What are some differences in style and context between Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Kerouac's On the Road?

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psmortimer | (Level 2) Adjunct Educator

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Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch” are quite different in style and context. A lot of people tend to put them in the same category since they are two of the major works produced by the Beat Generation. Kerouac and Burroughs, along with Alan Ginsberg formed the core of the Beat Generation. The main difference in the books is that Kerouac’s “On the Road” is a pure stream of consciousness piece about his experience on the road across the country. Burroughs, on the other hand, was developing his cut and paste method in which he would literally cut words out of magazines and newspapers and adhere them to the page to form his text. Both books were controversial for the time, with Burroughs’ work becoming the center stage of an obscenity trial, the outcome of which altered the guidelines for the publishing industry.

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