo.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111227080833/http://steelydan.com/faq.html Steely Dan FAQ]</ref><ref>[Burroughs, Williams S. (1962). Naked Lunch (1991 reprint ed.). New York: Grove Press. p. 77]</ref> [[Lou Reed]] also identified the book as a major artistic influence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aries |first1=Théophile |editor1-last=Harris |editor1-first=Oliver |editor2-last=MacFadyen |editor2-first=Ian |title=Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays |date=2009 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=978-0-8093-2915-1 |page=198 |chapter=Burroughs' Visionary Lunch}}</ref>

''Naked Lunch'' is considered a key influence on the [[cyberpunk]] genre.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kadrey |first1=Richard |last2=McCaffery |first2=Larry |editor1-last=McCaffery |editor1-first=Larry |title=Storming the reality studio : a casebook of cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction |date=1991 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham |isbn=978-0-8223-1158-4 |page=18 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/stormingrealitys0000unse/page/18/mode/2up |chapter=Cyberpunk 101: A Schematic Guide to Storming the Reality Studio}}</ref> [[William Gibson]] has cited it as one of the novels that most influenced his own writing.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gibson |first1=William |title=William Gibson: 'I read Naked Lunch when it was still quasi-illicit' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/01/william-gibson-i-read-naked-lunch-when-it-was-still-quasi-illicit |access-date=25 July 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=1 January 2021}}</ref>

The novel was included in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''{{hsp}}'s "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/naked-lunch-1959-by-william-burroughs/|title=All-TIME 100 Novels|first=Richard|last=Lacayo|magazine=Time|date=8 January 2010|access-date=15 November 2016|via=entertainment.time.com}}</ref>

==Adaptations==
===Film===
{{Main|Naked Lunch (film)}}
From the 1960s, numerous film-makers considered adapting ''Naked Lunch'' for the screen. [[Antony Balch]], who worked with Burroughs on a number of short film projects in 1960s, considered making a musical with [[Mick Jagger]] in the lead role, but the project fell through when relationships soured between Balch and Jagger.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://landmarkafterdark.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=142&Itemid=135 |title=May 18 & 19: Naked Lunch |publisher=landmarkafterdark.com |date=2007-04-16 |access-date=2012-05-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007105504/http://landmarkafterdark.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=142&Itemid=135 |archive-date=2011-10-07 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Weinreich |first=Regina |url=https://ew.com/article/1992/01/17/naked-lunch-behind-scenes/ |title=Getting 'Naked' On Screen |publisher=EW.com |date=1992-01-17 |access-date=2012-05-27}}</ref> Burroughs himself adapted his book for the never-made film; after Jagger dropped out, [[Dennis Hopper]] was considered for the lead role, and at one point game-show producer [[Chuck Barris]] was considered a possible financier of the project.<ref>[[William S. Burroughs]], [[Bill Morgan (archivist)|Bill Morgan]] (ed.), ''Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1959-1974'' (New York: Harper Collins, 2012), pp.360-386.</ref>

In May 1991, rather than attempting a straight adaptation, Canadian director [[David Cronenberg]] took a few elements from the book and combined them with elements of Burroughs' life, creating a [[Naked Lunch (film)|hybrid film]] about the writing of the book rather than the book itself. [[Peter Weller]] starred as William Lee, the pseudonym Burroughs used when he wrote ''[[Junkie (novel)|Junkie]]''.

===Comic Books===
Italian comics artist {{Interlanguage link|Gianluca Lerici|it}}, better known under his artistic pseudonym Professor Bad Trip, adapted the novel into a graphic novel titled ''Il Pasto Nudo'' (1992), published by Shake Edizioni.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/l/lerici_gianluca.htm|title = Gianluca Lerici}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |last1=Baldwin |first1=Douglas |editor1-last=Myrsiades |editor1-first=Kostas |title=The Beat Generation: Critical Essays |date=2002 |publisher=Peter Lang |location=New York |isbn=0-8204-5778-7 |chapter="Word begets image and image is virus": Undermining language and film in the works of William S Burroughs}}
*{{cite book |last= Burroughs |first= William S. |title= Naked Lunch |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780802132956 |year= 1992 |publisher= [[Grove Atlantic]] |isbn= 0-8021-3295-2 }}
*{{cite book |last= Burroughs |first= William S. |editor1-first= James |editor1-last= Grauerholtz |editor2-first= Barry |editor2-last= Miles |editor2-link= Barry Miles |title= Naked Lunch |url= https://archive.org/details/nakedlunchrestor00burr |edition= the restored text |year= 2001 |publisher= [[Grove Press]] |isbn= 0-8021-4018-1 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Oliver |title=William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination |date=2003 |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |location=Carbondale |isbn=0-8093-2484-9}}
* ''Naked Lunch@50: Anniversary Essays'', edited by Oliver Harris and Ian MacFadyen (Carbondale, Il: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009).
* {{cite book |last1=Finlayson |first1=Iain |title=Tangier: City of the Dream |date=2015 |publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks |location=London |isbn=9781780769264 |url=https://archive.org/details/tangiercityofdre0000finl/page/230/mode/2up |access-date=25 July 2023}}
* {{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=Edward Halsey |title=Understanding the Beats |date=1992 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |location=Columbia, S.C |isbn=0-87249-798-4}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ginsberg |first1=Allen |editor1-last=Morgan |editor1-first=Bill |title=The Best Minds of my Generation: A Literary History of the Beats |date=2017 |publisher=Grove Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8021-2649-8 |edition=First Grove Atlantic hardcover}}
* {{cite book |last1=Goodman |first1=Michael Barry |title=Contemporary Literary Censorship: The Case History of Burroughs' Naked Lunch |date=1981 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Metuchen, N.J. London |isbn=0-8108-1398-X}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Loewinsohn |first1=Ron |title="Gentle Reader, I Fain Would Spare You This, but My Pen Hath Its Will like the Ancient Mariner": Narrator(s) and Audience in William S. Burroughs's "Naked Lunch" |journal=Contemporary Literature |date=1998 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=560–585 |doi=10.2307/1208726 |jstor=1208726 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1208726 |issn=0010-7484|url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Lydenberg |first1=Robin |title=Notes from the Orifice: Language and the Body in William Burroughs |journal=Contemporary Literature |date=1985 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=55–73 |doi=10.2307/1208201 |jstor=1208201 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1208201 |issn=0010-7484|url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book |last1=Lydenberg |first1=Robin |title=Word Cultures: Radical Theory and Practice in William S. Burroughs' Fiction |date=1987 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana and Chicago |isbn=0-252-01413-8}}
* {{cite book |last1=Miles |first1=Barry |title=Call Me Burroughs: A Life |date=2014 |publisher=Twelve |location=New York |isbn=9781455511938 |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/callmeburroughsl0000mile}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mullins |first1=Greg A. |title=Colonial Affairs: Bowles, Burroughs, and Chester Write Tangier |date=2002 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison |isbn=0-299-17960-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/colonialaffairsb0000mull/}}
* {{cite book |last1=Russell |first1=Jamie |title=Queer Burroughs |date=2001 |publisher=Palgrave |location=Basingstoke New York |isbn=0-312-23868-1 |url-access = registration |url=https://archive.org/details/queerburroughs0000russ}}
* {{cite book |last1=Sterritt |first1=David |title=The Beats: A Very Short Introduction |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-979677-9 |pages=60–61}}
* {{cite magazine |last1=Tanner |first1=Tony |title=The New Demonology |magazine=Partisan Review |date=1966 |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=547–72}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Whiting |first1=Frederick |title=Monstrosity on Trial: The Case of "Naked Lunch" |journal=Twentieth Century Literature |date=2006 |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=145–174 |doi=10.1215/0041462X-2006-3008 |jstor=20479763 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20479763 |issn=0041-462X|url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Yu |first1=Timothy |title=Oriental Cities, Postmodern Futures: "Naked Lunch, Blade Runner", and "Neuromancer" |journal=MELUS |date=2008 |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=45–71 |doi=10.1093/melus/33.4.45 |jstor=20343507 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20343507 |issn=0163-755X|url-access=subscription }}

==External links==
* {{ISFDB title|id=13425|title=Naked Lunch}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110605135115/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/joshpassmore/nltrial.htm The Boston Trial of ''Naked Lunch'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120714235642/http://tekkoman.blogspot.com/2011/09/naked-lunch.html/ Naked Lunch illustrations]
*[https://exhibitions.cul.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/nakedlunch ''Naked Lunch'': the First Fifty Years] An online exhibition at Columbia University, Rare Book & Manuscript Library

{{William S. Burroughs}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1959 American novels]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Beat novels]]
[[Category:Censored books]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1950s]]
[[Category:Metafictional novels]]
[[Category:Nonlinear narrative novels]]
[[Category:Stream of consciousness novels]]
[[Category:Novels about substance abuse]]
[[Category:Novels adapted into comics]]
[[Category:Novels by William S. Burroughs]]
[[Category:Novels set in Tangier]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]
[[Category:Olympia Press books]]
[[Category:Postmodern novels]]