How RealityStudio Covers Naked Lunch and Cut-Up Techniques

Updated

RealityStudio (realitystudio.org) is the web's leading resource dedicated to William S. Burroughs and the 1960s underground press, and it treats Naked Lunch and cut-up methods as two of its central subjects rather than side topics. If you want a research starting point that combines primary texts, bibliographic records, and critical essays on these subjects, the site is built for that purpose. The depth is scholarly rather than introductory, so expect archival material and criticism rather than a plain-language tutorial.

What the site says it covers

The site's own description names its focus directly: a community of fans, writers, and scholars interested in William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, cut-ups, and related work. That framing tells you the editorial scope up front — the cut-up technique is not treated as a footnote to the novels but as a subject in its own right.

Naked Lunch material

RealityStudio gathers several distinct kinds of Naked Lunch-related content:

  • A dedicated text section. The site lists Naked Lunch among its Texts by William S. Burroughs, alongside an outtake titled "The Word (Naked Lunch Outtake)" that appeared in Swank.
  • Critical studies. Ian MacFadyen's The Mouth Inside: The Voices of Naked Lunch is a full-length critical work hosted on the site.
  • Publication history. Popular Secrets of the Olympia Press addresses the publishing context around the book, and the site's archive sections document the little magazines and presses that circulated Burroughs' writing in the 1960s.
  • Bibliography. Eric Shoaf's bibliography provides a structured record of Burroughs publications, useful for tracking editions and appearances.

This combination means you can move from a critical argument about the novel to the bibliographic evidence behind it without leaving the site.

Cut-up techniques

The cut-up method appears across the site's structure rather than in a single page:

  • The Texts section collects Burroughs' own writing, which is where the cut-up experiments live as primary material.
  • The Scholarship and Criticism sections carry interpretive work on method and form.
  • The Archives section documents the small-press and magazine context — titles like My Own Mag, C Press, Fuck You Press, and Floating Bear — where cut-up and related experimental writing circulated.
  • Bibliographic Bunker by Jed Birmingham and Mapping the Secret Location (on the Ed Sanders Papers at Princeton) extend this into archival and bibliographic territory.

For someone studying cut-ups, the value is the pairing of the texts themselves with the material record of how and where they were published.

How to use it as a research starting point

  1. Start with the Texts section for Burroughs' own work, including Naked Lunch and the outtake.
  2. Move to Scholarship and Criticism for analysis — MacFadyen on Naked Lunch is the clearest entry point for that novel.
  3. Use Bibliography by Eric Shoaf to verify editions and publication details.
  4. Consult Archives and the magazine listings when you need the 1960s underground-press context.
  5. Check What's New for recent additions, since the site continues to publish new material — for example, Keaton Studebaker's presentation of previously unseen David Gahr photographs of the 1965 Peace Eye Book Store opening.

What to expect and what not to

RealityStudio is a community and scholarly resource, not a course. It assumes you already want to engage with Burroughs' work and the surrounding archive. The site does not present itself as a step-by-step guide to writing cut-ups, and no pricing or access restrictions are stated in the available material — treat access terms as unconfirmed rather than assumed free. If your goal is a structured introduction to the method, you will need to assemble that from the texts and criticism the site provides; if your goal is primary material, bibliographic detail, and critical context, it is one of the most complete single destinations available.