Unfinished scholarly article on Wm. S. Burroughs as an Absurdist

Consideration of  William S. Burroughs, thought of as the elder statesman of the Beat Generation, and his seminal work, “Naked Lunch,” has lead me to see him as a prime example of the Absurdist movement. Elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1975, Burroughs was a writer, artist, and spoken word performer. He rarely held a job, but worked as an exterminator, blah blah blah

Burroughs wrote  the novels “Naked Lunch,” “Queer,” “Junkie,” and “Wild Boys,” among others. These were based primarily on his experiences as a homosexual drug abuser. He was addicted to heroin for the last 50 years of his life, and his drug use had a profound influence on his writings. Detailing what it was like to be addicted to “junk,” Burroughs took his audience to places they had never been.  He opened up a dark underworld of male prostitution,  auto-erotic experience, and was often censored for his writings. The last obscenity trial in the United States, Massachusettes v. XXXX, 1965, involved the publication of “Naked Lunch.”

“Naked Lunch” is a collection of ten chapters, intended to be read in random order by the audience; it is not a linear novel. It details the exploits of XXXXX, and spills sordid tales about homosexuality, heroin addiction and auto-erotic asphyxiation. I doubt my mother would have bought it for me had she read the blurb on Amazon.com!

Absurdism, at its very heart, is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe ultimately fail (and are hence absurd) because no such meaning exists. Absurdism is very close to the philosophies of existentialism and nihilism and has its  origins in the writings of Kierkegaard, and Camus.  According to Camus, one’s freedom and the opportunity to give life meaning lies in the recognition of absurdity. If the absurd experience is truly the realization that the universe is fundamentally devoid of absolutes, then we as individuals are truly free. For Camus, the beauty which people encounter in life makes it worth living. People  may create meaning in their own lives, which may not be the objective meaning of life, but can still provide something for which to strive. However, he insisted that one must always maintain an ironic distance between this invented meaning and the knowledge of the absurd, lest the ficticious meaning take place of the absurd.

In fiction, absurdism centers on the behavior of absurd characters, situations or subjects. While a great deal of absurdist fiction is humorous in nature, the hallmark of the genre is not humor but rather the study of human behavior  under circumstances that are highly unusual. Absurdist fiction posits little judgment about characters or their actions; that is left to the reader. Absurdist works traditionally lack a plot structure (rising action, climax, falling action). Also, the “moral” of the story is not explicit, and the characters are often ambiguous in nature. Because absurdist fiction is non-conformist, many readers struggle when exposed to it.

“Naked Lunch” is Burroughs most famous work, and is not very accessible. It is a difficult read. The experiences related in it are not comfortable. It highlights a sub-culture not many people participate in.  Some of the behaviors described are despicable, and often illegal.