Antiromantic

"Hero and villain of "Naked Lunch" are heroin. Burroughs makes it clear that addiction does not give pleasure- it is merely "something to do"- and he argues that the police collaborate with the addict, helping him to find his something-to-do by making it hard for him, keeping him busy. Within the dry, husking rustle of Burroughs' prose lies a moral judgment. "I got the fear!" he writes, and runs from the dream of nothingness, no contact, toward nothingness, no contact, toward his surreal fantasy. The world of men and women has let him down. The world of dream- no, of self-absorption- is the only alternative while he waits out his term on earth."

Herbert Gold November 25, 1962 New York Times

"So why did I do it? I could offer a million answers, all false. The truth is that I'm a bad person, but that's going to change, I'm going to change. This is the last of this sort of thing. I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life. I'm looking forward to it already.

I'm going to be just like you; the job, the family, the fucking big television, the washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electrical tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortage, starter home, leisurewear, luggage, three piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine-to-five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing the gutters, getting by, looking ahead, the day you die."

Trainspotting 1996

Pain relief.
Physical pain. Mental pain.
The pain of loss, of lonliness.
It eases anxiety. It banishes fear.
Unlike other prescribed psychotropic drugs, it's efficacious.
It works.

Right until it don't.