This essay argues that the once revolutionary potential of literature
defined as “postmodern” has been co-opted by a succession of collections
and “Readers,” typified by Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs
Reader. A study of Burroughs’ fiction reveals the dialectic between
language as a potential site of resistance and the inability of words to
ultimately circumvent social control, problematizing the representation
of Burroughs’ fictional project in the Word Virus. Through analysis of
two novels from his later career, Cities of the Red Night (1981) and The
Western Lands (1987), the contradictions inherent in contemporary literature’s
propensity to commercialize and market its revisionist canon
will be examined in relation to content that criticizes such compartmentalization.
