SOURCE: Skerl, Jennie. “A Mythology for the Space Age.” In William S. Burroughs at the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989, pp. 48-74. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Skerl discusses common elements in Burroughs's novels from Junkie to Nova Express.

In the writing of Naked Lunch, Burroughs discovered the style that best conveyed his vision, and its publication released a great deal of creative energy. In quick succession thereafter, Burroughs produced three important novels: The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, and Nova Express (published in 1961, 1962, and 1964, respectively).¹ All three of these works were drawn from the same mass of notes that was the source of Naked Lunch,² and they continue to develop the themes and techniques of that seminal book.

But although the three subsequent novels grow out of Naked Lunch, the latter stands alone as a self-contained work while The Soft Machine, The Ticket...