The current generation is young and unfamiliar. Some members of the public with a blue eye believe that Beethoven is a big shaggy dog, and Mozart wrote ringtones for outdated mobile phones. They are unlikely to remember who William Burroughs is. But since the middle of the twentieth century, young people have been reading his novels with enthusiasm. What is a Junkie? This is the sensational work of Burroughs. And it is still considered one of the most read books by this writer in America.
Name history
What is a junk? The lyrical hero of the heroine novel claims to have known all aspects of the “parish”. And that an opiate is not a method of having fun, like alcohol, for example, or marijuana. This is a way of being!
Accordingly, the etymology is simple: “junk” is an opiate drug, heroin (or morphine). And the meaning of the word "junkie" is those who use it, that is, heroin addicts. But everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance!
History of creation
What is "Junkie" as a literary work? It is known that it was created and released with the direct participation of the “father” of the Ginzberg beatniks (William characterized his contribution as a kind of “secret agent from literature”). The hipster presented the main idea for the plot of the novel; in the process of writing, he was also in the editorial hypostasis.
So what is Junkie? The novel, which tells about drug addiction in the style of reporting, rather dry and abrupt.
The publisher of the book "found" in a New Jersey psychiatric hospital. Ginsberg was treated here after his shameful departure from Columbia State University. Here, the "main hipster" met K. Solomon, who was also partly a nephew of the owner of a small publishing house. And on the recommendations of the aforementioned nephew, he agreed to print a book, by then thoroughly revised by Burroughs (taking into account Ginsberg's comments).
The publishing house Ace Books in the 50s was not very authoritative: at that time comics and one-day detectives were published in it. It is also known that the novel was issued according to the “2 in 1” principle, that is, together with the work of another writer. Instead of his initials, Burroughs used the pseudonym William Lee.
Later, in the 60s and 70s of the last century, when William Burroughs became a well-known author, reprints were repeatedly published. And in 1977, an edited version of the work was published by Penguin Books (preface by A. Ginsberg).
A few words about the meaning of life
What did “Dzhanki” mean for the then youth? The novel gave a complete immersion in the topic of drug addiction, with a detailed description of the “parishes” and injection technology. For some, it became a kind of reference book, for others - a textbook on making sense, for others - a stop sign and an antidote to opiate poison. This creation puts all points on the “i”: it shows the “kitchen”, life, language of drug addicts of the 50s, which in many respects remained similar today. It gives an occasion to think carefully before making a choice of pleasures.
By the way, junk slang has not changed much since opiates were no longer used as a cough and diarrhea remedy. And Burroughs himself is the universally recognized creator of a literary masterpiece written in the postwar period (1951-1953). This novel undermined the rotten building of the culture of officialdom from the inside in the era of the struggle against youth drug addiction, which does not stop today. The text uses a large number of slang expressions, and the work itself, according to modern statistics, is still the most widely read work of Burroughs.