Ulysses vs Naked Lunch

Ulysses

>>9930539
Naked Lunch is a masterpiece. Ulysses is one of the few elite works of literature to approach perfection. It's on the level of Shakespeare's plays. Ulysses is harder to understand if you're not Irish, but they're both fairly approachable.

I thought /lit/ hated NL

>>9930539
Well Naked Lunch is just pure trash.
Ulysses genuinely isn't that difficult to read; although understanding all the references and allusions is.

>maybe if I write about a lil kid being fucked in the ass again people will think I have anything worth sharing

I actually really like both novels but there's simply no competition, Ulysses is the far far superior work.

Ulysses is also "harder to understand" because it is full of puzzles and allusions which do have objective solutions whereas Naked Lunch is mostly experiential madness and free association poetry. There's no code to be broken.

>>9930850
who are the brain police?

>>9930858

So did Burroughs write anything worthwhile?

>>9930935
Junkie might be interesting if you're into that subculture.
But otherwise, I wouldn't really recommend him to anyone.

>>9930935
>>9930940
I disagree. His pulp expose works like Junky and Queer are trash, basically rambling autobiographical pot boilers only interesting to middle teenagers who think drug use is shocking and cool.

His later novels Naked Lunch and the Nova trilogy (only ones I've read but he has more) are a great blend of poetry and satire. Of course they're not for everyone, they are consciously transgressive and disgusting wherever they can be, but they capture the debased cyberpunk wasteland of modernity in all its corruption, mind control, narcissism, hedonism, and technology worship.

If you like JG Ballard, John Hawkes, Kenneth Patchen, R Crumb, or John Waters I think you'd like Bill Burroughs.

>>9930989
This guy gets it.

But I'd also add that you can love Naked Lunch if you're a moralfag who despises the corruption of culture. Modern traditionalists should love Burroughs in the same way modern Christians should love Nietzsche.

>>9930989

Well, I have read Naked Lunch quite some time ago and it was just batshit weirdness from what I remember. I like to say that I think it was terrible.. but now thinking back on it I did enjoy reading it. Im not sure if I was stoned or what.. I mean I don't think drug use is cool or anything but it sure is a lot of fun! I can't stand getting drunk or tobacco which seems every book is full of.

So weirdness is good for me akin to R.Crumb or anything really. When someone asks me about myself I try to tell them im a nerd or more lately just a flat out weirdo and they always disagree with me. I don't live a weird life at all per se but my subculture is the realm only of the "freak-out" variety... I look of a queer sort so I don't know why people think im not a weirdo, just because im a nice person.. My mental illness, autism, is not too severe so these new normies I meet insist that im actually normal despite consuming a good amount of stimulants like caffeine.. the list could literally go on.

I was more or less wondering if Naked Lunch was the bulk of the greatness he had produced. He seems to be highly celebrated also due to having been apart of that old beat scene or what have you. Am I making any sense ?

>>9931338
>I was more or less wondering if Naked Lunch was the bulk of the greatness he had produced.
The Nova Trilogy is great. I have also heard his Western Trilogy and The Wild Boys are among his better works.

>>9931629

thanks amigo. will take note to check that stuff out!

>>9930880
What would you do if we let you go home
And the plastic's all melted and so is the chrome?
What would you do if we let you ho home
And the plastic's all melted and the chrome is too so?
What would you do if the people you knew
Were the plastic that melted and the chromium too?
WHO ARE THE BRAIN POLICE?

burroughs was one of us