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one other thing i will say about burroughs, which i think is often totally missed by people - is that when he wrote these graphic depictions of sex and violence this isn't simply a kind of gross out pyschedelica.
as he says here:
.“The purpose of my writing is to expose and arrest Nova Criminals. In Naked Lunch, Soft Machine and Nova Express I show who they are and what they are doing and what they will do if they are not arrested. Minutes to go. Souls rotten from their orgasm drugs, flesh shuddering from their nova ovens, prisoners of the earth to come out. With your help we can occupy The Reality Studio and retake their universe of Fear Death and Monopoly (Signed) INSPECTOR J. LEE, NOVA POLICE2
burroughs was concerned with the way sex and drugs and reality itself was used to imprison and control the organism. unlike all these "pyschonaut" mongtards of today he was concerned with pushing the limits of drugs and sex as a kind of occult research instead of a transgressive hedonism. of course, there obviously is a massively hedonistic aspect to it all. what seperates burroughs from millions of other junkies is that he could actually write and he did write, in spite of the degradation, poverty and chaos of his life at many points. he is if anything seeking ways to get OUT of the organism instead of trying to show off his debauchery to his hipster friends. i know there is an element of that in it aswell, but that isn't when he is at his best.
just because bill took a lot of drugs and lived like an asshole doesn't mean this is somehow "artistically noble"! it's also relevant to look at how he ended up in his later years and the type of writing he was producing then, which is often not of any kind of quality at all. frankly, some of it is just piss poor. you have to look at the relationship he had with his son for example, which was quite sad. you have to look at how a thousand others from those scenes ended up with their drug use. a lot of bad choices and even worse poetry.
really, to associate burroughs with a kind of esoteric drug nonsense and mysticism and think this is just great is to miss the point of him going down all those dead roads in the first place. the point is to learn from the investigations he already partook in, many of them turning out to be disasterous. some turned out to be bullshit but bullshit that is at least fascinating to hear about. like the time he sat in a new york hotel doing occult rituals trying to contact the american astronauts that were heading off to space that day as their craft exited the earths atmosphere.
sadly, i think part of burrough and the beat legacy is the kind of "so esoteric it must mean something" writing. you can't just churn out absolute nonsense and call it art or think you are a beat poet because you've misread burroughs. it may mean, well, something to you but it's never exactly enthralling for anyone else to read.
people of this generation ought to start reading thomas ligotti.
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