BURROUGHS
PORTRAIT GALERIE
- Paris.
1958-1959
»Naked Lunch« was published by Olympia
Press in Paris in 1959.
- A
few weeks before Burroughs had moved to Paris to prepare
- the
final typscript with the help of Allen
Ginsberg, Brion Gysin,
- and
Sinclair Beiles in record time. In general critical reaction to
- the
book tended to be
immoderate: »Strident and illiterate - sim-
- ply
boring rubbish
- a book to be left under a stone, allowing
free
- access
to rats and other vermin." It
was dragged to court for ob-
- scenity.
But also received
some thoughtful, laudatory reviews
- from
writers Mary McCarthy, Norman Mailer and
Terry Southern
- in
the States, and
media guru
Marshall McLuhan in Canada. In Pa-
- ris
Burroughs lived at no. 9, rue Git-le-coeur, the so called »Beat
- Hotel«.
He took up residence there at the advice of Allen Gins-
- berg
who was living there with
Peter Orlovsky. He Brion Gysin
- along,
who became a
close friend & collaborator and showed
- Burroughs
the use of the Cut-Up, an application of the montage
- method,
to writing. They published two books of their cut-ups:
- »Minutes
to Go«, and
»The Exterminator«.
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