Authors similar to Burroughs

Although I really haven't been able to find anyone who can do what Burroughs can, two groups of authors to look to for similarities are the bizarros and obviously the beats. Allen Ginsberg especially, he seems to me to be the poetry equivalent of Burroughs fiction. As for the bizarros, it seems like just about every one of them is at least a little influenced by Burroughs. Some bizarro authors I especially recommend checking out (though every thing about the movement is infinitely better than the mainstream dribble so many readers love today) are Carlton Mellick III, D. Harlan Wilson, John Edward Lawson, Bradley Sands, and Jeremy Robert Johnson.

Anyways, after reading Junky, Naked Lunch, and The Soft Machine, I'm looking for more authors of a similar nature that I haven't discovered yet. Anybody know of anyone?

The only author that comes to mind is Grant Morrison. He writes comics, and if you're the type that automatically writes that sort of stuff off, it's a shame. I'd highly recommend giving The Invisibles series a shot, and The Filth, too. The Invisibles is in seven volumes, and The Filth can be bought in one.

Robert Anton Wilson likes to reference William Burroughs, but his style is not the same at all.

I've read some of the Illumanitus trilogy; really good stuff. I'll definitly check out Grant Morrison. Which would you reccomend starting with, The Filth of The Invisibles?

Start with The Invisibles, book one; Say you Want a Revolution. Even though the two pieces are separate, The Filth is something Morrison has always considered a sequel of sorts.
The Invisibles is probably Morrison's most important work, and what he's known for over anything else.

Wow, this is great. I thought he only wrote Tarzan. I had no idea he was a beatnik.

Uh, i think you're thinking of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Not William Seward Burroughs.

Boardsurfer is just having a laugh. At least one author thought that combining the two authors was fun, Philip Jose Farmer wrote a Tarzan story in the style of William Burroughs.

The Atrocity Exhibition by J. G. Ballard is very "Burroughs-esque"...all of Thomas Pynchon's books are very reminiscent of Burroughs as well (Gravity's Rainbow being his best...)

oh, and now that i think about it more, a couple "proto-Burroughs" works to consider: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, Ulysses by James Joyce (and though i haven't read Finnegans Wake yet, from what i know ABOUT it, it probably is even moreso...)

Most critics have written that Kathy Acker's work is heavily influenced by Burroughs and is quite similar in style. Of course, she's not a Beat, but I've read several of her books and she's wild as hell, in a Naked Lunch kind of way....

I'll second the vote for Acker ... Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany also might work for you.

Anyone interested in WSB might try Richard Melzer, both the music criticism and his other writings. They've been edited and published in new editions in the 21c.

Anyone interested in WSB might try Richard Melzer, both the music criticism and his other writings. They've been edited and published in new editions in the 21c.

ETA: What happened here? My Doppelgaenger?

Anyone interested in WSB might try Richard Melzer, both the music criticism and his other writings. They've been edited and published in new editions in the 21c.

ETA: sigh.

I think Hubert Selby, Jr. is a too-often-overlooked beat novelist, though he is by no means totally forgotten. I can be fairly confident in recommending any of his novels to a fan of Burroughs. I can describe passages of both author's writing as "sickeningly good."

There's always William Burroughs Jr (his son) though he's not in his dad's league, but Speed is worth a look if you liked Junky

Martin Bax's hospital ship might appeal to you.