A research paper on the works of William s borough in the naked lunch novel

William s boroughs naked lunch   is a work farsighted of current trends in electronic culture, politics and biology. The novel takes an insight in the happenings of then 1914 that are fictionally described by the author. Despite most of the work being on a social basis, he incorporates futurism through attributes such as health sector, politicks, drugs, violence, intolerance and hypocrisy. He has a futuristic voice throughout the novel exploring the world of repression in a world where order is a common virtue. Unlikely during his time, there were such writings that shed a light to the future like his writings (Goodman 34).

Closely connected with beat generation writers Allen Ginsberg and jack Kerouac, Williams takes on a high note on the social structures of western civilization taking on evils that arise due to freedoms and democracies. William describes the politics of America as those democratic that people chose what to do on their own, however he notes that bureaucracies arise as political systems demand more and more of administrative processes (Berne 56). He compares the upper tier in the society to the majority middle class, a situation witnessed in America today. He tells of his characters about the alienation of the common man from the society that they fail to enjoy the worldly pleasures as if they will live forever (Silverberg 98).
The author explores how the traditional justice that embraced tolerance has been eroded creating room for hatred at the height of the cold war. He is seen as predicting the rise of pure capitalism among nations that find it hard to cope with virtues of socialism. The loss of morals and tolerance lead to perpetual rearmament a virtue that is observed in today’s world with the rise of more complicated weapons taking the center stage for security. He notes that countries are treating their neighbors with suspicion for self-interests and not for genuine reasons that can be justifiable under human rights (Zanna and Olson 213). The author thinks that the society is too old-fashioned and he brings the attributes of a modern society where everybody lives in their own apartments. He finds that everybody minds his own business and people become less and less concerned about their neighbors giving room for democracy and allowing the rise of homosexuality. However despite the fact that the author talks of the masses protesting and discrimination against same sex engagements, he recalls that in his childhood that people are oriented psychologically in as much as they may never have wished. He calls the acts a political intolerable but finds the politicians too medieval to enact laws that curtail the freedoms of the common man. He simply talks of police harassment and is keen to note that law is crucial to run any government but the characters are portrayed as unruly and oblivious of their consequences.
Had drug habits are observed throughout the novel, the junk (heroin is extensively used to kill pain and create pleasure). The use of drugs is extensively covered with explicit content among the use of drugs. William s borough talks of the use of drug as a hobby to many a virtue that lead to addiction (James 76). As a result the government is forced to take actions that mitigate the extensive use of drugs, however it’s notable that such efforts fail and as a result the government is forced to invest in research, a costly affair that leads to funded medical research. The institutionalization of drug abuse causes discomfort among the users, an attribute that depicts the author as a hobbyist for junk that leads him to addiction and he thus speaks from a practical view (James 98). The author notes of cartels that evade the police to sell the drugs at leveraged prices and thus reaping a living from such activities. It can be historically remembered that William was a drug addict and a drug seller, a virtue that he supports without fear throughout the entire novel.

The author talks of memory loss arising from the use of excess junk and morphine; he rarely puts emphasis on his characters but brings these attributes in a general social setting to expose the drawbacks of drug abuse. There is the rise of Addiction, the doctors are seen trying to figure out vaccine to cure the junk virus, calling it an evil virus. They find that the addicts can be quarantined in a common place while they undergo rehabilitation (Silverberg 187). Such laws to quarantine can be observed in today’s world of medicine where individuals suffering a rare disease are quarantined to avoid the spread, however it may be noted that the author talks of rehabilitation centers in his last part as a home for the hopeless who are already in addiction and their world is finely short. He says that the junk virus is public health problem number one today. That was then in his days, today the same problem is seen as emergent with the government seen spending billions to fight drugs. The public health however is under commercialization and a competition to manufacture better drugs does not go well with doctors as is seen with Dr. Benny. The writer feels empathetic about the life of an addict; as such it’s similar that he puts himself in the shoes of a drug user who has tried to leave drugs without success. He talks of the coming days as worse and blames westernization for the rise of poor government that aims to oppress people and benefit the politicians (Burroughs, Naked lunch. 54) (Silverberg 32).
The use of Violence as is observed extensively in the novel. The rise in violence in the government is observed by how the police handle masses with a strict use of rules that sometimes lack logics. The author notes that everyone lives in apartments where they are perceived to be living better lives. However most of the characters while touring the country said that they have observed people being harassed and asked to remove curtains from windows and doors and the prohibition of use of shades, curtains, blinds and shutters in living rooms.  The residents are seen complaining in small camps but they find it hard to air their complaints with the government requiring all bolts on doors to be eradicated and the government having free access to private property (Burroughs, Grauerholz and Miles, Naked lunch : the restored text 165). The author finds that it is hard to travel in the night without identification documents. He recalls how police carried searches under the inspection of Marv and witnessed by two Arabs. He notes that violence can easily be propagated by rebellious individuals who make the police to use force when dealing with masses, in some excerpts insulting the police, a virtue that is seen today with most citizens.
The police are said to conduct search in a manner that infringed the privacy of the citizens with sometimes going to the extent of stripping the citizens as they extort information. The author appreciates the use of democratic means to resolve issues; he used Kerouac to portray his feelings by concluding that the use of torture creates violence. Dr. Ben is seen talking negatively on the use of force by government to arrests suspects who may however be innocent, he rather talks of the solutions which include the use of disciplinary procedures that do not lead to excessive violence. The author further goes to talk of a police who fails in his duty to make an arrest and he thus faces the violence from their own. To depict himself as ac criminal, the author talks of Hassan orgies with a French boy that makes him scream freedom. He appreciates freedom as a right to do what the heart desires. In the contrary he respects the societal values by claiming that Hassan did not live the best life but neither was the life worse than worth lived.
Dr. Ben discusses what he witnessed being a government doctor, the use of drills to subdue suspects into accepting whatever they are accused of. He talks of the switchboard where a drill is used to drill on suspects teeth where it can be turned on any time, the suspects are asked to make electric connections to work via trial and error after which an error in any step results in a drilling operation in their teeth inflicting massive pains. This can be witnessed in today’s military world where criminals are forced to undergo such torture to reveal secrets. The citizens are said to appear in total silence whenever drill operations are carried so as to detect how citizens respond to security alerts. The government is portrayed as commanding respect but through the use of fear not to criticize the current administration.  The use of sexual humiliation is seen in how the public treats hermaphrodites and homosexuals with the masses staging protests in the city (Arnheim 65). Some groups such as the Bismarck Archipelago are seen as great antagonists of homosexuality and as a result they send homosexuals in frenzy who claim that they fear for their lives from ruthless police who may shoot them any time they run from arrests.
The rise of pure Politics in the wake of the cold war is marred with violence and suspicion. Citizens are depicted as intimidated by the systems and are forced to Apply and carry a portfolio of documents. He notes in the novel that situations are ever changing, despite the cultural norms of humanity; humans are becoming more inhumane with modern politics. The modern life is perceived as hectic and parasitic draining resources from poor citizens to pay a few government employees and those in power. He talks of the characters embracing a new world and thus their social and personal relationships become sadistic and explosive. He comes to be of new age through creating a connection of the then happenings in the novel that are being witnessed presently in today’s world. He notes that as politicians strive for personal gains, they lose values like truthful perception, naturalness and honesty. He recalls of how the Chinese saw the west to be so unreliable, dishonest and wrong especially in a situation where occidental junky was given a chance to score.
The author depicts Americans as the innocent democratic warriors taking a center stage in protection of a holy trophy. He notes of the American dream a farsighted idea that he portrays technology as a key aspect in ensuring security among the American multitude. He convinces the reader to appreciate modern civilization to keep away from the shortcomings of traditional virtues like socialism to develop a technologically aware nation. He is keen to note that the then government lacks technology in their systems and he thus tells Dr. Benny that the Mexican population could get his services if only America had the right technology in medicine. He extensively talks of the responsibilities of doctors and the incorporation of laboratories and atomic war as a virtue of life (Goodman 64). He finds that medicine and warfare really need technology to be risk averse of eventualities and such the results of attack could be only through war, he later talks of people who talk sweetly and are orderly representing the rise of a generation where war merely makes any sense. William notes that the operations of the world are governed by laws that govern the whole cosmos, he takes a fictional overview of the universe and he notes through the characters especially the county clerk that physic geography are crucial for self-knowledge, transcendence and personal transformation. The use of order leads to faster access of services but the majority are reluctant to adopt since they are always in constant rebellion against the use of force and deadline (James 197)s.
The author notes that t science, psychology, anthropology, religion and philosophy overlap and merge into one common thing that makes man an upright human being. Despite being then that formal education was literally unappreciated, he is keen to note that such virtues and attributes contributed to wholeness, in today’s America, education can be attributed to the wholeness of every individual as it plays a center stage in communicating and in general day to day life. He finds that science and technology was responsible for creating terror, citing the nuclear blasts in japan. He is keen to note that technology had no other option than to dominate mankind, such a situation is witnessed today where technology plays a center stage in all world economies for efficient production. The author talks of a certain ink that is yet to come, he laments about the government documents which easily fade in pockets and therefore citizens are always in constant frenzy as they try to access government bureaus  in order to meet impossible deadlines. As a rise of urbanization increases and the revolution in technology assumed course, the author notes that most buildings were now Apartments installed with electric buzzers and everyone lives in apartments. The ringing vibrations are said to be so loud that people were easily thrown out of the bed.  The doctor is common among many episodes to advocate for chemical therapy as a solution to most diseases, however he is obsessed with the educated than the learned claiming that they need to be denied the right to read and talk as well, he is however optimistic that the society needs more education to make people learned and change their thinking on the way life should be handled (James 76). The author claims that therapy should be a reserve of the learned but later finds that nature will always choose for itself allowing some uneducated fellows to carry surgery and traditional medicine too. This can be witnessed in today’s world despite technological advancements.
The authors work is full of excerpts that depict intolerance while taking a position in contemporary culture. The postwar is revealed as a time when people had to live in fear and suspicion. The growth of new enemies and contradicting ideologies is expressed as a way of life towards developing world where economies compete for power to control the entire world (Goodman 234). He talks of the corporate world throughout the novel indicating that the world is intolerable and is ever changing giving an upper hand to the more competitive. He talks of companies vanishing from intolerant markets and poor market structures. Dr. Benny is observed criticizing government institution on their strictness in the portfolios needed for one to access government services. He attributes these hassles to the bureaucracies he recalls how his friends are being denied basic services for not having government issued documents which require lengthy application and waiting times. He notices that most citizens are tired with the processes involved and no longer consider government services to be the best as private developers offer the same services at more efficient terms (Silverberg 98).
The author is keen to note that deadlines play a major role in government offices. When a western man is asked to produce an affidavit to access hospital services, he is asked to wait for three days before the orders processed.  The author talks about deadlines making people more punctual than ever, as the characters find interacting with others becomes harder since they must obey deadlines or find themselves on the losing end. The government services now perceived as basic are only accessible within set time frames after which they are no longer available, the author expresses a sense of optimism that such processes lead to efficiency but he is concerned that in his time this cannot be even a reality (Zanna and Olson 34). The use of capital punishment is extensively used to warn most culprits who go against the law with most being warned not to go into acts like pornography or else face the harsh law. He highlights several episodes where sex precedes murder and mutilation depicting the height of violence that happens even today. He is fictional to depict death penalties for consumers of pornography claiming that majority of these values proponents have no morals but psychological motivations (Silverberg 45).  The use of drugs by authorities is used to interrogate suspects after whom they are believed to be honest and cooperative in answering queries from investigators, this is common today with CIA and the torture that used to happen in Guantanamo bay. The interrogators are said to assaults their subject’s personal identity.  The use of such drugs in such experiments have been said to cause experimental schizophrenia, mescaline and harmaline.  The author notes that Hauser uses anything he can lay hands on including using alcohol, Benzedrine, marijuana and opiates.
Joselito an aspiring business man uses his stunts to get huge bargains from money lenders. He later realizes that he is slowly falling bankrupt since he has always lied about his wealth, Joselito eventually sues his lenders for breach of contract and using the money borrowed he succeeds.  The test for morphine takes the center stage with the fight against drug addition. The writer largely talks of those who gave up on their lives and became hopeless in drugs. The medical practitioners are now awake and great research in medical field is highly visualized as consuming huge funds. Medicine no longer becomes the usual, economies starts to play centers in the making and sale of drugs, the government is reluctant to fund expensive drug research allowing the new generation of chemists and doctors to specialize in the business of drug manufacturing, there is the rise of issues such as high costs of drugs and as a result the government is urged to reconsider their decisions (Burroughs and Reagh, Doctor Benway : a passage from the naked lunch 32). The rise of drug subsidy makes dr. ben move to Bolivia where there is no psychosis and establishes a camp0aignto fight alcohol abuse. The majority of the population never views the use of drugs as a unique endeavor. They engage in drug selling for material benefit while they ruin the future of their youths with narcotics, an aged woman is depicted luring a youngster to immoral activities by use of drugs. The high use of drugs becomes such a norm that parties cannot be carried without the presence of drugs, as a result the government finds it hard to cope with addiction.
In Bolivia the media is so important that Dr. Ben finds it hard to link up with the locals, the use of TV and the radio aid him to reach masses after which he starts a research study to find the effects of metabolism centering on alcohol and drug abuse, sex, diet etc. ben, a good doctor indeed is in search to rescue the world, he tries his efforts but later finds the cases are overwhelming and asks for the local authority in Bolivia to give him access to medical funds. He attributes the use of alcohol to organized crime and the rise of pornography (Burroughs, Grauerholz and Miles, Naked lunch : the restored text 24). While at that time it was hard to access pornography, the internet era has enabled it to be accessible anywhere with the rise of electronic media. The research and drug leads to the rise of psychology where doctors find new cures without the use of chemicals. They identify that psychology influences the way in which humans relate to their environment. Humans are complex and thus their way of thinking greatly influences their health status (James 32). The challenges in medical field lead to lack of drugs that cannot cure drug addiction and thus new means to prevent addiction such as counseling are recommended to be used.  They note that complete back drain depression in the users of junk is simulated through excessive drug consumption and they find that the situation is hard to diagnose.
The author is futuristic and is seen comparing between the use of chemical versus sanitarium therapy. There is the rise of Exotic and decadent city full of homosexuality. The author finds that as a result of westernization there is moral decadence ranging from prostitution to excessive consumption of liquor. The author later talks of liquor being prohibited by laws and everyone who sells must obtain a government permit and he or she is prone to government searches any time. The use of pornography is extensively portrayed with the author using obscene language that many readers often find insulting. Among the many excerpts include the acts of homosexuality. These virtues are widely witnessed in today’s world as the American population increases. The rise of gay factions that always advocate against discrimination is widely witnessed across civilizations in today’s world (Arnheim 55). The electronic culture today advocates for obscenity where people can involve in electronic pornography without censorship. The use of obscenity in the book not only is an indicator of moral decay but the fruits of westernizations where people’s rights stands to be respected irrespective of their sexual orientation.
Homosexuality is termed as a political crime in matriarchy and that it does not occur automatically to persons of conceivable behavior. Analysts note that people indulge in such activities for various reasons, despite the fact that the writer is keen to advocate for people to be allowed to follow their psychological drives, he finds that some people are sexually oriented in unique ways, he however fails to prove whether his sentiments reveal that of a contemporary society or a work that is directly influenced by his lifestyle (Silverberg 75). All in all this happens in today’s modern world with the rise of rights group that justify gays’ and lacks a respect of the cultural norms. The author notes that Persians have an opium culture with most parts selling without control. The author fictionally thinks that 70% of the population is usually addicted and cannot be easily rehabilitated. The author talks of a vibrant economy where youths find jobs from the resources mobilized by the government, he however laments that drug addiction is leading to low productivity among the youths and the doctors are highly overwhelmed by such cases (James 32). He notes that most addicts are usually neurotic and thus they don’t require any psychotherapy.  The despair from a medical practitioner comes from endless efforts that have not yielded any effort. He depicts individuals in a hotel who engage in hard drugs and derive much pleasure, in the contrary he talks of another faction of drug addicts who are hopeless and the government efforts fail to help them from the abuse of drugs.  The author notes that there is no evidence of hallucinogen dependence from test results thus making the use of junk common among people, the world junk being used to represent opium in most cases.  The most bulk of junk users consider them sacred and consider them to make them nearer to God. The Mexico border, a rather talked component in the drug dealing business always show the pursuit of police to eradicate the drugs futile with little success.
The doctors find that psychological rehabilitation will rarely work among the majority population as they asses are reluctant to accept the rehabilitation (Silverberg 76). Most of drug users consider rehabilitation a taboo and will always suffer withdrawal symptoms. As a result most junk users avoid the police but will always interact in social gatherings. They are said to wait in long queues in drug stores as they all wait to get a share of the drug.  Despite regulations prohibiting the sale of drugs in clubs, the author notes that cocktail lounges at the end of subdivision streets have their own bars, liquor store and a drugstore and market. The use of noxious substances is seen as a common virtue as men are seen taking these substances and going into convulsive states.  It is noted that among Jivaros, the youths take yage to appease spirits and to get foretold of their future.
 Therefore it goes without say that despite unspeakable facts from the works of William S Borough’s is a masterpiece. William s boroughs naked lunch is a work farsighted of current trends in electronic culture, politics and biology taking into accounts the happenings of today in the internet era.  The content in the novel takes an insight in the happenings of today’s world, revealing an electronic culture and the way of politics, however it can be concluded that the author does not take a soft stunt in politics but rather fights his way to speak his mind, he offends many and mostly the government but makes his feelings known. Most of the works in the book is fictionally described by the author.  He takes most of the work on a social basis, capitalizing on the evils of westernization. However he visualizes the lifestyle portrayed as that of a normal person despite such life being so explicit. The authors work in this book is an open minded thought expressed in free will and pure courage.

References
Arnheim, Rudolf. Art and visual perception : a psychology of the creative eye. Berkeley: University of California Press,, 1974.
Berne, Eric. Games people play; the psychology of human relationships. New York: Grove Press, 1964.
Burroughs, William S and Patrick Reagh. Doctor Benway : a passage from the naked lunch. Santa Barbara: Bradford Morrow, 1979.
Burroughs, William S. Naked lunch. New York: Grove Press, 1966.
Burroughs, William S, James Grauerholz and Barry Miles. Naked lunch : the restored text. New York : Grove Press, 2001.
Goodman, Michael B. Contemporary literary censorship : the case history of Burroughs' Naked lunch. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981.
James, William. The principles of psychology. New York: Dover Publications, 1950.
Silverberg, Ira. Everything is permitted : the making of Naked lunch. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1992.
Zanna, Mark P and James M Olson. Advances in experimental social psychology. / Volume 48. Waltham, MA: Academic Press, 2013.