»Naked Lunch

I read the "restored text" of William Burroughs' Naked Lunch, including the famous "Desposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness" that outlines the junky Algebra of Need. This formula, concise and cogent argument remains a powerful element of drug-control politics to this day.

Junk is the ideal product ... the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy.... The junk merchant does not sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. ... 1 - Never give anything away for nothing. 2 - Never give more than you have to give (always catch the buyer hungry and always make him wait). 3 - Always take everything back if you possibly can

The narratives of the book, its hallucinatory politics, surreal zoölogy, and painful degradation of character, all fascinate me, but I found myself ill-suited to the fractured "cut-up" writing style that Burroughs pioneered in this book.

One of the many deleterious side-effects of reading Naked Lunch is the painful, burning, itchy sensation of Steely Dan. How the hell could a) anyone like this music; b) anyone care enough about this pseudo-jazz rubbish to consistently reproduce it; and c) further devalue the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by inducting these poseurs?
On the other hand, the many interpretations of Burroughs' work, in the David Cronenberg film, various songs by Joy Division and by the Disposable Heroes of Hiphocrisy, "lyrics for the Velvet Underground all ran through my mind while reading this story. These are testament to the power of the story that William S. created in "Naked Lunch".