Writing on Drugs

by Sadie Plant

Modern culture has founded itself on drugs. Beyond their psychoactive effects, they have shaped some of the modern era's most fundamental philosophies and even helped expose the neurochemistry of the human brain. This examination of writing on drugs, including Coleridge on opium, Michaux on mescaline, Freud on cocaine and Burroughs on everything, is an exploration of the profound and pervasive influence of drugs on contemporary and historical culture. The author argues that drugs have been integral to modern politics, media and technology.

Genres: Nonfiction, Drugs, Philosophy, History, Literature, Writing, Psychology

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

She earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Manchester in 1989, then taught at the University of Birmingham's Department of Cultural Studies (formerly the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies) before going on to found the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at the University of Warwick, where she was a faculty member. Her original research was on the Situationist International, and she contributed to the Situationist-inspired magazine Here and Now (published between 1985 and 1994), before turning her attention to the social potential of cyber-technology.

Sadie Plant left the University of Warwick in 1997 to write full time. She published a cultural history of drug use and control, and a report on the social effects of mobile phones, as well as articles in publications as varied as the Financial Times, Wired, Blueprint, and Dazed and Confused. She was interviewed as one of the ‘People to Watch’ in the Winter 2000–2001 issue of Time.

Reviews

[Sara Zovko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Droge su, priznali mi to ili ne , utjecale na brojne pisce kroz povijest. Od Alise u zemlji čudesa i Neobičnog slučaja dr. Jekylla i gospodina Hydea pa sve do Straha i prezira u Las Vegasu , od pisaca s istoka do pisaca na zapadu. Sadie Plant sve ih je okupila na jednom mjestu i napisala odličnu knjigu na ovu temu.

[Kelli Glazebrook]

One of my favorite things to think about is how absolutely blitzed most people have been throughout human existence. Tons of us have gone through this human experience absolutely high as an elephant’s eye. Why is this? Are we living through a time where people are more sober and is that why everyone is not ok? I wonder…

Perhaps raw dogging human reality is not recommended. For this reason I enjoy reading about illegal drugs and especially how writers have all basically been high as hell historically. I can see why after dabbling in writing myself. Anything that can get you to that point where you are creating without a damn internal editor would be a life saver.

I wish this was written a bit more colloquially as it came off pretty sterile, but it has a lot of good historical information about drug use and the march toward making each drug illegal.

[julieta · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books on drugs. All you need to know of anecdotes; Robert Louis Stevenson doing cocaine while writing Dr. Jekyll and mister Hyde? mmm, or Sigmund Freud maybe experimenting with cocaine before he came to realize that people could actually die of an overdose (a friend of his unfortunately did). Great book.One of my favorites on the subject.

[Paul Westwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well written and researched book. It looks at the history of drug use and abuse and how illegal drugs have become criminalised around the world. As well as the history of drug use it explores in detail some other interesting aspects of the subject such as the studies in psychology and neuroscience and how they have been influenced by illegal drugs.
I thought Plant did a really good job of inserting numerous quotes into the text. On one level this shows the vast amount of research she must have done but it also demonstrated skillful writing to be able to flow smoothly between her own words and those of other writers.
It really is a very interesting book and the only reason I've rated it down to four stars is that I was hoping for a bit more about some of the big canons of literature who are known to have done their writing on drugs such as PKD, Kerouac, Bukowski and even Steven King. I appreciate that this may not have been the author's focus but that's what the book's title led me to hope for. I think Timothy Leary and Tom Woolf (did he do drugs or just write about them?) were also underrepresented. The focus was primarily on people who have written about taking drugs from an analytical perspective, which still doesn't explain the lack of Leary.
One other, minor, criticism is that the book seemed to lack a bit of playfulness that might have been expected of this subject matter. It mostly covered rather sterile analyses.

[Michela · Rating 5 out of 5]

mentre lo leggi tu sei sia la stessa persona che si avvicina alla lente di un caleidoscopio sia sei dentro la trama di luce del caleidoscopio stesso. ci sono trecentomila informazioni chimiche, storiche, culturali, letterarie di come le droghe siano sempre state ciò che trasversalmente accomuna popoli, generazioni, scritti letterari, culture e quindi prodotti di consumo totalmente distanti in apparenza. appunto, sei in un caleidoscopio

[somehispanicindividual · Rating 5 out of 5]

One wonders why chemicals found in the outside world such as those in mescaline, opioids, or marijuana that are known to have psycho active effects are produced within our own bodies? Why does our body have specific receptors for such chemicals from these drugs? Beta-endorphin and dynorphins are synthesized and used by the nervous system with a potency two hundred times stronger than morphine. The receptors are there for a purpose!

Sadie Plant attempts to provide socio-historical analysis of drugs, their usage, and the transformations that have transpired in an attempt to control their usage. One can argue if Foucault hadn't died a few years later after making comments regarding Deleuze and the Logic Of Sense, he would've made a book on Drugs discussing the molding definition of an addict to give the non using population a sense of free agency. We see that the use of various drugs had been fairly unrestricted throughout history dating the Greeks, mesoamerican history, and even post enlightenment or the age of reason. This book is a culmination of thought from several thinkers taking commentary from Deleuze, Freud, Poe, and many prominent thinkers throughout history who discuss its forms/ discourses.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 4 out of 5]

First three quarters of it: “Hey kids don’t do drugs just because famous writers that commies like to quote did them. But fuck it, here’s the history of how all that went down.”

Last quarter or so: “the drug war is as pointless as it is racist”

Kind of an abrupt about face. But a lot of weird urban legends about who did what with whom and what about. It’s interesting how, low key, the far right has found their footing in regards to postmodernism.

[Mr Daniel C Pope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up because of my interest in PKD, WSB and HST writing. Although it didn't contain as much as I hoped about some of them I still found myself fascinated by some of the other threads, especially in the later parts on the history of the war on drugs and black markets etc. Very well researched and engagingly put together.

[Jay Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

A polished and well-researched history of the role of various drugs in the lives of literary figures. Plant's book on the Situationists was one of the worst-edited books I've ever read, whereas this was a pure delight to read for its coherence, flow, and interesting subject matter. Highly recommend.

[j · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the middle section is more focused on the chemical perspective, and the final third details some of the socio-economic historic, I was most invested in the first part's charting of the literary aspect. There's interesting information throughout, but the grand thesis is a little bit of a shrug -- somewhat intentionally.

[Zack2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book on drugs that I've wanted. Time to go snort pounds of Chinese research chems in order to come up with novel philosophical theories and writing styles. Rec'd for fans of Foucault and Bachelard.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

a really well written, researched and organised investigation of the role drugs have played in literature, history, and broader culture. been meaning to read something by plant for ages so when i saw this for 1.50 in a charity shop in partick it was a no brainer!

[Djordy Van Bruwaene · Rating 5 out of 5]

In één ruk uitgelezen

[Matteo · Rating 5 out of 5]

merry litmas

[Velda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost gave it four stars because there are some moments where it gets too speculative but then I gave it five because whenever I see the spine of this book on my shelf I get nostalgic. I came across it, misplaced, under the "Writing/Grammar" section of my library as a teenager while taking college-level classes in high school. It gave me such a contact high reading how drugs have/could have shaped our society in really subtle but profound ways, to the point where I realize if I'm going to try any sort of drug or concoction, I should do it to extend my knowledge of it and not use it carelessly in waste and/or death. Give this book to your child instead of a D.A.R.E. t-shirt, and you'll be doing your kid more of a favor. I'm not saying this because it talks you out of it though, but it talks about it in a way that doesn't treat you like an ignorant child. Sadie Plant also has another book that I've been wanting to read (hopefully still in print) about women and their role in technology.

Just buy this already.

[Eli Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

As per the title, Plant is writing about drugs, and about how others have written about them and/or on them. It's a big maze in which she sometimes gets lost -- partly because the subject and the author's verbal skill are both temptations toward an excess of style -- but the central image of opium & co. as a dragon romping through the world and shaping our history is hard to resist. The obligatory section on Coleridge and De Quincey goes beyond psychological and literary analysis, to the question of whether the Industrial Revolution and the British empire could have happened that way if everyone weren't on tons of opiates. Plant also makes William Burroughs more accessible and interesting than others do, which has the side effect of making nearly every later writer she discusses seem much less interesting.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating ride through history, economics, science, and literature, all to do with psychoactive substances and the writers that used them. Plant does a marvelous job weaving everything together for the first 3/4ths of the book until she focuses more on the drug trade, which didn't quite fit with her initially literary bent (and which felt to me like a hasty afterthought after so much cunning scholarship). Still, this book has given me a wealth of other books to check out, as well as standing as a great resource on its own.

[Todd Kalinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thousands of tales to be heard. Thousands tales to be told. Writing on Drugs is not necessarily about that at all. A complex breakdown of what Sadie Plant sees as the miscommunication of the mind opposed to what most government's govern. Or lack thereof. "If soma ever existed the Pusher was there to bottle it and monopolize it and sell it and it turned into plain old time JUNK." --William Burroughs, Naked Lunch.

[Dora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this is the book type for me...I did find out a lot of interesting information, but I guess I'm just not the drugs and politics type...haha. Though if you are interested in reading about any of these two topics, I'd recommend this book :D

[Catherine Cocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book about the historical and psychological context of drugs in the western world. Poetic and easy to read with loads of interesting facts. i have read it a few times.

[Julian Gilder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides some interesting historical details about which works of literature were influenced by the drug taking activities of the authors who wrote them.

[Filippo Fragnito · Rating 5 out of 5]

scritto davvero bene.

[mela · Rating 5 out of 5]

non mi ha mai annoiata. un continuo flusso di informazioni, anche inaspettate, frutto di una ricerca che immagino enorme

[Dile_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5