Isn't that an extract from 'Junkie' by William S. Burroughs?
He's an interesting writer because 'The Yage Letters' is one step stranger and then of course 'The Naked Lunch' is... surreal.
Later works I found a bit of a mixed bag - although I expect by design you are left with more questions than answers. But all are worth reading.
It sure is, I found The Yage Letters ok, I rate it equal to Queer.
I found his last work Red Night Trilogy to be amazing, some of the best work he ever did imho.
@Bleaney
You Can't Win by Jack Black was Burroughs #1 book ever, it can be streamed via Youtube or got in paper off Amazon.
It's the only book I have ever said to people if they get a copy & don't like it I will give them the cash back myself.
"The book tells of Black's experiences in the
hobo underworld, freight-hopping around the western United States and Canada, with the majority of events taking place from the late 1880s to around 1910. He tells of becoming a thief, burglar, and member of the
yegg (safe-cracking) subculture, exploring the topics of crime, criminal justice, vice, addictions,
penology, and human folly from various viewpoints, from observer to consumer to supplier, and from victim to perpetrator."
“I was wrong. I knew I was wrong, and yet I persisted. If that is possible of any explanation it is this: From the day I left my father my lines had been cast, or I cast them myself, among crooked people. I had not spent one hour in the company of an honest person. I had lived in an atmosphere of larceny, theft, crime. I thought in terms of theft. Houses were built to be burglarized, citizens were to be robbed, police to be avoided and hated, stool pigeons to be chastised, and thieves to be cultivated and protected. That was my code; the code of my companions. That was the atmosphere I breathed. 'If you live with wolves, you will learn to howl.”
“There was a legend on the road that the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City was a veritable storehouse of gold, silver, and precious stones and it was this that lured Smiler back to that city. At that time a high adobe wall surrounded the block on which stood the Tabernacle and the then unfinished Mormon Temple. We looked it over for several days and nights but could get nothing tangible to work on. Sunday we attended services and the plate was to be seen, silver and gold; more than we could carry away if we got it. At last we decided to go over the wall and give the place a good reconnaissance. If it looked feasible we could get a couple of other idle burglars and give it a thorough looting. On top of the wall we pulled up our light ladder and placed it inside. Smiler went down first. I barely had my feet off the ladder when a dozen men rose up out of the shrubbery armed with shotguns, and surrounded us. We stood still by the wall. One of them spoke, sternly, evenly: “Go back over that wall.” Little we knew the Mormons. We went up the ladder, pulled it up, and went down and away. When Smiler’s good humor returned he held up his hand. “Kid, I’ll never try to rob another Mormon. I’ll go to work first.”
