The Morality of The Ticket That Exploded

The Ticket That Exploded by William S. Burroughs is a book, at face value, of random and disturbing homoerotic sex. He does not shy away from hitting the reader right in the gut with one example of this twisted and unheard of eroticism after another. Upon reading Burroughs, one must ask the simple question of why? What's the point of all the sex with slim to none detectable plot? One is constantly bombarded with almost sickening sex scenes that prove to have little value when which ever character has ejaculated. So again, Why?

On page 21 of the work one is introduced to the Logos group. This is a group that tries to infiltrate the human race by manipulating their behavior. The subjects experience traumatic scenes and feelings until they are immune to the feelings. They reach a point where the once disgusting or sad or infuriating feeling no longer exists and they became what the book calls "clear". The "clears" can then be used as almost droids for the Logos group.

There are two points about the Logos group that I find interesting. The first, and smaller of the two, is the name of the group. In Greek philosophy "logos" was a term used to represent the order of the universe and also the reason of a human being. It was a term used by philosophers in slightly different ways (Heraclitus, Aristotle) but all had a sense of order and reason and purpose to them. The opposite of Logos would be chaos. Perhaps the Logos group was named such to represent the order they created by wiping all human emotion clear and leaving the human race blank. I don't know why Burroughs used this allusion but I'm certain it was deliberate.

The second point I want to make is the similarities between what the group was trying to do and what the book does for the reader. When reading Burrough's work, one cannot help but be disgusted. The amount of outrageous and putrid sex that is in the novel is almost overwhelming. It seems there is no plot, just emotionless sex. This makes the reader want to stop reading all together. The Logos group is a representation of the overexposure our society is undergoing to things, events, places, and feelings. This overexposure makes us immune to it. We are no longer bothered by seeing people murdered or raped or abused. Perhaps Burroughs made the novel so utterly over-the-top and in-your-face to call attention to the fact that humans are losing their value, they are losing their ability to feel. By our reaction we prove that we are still disgusted by raw lust and sickening fornication. Ultimately, it could be Burroughs way of warning us of what could happen but also reassuring us that we are still human and we still have hope in preserving our emotion and conscience.