William S. Burroughs

burroughs
I’m doing a series of ‘Lil Portraits of some (kind of) famous people. Who knows… maybe you would like to buy one? They’re tiny. Roughly 3.5″ x 3.5″ on bristol board but I’d be happy to vary the size based on your needs. I’ll do any person you want (even Glenn Beck or Jay Leno) and mail it to you for a reasonable price. Contact me and we can work out the details.

When I was in high school I saw the film adaptation of Naked Lunch and decided to check out the novel it was based on. I found it unreadable and gave up but something about William Burroughs seemed very compelling to me so I ended up reading one of his earlier books, Junky, and thought it was fantastic. It’s just a straight up account of his experiences as a drug addict and is written in a frank style that is actually readable.

After finishing that I picked up Ted Morgan’s biography Literary Outlaw which I also found to be fantastic. I came to the conclusion that I like reading about William Burroughs much better than I like his experimental novels.

He’s just such an interesting character. Over the years I’ve seen Drugstore Cowboy dozens of times and his brief screen time in that film is mesmerizing to me. I think it’s his voice. I could listen to him read most anything… except of course his novels.

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    • Eric on January 23, 2014 at 4:28 pm

    So no WSB audiobooks?

    • jason on January 23, 2014 at 4:42 pm

    After I read Junky I did actually listen to him read the audio book version which was pretty great. But other than that or Queer (his other supposedly straight forward book which I have yet to read) I don’t think so.

  1. I made the connection years ago that dicks revere “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, although “Drugstore Cowboy” is much more preferable and a tasteful film when it comes to movies surrounding the drug culture (and realistic). I had a past girlfriend give me an original copy used on the set of the “Drugstore Cowboy” script signed by GVZ, probably going to be the best gift ever received, sorry to burst your bubble current/future girlfriends.

    • Jason on March 30, 2014 at 11:42 am

    Drugstore Cowboy is indeed amazing. After watching the movie over and over I eventually read the novel it’s based on by James Fogle which was equally fantastic (there are a few more drugged out adventure thefts that didn’t make it into the film). But yeah, I absolutely love everything about that film. To this day I won’t put a hat on a bed.

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