Status Updates From Junky

ooooo dis is good

The start date being the 1st, not the 2nd!

“perhaps the intense discomfort of withdrawal is the transition from plant back to animal, from a painless, sexless, timeless state back to sex and pain and time, from death back to life.”

“junkies live a long time and often look younger than they are. when you stop growing, you start dying. an addict never stops growing.”

In the last 25 pages Bill has: peaced out of New Orleans while awaiting a court date; decided to grow and sell cotton in the Rio Grande Valley; decided fuck that and went to Mexico to avoid court entirely; got an insane hookup on morphine; almost killed a cat when that hookup ran out.

“when i jumped bail and left the States, the heat on junk already looked like something new and special. initial symptoms of nationwide hysteria were clear. louisiana passed a law making it a crime to be a drug addict. since no place or time is specified and the term ‘addict’ is not clearly defined, no proof is necessary or even relevant under a law so formulated. no proof, and consequently, no trial.”

“some people you can spot as far as you can see; others you can’t be sure of until you are close enough to touch them. junkies are mostly in sharp focus. there had been a time when my blood pressure rose with pleasure at the sight of Old Ike. when you are on the junk, the pusher is like the loved one to a lover.”

“a mild degree of junk sickness always brought me the magic of childhood. ‘it never fails,’ i thought. ‘just like a shot. i wonder if all junkies score for this wonderful stuff.’”

Communism mentioned!!

It’s tough to tell how Bill feels about his own queerness, he seems to just not care, but I find his description of “fags” as opposed to other queer people fascinating.

Literally over halfway through the book, after he’s been arrested, some asshole cop reveals Bill has a wife and kids (no idea for how long or how old), didn’t see that one coming.