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Throughout history, there have been many pieces of American literature that have been suppressed by the government of the United States or other political institutions inside the U.S. These works of literature have ranged from existing in the forms of novels, poems, and magazine issues. The reasons that these works were suppressed, or banned, also have ranged from political, social, religious, or sexual grounds and foundations. One specific book that was repressed by judicial officials is Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. Naked Lunch was banned in areas of the United States on social grounds for its explicit and offensive content.
Naked Lunch was published in Paris in 15 and was put together from a series of William Burroughs's notes that he composed while living in Tangier. Several of his colleagues, who included Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, and Sinclair Beilles, helped Burroughs weave together the material for the novel. They assisted him in taking a series of stories and accounts that sat all over Burroughs's desk and floor (in random sheets of paper), and bring them together so that they could be ready for print. They were arranged in a very random order and with no narrative continuity. There was no persistent point of view and the separate episodes were not unified (Chapman, 66). These random thoughts and accounts are generally about the destructive effects of a man's drug addictions. The addict's fantasies and hallucinations as a result of his drug addictions are depicted throughout the novel. The names and specific effects of various drugs are detailed, as well as the details of how they are dispensed. Sexual acts are also used and described in detail by the author, in order to represent pain and misery. Burroughs uses vulgar language, and attempts to create the greatest shock effect with his vivid images of drug use, paraphernalia, and sexual encounters (Sova, 187-188).
When the novel was published in Paris in 158, it became the subject of much discussion in the U.S. and eventually became a renowned piece of work in America, even with the fact that only a small number of copies were distributed in the U.S. This resulted due to the fact that the United States Postal Service seized copies of the book being mailed from Paris due to the obscenity of the book. The government felt they were justified in doing so with the Tariff Act of 10, which made it legal to stop allegedly obscene material from entering the country (Sova, 188). In 158, the Chicago Review published an excerpt from Naked Lunch, but was forbidden to ever do so again by University of Chicago authorities, who had sponsored the magazine. The editors and writers for the Chicago Review eventually raised enough money to open up an independent magazine, Big Table. Here, they published continuing excerpts from the controversial novel. But however, yet again, the U.S. Postal Service seized copies of the magazine and prevented it from being distributed in the United States (Baechler, 8-).
When Grove Press finally published the book in the U.S. in 16, it was very soon met with a lawsuit in the city of Boston on grounds of obscenity. In the trial that subsequently followed the accusations against the literature, many literary figures and critics such as Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer were called to speak about the Naked Lunch's redeeming social value, which was the criteria at the time for acceptable literature (Chapman, 67). The writers spoke to support the book, but in the end, they could not persuade the judge. The book was declared to be " obscene, indecent, and impure…and take as a whole…predominantly prurient, hardcore pornography and utterly without redeeming social value" (Sova, 188). In 164, Naked Lunch was literally banned in Boston.
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The novel was found to be obscene partly because of its offensive gist. "He jerks her to her feet and tightens the noose. He sticks his cock up in her and waltzes around the platform and off into space swinging in a great arc" (Burroughs, 8). In this direct quotation from the text, a young man has just literally hanged his lady friend and decides to have sex with her as she is hanging from the rope. This is quite a disturbing picture and can be very difficult to imagine in one's mind. The offensiveness and coarse language that the reader encounters as he or she reads was considered ample reason for obscenity charges.
Another reason that was in part responsible for the ban of the book was that it contained vivid accounts of drugs, drug-use, and drug paraphernalia. "The old junky has found a vein…blood blossoms in the dropper like a Chinese flower…he push home the heroin" (Burroughs 87). "I have a place where I can slip my needle right into a vein, it stays open like a red, festering mouth, swollen and obscene, gathers a slow drop of blood and pus after a shot" (Burroughs, 5). These two direct quotes show the precise vividness of the author's writing. The first quote gives dramatic detail about when the old junky has found a spot in his arm to shoot his heroin. The second quote is a detailed description of the spot that the young man in the novel has become accustomed to in shooting up. The realistic language and detail that the author uses shows why many were rubbed the wrong way after reading it.
A final and perhaps most predominant basis for the ban on the book was its content of prurient and pornographic material. "Mark and Johnny sit facing each other in a vibrating chair, Johnny impaled on Mark's cock" (Burroughs, 87). "His whole body strain to empty through his cock. She drinks his jissom which she fills her mouth in great hot spurts" (Burroughs, 8). These two quotes are perchance not even the most graphic ones of their kind in the novel. The first quote describes an event where two young men are taking part in homosexual activities while sitting on an electric vibrating chair. One of the gentlemen has his penis in the other's anus, and the two men are receiving pleasure from this act. The second excerpt is reciting the moments after a female has given a male oral sex and is swallowing his semen. The author describes even how the semen is leaving the young man's penis. The two excerpts leave nothing to imagination and were considered by many to be tasteless and filthy pornography.
Following the decision, Grove Press's lawyer, Edward de Grazia, made an appeal to the State Supreme Court. After listening to the case, a judge ruled the novel to be not obscene. The reason for this was that the judge felt that for literature to be obscene, it had to meet the following criteria; "The dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex, the material is patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards relating to the description or the representation of sexual matters, and The material is utterly without redeeming social value" (Watson, 84). Based upon these criteria, five out of seven judges ruled to reverse the previous decision. By July of 166, the ban was lifted and the sale of Naked Lunch was allowed in Boston. However, there were restricting terms that were put into effect regarding the book. Firstly, it was not to be advertised in any way, and secondly, there was not to be any sort of distribution of the work with intent to exploit it for its prurient material (Sova, 18).
After all the scandal and controversy about Naked Lunch, the novel still holds a great legacy. It is the work that made its author, William S. Burroughs's fame and his fortune. It remains to be his most widely know and read work (Baechler, ). But maybe a bit more important is that it holds a vital position in American literature. The decision of the novel to not be obscene marked the end of literacy censorship in America. "If Naked Lunch did not qualify as obscene with its scenes of homosexuality, cannibalism, hanging-ejaculations, and every four-letter work known, an enforceable standard of obscenity became difficult to imagines" (Watson, 84). Please note that this sample paper on Naked Lunch is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on Naked Lunch, we are here to assist you. Your cheap research papers on Naked Lunch will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.
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