I'm interested in William S. Burroughs because he was a pivotal character in Kerouac's circle of beat friends, but I've only read some snippets of his work. On my reading list are Junky and Naked Lunch, and yet I don't think about him much at this point. I'm "saving" him for later. A few days ago, Crystal and I watched the movie, Down Came a Blackbird. I recommend it, but be warned that it is not exactly uplifting. In one scene, Raul Julia's character says, "A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on," and he attributes the quote to Burroughs. My web research seems to confirm the attribution. Maybe I'll move Burroughs higher on my reading list.
I think he's represented in A Casebook on the Beat (a recent acquisition), so there's a starting point.
Oh, and, by the way, synchronistically today is William S. Burroughs' birthday. When I wrote this post and scheduled it to publish today, I didn't know that. My Yahoo! calendar reminded me of his birthday on Feb. 4, so I added this paragraph just in time for publication. Weird!
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