Burroughs Called His Greatest Novel Naked Lunch,

The Suburbs Dream Of Violence.

Along With Our Passivity, We're Entering A Profoundly Masochistic Phase Everyone Is A Victim These Days, Of Parents, Doctors, Pharmaceutical Companies, Even Love Itself. And How Much We Enjoy It. Our Happiest Moments Are Spent Trying To Think Up New Varieties Of Victimhood.

In The Past We Have Always Assumed That The External World Around Us Has Represented Reality, However Confusing Or Uncertain, And That The Inner World Of Our Minds, Its Dreams, Hopes, Ambitions, Represented The Realm Of Fantasy, And The Imagination. These Roles, It Seems To Me, Have Been Reversed. The Most Prudent And Effective Method Of Dealing With The World Around Us Is To Assume That It Is A Complete Fiction - Conversely, The One Small Node Of Reality Left To Us Is Inside Of Our Own Heads.

His Mother And Father Were Agnostics, And Jim Respected Devout Christians In The Same Way That He Respected People Who Were Members Of The Graf Zeppelin Club Or Shopped At The Chinese Department Stores, For Their Mastery Of An Exotic Foreign Ritual. Besides, Those Who Worked Hardest For Others, Like Mrs. Philips And Mrs. Gilmour And Dr. Ransome, Often Held Beliefs That Turned Out To Be Correct.

The History Of Psychiatry Rewrites Itself So Often That It Almost Resembles The Self-serving Chronicles Of A Totalitarian And Slightly Paranoid Regime.