👽Three Davids, Naked Lunch, and the Beat Generation 

Nabokov said that some so-called masterpieces are just giant plaster casts. David Cronenberg chooses Naked Lunch, a novel by the American writer William Burroughs, from a multitude of uncertain plaster casts. Furthermore, he makes the confusing plaster cast to become a puddle of non-Newtonian fluid, in his usual disgusting way, making people unable to stop.

On the Road & Jack Kerouac

Speaking of Naked Lunch, I want to make a few digressions. Kerouac, Burroughs' good friend, writes a novel On the Road, which is outrageous. There is no plot, no structure, being scattered and messy. The two are representatives of the Beat Generation and must affect each other to some extent, but how deep is the impact? To put it simply, Kerouac comes up with the name “Naked Lunch”.

Naked Lunch & William Burroughs

Naked Lunch lacks even more plots and structures than On the Road and is more scattered and chaotic. Because of Naked Lunch, On the Road seems to have some storylines. It traverses the United States and Mexico and is always on the road. That is at least a symbol of the times. But what about Naked Lunch? Nothing.

At the end of the preface to Naked Lunch, there is a sentence, "The children on painkillers all over the world unite, all we have lost is the drug dealers, and they are redundant. See it clearly. Never casually step on taking drugs, and make friends with the rabble." It sounds like an addict's confession. But we all know that Burroughs has nothing to confess. He has consciously kept in touch with the subway station in New York, where criminal cases always happen. He has been involved in the sale of stolen goods and LSD and has a history of opium use for more than a decade. We could never see that he is remorseful. He is just being cold and without any emotion.

Naked Lunch Movie

In Naked Lunch, it can be said that the lewd scenes fully describe all kinds of sexual possibilities. All genders and all possible parts are involved in sexual intercourse. The sexual intercourse written by Burroughs is far beyond what ordinary readers can think of. The US court considers its content as "obscene". We cannot define it as kitsch. Given Burroughs is a junkie, it is chaotic nonsense, showing all physical struggles as more real than singing praises.

Cronenberg is like an avid fanboy of horror novels. In 1983, he reproduced The Dead Zone, a novel by Stephen King. In 1991, he invited Burroughs himself to jointly adapt this impossible visualized novel into a script and put it on the screen. Unsurprisingly, the bloody, pornographic, lewd, bestial, drug-addicted, insane, and disgusting film has been banned in every country in the world.

There are three Davids in the film industry. It may be a coincidence, but I like every one of them. David Cronenberg, David Lynch, and David Fincher. If you have played D&D, or heard of the Faction 9 box grid, I just would want to describe these three Davids with 9 box grid.

In Finch's world, people are violent and dark. Born guilty, but never regret. He always keeps a cautious distance from the truth, the good, and beauty, because brightness makes people blind. He studies the mistakes that people make and checks the human struggles behind the mistakes. He is pessimistic about the fate of mankind, but that doesn't mean he will live a negative life. On a certain level, he acknowledges religion and tacitly believes in God. He does not preach good order, nor does he deny evil chaos. He is like the center of the entire 9 grid, being true neutral.

As for Lynch, he filmed my only favorite movie. In Mulholland Drive, people are chaotic and sinful. But it does not shoot with the first perspective, which is commonly used in thriller movies, nor is it an omniscient perspective. In his view, the real world is determined by people's dreams and subconscious. He separates fantasy and reality and thinks that they influence each other and decide each other. For him, religion is just a questionable statement.

David Lynch by Julian Rentzsch

Lynch shoots a lot of freaks, but he can often pull the characters out of reality. He is a typical psychoanalytic writer. In his films, all human actions have causes and effects. Human beings cannot escape the subconscious, except for piercing the cold blade through the chest. He has no attitude toward human beings. He disdains to choose to be optimistic or pessimistic. I prefer to think of him as chaotic neutral, rather than neutral.

Finally, Cronenberg. His films have been described as "flesh horror films". The word has almost become a representation of Cronenberg. In his films, the human body is the same as any other object. It can be disassembled, reassembled, and assembled. Instead of describing it as disgusting, I would rather say that he creates another world. There is another group of people living in that world. Their body is the organ to perceive the outside world, and the carrier of information. It's like a brand-new interaction mode. It is common to transform the body.

If Naked Lunch is similar to alienation or Kafka, the new work "Crimes of the Future" in 2022 can be regarded as a complete and radical narration of Cronenberg's worldview. In this new work, Cronenberg tears the banner of the sanctity of the human body to shreds. He recognizes human is subjective. But his recognition is based on a grand nihilistic worldview. He shreds the body piece by piece for people to see. But it does not mean that he is an anti-human terrorist. On the contrary, this exactly reflects he loves humans madly. He hates the confinement of the world, and he wails for every soul trapped in the flesh.

Some people say that Cronenberg is a surrealist director. I don't agree with that. Because there are no distortions or deformations which are drawn out of time and space in his works. There is a word from Hamlet.

To die, to sleep--

To sleep--perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death, what dreams may com

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

I sort him in Chaos Goodness because he is one step further than Shakespeare.