Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Full of luscious factoids...but smoothly bound together by the thesis that each drug is chemically constructed to create a specific, distinct view of reality, Plant's book isn't just for stringy-haired types in tie-dyes." Booklist
Review
"Plant has a gift for synthesis and manages to weave the diverse threads of her study into a coherent and generally readable book." Library Journal
Synopsis
Sadie Plant traces the history of drugs and drug use through the work of some of our most revered, and infamous, writers. Rather than exploring drug use as an avenue to spiritual transcendence, Plant focuses on the way that drugs themselves make precise, recognizable interventions in consciousness, in cultural life, in politics. She argues that the use, production, and trafficking of drugs narcotics, stimulants, and hallucinogens have shaped some of the era's most fundamental philosophies and provided much of its economic wealth.
About the Author
Sadie Plant is the author, most recently, of Zeros + Ones. She has been a lecturer at the University of Birmingham and a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. She lives in Birmingham, England.