Social Commentary In Naked Angels

259 Words2 Pages
My best friend and I have been long argued over the very question you raised. He sees Naked Lunch as drug induced, hallucinogenic vignettes dependent upon the substance being injested (or shot or sniffed). He does not find any social commentary in the book. My view is that there was a much deeper social commentary to the episodes, in that their graphic nature was so extreme that the reader became desensitized to the imagery and language, just as he felt society was doing in regards to the failing leadership of America in the 1950’s. It’s been well documented and discussed that Burroughs was warning against the mainstream 1950’s white suburban archetype, the fakeness of life wrapped in a shiny veneer. As John Tytell notes in Naked Angels,