Drugs in literature
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction." --The Sign of the Four "It takes at least three months’ shooting twice a day to get any habit at all. And you don’t really know what junk sickness is until you have had several habits. It took me almost six months to get my first habit, and then the withdrawal symptoms were mild. I think it no exaggeration to say it takes about a year and several hundred injections to make an addict." --preface to Junkie, William S. Burroughs |
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Drugs, both medicinal and recreational, have been mentioned in literature since ancient times.
The first writings dedicated to recreational drug use include Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) and Artificial Paradises (1860) by Charles Baudelaire.
The theme has been explored in Writing on Drugs (2001) by Sadie Plant.
See also
- Opium and Romanticism
- Cult fiction
- Psychedelic literature
- Club des Hashischins
- Synesthesia in literature
- Drug subculture
- Exploitation fiction
- Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library
- Cocaine in literature
- Heroin in literature
- Gautier on drugs
Titles
- Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) by Thomas de Quincey
- The Hasheesh Eater (1857) by Fitz Hugh Ludlow
- Artificial Paradises (1860) by Charles Baudelaire
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1949) by Nelson Algren
- Naked Lunch (1959) by William S. Burroughs
- Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1971) by Hunter S. Thompson
- Under the Influence : The Literature of Addiction (2003) by Rebecca Shannonhouse
References
- Writing on Drugs (2001) by Sadie Plant
- Dope Menace: The Sensational World of Drug Paperbacks
- Ueber Hashish by Walter Benjamin