Helen, the Hermit

It's a major trip written by a person on a major trip. What do you think it is like?

On a technical level, while it's not a part of The Nova Trilogy, it's still made via cut-up technique. It is fascinating, the way parts fit together nevertheless. Still, there are obvious throwbacks to the beginning in the latter half. Yet, like Burroughs says in the "atrophied preface" which, true to the form, appears near the end, this "naked lunch" can, indeed, be cut into from any point - beginning, middle, end.

Not for those of faint stomach or easily triggered.

Yet wasn't offended at all; unlike Palahniuk, who reminds me of a under-ten-boy who will fling crap and/or boogers at you in order to provoke a reaction, Burroughs' stream of vile imagery is - paradoxically? - genuine. There is no artifice with aim to shock the reader; these are truly excretions of a hyper-stimulated, half-rotten mind.