Naked Lunch

The first thing that any reader will notice about Naked Lunch is its unusual and distinctive style. In fact, this can make the novel initially hard to follow. In part, this is due to Burroughs’s attempt to capture the way of speaking common in the world of drug addiction and dealing, as in the extensive use of slang. For example, Lee refers to “stool pigeons” (3), or police informers; a “grass” (5), or someone who informs to the authorities; a “sawski” (4), or $20; “junk” (6), or heroin; and the “fuzz” (7), or the police. Likewise, characters have multiple names or pseudonyms. For example, Hassan is known, according to Lee, as “The Shoe Store Kid, alias Wrong Way Marv, alias After Birth Leary, alias Slunky Pete” (131) and several other names. Slang and pseudonyms help protect and conceal drug users from the authorities. Equally, knowledge of them (or lack thereof) helps distinguish those who are truly part of the using community. For instance, at the novel’s start, “a square who wants to come on hip […] talks about ‘pod’” (3); because he gets the lingo wrong, the man marks himself out as an outsider.