Father Christmas was kind enough to bring me a new copy of this 'roller-coaster ride through Hell' - the 2005 restored text (HarperPerennial) - which I have just finished reading for the first time in years.

I'm now in the middle of going straight back through it again - I'd kind of forgotten what an incredible book it is!

Most of Numan's 'Replicas' is in there, and of course early Foxx (Burroughs being a major influence in the early years). It's a book a lot of artists cite as particularly important to them.

I've got several references to style, themes and even lyrics from Metamatic to waffle on about, but before I do, I wondered who else has read this recently and what people think of it??

I am a keen Burroughs fan. I have Junky, The Soft Machine, Dead Fingers Talk, The Yage Letters, My Education Book Of Dreams. I bought Naked Lunch before Christmas & I can't get into it. I find it too harrowing & way too graphic, which is very hard for me to admit as I have a very broad mind.

I mainly bought it for musical inspiration, because my next APPARATUS AND HAND album JUNK RECEIVER is inspired by & dedicated to William Burroughs. There are 2 tracks from the album on my Soundclick page & they are Message For The Exterminator & The Narcotic Frequency.

Do you have the Naked Lunch film starring Peter Weller & directed by David Cronenberg? I think this is a superb film. The dvd has an interview with Burroughs & Cronenberg. Hmm, maybe I should give the Naked Lunch novel another try.

Here's the link to the Soundclick page:
[URL=http://www.soundclick.com/pro/view/01/default.cfm?bandID=176513&content=music] or better still click the www tab above.

Mark

I haven't read the book, but I've seen the film and I didn't like it at all.

The book is probably a lot better than the film.

I was given the book to read by the same friend who introduced me to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts! Experiencing the two together is VERY unsettling!

As for the film - it was never going to be as good as the book (how could it be!), as the book is pretty much unfilmable. However Roy Scheider was excellent as Dr Benway...

Rob

Not long after first hearing My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, I had a rather disturbing nightmare, and at the end of the dream, the track "Regiment" was playing, getting gradually louder.

That album messes with your head!!

Hi Birdsong,

One of my all time favourite books! I read the new edition last year and found I preferred the Burroughs edited original. I know they did it to remove texts that appeared twice and to correct spelling etc but with Burroughs love for repetition and Joycean wordplay, I felt the new editors (Barry Miles etc) were taking away the rhythm of the original. Since its first publication in ’59 it was messed about with by Burroughs et al all the way up to around 1970/71 – surely if Burroughs was going to edit it again to his satisfaction he would of done long before his death?

I also read ‘The Beat Hotel’ straight after the newly revised ‘Naked Lunch’. ‘The Beat Hotel’ concentrates on the period Burroughs AND Ginsberg spent in Paris. Very good, if grim and depressing in places reading and extremely well-researched. If you can track a copy down, do so!

For more Numan references – ‘Flow My Tears, The Policeman said’ by Philip K Dick is a fairly obvious one!

I'm not familiar with that title. I know alot of Dick's work influenced Numan around the time of Replicas.

I'm looking forward to seeing "A Scanner Darkly" when it comes out on DVD soon.

Picked up do androids dream of electric sheep late last year. Great stuff and a big influence on numan.

Intriguing to see the source of "the smell of burning leaves"!!
Made me think.
Burroughs describes many of his 'habit notes' in Naked Lunch and refers to the above as being induced during a yage state. He alludes to the fact that in this condition, the user feels intoxicated and out of control, as if, in fact, there is 'no one driving' the body.

A whole new interpretation of the song shifts into focus, and I'm playing it again with a new set of ears.
Wonderful stuff!