What do you think?
Rate this book
Intoxication: An Anthology of Stimulant-Based Writing
Recent times have seen an increase in stimulant-based writing, and this anthology includes a selection of fiction from both British and American writers. Contributors include Irvine Welsh, Lynne Tillman, Jeff Noon and Gary Indiana.
- GenresShort Stories
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
1 person is currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Toni Davidson
13 books10 followersToni Davidson was born in Ayr in 1965. He has edited And Thus I Will Freely Sing (1989) and Intoxication: An Anthology of Stimulant-Based Writing (1998). His novel Scar Culture was published in 1999.
Author photo by Ben Dixon.
Author photo by Ben Dixon.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 25, 2013
Meh. It's not a bad anthology, as such things go, but it suffers from inhabiting the post-Irvine Welsh literary landscape. That was a place during the 90's where every writer and their 'Hey Grandma' was simply using their own drug stories to make a fast buck from the freak-outs and acid-casualties of their own lives, rather than to push the boundaries of literature.
It became worse than walking around Glastonbury where everyone was trying to flog you "speed, e's, black 'ash" except they were all pushing their drug stories at you, and you had to ask whether these idiots understood the point Ken Kesey was making. "You're either on the bus, or you're off it."
Other people's drug stories are boring, but Jeff Noon always knew how to tell a great story that pushed literature somewhere new because he included drugs as part of the fabric of his world, not as a McGuffin. He does that here in 'Latitude 52'.
The best tale other than Noon's here is probably "Where the Railway meets the River", an excerpt from Gary Indiana's 'Gone Tomorrow.' Not something I would have picked up, but it includes a couple of slantwise observations and a sense of humanity, that have convinced me to look the whole novel up.
Mainly though, these are stories you'll here from everyone who went to a rave before the Criminal Justice Bill became an Act, paranoid, ugly sometimes humorous but mainly just tawdry tales that feel like being a voyeur in a 'Being John Malkovich' fashion.
Putting it bluntly, drug stories are full of pricks, and they aren't just the sharps.
It became worse than walking around Glastonbury where everyone was trying to flog you "speed, e's, black 'ash" except they were all pushing their drug stories at you, and you had to ask whether these idiots understood the point Ken Kesey was making. "You're either on the bus, or you're off it."
Other people's drug stories are boring, but Jeff Noon always knew how to tell a great story that pushed literature somewhere new because he included drugs as part of the fabric of his world, not as a McGuffin. He does that here in 'Latitude 52'.
The best tale other than Noon's here is probably "Where the Railway meets the River", an excerpt from Gary Indiana's 'Gone Tomorrow.' Not something I would have picked up, but it includes a couple of slantwise observations and a sense of humanity, that have convinced me to look the whole novel up.
Mainly though, these are stories you'll here from everyone who went to a rave before the Criminal Justice Bill became an Act, paranoid, ugly sometimes humorous but mainly just tawdry tales that feel like being a voyeur in a 'Being John Malkovich' fashion.
Putting it bluntly, drug stories are full of pricks, and they aren't just the sharps.
September 21, 2017
Most of the book is crap. Noon lifts it a bit, as does Bridget O'Conner, but most of it is crap.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews