Queer (novel)
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| 1987 paperback edition | |
| Author | William S. Burroughs |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Short novel |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Released | November 1985 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-670-80833-4 (hardback edition) |
| Preceded by | Junkie |
Queer is the title of an early short novel (written 1951–1953, published 1985) by William S. Burroughs. It is partially a sequel to his earlier novel, Junkie. That novel ends with the stated ambition of finding the ultimate ‘high’- a telepathic drug called Yage. Queer, although not totally devoted to that quest, does include a trip to South America looking for the substance.
The novel is noteworthy in Burroughs' development as a writer, for it has a detached cinematic quality that is absent from his later novels. However, it also contains the first seeds of ‘routines’- the long wild-eyed monologues that would gush forth in Naked Lunch and later fiction- and mark Burroughs’ craft as radically satirical and bitingly original. In Queer, Lee tries to attract the attention of Allerton with long barstool eruptions.
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[edit] Plot summary
The novel begins with the introduction of a new character in Burroughs' writing- 'Lee', who begins by recounting his life in Mexico City among an American expatriate crowd of college students and bar owners surviving on part-time jobs and GI Bill benefits. The novel is distinct from Junkie, since it is written in third-person and Burroughs himself later commented in the "Introduction" published in 1985, that it represents him off heroin, where as in Junkie, his narrator was emotionally and psychologically ‘protected’ by his addiction to heroin. Thus the story is confessional, and less of a plot driven commentary on the characters found in the urban underclass of drug addiction. Burroughs’ Lee is very self-conscious, insecure, and driven to pursue ‘Allerton’ (true name Adelbert Lewis Marker (1930-1998).)[1] a young man he invests heavy emotion in, without much hope of reciprocity.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
Originally written to be published as part of Junkie, when Junkie was deemed too short and uninteresting for publication, Burroughs lost interest in the manuscript, choosing to have it remain unpublished as opposed to continue with improvements, when Junkie was accepted. It was uncertain whether much of the content could be published at that time, since the heavy homosexual content and theme could be regarded as obscene under American law in the 1950s. However, Ann Charters relates in her biography Kerouac (Straight Arrow, 1973) that Jack Kerouac admired the work and thought it would appeal to "east coast homosexual literary critics". Ultimately, it was published in 1985 with a new Introduction, when Burroughs's new literary agent Andrew Wylie signed a lucrative publishing contract for future novels with Viking. Reportedly, he had not read the manuscript in thirty years because of the emotional trauma it caused him. Much of the manuscript was composed while Burroughs was awaiting trial for the accidental homicide of his common-law wife Joan Vollmer.
Despite being a queer author, Burroughs has, in the words of Jamie Russell (2001) "been totally excluded from the 'queer canon'". Russell’s study of Burroughs novels in Queer Burroughs attempts to explain this condition - for Burroughs has not been viewed as a gay author by many readers. Moreover, according to Russell, Burroughs's life and writing suggests a gay subjectivity which has been deeply troubling to many in the gay community.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
An Erling Wold opera of the same title, based on the novel, premiered to acclaim in the U.S. in 2001.
[edit] Sources used
- Russell, Jamie: Queer Burroughs, Palgrave MacMillan (2001). ISBN 0-312-23923-8
- Morgan, Ted. Literary Outlaw. New York: Avon, 1988
| Works by William S. Burroughs |
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| Novels: And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (unpublished) - Junkie - Queer - Naked Lunch - The Soft Machine - The Ticket That Exploded - Dead Fingers Talk - Nova Express - The Last Words of Dutch Schultz - The Wild Boys - Port of Saints - Cities of the Red Night - The Place of Dead Roads - The Western Lands - My Education: A Book of Dreams Short fiction : Interzone - Exterminator! - Ali's Smile/Naked Scientology - Blade Runner, a movie - Tornado Alley - Ghost of Chance Non-fiction: The Yage Letters - The Electronic Revolution - The Job - The Third Mind - Letters to Allen Ginsberg - The Burroughs File - The Adding Machine: Collected Essays - The Cat Inside - Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs - Evil River (announced 2007) Recordings : Dead City Radio Films: The Junky's Christmas - Ah Pook is Here - Naked Lunch |
