Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Reading comprehension questions - Naked Lunch

My husband is sick, so I'm home watching the kids tomorrow (Thursday). This is what I want you to do during the lesson. If you don't manage to finish, it's homework for Friday (I'll check from home)

First! Here are some explanations to slang words in the text, which probably will make it a bit clearer:

fuzz - the police
H - heroine
junk - heroine
nembies - Nembutal (sedative pill)
bust - tillslag (from the police)
drag - boredom
horse - heroine
cough syrup - cough medicine containing codeine (sedative)
croaker - doctor (one who could and would write a prescription for narcotics)
pimp - hallick (man who gets customers for prostitutes and claims part of their earnings for it)
chick - girl

This time, I want you to answer the questions properly in writing. Read the questions carefully and do everything they ask. Answer the questions on your own, or in pairs, and put the answers in the English folder. If you answer the questions in pairs - make sure to write both names somewhere on the document. After class, I will check your folders.

DON'T WORRY IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND BIG PARTS OF THE TEXT, OR YOU FEEL IT'S WEIRD! Just use the words above, and try to figure out the questions below.

Reading comprehension questions:

  1. Who is Willy the Disk? Describe him in your own words.
  2. On page 8, what does the narrator do to escape the police?
  3. On page 12, how does the narrator feel about Malmö? Base your conclusion on examples from the text.
  4. How does the narrator get drugs in Houston? (p. 13)
  5. What is the pimps attitude to other men? (p. 18) Give examples from the text to support your claim.
  6. What places do the narrator mention he has or is visiting, in these few pages?
Discussion questions, that demand answers that are a bit longer:
  1. This is obviously a lifestyle that is chosen by the narrator (based on what we know about the Beat generation and Burroughs) - describe the lifestyle and try to explain why Burroughs preferred this lifestyle to a "normal" life (job, house, wife, kids... a labrador).
  2. Part of the Beat ideal was to try to write in an innovative (new, fresh) style, and the writing style in Naked Lunch is certainly not like other books. Do you think, this kind of experimental writing serves a purpose? What is the positive and the negative sides of writing in this way?

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