Burroughs' Junkies is one of the author’s most famous novels. This is an almost completely autobiographical work, the name of which was the slang designation of an opiate addict. The book was published in 1953 and has been very popular over the years.
The author of the novel
For Burroughs, "Junkie" was the second novel, if you count the detective book "And the hippos boiled in their pools", written before this together with Kerouac. If we take only his works, then it was a literary debut, which took place at 39 years old.
Burroughs himself is considered one of the most authoritative writers of the United States of the XX century. He is an important representative of the bit generation, standing on a par with Kerouac and Ginsberg.
The author of the book "Dzhanki" Burroughs is from a wealthy and wealthy family. He was educated in Europe, traveled a lot. I met with representatives of the hipster community back in the 40s. Then he began to try himself in literature. However, his debut novel, to which this article is devoted, published already in adulthood.
Literary heritage
His other work, the experimental novel The Naked Breakfast, which saw the light in 1959, brought him fame. In total, the author of "Dzhanki" Burroughs, whose photo is presented in this article, wrote about 20 novels, several collections of short stories and short stories. The work of the prose writer had a great influence on contemporary pop culture, especially music and literature.
The writer died in 1997, after which interest in his novels began to fade. If earlier when reserving "Dzhanki" by W. Burroughs it was necessary to wait for his turn, now there is more interest in the film adaptations of his creations. For example, David Cronenberg’s film “Naked Lunch”, which was shot based on Naked Breakfast.
In Russia, translations of the books by the author of "Dzhanki" Burroughs began to be actively published since the mid-90s. At this point, most of his novels and stories have been translated into Russian.
Novel "Dzhanki"
The protagonist of the novel "Dzhanki" Burroughs - William Lee. He was born in a wealthy city in the Midwestern United States. He was well-read since childhood, graduated from Harvard, traveled to Europe with a stable income of $ 150,000 a month, which allowed him not to think about making a living. As you can see, many facts of the biography of the protagonist coincide with events in the life of the author of "Dzhanki" William Burroughs.
When the Second World War begins, he goes to the army as a volunteer, but soon he wants to be consulted with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He tries many professions until he finally finds out what drugs are.
Dependence
Burroughs' Junkie book details how a person develops addiction to illegal substances. According to the author, this happens when nothing else interests him in life. Comparing with alcohol, Burroughs notes that nonsense is not a source of high, but a real way of life.
A friend of the protagonist, who worked in the port, constantly stealing there. One day he brought William a pack of morphine, asking him to find a buyer. So they went to Herman and Roy, who purchased part of the goods. A few days later, William injected himself with one of the unsold vials.
In the Dzhanki novel, Burroughs describes how fear came for relaxation, horror followed, and then a real color movie began. In the morning he woke up completely broken.
After the third dose, horror attacks stopped, and when the potion ended, William himself began to buy it from Roy. He taught him how to get prescriptions and buy them in pharmacies. Gradually, the main character began to spend in bars in which drug addicts and homosexuals hang out.
Profitable business
Once Herman suggested that William immediately buy a kilogram of marijuana from New Orleans. They successfully resold it, it was profitable, but too boring, because, unlike real drug addicts, grass fans bought only a couple of dollars worth of goods at a time, and they preferred the seller to chat with them and smoke.
Soon, William finally got hooked on the needle. He began to inject three times a day in order to more or less maintain his normalcy. He began to live with two other drug addicts, together they obtained recipes and money. In fact, this limited their entire sphere of interests; they filled the gap between two doses with the expectation of the next injection.
First term
The first time that William was caught on a fake prescription, he was sentenced to a short term - four months probation. He incorrectly indicated the address and name.
It was too risky to rob and further intoxicated passers-by, it was possible to get a real time. Therefore, he decided to engage in street trading. One of his buddies, Bill Heine, brought him to a wholesale heroin supplier. Of course, it was impossible to get rich on this, but it was possible to earn the necessary amount of potion. A constant supply of cash made it possible to forget about the fear of one day being left without a dose.
Over time, together with Bill, they got their own customers, things went uphill. The only problem was that among their customers there were constantly unreliable people who were trying to get out the debt, some did not follow the elementary rules of conspiracy, and still others, at the slightest danger, could tell everything about their seller to the police.
In the end, because of such a clientele, the police ended up almost on their tail as a result. It was urgent to leave New York. Bill went to Lexingston for treatment, and William went to Texas, where there was a farm that belonged to him.
How to get rid of addiction?
The protagonist of the novel hoped to get rid of his addiction on his own using the Chinese method: after each injection, add a bottle of solution with distilled water, thereby systematically reducing the dose. After some time, William hoped to inject clean water into his vein.
But this method turned out to be ineffective; severe withdrawal began. Intolerable pains had to be experienced in the genitals and teeth. Leaving his car in the parking lot, William decided to go to Lexingston by train. There was a closed institution in which drug addicts helped to cope with addiction. To do this, they first injected a course of a synthetic substitute for morphine, they constantly reduced its dose. After this followed the rehabilitation period, during which it was necessary to completely abandon the drug. At this point, William broke and left the center untreated.
Arriving in New Orleans, he began to lead a life relatively normal person. He began to drink, which drug addicts usually do not, began to visit taverns, but somehow, being drunk, pricked again, and it all started all over again. It turned out that if there ever was an addiction, returning it is not difficult. Again, the time began when all life was reduced to taking a dose, and then waiting for the next injection. Pauses had to be filled with trade with customers who were just as dishonest as in New York.
Police raids
Life of drug addicts in New Orleans every day became more and more dangerous. The police arranged regular raids, and could even detain them for the marks of injections in their hands. Once, William and his friends fell into history again. He was threatened with a long term, but he was rescued by a lawyer who hinted that he should spit on the bail on which he was released and hide in Mexico.
Arriving in Mexico City, William found out that a certain Lupita controls the entire grass trade here. In addition, she gets along with the police so closely that they not only do not touch her, but also eliminate her competitors.
Because of this, William had not only to abandon the idea of starting his own business, but also to buy a potion of dubious quality from Lupita. True, after some time, recipes began to help him out again.
Life in Mexico City
He spent a year in Mexico City, trying to tie at least five times during this time, but nothing came of it. The last time he managed to get out on a mixture of wheels and alcohol, but as a result he got rid of drugs. True, after that I washed down for several weeks.
Having regained consciousness one morning, he almost suffocated from the smell of urine, realizing that the stench was coming from himself. It turned out that he had advanced uremia. The doctor, to whom he came to the reception, said that literally another bottle of tequila could completely kill him.
By this time, he had not injected himself for several months, but there was no point in returning to America, since a court was waiting for him there. In addition, real anti-drug paranoia began in the country. So he decided to head further south to Colombia. Rumor had it that there appeared a new drug that could exacerbate telepathic susceptibility. And questions of telepathy have always occupied the main character. His journey continued ...