Writing on Drugs (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Plant's fast-paced primer demonstrates how narcotics, stimulants, and hallucinogens have inspired and influenced writers through the ages. Beginning with opium's influence on De Quincey, Coleridge and Poe, and moving on to cannabis and hashish (Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Flaubert), cocaine (Stevenson, Freud, Doyle) and speed and LSD (Kerouac, Burroughs, Leary), she misses nary a literary toke, snort, or shot. Along the way, Plant (Zeros + Ones), a British cultural studies scholar, presents a great deal of hard, cold fact. She reveals, for example, when and where methamphetamine was synthesized (Japan, 1919); when it was banned in the U.S. (the 1950s); and what its current medicinal uses are (treating attention deficit disorder). Her painstaking research also reveals, for instance, that the word "assassin" was derived from an 11th-century movement (Ism ilism) whose adherents were so fond of hashish that they were called hashishiyya. Such tidbits accrue into fascinating social histories and provide colorful background material, though they can also distract from the key point, namely that drugs are central to modern culture. The final sections, on the 1960s, are the book's best. Here we find writers, poets and philosophers reflecting on what Herbert Marcuse called a "revolution in perception," a necessary and complementary aspect of the "social liberation" then being experienced in the body politic. Plant ends her journey with a thoughtfully postmodern turn, suggesting that to write under the influence of drugs "is to plunge into a world where nothing is as simple or as stable as it seems." (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The two books under review report on the use of various drugs, from opium to ecstasy, throughout the ages. With Sisters of the Extreme, Palmer and Horowitz (coeditors of Moksha: Aldous Huxley's Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience) have updated their 1982 anthology, Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady. Following a historical introduction, the authors present firsthand accounts of women on drugs, from Victorian times to the present. Among their subjects are Jane Addams, Edith Wharton, Caresse Crosby, Billie Holiday, Laura Huxley, Anita Hoffman, Bonnie Bremser, and Susan Sontag. Their stories range from sordid tales of heroin addiction and prostitution to quests for spiritual enlightenment. Through these selections, the editors succeed in demonstrating that women's experiences with drugs are "more varied and complex than stereotypes suggest." With over 120 illustrations, this lively introduction to a relatively neglected topic is recommended for larger public and academic libraries. The title of Plant's (Zeroes & Ones) book is somewhat misleading. While it discusses various writers associated with drugs, from Thomas De Quincey and Charles Baudelaire to William S. Burroughs and Henri Michaux, it quickly veers off into broader matters. More of a cultural history, the book examines the role of drugs in society from a variety of disciplines, including history, political science, psychology, philosophy, medicine, and economics. The topics covered range from Sigmund Freud on cocaine to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari on capitalism and schizophrenia, from the CIA's involvement in drug trafficking to the neurochemistry of psychoactive substances, and from the connections between drugs and witchcraft to an examination of the marketing of Coca-Cola. Plant has a gift for synthesis and manages to weave the diverse threads of her study into a coherent and generally readable book. Recommended for academic libraries.DWilliam Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 294 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; 1st American Edition edition (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374293341
• ISBN-13: 978-0374293345
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,603,136 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Making the soul visible isn't easy, October 17, 2001

By	"jfallahay" (Oak Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Sadie Plant--and I enjoy the inevitability of her name--has delved into the world of drugs, but she has seemingly fallen prey to the same lack of focus and inability to grasp any essential truths that haunted the writers of whom she (sometimes) writes. As she eloquently puts it, "Writing on drugs has evolved and mutated like a contagion, each writer reading the others' work, repeating their adventures, amd also their mistakes, endlessly rehearsing the same refrain." Indeed. And Ms. Plant has continued this somewhat dubious trend.

This really is a book without boundaries--and it could use some. Does "Writing on Drugs" refer to writing under the influence of them or simply writing about them after use? (Or just writing about them, period?) Is it actually about writers? If so, why are we treated to insights like the fact that Hitler received injections of speed daily or that Coca-Cola was developed from a wine first produced by John Pemberton? Is it actually about literature? If so, why then so much on Freud who, as far as I know, never thought of himself as a "literary" figure, nor spent time writing about literary figures? And then we have three or four closing chapters that have absolutely nothing to do with writers, writing, or literature. They are interesting in many ways but beg the question, Just what is the focus of this manuscript anyway?

If ever there was a book in search of a ham-fisted editor, this would be it. Ms. Plant has been given leeway to fairly much make any connections she pleases about drug use and how it has infilitrated our modern society and consciousness, and in many ways I applaud her efforts and her skill as a writer/researcher. But, please, if that is her aim--to tie together as many strands as possible--let's not market the book to the public under the title of "Writing on Drugs," unless that title is to suggest that "on" means "about" and that anything but the bong and the Hendrix T-shirt can be tossed in. I mean, the marketers clearly call this an "exhilarating literary exploration."

That said, I think the book pursues its many subjects with a gleeful brio and a fine-tuned sense of inquiry. I learned quite a bit from these pages. There were some literary insights from writers as diverse as Artaud, Coleridge, Nin, Stevenson, Michaux, Cocteau, and Paz. (Unfortunately, they are countered by continual references to Lewis Carroll and that Master of Junk, William Burroughs, which seem almost beneath Ms. Plant's abilities. And, please, why so much discussion of DeQuincey, a footnote in literature at the very best?) There are chapters on the structure of the human brain, which makes it so susceptible to drug ingestion; the economics of the drugs from the eighteen century to the present day; a history of opium that for once and for all made some sense to me of why we had the First and Second Opium Wars, something no textbook ever did.

This book gave me the sense of two people peaking on LSD, both brains awhir, both trying to express to the other the mulititude of impressions, feelings, colors, and sensations coursing through their neurons, and neither really ever having a chance because communication in such extreme circumstances is a suspect business at best. If Sadie wants the reader to understand drugs and their place in literature (or society) better, perhaps she needs to drop the metaphor and method of dope and write instead in a more sober, focused fashion.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Facts were interesting, but needed better organization, August 1, 2000

By	Tanja L. Edwards "Tanja L. Edwards" (Norman, OK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Overall, I found "Writing on Drugs" interesting, in that it not only covered how various writers have written about, and on, various drugs, but also how the use of drugs -- legal or otherwise -- have shaped our society. However, the book was poorly organized, with the author jumping from topic to topic without any transition or explanation. The editors didn't help much -- the layout of the book is such that the reader cannot easily discern when one chapter has ended and the next has begun. Finally, Ms. Plant failed to give specific sources for her information. Yes, there is a list of references, but within the text, one cannot tell where she got her information. This is especially disconcerting when she goes on about the CIA involvement in drugs. I don't necessarily dispute the accuracy, but when someone makes such damning statements in public, she'd better be able to back them up, or risk losing credibility.

In the final analysis, I'd recommend waiting for the paperback.

5.0 out of 5 stars this one, July 27, 2009

By	Design After Next "Mason Dixon" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Writing on Drugs (Paperback)

i read a lot of books, and hate most of them. this one was actually really good.

multi-faceted, doesnt try too hard, just uncovered some rich material between the overlaps of the things. very well done.