Naked Lunch - 1991 - Starring Peter Weller, directed by David Cronenberg, based on the 1959 novel by William S. Burroughs
I awoke from The Sickness at the age of forty-five, calm and sane, and in reasonably good health except for a weakened liver and the look of borrowed flesh common to all who survive. The Sickness... Most survivors do not remember the delirium in detail. I apparently took detailed notes on sickness and delirium. I have no precise memory of writing the notes which have now been published under the title Naked Lunch. The title was suggested by Jack Kerouac. I did not understand what the title meant until my recent recovery. The title means exactly what the words say: NAKED Lunch -- a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.
- William S. Burroughs aka Old Bull Lee
CW: Literally every goddamn thing in this film and the novel. Burroughs' work is made to warp your mind, and he's not gentle about it. Interzone is a place devoid of morality, and this content is not for the faint of heart or the easily nauseated, even by today's standards. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Old Bull Lee was not a good or sane person by any measure. He was however, fucking brilliant, and if you can handle the trip, he has an enormous amount to teach those who create and move between worlds.
Movie Detail:
Naked Lunch is a 1991 surrealist science fiction drama film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and Roy Scheider. It is an adaptation of William S. Burroughs' 1959 novel of the same name, and an international co-production of Canada, Britain, and Japan.
The film was released on 27 December 1991 in the United States by 20th Century Fox, and 24 April 1992 in the United Kingdom by First Independent Films. It received positive reviews from critics, but was a box office flop, garnering only $2.6 million out of a $17–18 million budget due to a limited release. It won numerous honours, including the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director and seven Genie Awards, notably Best Motion Picture. Naked Lunch has since become a cult film, acclaimed for its surrealistic visual and thematic elements.
Twenty five years ago I saw the ghost of William Burroughs in San Francisco, grinning at me through the morning fog in his wide brimmed hat, umbrella at his side. It was the 2nd week of August 1997, just after he died in Kansas, and I was on my to work at my new job at the Pacific Stock Exchange - which was hell because we had just been hit by the Asian Financial Crisis, the market was plunging, and I'd only been at the job for about a month. This meant I was getting screamed at by brokers and market makers on a near constant basis as the Dow crashed.
I think Burroughs was on his way to City Lights and the dive bar across the street, most likely looking for Kerouac. But for whatever reason, he stopped to look at me, to make sure I knew he was there, that I recognized him, and most importantly - that he thought I and what I was doing hilarious. That all the stress and scrambling and jumping to try hold onto my job in the midst of the chaos was ridiculous to him. I could see the light mockery and an odd joy in his eyes. Then he was gone, lost in the press of the Market street foot traffic.
I walked into work, and get the news the IMF has decided to bail out Thailand and the market is back on the upswing - all my stress really had been for nothing as the next few days bore out. For the next couple of nights, I hung out around North Beach, hoping to catch a glimpse of him again, but all I caught were the echoes of bebop fading through the midnight fog of Chinatown.
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