Naked Lunch
Yesenia Steward
24 April 2014
LIT2090; T,R (9:50AM)
Naked Lunch Reading Quiz
1. Identify the following:
a. The Shoe Store Kid: The shoe store kid is a drug manipulator who seeks out his prey with hands of "rotten ectoplasm.”
b. The Rube: This K.E. was Burroughs’ long-standing friend, Kells Elvins, who was living in Denmark in the mid-1950s — which is why they were on the Malmö ferry together in the first place. Burroughs visited Elvins and his wife Mimi in Copenhagen from late July to early September 1957. His first letter written from there was to Allen Ginsberg which represents Scandinavia as a welfare state nightmare; this is why Lee and K.E. get right back on that ferry. He was influenced by drugs even though he denied it; he was pressured into the lifestyle.
c. The Vigilante: Burroughs’ descriptive image of the addict’s flesh fading away “at the first silent touch of junk” is located in a “New York hotel room,” but in fact it echoes almost exactly a description of events in Paris not long before Naked Lunch’s publication. Since ectoplasm flows freely in these early pages of Naked Lunch, the fit seems perfect.
2. Clem and Jody are a couple of characters who sell defective U.S. military gear to Third World governments.
3. AJ is someone who crashes the party and wreaks havoc, decapitating people and imitating a pirate. A short descriptive section tells us of Interzone University, where a professor and his students are ridiculed; the book moves on to an orgy that AJ himself throws.
4. Dr. Benway is the name of a recurring character in many of William S. Burroughs' novels, including Naked Lunch. He is referred to only as "Dr. Benway" or "Doc Benway" (his first name is never revealed). He lacks a conscience and is more interested in his surgical performance than his patients' well-being.
5. Interzone is a collection of short stories and other early works by William S. Burroughs. The villain of the piece, Doctor Benway, was to play a pivotal role in Naked
24 April 2014
LIT2090; T,R (9:50AM)
Naked Lunch Reading Quiz
1. Identify the following:
a. The Shoe Store Kid: The shoe store kid is a drug manipulator who seeks out his prey with hands of "rotten ectoplasm.”
b. The Rube: This K.E. was Burroughs’ long-standing friend, Kells Elvins, who was living in Denmark in the mid-1950s — which is why they were on the Malmö ferry together in the first place. Burroughs visited Elvins and his wife Mimi in Copenhagen from late July to early September 1957. His first letter written from there was to Allen Ginsberg which represents Scandinavia as a welfare state nightmare; this is why Lee and K.E. get right back on that ferry. He was influenced by drugs even though he denied it; he was pressured into the lifestyle.
c. The Vigilante: Burroughs’ descriptive image of the addict’s flesh fading away “at the first silent touch of junk” is located in a “New York hotel room,” but in fact it echoes almost exactly a description of events in Paris not long before Naked Lunch’s publication. Since ectoplasm flows freely in these early pages of Naked Lunch, the fit seems perfect.
2. Clem and Jody are a couple of characters who sell defective U.S. military gear to Third World governments.
3. AJ is someone who crashes the party and wreaks havoc, decapitating people and imitating a pirate. A short descriptive section tells us of Interzone University, where a professor and his students are ridiculed; the book moves on to an orgy that AJ himself throws.
4. Dr. Benway is the name of a recurring character in many of William S. Burroughs' novels, including Naked Lunch. He is referred to only as "Dr. Benway" or "Doc Benway" (his first name is never revealed). He lacks a conscience and is more interested in his surgical performance than his patients' well-being.
5. Interzone is a collection of short stories and other early works by William S. Burroughs. The villain of the piece, Doctor Benway, was to play a pivotal role in Naked