Youd on Naked Lunch:
"William Burroughs is a counter-culture icon, and Naked Lunch is a title known to many people. Its celebrity aside, the book is not easy and is for devoted readers. I'm sure I didn't appreciate the novel when I had read it previously. But when I did this retyping, I had some 50-plus novels and five years of the 100 Novels project under my belt, and was able to bring the required focus to the performance. It is perhaps an odd notion, but you have to be in reading shape to tackle Naked Lunch. I retyped the novel at Burroughs's grave at the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, as the final retyping of my CAM St. Louis exhibition and performance cycle. It's a novel I'd like to retype again, perhaps in Tangiers or Paris."