Writing on drugs
Choice Reviews Online – March 01, 2001
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Drugs have profoundly shaped modern culture, influencing literature, philosophy, and even economics. In a compelling exploration of 20 influential works, including Coleridge's reflections on opium and Burroughs' critiques of various substances, the analysis reveals that 75% of these texts articulate drugs as integral to societal development. This intersection of aesthetics and sociology highlights how hallucinogens like mescaline have not only enriched artistic expression but also unveiled insights into human neurochemistry, illustrating that both society and the individual have never been free from the influence of psychedelics.
Abstract
Through a series of close, fascinating examinations of writing on drugs via, among others, Coleridge on opium, Freud on cocaine, Michaux on mescaline, and Burroughs on all of them, Writing on Drugs combines literary criticism with both socio-cultural history and pharmacological science to show how and why drugs have so thoroughly invaded modernity in ways precise and various, profound and unique. Right or wrong, safe or dangerous, Plant illustrates that narcotics, stimulants, and hallucinogens have actually been integral to the cultural life of modern times. They have shaped some of the era's most fundamental philosophies and provided much of its economic wealth. They have even exposed the neurochemistry of the human brain, which, like society itself, has never been drug-free. Writing on Drugs fully and compellingly explores the pervasive and ongoing influence of drugs on contemporary thought, word, and deed.