The Soft Machine,
The Ticket That Exploded and
Nova Express form a trilogy, sometimes dubbed
The Nova Trilogy or
The Cut-Up Trilogy. The overlaps between
Naked Lunch and
The Soft Machine confirm that both drew on the same body of manuscripts, but in the case of the other two volumes it is clear that most of the material did not. In 2014, Grove Press published new, 'Restored' editions, edited by
Oliver Harris, which established their complex manuscript and publishing histories. In
The Beat Book from 1974, Burroughs claims that when he edits a novel, about half of the material is cut away and later recycled in the next novel. This explains the phenomenon of the plots and characters fading in and out from the different books. Although Burroughs never used the term himself,
The Nova Trilogy was intended by the author as "a mythology for the space age." ==References==