Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

Both Howl and Benway highlight the creative mind and the oppressive pressure society places on the creative counter culture and the retreat drug use gives the oppressed. However, Burroughs shows a man succumbing to the evils of his human nature in drug fueled thoughts of insanity while Ginsberg redeems madness and community on spiritualized quest into opium induced dreams and visions of holiness. These two poets were allured by the mystery inherent in the golden drug of Asia: however, when these two authors actually took on opium themselves, they were inspired to ecstasies.

The great gift of opium to these men was access to a new world, a world of twisted exquisite experiences, sensuous and intellectual.

“Mr. Ginsberg, have you read the book entitled Naked Lunch by William Burroughs?” “Yes. Well there are a great number of ideas in it that have social importance: and they are all interrelated in the presentation of the book. Some of the main ideas is the theory of junk addiction, and other addictions which are treated dramatically- the addiction to homosexuality.” “Addiction to money, materialistic goods and properties are also mentioned in the book a numerous amount of times”

Burroughs “ Naked Lunch” novel is the writing of a drug addict on a quest through different countries in search of drugs. The manuscript of Naked Lunch was sent out by Allen Ginsberg in hope to gain publicity since at that time the book was prosecuted due to its artistic objectives and values. In this novel Burroughs writes about a drug addict and his companion who travel by vehicle across the united states in search of drugs. During this trip, the narrator and his companion find themselves in Mexico where they purchase the mystical golden drug, knows as heroin. In Mexico on a long drive through the neighborhoods, as both suffer from the terrible agony a drug addict experiences, they find themselves rambling about how everything is the same and how people are all dull and boring. They end up in an imaginary city where they meet Dr.Benway, a master at controlling human behavior. Benway then gives the narrators companion a tour of the magical city where bizarre experiments of brainwashing humans occur. She is shocked by the monstrous results behind Benway science when she sees humans who behave like zombies. These humans were what Benway called INDs because they have had their mind stripped.

Dr.Benway then tells our narrator about all his twisted theories of addictions and in explicit detail describes the effects of various drugs. Benway is not afraid to express his thoughts, he began to talk to our narrator about homosexuality, how it’s a political crime. However, he does go on to tell him about the many sins people in the interzone commit by having outrageous sex with boys and with one another. How a boy’s neck was once snapped out of placed due to an orgasm. When we meet our character Carl from a welfare state, we soon learn that in the interzone or the magical city, the brainwashing of human beings is strictly to cure homosexuals. We can feel the disgust Benway feels towards him because he believes that homosexuality is a sickness and that Carl is in serious need of treatment.

Moreover, our narrator somehow finds himself back home where he continues to try to take drugs. He eventually gets an order for his arrest and ends up killing two narcotics officers. He describes the road of cleanse as a horrible nightmare where his soul and bones are rotting.

In the Benway section of his novel, it can clearly be seen that Burroughs does not have leniency towards the human soul or spirits based on how he expresses the human figure. The narrator of this novel serves as an alter ego for William Burroughs. Within this piece we familiarize ourselves more with Dr. Benway who sees himself as a highly skilled surgeon but seems to be more interested in inflicting pain and harm on the people he works on. Although, his interest is shown fairly quickly during the beginning of the novel, Benway also shows an addiction of his own. Benway seemed to have quite a bit of interest in the narrator’s addictions and sexual behavior, much more than he has had in anyone else. Which was very attention grabbing due to the fact that the narrator stresses that homosexuality is not accepted by his own society and that his connection with homosexuality guarantees him more of a punishment than dealing with drugs.

Burroughs whole novel seems very interesting because although he wants in a way to feel acceptance by his own society, neglects himself from the opportunity of actually experiencing the world as who he wants to be and hides reality behind the drug use. Based on his style of writing, Burroughs isolation is illustrated through drug use as a cover for his sin because he believes that homosexuality is Americans sickness and that it’s the reason behind why the whole land itself is evil and broken. He wants to run away from the fact that his belief might be different from what he says they are and because he has lost that balance between pleasing society and himself, he sees no other way of expressing himself other than through his writing.

On the contrary, Howl by Allen Ginsberg argues otherwise. The drug usage in Ginsberg’s 3 sectioned poem Is used to reconnect or numb itself from its acknowledgement of how experience has ruined their inner-self. Ginsberg Howl poem was written and dedicated to Carl Solomon, who he met in a psychiatric institute. Howl is a poem full of people and places, sex, madness, drugs and distinct language. This poem is an altered version of an autobiographical essay of Allen Ginsberg. It is clearly stated in his form of writing that Ginsberg was highly influenced by Walt Whitman’s works, although there’s no telling what other artists also could have led him down the path pursued with his writing. There is no doubt after reading this poem that Ginsberg ability to shock his readers is truly inspiring due to his vivid imagery and spontaneous languages, he uses to express experiences.

Ginsberg starts of his poem with “ I saw the best minds.” Speaking from his own experience of over the years witnessing mental degradation among association in which he considered to have the best minds. How he knows that desperately seeking drugs helped all of these great minds coupe with societies demands. In his work, it is very noticeable that Ginsberg in a way is being playful with his writing but at the same time seeking to be taken seriously. By constantly repeating “ who” at the beginning of most sentences, he is emphasizing a reference point. The rhythm and repetition of who, allows us the reader to identify with what he is speaking about and get more of a broad understanding.

Ginsberg states how he became involved in the drug world during his time spent at Colombia University. During this time Ginsberg almost experienced life in jail after a friend was arrested for stealing and Ginsberg being his accomplish who helped hide away the stolen goods. Though he deserved to be punished for his crime, Ginsberg instead of being sent to prison, pleaded mental instability which kept him out of jail on given terms. He was to attend a psychiatric institute where he soon after met Carl Solomon who was his main inspiration on becoming a voice for the oppressed as well as the dedication to his poem “ Howl.”

In another of his lines he talks about the same minds who somehow disappeared over time, inciting a sense of meditation towards the feeling of nothingness. Ginsberg says, “ The beat gang much have covered a lot of New York’s districts, walking, talking and looking for action, ending up in all sorts of weird places.” At this point in the poem, Ginsberg begins to bring in heroin once again to show that while under the influence the places where you could end up are endless because opium causes the artist to dream and changes the ability to dream and numb the waking mind, therefore you are not aware of your actions.

With Ginsberg, a strong feeling of proudness is felt as he speaks about homosexuality. This is seen in his writing more than once due to the different language he chooses to express his experiences which makes him stand out as a writer. When he says, “ who blew and were blown,” in one of his lines, he allows the reader to embrace his uniqueness and realize that although this act under the law is seen as a sin or a crime against humanity, it is okay because he is aware of his own holiness. Homosexuality during the 1950s as historically known was illegal during Ginsberg time, and although society demanded straightness out of him. He could care less; Ginsberg continue to have his encounter with gay young men in parks/ public spaces and all over the city. He says, “ the lost boys are lost to normal family life,” which served as an intellectual thread that referred to his experience. Because society demanded a normal life that consisted of a man, women, job and children, he pursued the pleasure behind his needs. That is when he met his lover, who went whoring around with random girls who he picked up everywhere he went. Ginsberg in this part of his writing finally identifies “who” at the beginning of each of his lines. We learn that from that part forward that his who’s are directed to his lover to show expression in of his broken feelings. It is then he realizes that people die because of societies demands. Once he meets Carl Solomon, he learns that suicide attempts are results from desperation of crushing demands made by society and family who constantly squeezes out their hope. He explains this particular part in great detail and compares it to the Nazi camps, Adolf Hitler once made because of how cruel and evil the torture they receive is by not being accepted for the human beings they are.

Ginsberg speaks on his associations with the best minds because only they could understand the same concept, he was trying to get his readers to understand. Only those great minds had made the discovery of eternity, a zone very few were capable of acknowledging through their mind and soul. He highlights how many have been wrongly diagnosed and were victims of brainwashing so that they could no longer believe in the uniqueness of their own made up main street way of life.

Within both writing we see great writers, and although they speak on the same topic, their minds greatly differed. With Ginsberg, he argues that his anxiety toward language is because of his belief in the volatility of the human soul. However, Burroughs does not show any where that same leniency towards the human soul and spirit as Ginsberg does. The drug use in Ginsberg poem is more to reconnect or numb itself from acknowledgement of how experiences have ruined his inner soul which leads him to believe that while there are people who do evil things, these evil things are done because they are not aware of their own holiness. Ginsberg greatly differs from Burroughs because unlike him, Ginsberg has embraced his homosexuality and believes the world is who commits the crime by not accepting his uniqueness. As for Burroughs Benway section, the drug used in his novel brings out more of the evilness, he focuses strictly on how the whole idea of America as sickness, evil and broken and the whole land itself is evil and broken because of it. Burroughs does not believe in the innocence and purity or holiness of the human soul as where as Ginsberg does and therefore he believes that everything is Holy.

After carefully analyzing the writing of both writers, although they both argued great points, my reflection has to favor more towards Ginsberg’s poem than Burroughs novel due to his thoughts about holiness and embracement of one’s unique madness. In a sense, society itself is the cause behind any sin because humanity acts from desperation. Personally, I cannot agree that everything in this world is holy but to an extent, anything can be transformed holy. I agree more with Ginsberg on this topic because drug usage should not be just a cover to your own madness like Burroughs wanted it to seem like. All of humanity contains their own madness and because we refuse to accept that reality, our society continues to constantly enforce demands we cannot meet, which causes people to indulge into the drug usage because that is the only escape out of societies darkness.

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