The Western Lands | Topics for Discussion & Projects

The Western Lands Key Questions

Burroughs wrote to Allen Ginsberg during the 1950s while he was working on the manuscript of material that became Naked Lunch, "The novel is a dead form, rigid and arbitrary. I can't use it." This issue of traditional form has been an operative one throughout Burroughs's career and remains central in considering The Western Lands.

1. In what ways does The Western Lands resemble a traditional novel in terms of form and structure? What are its differences, and how successful is Burroughs with various innovations?

2. Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer (1934) has an epigraph from Emerson that says novels will eventually give way to autobiography. In what ways does this comment apply to Burroughs?

3. How effective is Burroughs's use of a multicharacter narrative flow? Is there any confusion about who is relating events?

4. Burroughs has been noted for...
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