Cronenberg on Sex and Gender: NAKED LUNCH
by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer
After Cronenberg’s release of Dead Ringers, his next feature length film was Naked Lunch. Considering the fact that Cronenberg was a fan of William S. Burroughs, this marked an opportunity for Cronenberg to fuse his own ideas with someone whom he admired. Cronenberg was able to discuss what the film was going to be like with the writer himself and what comes about is something very unique to both Cronenberg’s and Burroughs’ ideas and philosophies. Cronenberg had been working on a string of adaptations since Dead Zone was released in 1983. He would go on to do The Fly and Dead Ringers, two films that successfully bring Cronenberg’s technological fears, ideas of metamorphosis and themes of masculinity to the screen. Although Naked Lunch feels far apart from his other films in many ways, Cronenberg finds interesting avenues to explore especially with sexuality and what it means to be a writer.
Bill Lee (Peter Weller) , a character loosely based on Burroughs, is an exterminator who uses a highly addictive chemical to kill the bugs. He finds out that his chemicals are depleting rapidly because his wife likes to get high on them. Due to his own drug use he begins to see bug creatures, one of which informs him he is actually a secret agent. One night, Bill accidentally kills his wife and he flees to the interzone where he can hide out and continues on his secret mission. While there he meets an eclectic cast of characters some are friends and some are foe but Bill must figure out how to navigate the strange world he is in. Some aspects of this story are part of the book, but Cronenberg also adds aspects of Burroughs real life into the mix, including the fact that Burroughs did kill his wife in a similar accident.
Given the fact that Burroughs was a closeted gay man when writing Naked Lunch there is subtext that Cronenberg brings to the surface while also making it his own. As Cronenberg mentions about Burroughs, “he felt that by writing Naked Lunch he had cured himself of his homosexuality.” Cronenberg seemed to worry about how to portray the queer subtext and therefore had to work out the details with Burroughs himself. As he mentions in the book Cronenberg on Cronenberg, “I’m not afraid of the homosexuality, but its not innate in me and I probably want women in the film–so I got the pope’s blessing–He’s the last person to try to censor you”. Even with this in mind, the film still dives into the sexuality of its main character, Bill Lee, and has many interesting things to say in regards to his struggles coming into his sexual identity. In fact, the addition of female characters seems to emphasize the struggle Bill is having with his sexuality and how complicated his feelings are around it.
While queer themes do tend to find a way into Cronenberg’s work, they are not typically part of the main plot. Although Dead Ringers does seem to deal with the very close and boarder line romantic relationship between the two brothers,.Dead Ringers was based on a true story of twins, one of whom was straight and one who was gay. In the book Cronenberg on Cronenberg he discusses how he wanted the brothers to be straight because he wanted them to be the same. Still, those themes seem to end up in the film even if it was not the intention.
So Cronenberg’s big addition to the characters of the film are the two Joans. Judy Davis plays both of them; one is Bill’s wife whom he kills at the beginning of the film and the other is a character whom he meets in the Interzone. While the addition female characters makes the film more interesting, it does not necessarily make it more heterosexual. We never see Bill Lee have sex with his wife Joan Lee, we only see her fool around with Hank (a fictionalized version of the writer Jack Kerouac). This does not seem to bother Lee and when he walks in on them, his friend Martin insinuates that they should fool around. The scene indicated the distance he and his wife have sexually and that he may be suppressing his own desires. He mentions that he “I was a troubled person but now I'm married, straight.” Believing that being gay made him deviant and being in a heterosexual marriage has made him straight. However, the first erotic moment Bill Lee has in the film is with a male beatle creature that informs Bill he is his “case worker” he then asks Bill to rub the bug powder on his “lips” which are on his back and resemble an anus. He does something similar to his wife later, rubbing the bug powder around her mouth. There is very little sexuality between these two characters and that is something they try to accept.
After Joan dies, he has to run away to the Interzone and still seems to have some issues coming into his own and accepting his sexuality. He meets plenty of men who seem to be attracted to him and eventually believes that being gay is part of his “cover” as a secret agent. So he gets to live out a fantasy life which gives him an excuse to act on his sexual impulses. However this becomes complicated when he meets a couple, Tom and Joan Frost. Mrs. Frost looks identical to his wife yet in many of their encounters she is dressed in more masculine clothing. Eventually the two engage in sexual play although it feels like more of a threesome between them and the typewriter that begins to become its own sexual orifice for the two to engage with.
He does have some attraction to Mrs. Frost and maybe that just means Bill Lee is more bisexual than his real life counterpart. However, Mrs. Frost seems to be more than someone he is interested in, she represents an opportunity to go back to his normal life and a heterosexual relationship. Although not overtly expressed it does seem that he feels guilt over his wife’s death and that was not the intended way for their relationship to end. Her unfortunate death does represent a chance for Bill to accept himself and his sexuality but with the appearance of her look-a-like he also has the opportunity to go back to suppressing his desires. Even Mrs. Frost seems to have queer tendancies considering her relationship with the maid Fedela. Bill is told she is a witch that has a hold over Mrs. Frost and it is clear they have some sort of sexual relationship.
Kiki is one of the particularly interesting characters in the film. He is a very young gay man who seems to hang around with Tom and some of the other men in the Interzone. He is drawn to Bill and makes a few attempts to come on to him. When he is introduced, he is wearing a necklace with a large black centipede medallion. The same type of centipede that is being used for the drugs Bill takes. These drugs are introduced early on in Dr. Benway’s office. He tells Bill that he is "an agent who's come to believe his own cover story but who's in there, in a larval state, just waiting for the proper moment to hatch out." It is a unique way of discussing coming out of the closet but is very appropriate for this Cronenberg piece. The centipede imagery comes back so frequently and given its somewhat phallic look it seems to be an indication of queerness. The other person we see the potential for Bill to have a relationship with is Cloquet (Julian Sands) , someone who takes an immediate interest in Bill. In the end we only see Kiki and Cloquet together in a sex scene turned murder. Bill walks in on the two and Cloquet has become a giant centipede that is feasting on Kiki. It is a terrifying scene that feels like an indication of Bill’s persistent fears of letting himself be with another man.
Ultimately, Naked Lunch does not feel like a triumphant story of someone coming to terms with their sexuality. Bill still seems confused by the end. Much of this seems to lie in his overall view of himself and sexuality. When asked if he is gay his response is “not by nature” later on he says that “The Lees have always been perverts, runs in the family”. He seems to equate perversion with homosexuality, a very conservative viewpoint that makes sense given his resistance to accepting himself. Even then these statements feel contradictory; one indicates it does not come naturally when the other states it runs in the family. It is clear his confusion runs deep. By the end Bill seems defeated by what he has been through and any revelations about himself do not bring joy. It is an interesting portrayal of someone who is so resistant to being who they really are.
In true Cronenberg fashion, Naked Lunch offers plenty of body horror and creature effects that are intricate to the overarching themes of sexuality. The bug/typewriters all have their own sexual orifices. We see this when Bill rubs bug powder on one of them as well as when Bill and Mrs. Frost include one in their sex play. These do not necessarily seem like the futuristic sex organs we find in Crash, Videodrome, and eXistenz. Instead they seem more fueled by the druglike state that all of the characters are in but regardless it all comes back to sex, flesh, and new ways of engaging with the two. However, much like Crash, Cronenberg fused himself with the author and source material “I had to fuse myself with Borroughs in order to bring something of Naked Lunch to the screen”. Whereas some of his other adapted work like The Fly and Crash feel like two similar minds fusing, this one feels like two very different people coming together. It still works and has plenty of interesting things to say but is quite a different experience.
While this series focuses on the themes of sex and gender there is also alot going on in the film in regards to being a writer. The process that Bill goes through to complete his book or “reports” as he calls them, is one that takes him places he did not expect and one that changes him forever. Which in and of itself is a very Cronenberg idea. This stands out from much of his other filmography up to this point in his career and should be interesting to reflect on before watching M. Butterfly.
