''Nova Express'' is a 1964 novel by American author

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

. It was written using the 'fold-in' method, a version of the cut-up method, developed by Burroughs with

Brion Gysin Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices. He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the ...

, of enfolding snippets of different texts into the novel. It is part of

The Nova Trilogy ''The Nova Trilogy'' or ''The Cut-up Trilogy'' is a name commonly given by critics to a series of three experimental novels by William S. Burroughs. Volumes * The Soft Machine * The Ticket That Exploded * Nova Express Trilogy The trilogy of expe ...

, or "Cut-Up Trilogy,' together with ''

The Soft Machine ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' and ''

The Ticket That Exploded ''The Ticket That Exploded'' is a 1962 novel by American author William S. Burroughs, published by Olympia Press and later by Grove Press in 1967. Together with '' The Soft Machine'' and ''Nova Express'' it is part of a trilogy, referred to as ' ...

''. Burroughs considered the trilogy a "sequel" or "mathematical" continuation of ''

Naked Lunch ''Naked Lunch'' (sometimes ''The Naked Lunch'') is a 1959 novel by American writer William S. Burroughs. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes, intended by Burroughs to be read in any order. The reader follows the na ...

''. ''Nova Express'' was nominated for the

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...

for Best Novel in 1965. It is listed in David Pringle's 1985 book '' Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels''. In 2014,

Grove Press Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...

published a "Restored Text" edition, edited by

Oliver Harris Oliver C. G. Harris is a British academic and Professor of American Literature at Keele University. He is the author and editor of fourteen books, including a dozen editions of works by William S. Burroughs: ''Letters, 1945–1959'' (1993), ''J ...

, which included a number of corrections and added an introduction and extensive notes. The introduction argued for the care with which Burroughs used his methods and established the text's complex manuscript histories.

Interpretation

''Nova Express'' is a social commentary on human and machine control of life. The Nova Mob—Sammy the Butcher, Green Tony, Iron Claws, The Brown Artist, Jacky Blue Note, Limestone John, Izzy the Push, Hamburger Mary, Paddy The Sting, The Subliminal Kid, Blue Dinosaur, Mr. and Mrs. D —are viruses, "defined as the three-dimensional coordinate point of a controller." "which invade the human body and in the process produce language." These Nova Criminals represent society, culture, and government, and have taken control by the use of word and image. Inspector Lee and the rest of the Nova Police are left fighting for the rest of humanity in the power struggle. "The Nova Police can be compared to

apomorphine Apomorphine, sold under the brand name Apokyn among others, is a type of aporphine having activity as a non- selective dopamine agonist which activates both D2-like and, to a much lesser extent, D1-like receptors. It also acts as an antag ...

, a regulating instance that need not continue and has no intention of continuing after its work is done." The police are focused on "first-order addictions of junkies, homosexuals, dissidents, and criminals; if these criminals vanish, the police must create more in order to justify their own survival." The Nova Police depend upon the Nova Criminals for existence; if the criminals cease to exist, so do the police. "They act like apomorphine, the nonaddictive cure for morphine addiction that Burroughs used and then promoted for many years." Control is the main theme of the novel, and Burroughs attempts to use language to break down the walls of culture, the biggest control machine. He uses inspector Lee to express his own thoughts about the world. "The purpose of my writing is to expose and arrest Nova Criminals. In ''Naked Lunch'', ''Soft Machine'' and ''Nova Express'' I show who they are and what they are doing and what they will do if they are not arrested. ..With your help we can occupy The Reality Studio and retake their universe of Fear Death and Monopoly." As Burroughs battles with the self, what is human, and what is "reality", he finds that language is the only way to maintain dominance over the "powerful instruments of control," which are the most prevalent enemies of human society.

Criticism

While ''Naked Lunch'' was an initial shock to the literary community, ''Nova Express'' was considered the end of Burroughs's stylistic experiment and of the Nova Trilogy. The novel received more praise on its own, as it was often compared to the other books in the trilogy and ''Naked Lunch''.

Eric Mottram Eric Mottram (29 December 1924 – 16 January 1995) was a British teacher, critic, editor and poet who was one of the central figures in the British Poetry Revival. Early life and education Mottram was born in London and educated at Purley Gramm ...

stated that although "Burroughs's repetitive narcotic and homoerotic fantasies become tedious in sections of his third novel ... it is from these obsessions that his most powerful work develops." Reviewing the novel for a genre audience,

Judith Merril Judith Josephine Grossman (January 21, 1923 – September 12, 1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril around 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist, and one of the first women to be wid ...

compared ''Nova Express'' to "the surreality of certain dreams, or the intense fascination of a confusion of new impressions in real life.""Books", ''

F&SF ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...

'', May 1965, p.74

References

{{William S. Burroughs 1964 American novels 1960s LGBT novels American science fiction novels Grove Press books LGBT speculative fiction novels Novels by William S. Burroughs