I’m currently working my way through Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, for anyone who has read it, they’ll know what I mean when I say ‘working through’,  you read more with your stomach than your mind.  Placing a different emphasis on the idea of digesting what was written.  What has really struck me about the novel is the tapestry of images that are conjured in the distressed, dislocated prose.  More-to-the-point, the directness of the images, they seem to hit you straight into your cerebral cortex and attach there for permanent harvest.  So over the coming weeks, don’t be surprised if I recite some more extracts from this dirty fuzz-ball.

And first off:

“That old stove climbing up my back”  What a line!

According to Burroughs this is a saying that originates from the British Isles, relating to users of a particular pick up, whereby the individual (particularly common in Edinburgh) bubbles coal gas through Klim, which is a type of horrible powdered milk.  The saying relates specifically to when the addict is sick from needing a fix.  Whether this is true, or made up by Burroughs I don’t think really matters.

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“showing the Nordic Skull beneath with double exposure” again fantastic imagery.

“A copraphage calls for a plate, shits on it and eats the shit, exclaiming ‘mmmm, thats my rich substance.’”

I wonder if he read Marquis de Sade….