: Influenced by artist Brion Gysin, Burroughs often used chance-based "cut-up" methods to rearrange text, challenging the traditional flow of language and narrative.

Burroughs used drug addiction as a presiding metaphor for all forms of control and manipulation :

William S. Burroughs’s (1959) is a cornerstone of the Beat Generation and a landmark of postmodern fiction. It is less a traditional novel and more a "frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork," depicting the raw truth of addiction and societal control. 1. Core Concepts & Structure