Burroughs, William S. (2012). The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-0-14-190358-3. Latvala, Maureen (August 22, 2005). "Joan Vollmer". Women of the Beat.org. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Burroughs wrote in his introduction that "The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork." Stevens, Matthew Levi (2014). The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. Mandrake of Oxford. ISBN 978-1-906958-64-0.

Burroughs saw Control as the byproduct of a space-borne mutation that colonized human larynxes millennia ago, and continues to perpetuate itself through language, infecting individuals for no purpose other than viral replication. In which case, Pharrell's “Happy” might have been engineered by Control to produce spasmodic gyrations like the purple-assed baboons frequently referred to in Burroughs’ work. (Exhibit A: “Roosevelt After Inauguration,” a scathing satire of American politics in which the entire Supreme Court is taken over by debased simians.) [14] To Burroughs, all forms of Control are to be rejected. “Authority figures are seen for what they are: dead empty masks manipulated by computers,” he croaks on Seven Souls, a 1989 release by the band Material. “And what is behind the computers? Remote control, of course. Look at the prison you are in—we are all in—this is a penal colony that is now a death camp.” [15] Burroughs: Certainly. I'm interested in the golden dawn, Aleister Crowley, all the astrological aspects." — William S. Burroughs [84] Burroughs was unwavering in his insistence that his writing itself had a magical purpose. [o] [p] [q] [r] [91] This was particularly true when it came to his use of the cut-up technique. Burroughs was adamant that the technique had a magical function, stating "the cut ups are not for artistic purposes". [92] Burroughs used his cut-ups for "political warfare, scientific research, personal therapy, magical divination, and conjuration" [92] – the essential idea being that the cut-ups allowed the user to "break down the barriers that surround consciousness". [93] As Burroughs himself stated:Avidar-Walzer, Sand (31 January 2014). "Welcome to Interzone: On William S. Burroughs' Centennial". Los Angeles Review of Books . Retrieved 4 July 2023.

Naked Lunch is a non-linear narrative without a clear plot. The following is a summary of some of the events in the book that could be considered the most relevant.

References

As Burroughs makes clear, he meant this reference to "possession" to be taken absolutely literally, stating: "My concept of possession is closer to the medieval model than to modern psychological explanations ... I mean a definite possessing entity." [29] Burroughs' writing was intended as a form of "sorcery", in his own words [30] – to disrupt language via methods such as the cut-up technique, and thus protect himself from possession. [d] [e] [f] [g] Later in life, Burroughs described the Ugly Spirit as "Monopolistic, acquisitive evil. Ugly evil. The ugly American", and took part in a shamanic ceremony with the explicit aim of exorcising the Ugly Spirit. [35]