Naked Lunch PDF
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BC-«115 FIRST PAPERBACK EDITION OF THE COM PLETE $6 GROVE PRESS BEST-SELLER NAKED LUNCH BY WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS "THE ONLY AMERICAN NOVELIST LIVING TODAY WHO MAY CONCEIVABLY BE POS SESSED BY GENIUS.” -NORMAN MAILER Acclaim for Naked Lunch C 66Naked Lunch, by William Burroughs, a 48-year- old American expatriate who is a scion of the adding-machine family, comes off the presses carrying a heavier burden of literary laudations than any piece of fiction since Ulysses, ... It is a cry from hell, a brutal, Priapic, terrifying, par anoiac, and savagely funny book that swings giddily between uncontrolled hallucination and fierce, exact satire. . . . The only constant in the book is horror; the skin crawls through the fun niest scenes, and the reader is never far from hysteria. A totally insane and anarchic master piece.” —Newsweek “William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch ... is writing of an order that may be cleanly defended not only as a masterpiece of its own genre, but as a monumentally moral descent into the hell of narcotic addiction . . . only after the first shock does one realize that what Burroughs is writing about is not only the destruction of depraved men by their drug lust, but the destruc tion of all men by their consuming addictions, whether the addiction be drugs or over-righteous propriety, las civiousness or sixteen-year-old girls. Burroughs is not only serious in his intent, but he is a writer of great power and artistic integrity engaged in a profoundly meaningful search for true values . . . [it] could not conceivably be held to be obscene by a reasonable court.” —John Ciardi, Saturday Review “A book of great beauty, great difficulty, and maniacally exquisite insight.” —Norman Mailer “It is amusing to read reviews of Burroughs that try to classify his books as non-books or as failed science fic tion. It is a little like trying to criticize the sartorial and verbal manifestations of a man who is knocking on the door to explain that flames are leaping from the roof of our home.” —Marshall McLuhan, The Nation “Mary McCarthy and Norman Mailer, represent ing the U.S. at the 1962 Edinburgh Festival, each told an astounded audience that the out standing contemporary American writer was a man called William Burroughs. Most of those present had never heard of Mr. Burroughs, understandably, since his Naked Lunch had (until this Grove edition) . . . enjoyed publica tion only in Paris. . . • This is a unique book by an incredibly talented writer... .” —Library Journal “. . . an absolutely devastating ridicule of all that is false, primitive, and vicious in current American life: the abuses of power, hero worship, aimless violence, materialistic obsession, intolerance, and every form of hypocrisy . . . but one must never mistake this author’s work for political comment, which, as in all genuine art, is more instinctive than deliberate—for Burroughs is first and foremost a poet. His attunement to con temporary language is probably unequalled in Ameri can writing. . . . Compared to Burroughs’ grasp of modern idiom in almost every form of English—and his ability at distillation and ellipsis—the similar efforts of Ring Lardner, and of Hemingway, appear amateur ish and groping. ... for the new generation of Ameri can writers the work of William Burroughs is by far the most influential being done today.” —Terry Southern William S. Burroughs NAKED LUNCH Grove Press, Inc. New York Copyright © 1959 by William Burroughs All Rights Reserved Caution: No part of this book may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, including any method of photographic reproduction, without the permission of the publisher. First Evergreen Black Cat Edition 1966 Second Printing MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Contents NAKED LUNCH ON TRIAL The Massachusetts Supreme Court decision and excerpts from the Boston trial vii INTRODUCTION Deposition: A Testimony Concerning a Sickness by William S. Burroughs xxxvii NAKED LUNCH APPENDIX From The British Journal of Addiction 237 Naked Lunch on Trial The Supreme Court of Massachusetts in a decision handed down on July 1, 1966, declared Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs not obscene. In clearing the novel of obscenity charges and finding that it was pro tected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, the highest court of Massachusetts re versed an earlier decision of the Superior Court of Boston and removed the threat of a state-wide ban on the book. Since Naked Lunch was first published in the United States in 1962, the only other censorship action against the book outside the State of Massachusetts oc curred in Los Angeles, where the novel was cleared of obscenity charges at a trial in 1965. At the Boston trial which preceded the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, and John Ciardi were among the witnesses who testified on behalf of Naked Lunch. The attorney appearing on behalf of the book and its publisher was Edward de Grazia, assisted by Daniel Klubock. Below is the full text of the majority decision of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, followed by excerpts from the testimo nies of Mr. Mailer and Mr. Ginsberg, and a statement from Mr. de Grazia. vii ATTORNEY GENERAL vs. A BOOK NAMED “NAKED LUNCH” by the court. The book was adjudged obscene in the Superior Court, G. L. c. 272, §§ 28C, 28E, 28F (each inserted by St. 1945, c. 278, § 1). The Supreme Court of the United States has held that, to justify a holding of obscenity, “three elements must coalesce: it must be established that (a) the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex; (b) the material is patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards . . . and (c) the material is utterly without redeeming social value” (emphasis supplied). A Book Named “John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure” v. Attorney Gen. of Mass. 383 U. S. 413, 418-421 (hereafter referred to as the Memoirs case). “Naked Lunch” may appeal to the prurient interest of deviants and those curious about deviants. To us, it is grossly offensive and is what the author himself says, “brutal, obscene and disgusting.” As to whether the book has any redeeming social value, the record contains many reviews and articles in literary and other publications discussing seriously this controversial book portraying the hallucinations of a drug addict. Thus it appears that a substantial and intelligent group in the community believes the book to be of some literary significance. Although we are not bound by the opinions of others concerning the book, we cannot ignore the serious acceptance of it by so many persons in the literary community. Hence, we cannot say that “Naked Lunch” has no “redeeming social importance in the hands of those who publish or viii
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