Vispo: Sensitivity Reader / My new job: reading The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

 

RTomens, 2023

I have another job now, aside from selling books. Yes, I'm a freelance Sensitivity Reader! As luck would have it I got an assignment just two days after signing up with an agency. I have to read The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, since a new edition is coming out this year. 

I started this week, guidance notes to hand. Previous employment as a proofreader taught me to never tamper with the author's style, only grammatical, spelling errors etc. This can get tricky when reading an author who's style is unconventional. I heard of a proofreader who had a nervous breakdown working on Finnegans Wake. As for Burroughs, a proofreader I once worked with, upon learning of my new job, told me she knew of a reader who requested sick leave through stress having tried to work on a novel of his called The Ticket That Exploded. 

So far there hasn't been too much to alter, although I must say that as a story it's severely lacking. Still, that's not my concern.

Update: Changed 'Traffickers in the Black Meat' to 'Traffickers in the White Meat'. A 'chapter' called 'the county clerk' is littered with the 'n' word! I suppose Burroughs is ridiculing such language, but one can never be sure and I'm not taking any chances. The book also contains a lot of perverted, graphic sex and foul language. To be honest, I wouldn't even allow it to be published. I feel as if I should rinse my eyeballs of the filth they're seeing but I'm just glad to have a job, especially one that can be of service to society.