- Source: Queer (novel)
Queer is a 1985 novella by American author William S. Burroughs. It is partially a sequel to his 1953 novella Junkie.
Summary
The novel begins with the introduction of "Lee," who recounts his life in Mexico City among American expatriate college students and bar owners surviving on part-time jobs and GI Bill benefits. The novel is written in the third person and Burroughs commented in the "Introduction," published in 1985, that it represents him off heroin, whereas in Junkie, his narrator was psychologically "protected" by his addiction. Lee is self-conscious, insecure, and driven to pursue a young man named Allerton, who is based on Adelbert Lewis Marker (1930–1998), a recently discharged American Navy serviceman from Jacksonville, Florida who made friends with Burroughs in Mexico City.
Literary significance and criticism
Queer was originally written as an extension of Junkie, which had been judged too short and uninteresting for publication. Burroughs lost interest in the manuscript, and chose not to return to it even after Junkie was accepted. It was doubtful whether much of the content could be published in the US at that time, since the heavy homosexual content and theme could be held as obscene. Jack Kerouac admired the work and thought it would appeal to "east coast homosexual literary critics". It was eventually published in 1985 with a new Introduction, when Burroughs's literary agent Andrew Wylie secured him a lucrative publishing contract for future novels with Viking. Reportedly, he had not read the manuscript in thirty years because of the emotional trauma it caused him. Much of it was composed while Burroughs was awaiting trial for the allegedly accidental homicide of his common-law wife Joan Vollmer.
The introduction of the 25th Anniversary edition of Queer, published in 2010 and edited by Oliver Harris, who made some small revisions to the text, argued that the novel's real traumatic backstory was Burroughs' real life relationship with Lewis Marker, fictionalised in the narrative as Lee's hopeless desire for Allerton.
Despite his frequent and uncompromising writings on homosexuality, Burroughs has, in the words of Jamie Russell, author of Queer Burroughs, "been totally excluded from the 'queer canon'". According to Russell, Burroughs's life and writing suggests a gay subjectivity which has been deeply troubling to many in the gay community. Burroughs reputedly said in a press interview, in response to a question regarding the gay rights movement, "I have never been gay a day in my life and I’m sure as hell not a part of any movement." (The primary source of this quotation is unclear; it is quoted, second-hand, by narrator Peter Weller in the 2010 documentary feature William S. Burroughs: A Man Within.)
Adaptations
An Erling Wold opera of the same title, based on the novel, premiered in the U.S. in 2001.
In 2011, Steve Buscemi was set to direct a film adaption of the book. The screenplay was written by Oren Moverman, director and writer of The Messenger. Buscemi led the first reading of Queer at the Sarasota Film Festival with Stanley Tucci, Ben Foster, John Ventimiglia, and Lisa Joyce.
In December 2022, it was announced that Luca Guadagnino would be directing a film adaptation of the novel with Daniel Craig in the lead role. In April 2023, Drew Starkey was cast as Allerton, along with Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman and Henry Zaga. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and will receive a limited release starting November 27, 2024.
Notes
Further reading
Ted Morgan. Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs, New York: 1988.
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