To the first-time reader of Burroughs, I introduce this important word: juxtaposition. He doesn't arrange things into a linear story or according to an exact plot, but rather creates mosaics of carefully arranged images and ideas. Another important thing you should be familiar with is the cut-up method. Basically, you take a text or string of words and literally cut them up, rearranging them into a literal mosaic. He only does this occasionally in this book, but you'll get really confused if you don't know what's going on. (He wrote an entire trilogy out of the cut-up method and THAT was a REALLY hard read)

I would recommend Naked Lunch to anyone who hadn't read it before adventuring into as experimental a novel as this, so that the reader would come into The Wild Boys with an idea of what to expect.

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GENERAL INFORMATION ON THIS ARTIST –

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS (1914-1998) is often considered a member of the 1950’s Beat literary movement for his close ties to Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferhlinghetti, Neal Cassady, and Jack Kerouac, although his writing, influence, and style reach far beyond the borders of that small community.

He is best known for co-developing with Bryon Gysion the Cut-up method, a literal application of the montage technique to the printed page. Pages and sequences of words are cut-up, then juxtaposed to form a purely visual pattern, thus breaking the traditional associations between words.

His most famous novel is Naked Lunch, a hallucinogenic semi-account of his life as a junk addict. It is here that the world met the world of Interzone, an elusive world of junkies and “queers.”

Burroughs’ primary theme in all of his writing was control, namely various methods, both real and extremely fictitious, whereby human beings manipulate and abuse one another. His primary method of relating to this idea was through his own harsh experiences with drug addiction, a problem that haunted him for most of his life.

Burroughs has been credited as the inspiration for a slew of artists, especially in the music industry, including the likes of Kurt Cobain and is considered the grandfather of 80’s punk.
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BURROUGHS HAS A HUGE CULT FOLLOWING ON THE WEB, AND YOU CAN SAMPLE MANY SELECTIONS OF HIS WORK, PLUS READ COMMENTARY, BIOGRAPHIES, AND ANYTHING ELSE YOU COULD ASK FOR FREE.
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TO HEAR SOUND RECORDINGS OF BURROUGHS AND HIS WORK, CHECK OUT THESE SITES –

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS – UBUWEB SOUND POETRY
http://www.ubu.com/sound/burroughs.html

THE GHOST OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS
http://www.netherworld.com/~mgabrys/william/prev.html
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ALSO RECOMMENDED –

INTERZONE
is a COLOSSAL web ring that is amazingly easy to navigate. The most informative and useful sites I’ve seen related to Burroughs.
www.inter-zone.org

THE WSB INTER-WEB-ZONE
http://www.hyperreal.org/wsb/




Recommended:
Yes