Scalable Data Ablations
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Datasets and models for EMNLP paper "Scalable Data Ablation Approximations for Language Models through Modular Training and Merging"
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Freeway Rick Ross (book)
Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography is a 2014 memoir by former drug kingpin Rick Ross, co-authored by American crime writer Cathy Scott, about the rise and fall of Ross, in the 1980s and '90s, to his 2009 release from prison. The book was released by Freeway Studios in June 2014.
Storyline.
According to the publisher, the book embarks on the day-to-day dealings of a drug kingpin in the heart of the ghetto. It is also the story of a boy born into poverty in Texas who grew up in a single-parent household in the heart of South Central Los Angeles, next to the 110, thus the nickname "Freeway," and was pushed through the school system, emerging illiterate. He saw his options as few and turned to drug dealing.
Authors Ross and Scott chronicle the times by highlighting the social climate that made crack cocaine so desirable. Ross points out that at the time the "cops in the area didn't know what crack was; they didn't associate the small white rocks they saw on homies as illegal drugs." All Ross knew was people wanted it, so he sold it.
During his reign as the head of a nationwide drug enterprise, it is estimated that Ross profited nearly $300 million, selling nearly $3 million worth of drugs in one day. Ross' role in what became known as the Iran-Contra affair that took place during the Ronald Reagan administration was outlined in "San Jose Mercury News" reporter Gary Webb's original series of articles alleging that the CIA was complicit in smuggling drugs into the U.S., which effectively ignited the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 1980s.
The autobiography includes the outcome of Ross' crack cocaine dealing, his conviction of conspiracy to illegally traffic cocaine, and the knowledge that the money Ross paid drug supplier Danilo Blandón funded the Nicaraguan rebels in the Contra scandal, which Ross learned of while in prison when he was informed by "San Jose Mercury-News" reporter Webb. It also details Ross' successful appeal of his life sentence without the possibility of parole and his re-sentencing to 20 years. Ross was released from custody in September 2009.
In July 2014, Ross talked about what is included in the book, telling the NPR affiliate in Los Angeles that it took about five years of dealing before he saw the negative impact crack was having on his community, but customers asked for more. When he realized he did not want to see his brother or sister smoke crack cocaine, he decided to get out and start a legitimate business. "This story," wrote "Crimespree Magazine"'s Marie Nicoll, "will be retold and shared to American classrooms to children on what can happen when you go down the wrong path. His story shows the true meaning of having everything you could imagine, but at what price."
In the book's foreword, Los Angeles Bishop Noel Jones writes that "this work portrays the heart of a man who is seeking the opportunity, in whatever form, to right the wrongs he has done to his community."
Reception.
"Freeway Rick Ross" debuted at the Eso Won Bookstore in Los Angeles at a book launch on June 17, 2014 to a standing-room only crowd.
KCET TV wrote in its review, "(The book) is fascinating for its unsentimental, inside look at his career on the streets of South Central, which started for Ross with car theft and quickly shifted to drugs and the big time."
The "Los Angeles Sentinel" wrote, "While some have yet to move past the stigma of Ross' former image, it has worked to his advantage in dissuading students interested in following in his foot steps.
Upon its release, "The Huffington Post UK"'s Ruth Jacobs described the book as "the eagerly awaited autobiography."
During a national book tour, Fox 59 in Indianapolis interviewed Ross about his autobiography in September 2014 for its morning show.
Awards.
The book was named a finalist in "ForeWord Reviews"' Best Book of the Year 2014. |
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Leave the Light On is the second memoir written by Jennifer Storm. The book deals with Storm's recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and her experiences coming out of the closet. The book is the companion to "". It has been called "fearlessly honest" and "courageous" by "We Magazine for Women". |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Mr. Nice (book)
Mr. Nice is the autobiography of former drug dealer Howard Marks. Published in 1996 it became an international bestseller due in large part to the humour and unabashed bravado the author uses to describe his life and the sheer scale of his drug deals involving, amongst others, the CIA, MI6, the IRA and the Mafia. The book received mostly positive reviews, though some critics were initially sceptical of some of the more outlandish details portrayed. It was adapted for film in 2010 as "Mr. Nice".
Overview.
Welsh born Marks began small scale dealing of hashish in the late 1960s whilst at Oxford University studying nuclear physics and, later, a postgraduate degree course in philosophy.
His activities rapidly expanded after a chance meeting with a Pakistani supplier made him realise how lucrative drug smuggling could be. After teaming up with Jim McCann, a senior member of the IRA, his business was soon bringing in huge amounts of cash and he began setting up various legitimate businesses as a front, to launder the proceeds of his hashish smuggling. At one time he claims to have had 25 such companies, 89 phone lines and 43 aliases, including the name used for the title of this book, Mr. Nice, an alias he adopted after buying a passport from a convicted murderer of that name.
Following his arrest in 1980 in a combined operation by British and Spanish police, Marks managed to avoid a lengthy sentence by claiming to be a spy for the British intelligence agency MI6. He was eventually caught again, this time by the American DEA, and sentenced to life in prison at Terre Haute federal penitentiary in Indiana. He was released after seven years and allowed to return to the UK.
Film adaptation.
The book was adapted into a film "Mr. Nice" in 2010, directed by Bernard Rose and starring Rhys Ifans and Chloë Sevigny. |
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Growgirl is a 2012 book by former actor Heather Donahue about dropping out of Hollywood and moving to a semi-collective society in Nevada County, California's Sierra Mountains called "Nuggettown" to become first a "pot wife" then embrace the "backbreaking, spirit-sucking work" of a cannabis grower.
Critical reception.
"The Hollywood Reporter" called the work "always funny and surprisingly sweet". "Publishers Weekly" said it was "wry, with a nuanced distance from the events". "Kirkus Reviews" called it "at times funny, sensitive or filled with obscenities...an intimate look at a woman's yearlong search for her place in the world". |
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Prozac Nation is a memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel published in 1994. The book describes the author's experiences with atypical depression, her own character failings and how she managed to live through particularly difficult periods while completing college and working as a writer. Prozac is a trade name for the antidepressant fluoxetine. Wurtzel originally titled the book "I Hate Myself and I Want To Die" but her editor convinced her otherwise. It ultimately carried the subtitle "Young and Depressed in America: A Memoir."
The book was adapted into a feature film, "Prozac Nation" (2001), starring Christina Ricci.
Reception.
Reviews were mixed. In "The New York Times", Michiko Kakutani characterized "Prozac Nation" as "by turns wrenching and comical, self-indulgent and self-aware," comparing it with the "raw candor of Joan Didion's essays, the irritating emotional exhibitionism of Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" and the wry, dark humor of a Bob Dylan song." While praising Wurtzel's prose style as "sparkling" and "luminescent," Kakutani thought the memoir "would have benefited enormously from some strict editing" and said that its "self-pitying passages make the reader want to shake the author, and remind her that there are far worse fates than growing up during the '70s in New York and going to Harvard." "Publishers Weekly" was similarly ambivalent: "By turns emotionally powerful and tiresomely solipsistic, [Wurtzel's] book straddles the line between an absorbing self-portrait and a coy bid for public attention."
Writing in "New York Magazine", Walter Kirn found that although "Prozac Nation" had "moments of shapely truth-telling," altogether it was "almost unbearable" and "a work of singular self-absorption." Calling the book a "tedious and poorly written story of Wurtzel's melodramatic life, warts and all (actually all warts)," Erica L. Werner asked in "The Harvard Crimson", "How did this chick get a book contract in the first place? Why was she allowed to write such crap?" Werner also described "Prozac Nation" as "obscenely exhibitionistic," with "no purpose other than alternately to bore us and make us squirm." She said that the author "comes off as an irritating, solipsistic brat."
"It would be possible to have more sympathy for Ms. Wurtzel if she weren't so exasperatingly sympathetic to herself," wrote Ken Tucker in the "New York Times Book Review".
He observed, "The reader may well begin riffling the pages of the book in the vain hope that there will be a few complimentary Prozac capsules tucked inside for one's own relief." "Kirkus Reviews" thought the book to be filled with "narcissistic pride" and concluded, "By alternately belittling and belaboring her depression, Wurtzel loses her credibility: Either she's a brat who won't shape up or she needs the drugs. Ultimately, you don't care which." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) is an autobiographical account written by Thomas De Quincey, about his laudanum addiction and its effect on his life. The "Confessions" was "the first major work De Quincey published and the one that won him fame almost overnight".
First published anonymously in September and October 1821 in the "London Magazine", the "Confessions" was released in book form in 1822, and again in 1856, in an edition revised by De Quincey.
Synopsis.
As originally published, De Quincey's account was organised into two parts:
Though De Quincey was later criticised for giving too much attention to the pleasure of opium and not enough to the harsh negatives of addiction, "The Pains of Opium" is in fact significantly longer than "The Pleasures". However, even when trying to convey darker truths, De Quincey's language can seem seduced by the compelling nature of the opium experience:
Style.
From its first appearance, the literary style of the "Confessions" attracted attention and comment. De Quincey was well read in the English literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and assimilated influences and models from Sir Thomas Browne and other writers. Arguably the most famous and often-quoted passage in the "Confessions" is the apostrophe to opium in the final paragraph of "The Pleasures":
De Quincey modelled this passage on the apostrophe "O eloquent, just and mightie Death!" in Sir Walter Raleigh's "History of the World".
Earlier in "The Pleasures of Opium" De Quincey describes the long walks he took through the London streets under the influence of the drug:
The "Confessions" represents De Quincey's initial effort to write what he called "impassioned prose", an effort that he would later resume in "Suspiria de Profundis" (1845) and "The English Mail-Coach" (1849).
1856 revision.
In the early 1850s, De Quincey prepared the first collected edition of his works for publisher James Hogg. For that edition, he undertook a large-scale revision of the "Confessions", more than doubling the work's length. Most notably, he expanded the opening section on his personal background, until it consumed more than two-thirds of the whole. Yet he gave the book "a much weaker beginning" and detracted from the impact of the original with digressions and inconsistencies; "the verdict of most critics is that the earlier version is artistically superior".
"De Quincey undoubtedly spoiled his masterpiece by revising it... anyone who compares the two will prefer the unflagging vigour and tension of the original version to the tired prosiness of much of the revised one".
Influence.
The "Confessions" maintained a place of primacy in De Quincey's literary output, and his literary reputation, from its first publication; "it went through countless editions, with only occasional intervals of a few years, and was often translated. Since there was little systematic study of narcotics until long after his death, De Quincey's account assumed an authoritative status and actually dominated the scientific and public views of the effects of opium for several generations."
Yet from the time of its publication, De Quincey's "Confessions" was criticized for presenting a picture of the opium experience that was too positive and too enticing to readers. As early as 1823, an anonymous response, "Advice to Opium Eaters", was published "to warn others from copying De Quincey." The fear of reckless imitation was not groundless: several English writers—Francis Thompson, James Thomson, William Blair, and perhaps Branwell Brontë—were led to opium use and addiction by De Quincey's literary example. Charles Baudelaire's 1860 translation and adaptation, "Les paradis artificiels", spread the work's influence further. One of the characters of the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Man with the Twisted Lip" (1891), is an opium addict who began experimenting with the drug as a student after reading the "Confessions". De Quincey attempted to address this type of criticism. When the 1821 original was printed in book form the following year, he added an Appendix on the withdrawal process; and he inserted significant material on the medical aspects of opium into his 1856 revision.
More generally, De Quincey's "Confessions" influenced psychology and abnormal psychology, and attitudes towards dreams and imaginative literature. Edgar Allan Poe praised "Confessions" for its "glorious imagination—deep philosophy—acute speculation".
The play "The Opium Eater" by Andrew Dallmeyer was based on "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater", and has been published by Capercaillie Books. In 1962, Vincent Price starred in the full-length film "Confessions of an Opium Eater" which was a reimagining of De Quincey's "Confessions" by Hollywood producer Albert Zugsmith.
In the 1999 documentary "Tripping", recounting Ken Kesey's Further bus and its influence, Malcolm McLaren refers to De Quincey's book as the influence for the beatnik generation before Jack Kerouac's popular "On the Road" was written. |
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The Book of Drugs is a 2012 memoir by the musician and songwriter Mike Doughty. The book details Doughty's struggles with drug addiction, his musical career, both before and during his time with the band Soul Coughing and during his solo career.
The book was noted for its acerbic take on Doughty's Soul Coughing band mates, as well as its unflinching look at the damage caused by addiction.
The book covers Doughty's experiences growing up in a military family, his education, first experiences with drugs such as alcohol, his friendship with Jeff Buckley, and his antagonism with his (unnamed) fellow Soul Coughing band members. It also covers his experience with 12-step programs, his travels to Ethiopia and Cambodia, his experience with bipolar disorder, and his post-Soul Coughing solo career.
The book received a generally positive reception for its unflinching narrative and engaging writing. The "Village Voice" review called it a "quickly paced, finely observed, and often mordantly funny read"—though some reviewers wondered, as Jay Trachtenberg of the "Austin Chronicle" did, why "...if the atmosphere was so rancid, Doughty stuck around." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a 1968 nonfiction book by Tom Wolfe. The book is a popular example of the New Journalism literary style. Wolfe presents a firsthand account of the experiences of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters, who traveled across the US in a colorfully painted school bus, the "Furthur", whose name was painted on the destination sign, indicating the general ethos of the Pranksters. Kesey and the Pranksters became famous for their use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD in order to achieve expansion of their consciousness. The book chronicles the Acid Tests (parties with LSD-laced Kool-Aid), encounters with notable figures of the time (Hells Angels, Grateful Dead, Allen Ginsberg) and describes Kesey's exile to Mexico and his arrests.
Plot.
Tom Wolfe chronicles the adventures of Ken Kesey and his group of followers. Throughout the work, Kesey is portrayed as desiring the creation of a new religion. Kesey forms a group of followers based on the allure of transcendence achievable through drugs and his ability to preach and captivate listeners. The group was labelled as the "Merry Pranksters" and participated in a drug-fuelled lifestyle. The beginnings of Acid Tests started at Kesey's house in the woods of La Honda, California. The Acid Tests were carried out with lights and noise in order to enhance the psychedelic experience.
The Pranksters eventually leave the confines of Kesey's estate and travel across the country on the "Furthur". The bus is driven by Neal Cassady, who was the inspiration for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel "On the Road". Throughout the journey, the individuals take acid. As the Pranksters grow in popularity, Kesey's reputation develops as well. Towards the middle of the book, Kesey is idolized as the hero of a growing counterculture. Alongside this, Kesey forms friendships with groups like the Hells Angels and crosses paths with icons of the Beat Generation. The growing popularity of Kesey provides the opportunity for the Pranksters to meet other significant members of the growing counterculture: the Pranksters encounter the Grateful Dead, Allen Ginsberg and attempt to meet with Timothy Leary. The failed meeting with Leary was a disappointment as it would have marked the union of the East and West.
In an effort to broadcast their lifestyle, the Pranksters publicize their acid experiences and the term Acid Test comes to life. The Acid Tests are parties at which everyone takes LSD (which was often put into the Kool-Aid they served) and abandon the realities of the mundane world in search of a state of "intersubjectivity." Just as the Acid Tests are catching on, Kesey is arrested for possession of marijuana. In an effort to avoid jail, he flees to Mexico and is joined by the Pranksters. The Pranksters struggle in Mexico and are unable to obtain the same results from their acid trips.
Kesey and some of the Pranksters return to the United States. At this point, Kesey becomes a full blown pop culture icon as he appears on TV and radio shows, even as he is wanted by the FBI. Eventually, he is located and arrested. Kesey is conditionally released as he convinces the judge that the next step of his movement is an "Acid Test Graduation", an event in which the Pranksters and other followers will attempt to achieve intersubjectivity without the use of mind-altering drugs. The graduation is not effective enough to clear the charges from Kesey's name. He is given two sentences for two separate offenses. He is designated to a work camp to fulfill his sentence. He moves his wife and children to Oregon and begins serving his time in the forests of California.
Cultural significance and reception.
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" has been described as faithful and "essential" in depicting the roots and growth of the hippie movement.
The New Journalism literary style is seen to have elicited either fascination or incredulity by its audience. While The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was not the original standard for New Journalism, it is the most-often cited work of that genre. Wolfe's descriptions and accounts of the adventures of Kesey and his cohort were influencial and, particularly characteristic of New Journalism by inviting the reader to view the work as fiction rather than reportage.
The novel received modest literary acclaim, in particular for the clear narrative Wolfe maintained amidst the indulgent and often intoxicated milieu depicted. Despite Wolfe's immersion within Kesey's "movement" and advocacy of Kesey's and the Prankster's ideology, he renders sober portrayals of their experiences as being triggered by both paranoia and the acid trips which had become the group's cultural motif. Wolfe chronicles the Prankster's day-to-day lives and numerous psychedelic experiences, and his abstinence usefully differentiates his point of view. Wolfe endeavors to depict the Pranksters and Kesey within their environment, and as he believes they themselves wished to be seen.
While some saw New Journalism as the future of literature, the concept was not without criticism. There were many who challenged the believability of the style and there were many questions and criticisms about whether accounts were true. Wolfe however challenged such claims and notes that in books like "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", he was nearly invisible throughout the narrative. He argues that he produced an uninhibited account of the events he witnessed. As proponents of fiction and orthodox nonfiction continued to question the validity of New Journalism, Wolfe stood by the growing discipline. Wolfe realized that this method of writing transformed the subjects of newspapers and articles into people with whom audiences could relate and sympathize.
"The New York Times" considered the book one of the great works of its time; it described it as not only a great book about hippies, but the "essential book". The review continued to explore the dramatic impacts of Wolfe's telling of Kesey's story. Wolfe's book exposed counterculture norms that would soon spread across the country. The review notes that while Kesey received acclaim for his literary bomb "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", he was, for the most part, not a visible icon. His experiments and drug use were known within small circles, the Pranksters for example. Wolfe's accounts of Kesey and the Pranksters brought their ideologies and drug use to the mainstream. A separate review maintained that Wolfe's book was as vital to the hippie movement as Norman Mailer's 1968 book "The Armies of the Night" was to the anti-Vietnam movement.
"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" received praise from some outlets. Others were not as open to its effects. A review in "The Harvard Crimson" identified the effects of the book, but did so without offering praise. The review, written by Jay Cantor, who went on to literary prominence himself, provides a more moderate description of Kesey and his Pranksters. Cantor challenges Wolfe's messiah-like depiction of Kesey, concluding that "In the end the Christ-like robes Wolfe fashioned for Kesey are much too large. We are left with another acid-head and a bunch of kooky kids who did a few krazy things." Cantor explains how Kesey was offered the opportunity by a judge to speak to the masses and curb the use of LSD. Kesey, who Wolfe idolizes for starting the movement, is left powerless in his opportunity to alter the movement. Cantor is also critical of Wolfe's praise for the rampant abuse of LSD. Cantor admits the impact of Kesey in this scenario, stating that the drug was in fact widespread by 1969, when he wrote his criticism. He questions the glorification of such drug use however, challenging the ethical attributes of reliance on such a drug, and further asserts that "LSD is no respecter of persons, of individuality".
Asked in 1989 by Terry Gross on "Fresh Air" what he thought of the book, Kesey replied, It's a good book. yeah, he’s a—Wolfe's a genius. He did a lot of that stuff, he was only around three weeks. He picked up that amount of dialogue and verisimilitude without tape recorder, without taking notes to any extent. He just watches very carefully and remembers. But, you know, he's got his own editorial filter there. And so what he's coming up with is part of me, but it's not all of me. . . ." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Beautiful Things (book)
Beautiful Things: A Memoir is a 2021 memoir by American lawyer Hunter Biden, who is the second son of U.S. President Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden. It was published on April 6, 2021 by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. In "The New York Times" reviewer Elisabeth Egan described the book as "equal parts family saga, grief narrative and addict's howl".
Synopsis.
Hunter Biden is a Yale-educated lawyer.
In "Beautiful Things", Hunter Biden writes about his family and recounts his history of substance abuse and path to sobriety. He discusses the grief and trauma he experienced following the death of his brother Beau Biden and the 1972 car accident in which he was injured and that killed his mother, Neilia, and his sister, Naomi. He also defends his time on a Ukraine company board.
Hunter Biden told CBS that his cocaine addiction reached a zenith in 2015 after the death of his brother Beau.<ref> |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Then It Fell Apart
Then It Fell Apart is a 2019 memoir by American electronica musician Moby. Moby had previously written a memoir called "", published in 2016, which covered his life pre-fame. "Then It Fell Apart" covers the subsequent decade from 1999 to 2009 when Moby released the album "Play" to acclaim and success.
Synopsis.
The memoir predominantly deals with Moby's life from 1999 to 2009 with some flashbacks to his early childhood. In particular, the memoir deals with his surprise at the accidental success of "Play", his descent into alcohol addiction, and his decision in 2007 to finally go to rehab in order to stay sober.
Controversies and inaccuracies.
In his memoir, Moby detailed several flings he had had with famous women, notably including actress Natalie Portman among them. In his memoir, he claimed that they were together for several weeks in 1999 when she was 20 and he was 33. Portman subsequently denied that they had ever had a relationship, also pointing out that there were 16 years between them and that she was 18 in 1999. In an interview with "Harper's Bazaar", Portman said "I was surprised to hear that he characterised the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school." In response, Moby repeatedly took to his Instagram to re-assert that they had dated. He later publicly apologized to Portman on Instagram, writing, "I accept that given the dynamic of our almost 14 year age difference I absolutely should've acted more responsibly and respectfully when Natalie and I first met almost 20 years ago." On May 28, 2019, due to the backlash he had received, Moby cancelled the remainder of his book tour.
Moby also revealed that in 2001, he rubbed his flaccid penis on Donald Trump at a party after being dared to do so by his then-girlfriend. Details of this incident were later called into question by "Vanity Fair", who revealed that, based on Moby's own description of events, the incident most likely took place years later.
Reception.
Kitty Empire writing for "The Guardian" called it "funny and often harrowing". |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The Hasheesh Eater
The Hasheesh Eater (1857) is an autobiographical book by Fitz Hugh Ludlow describing the author's altered states of consciousness and philosophical flights of fancy while he was using a cannabis extract. In the United States, the book created popular interest in hashish, leading to hashish candy and private hashish clubs. The book was later popular in the counter-culture movement of the 1960s.
"The Hasheesh Eater" is often compared to "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" (1821), Thomas De Quincey's account of his own addiction to laudanum (opium and alcohol).
Publication history.
First published in 1857, "The Hasheesh Eater" went through four editions in the late 1850s and early 1860s, each put out by Harper & Brothers. In 1903, another publishing house put a reprint of the original edition — and the last complete edition until 1970. , two editions are in print, including an annotated version first published in 2003.
Literary significance.
Ludlow said, "The entire truth of Nature cannot be copied," so "the artist must select between the major and minor facts of the outer world; that, before he executes, he must pronounce whether he will embody the essential effect, that which steals on the soul and possesses it without painful analysis, or the separate details which belong to the geometrician and destroy the effect." Many of his passages, which may have seemed like fantastic myth-making to his contemporaries, ring true today with more modern knowledge of the psychedelic state. Ludlow writes of one hallucination: "And now, with time, space expanded also… The whole atmosphere seemed ductile, and spun endlessly out into great spaces surrounding me on every side."
Ludlow describes the marijuana user as one who is reaching for "the soul’s capacity for a broader being, deeper insight, grander views of Beauty, Truth and Good than she now gains through the chinks of her cell." Conversely, he says of hashish users: "Ho there! pass by; I have tried this way; it leads at last into poisonous wildernesses."
Cultural effect.
The popularity of "The Hasheesh Eater" led to interest in the drug it described. Not long after its publication, the Gunjah Wallah Co. in New York began advertising "Hasheesh Candy":
The Arabian "Gunjh" of Enchantment confectionized. — A most pleasurable and harmless stimulant. — Cures Nervousness, Weakness, Melancholy, &c. Inspires all classes with new life and energy. A complete mental and physical invigorator.
John Hay, who would become a close confidant of President Lincoln and later U.S. Secretary of State, remembered Brown University as the place “where I used to eat Hasheesh and dream dreams.” And a classmate recalls that after reading Ludlow’s book, Hay “must needs experiment with hasheesh a little, and see if it was such a marvelous stimulant to the imagination as Fitzhugh Ludlow affirmed. ‘The night when Johnny Hay took hasheesh’ marked an epoch for the dwellers in Hope College.”
Within twenty-five years of the publication of "The Hasheesh Eater", many cities in the United States had private hashish parlors. And there was already controversy about the legality and morality of cannabis intoxication. In 1876, when tourists could buy hashish at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the "Illustrated Police News" would write about “The Secret Dissipation of New York Belles… a Hasheesh Hell on Fifth Avenue.”
Rediscovery.
Ludlow’s writings crop up in a couple of places in pre-marijuana-prohibition 20th century America. The occultist Aleister Crowley found "The Hasheesh Eater" to be “tainted by admiration of de Quincey and the sentimentalists” but admired Ludlow’s “wonderful introspection” and printed significant excerpts from the book in his journal "The Equinox". Using the pseudonym Oliver Haddo, Crowley also wrote at length about his own cannabis experiences, comparing and contrasting them to those of Ludlow. He “was struck by the circumstance that [Ludlow], obviously ignorant of Vedantist and Yogic doctrines, yet approximately expressed them, though in a degraded and distorted form.”
After the prohibition of marijuana, the writings of Ludlow were interpreted by two camps. On the one hand, there were the prohibitionists, who pointed out Ludlow’s addiction to “hasheesh” and his horrifying hallucinations; on the other, those who believed that cannabis deserved a second chance and saw Ludlow as a literate chronicler of the mystical heights that could be reached using the drug.
In 1938, shortly after the federal government cracked down on marijuana, the prohibitionist warning was carried in the book "Marihuana: America’s New Drug Problem". The book included several pages of excerpts from "The Hasheesh Eater" and noted that
It was Ludlow… who contributed the most remarkable description of the hashish effects. He not only described the acute hashish episode with great intensity and fidelity but recorded the development of an addiction and the subsequent struggle which resulted in his breaking the habit. As an autobiography of a drug addict it is, in several respects, superior to De Quincey's “Confessions”
In 1953, Union College selected the alumnus Fitz Hugh Ludlow as a “Union Worthy” and invited three academics to compose speeches for the occasion. Morris Bishop (who would later include his impressions in his book "Eccentrics"), criticized Ludlow’s later attempts at fiction, writing that his short stories “are today stale and meaningless… echoes of all the other magazine stories of his time, originating in literature, not in life, and conducted with no regard for truth and with little for verisimilitude.” In "The Hasheesh Eater" on the other hand:
is a sincerity, a reality, which he could not recapture when he tried to construct stories solely from his imagination… He finds lyric phrasing to convey the unearthly beauty of his visions, and the unearthly horror of the evil fantasia which succeeded his bliss. He is a drugged Dante in reverse, descending from the Paradiso to the Inferno. His descriptions, drawing from his subconscious a strange mingling of the sublime and the grotesque, often suggest the work of Dali and other surrealists. The writer’s passion gives his work an intensity which the reader recognizes and sympathetically feels. This is a very considerable literary achievement.
Robert DeRopp, in the 1957 book "Drugs and the Mind", was perhaps the first to express skepticism at Ludlow’s “addiction” story, noting that “[n]o one seriously interested in the effects of drugs on the mind should fail to read Ludlow’s book,” but accusing Ludlow of a “hypertrophy of the imagination and an excessive dependence on the works of De Quincey” (although he also found "The Hasheesh Eater" to be “more lively and more colorful reading than… the grossly overrated confessions of that ‘English opium-eater.’”). DeRopp suspected that “in many places scientific impartiality has been sacrificed in the interests of literary effect.”
At this point we are at the dawn of the resurgence of marijuana in the United States and the emergence of psychedelics in the English-speaking world. Researchers, like pioneering mescaline researcher Heinrich Klüver, looked to Ludlow’s seminal writings on the psychedelic experience for insight on the new drugs that were being discovered and synthesized.
In 1960, "The Hasty Papers: A One-Shot Review", a beat literature journal, devoted most of its pages to reprinting the first edition of "The Hasheesh Eater" in its entirety, and David Ebin’s book "The Drug Experience" included three chapters from "The Hasheesh Eater". In 1966, excerpts were published in "The Marijuana Papers" edited by David Solomon. In 1970, a reprint of the 1857 edition was put out by Gregg Press, and the "Berkeley Barb" reprinted several chapters.
By this time Ludlow had been rediscovered, both by mainstream researchers into drugs and addiction, and by the growing drug-savvy counterculture. Oriana J. Kalant, in 1971 in "The International Journal of the Addictions" found "The Hasheesh Eater" to be a remarkable description of the effects of cannabis:
…it is evident that Ludlow recognized, with remarkable insight, most of the characteristic subjective effects of cannabis. He also noted, and interpreted essentially correctly, such pharmacological points as the relation of dose to effect, inter- and intra-individual variations in response, and the influence of set and setting. Most importantly, perhaps, he recorded the development of his dependence on cannabis more comprehensively and astutely than anyone to date. The initial motives — including features of his own personality and temperament — the constant rationalization, compulsive use despite obvious untoward effects, the progression to a state of almost continuous intoxication, the inability to reduce his dose gradually, and the intense craving and depression after abrupt withdrawal, all are clearly described. Ludlow recognized also the lack of physical symptoms during withdrawal, and the difference from opium withdrawal in this respect.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can also identify in Ludlow’s account a number of other features consistent with present knowledge, but which even scientists of his day could not possibly have known. For example, the initial change in tolerance, the continuum between euphoria and hallucinations, the differentiation between the hallucinatory process and the affective reactions to it, the relation between spontaneous and drug-induced perceptual changes, the similarity between the effects of cannabis and those of other hallucinogens, the attempts at drug substitution therapy (opium, tobacco), and the role of psychotherapy and abreactive writing, are all in keeping with contemporary thought. These points permit the modern reader to feel even greater confidence in the extraordinary accuracy and perceptiveness of Ludlow’s record.
The mid 1970s saw two new editions of "The Hasheesh Eater" in print, one by San Francisco’s City Lights Books, and a well-annotated and illustrated version edited by Michael Horowitz and released by Level Press. By the late 1970s, you could even find the face of Fitz Hugh Ludlow on a T-shirt, thanks to his alma mater Union College, which had thrown a “Fitzhugh Ludlow Day” celebration in 1979.
In the 2000s, Ludlow has been introduced to a new generation of psychedelics users through Terence McKenna, who read chapters from "The Hasheesh Eater" for a set of tapes (“Victorian Tales of Cannabis”) put out by Sound Photosynthesis, and who regularly praised Ludlow in his books, saying Ludlow “began a tradition of pharmo-picaresque literature that would find later practitioners in William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson.… Part genius, part madman, Ludlow lies halfway between Captain Ahab and P.T. Barnum, a kind of Mark Twain on hashish. There is a wonderful charm to his free-spirited, pseudoscientific openness as he makes his way into the shifting dunescapes of the world of hashish.”
"The Hasheesh Eater" remains Ludlow's most remembered work. Only one other of his books, "The Heart of the Continent", has seen a new edition since the 19th Century. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | How to Murder Your Life
How to Murder Your Life is a memoir by fashion and beauty journalist Cat Marnell. Marnell sold the book in 2013 for an undisclosed sum. The memoir was finally released in 2017 by Simon & Schuster and became a bestseller.
The memoir deals with Marnell's childhood in a wealthy D.C. suburb, her introduction to drugs, her entry into the world of fashion journalism, and her continued struggles with addiction, which constantly threatened to torpedo her career.
Summary.
Marnell grows up in Washington, D.C. Her father is an abusive and controlling psychiatrist who eventually has her older sister sent to the Cross Creek Manor reform school, where her movements are severely restricted. To escape her father's rages, Marnell asks to attend boarding school and is sent to Lawrence Academy. After recreationally taking Ritalin, Marnell believes she has ADHD. Her father prescribes the drug to her and Marnell begins to use it both as a study aid and recreationally. In her final year of school, she discovers she is pregnant and delays having an abortion for so long that she enters her second trimester of pregnancy. After being accepted to Bard College in 2000, she harasses other accepted students online, leading to her expulsion from Lawrence, the rescission of her Bard acceptance, and the revelation of her pregnancy to her parents. Her mother takes her for an abortion, which Marnell finds traumatizing.
She gets into an acting class in New York City, but finds the workshops boring and is unable to make friends. Alone and isolated, she develops bulimia. While attending a show at the Comedy Cellar, she is picked up by Ardie Fuqua, who helps to introduce her to NYC nightlife. Marnell spends the next few years developing a drug habit, dropping in and out of colleges, and building contacts in the entertainment and fashion worlds.
At 21, she works in the closet at "Vanity Fair". This gives her a taste for magazine journalism and she uses her connections to nab an internship at "Nylon", where she works for beauty editor Charlotte Rudge. She subsequently gets internships at "Teen Vogue" and "Glamour". After getting a free copy of Jean Godfrey-June's memoir, she becomes obsessed with the beauty editor and eventually lands a job as her assistant. Marnell works well with Godfrey-June and finds herself enjoying the perks of working at "Lucky" magazine. However, after moving into a new apartment that is infested with mice, she begins to take more drugs to cope with the infestation, which leads to further paranoia. She eventually contacts her parents to tell them she believes she is addicted to Adderall. They take her to a psychiatrist, who encourages Marnell to go to rehab. Marnell explains her addiction to Godfrey-June, who assures her she will have a job when she returns, and goes to the Silver Hill Hospital. Upon returning, Marnell is able to keep sober for a few months, before she begins to abuse alcohol and then returns to abusing Adderall. During the Great Recession, her coworker is fired, while Marnell is officially promoted to Associate Beauty Editor. She immediately abuses her privileges but is protected from consequences by her intern, her good relationship with Jean Godfrey-June, and PR reps who are more interested in preserving their relationship with the magazine than in checking her behavior.
Marnell becomes a roommate of Nev Schulman. This coincides with the worst of her drug abuse as her only friend, a fellow junkie named Marco, encourages her to do harder drugs and becomes increasingly abusive and threatening towards her, repeatedly breaking into her home and robbing her. Eventually, Marco destroys Schulman's apartment, causing Marnell to be evicted. In 2009, on her 27th birthday, Marnell realizes she has no friends and no one to spend the day with. Shortly after, she reconnects with Marco, who steals her keys and robs her entire apartment. Tracking his movements, she is able to successfully recover her things and also realizes he had been robbing her for years before she noticed. After this breakdown, her father and Jean Godfrey-June try to convince her to go to rehab a second time. Instead, Marnell goes to a mental institution, claiming to be suicidal, as she wants to keep up the fiction that she is sober. Her doctor at the mental institution eventually persuades her to go to rehab, but Marnell leaves after nine days. She returns to drugs and to her job at "Lucky" magazine. However, she is no longer able to perform many of her job responsibilities and despite support from the staff, she ultimately decides to quit.
During her unemployment, Marnell attempts suicide. After being cut off from the rest of her family, she turns to her wealthy grandmother, Mimi, who pays off her debts and allows her to stay with her in Charlottesville, Virginia. Marnell eventually returns to New York and splits her time between that city and Charlottesville. When Jane Pratt launches the online magazine "xoJane" in 2011, Marnell's friend Lesley Arfin encourages her to apply. Marnell is hired and while there, works on health, beauty, and drugs, finally able to write openly about her experiences as an addict.
While she disdains the online publication, her columns are nevertheless successful. After Whitney Houston dies in early 2012, Marnell writes about life as a woman who is a drug addict and the piece goes viral, leading her to negotiate a raise with "xoJane". Shortly after, Marnell leaves the publication, in part due to her continued drug use. Nevertheless, in a series of interviews she gives about being a drug addict, her popularity rises. She is able to negotiate a well-paying job at "Vice" and obtain a literary agent, though it takes her until 2013 to piece together a coherent book proposal.
In an afterword, Marnell claims to be doing much better, saying she is much closer with her family, but also admits to still abusing drugs.
Reception.
Marnell's memoir was warmly received. "The Globe and Mail" praised her "chic-macabre sense of humour". Anne Helen Petersen, writing for "The New York Times", praised her for keeping a balance "between glamorizing her own despair and rendering it with savage honesty."
"The Irish Times", however, criticized the memoir, saying that Marnell was always playing the persona of Cat Marnell, and suggested "she can do much better". |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Hole in My Life
Hole in My Life is an American autobiography of Jack Gantos and was published by Macmillan Publishers in 2002. In 2003 the book was honored with the Michael L. Printz Award and the same year became a winner of the Robert F. Sibert Medal.
Plot.
The book is set in 1971 and tells about author's life behind bars. Before he goes to jail he dreams of becoming a writer and becomes inspired by William S. Burroughs who according to his knowledge used to use drugs to go through his life as a writer. Because he dropped out of university in Saint Croix, he began using hashish and later joined the sail team. There, his friends became Hamilton and Rik, the later of whom promised him $10,000 if he will sail with him to New York City from the Virgin Islands to sell hash to customers. As a result, upon arriving to New York and settling into a hotel, he and his friends were captured by the FBI and were sentenced from 5 to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking. Jack got 5, but because of his well behavior in prison he gets out in 15 months of his sentence. While there he works as an X-ray technician and writes his thoughts in a journal on a copy of "The Brothers Karamazov". He gets out of prison a bit earlier because he applies to a university for creative writing course and begins a new life by selling Christmas trees.
Reception.
The book received positive reviews from "Kirkus Reviews" and "Publishers Weekly". |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Opium Nation
Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords, and One Woman's Journey Through Afghanistan is a 2011 book by Fariba Nawa. The author travels throughout Afghanistan to talk with individuals part of the opium production in Afghanistan, centering on women's role in it. Generally, reviewers felt that the book succeeded in its portrayal of Afghan culture and the impact of the opium trade on Afghans.
Synopsis.
Born in Herat, Afghanistan, nine-year-old Nawa escaped in 1982 with her family during the Soviet–Afghan War. Following 18 years of separation from her homeland, Nawa visits the country in 2000 after the Taliban's rise to power in an attempt to harmonize her American and Afghan identities. Fluent in the dialect Dari Persian, she finds that she has difficulty comprehending the speech of people in her hometown Herat because Iranian words and idioms have seeped into their language. She spends seven years in the country attempting to comprehend and write about its changes. In 2002, she moves to Kabul, serving as a journalist reporting on the War in Afghanistan that began in 2001. From 2002 to 2007, she researches opium production in Afghanistan for her book. In her first visit, she finds that her gorgeous childhood memories are obscured by bleak actualities. Taliban leaders have suppressed inhabitants' aesthetic and academic ambitions.
Nawa discusses opium trafficking in Afghanistan, a trade she said is valued at $4 billion in the country and $65 billion outside it. 60% of Afghanistan's GDP comes from opium, of which two-thirds is distilled into heroin, a more potent drug. Because the distillation requires cooking, the traffickers allow women to take part in it. A large number of women and their families are beholden to opium. About 10–25% of women and children are speculated to be addicted to the drug. Many families serve in the opium enterprise as "opium farmers, refiners, or smugglers".
Nawa describes the story of Darya, a 12-year-old opium bride in the Ghoryan district given by her father to a creditor 34 years her senior to liquidate his opium debts. The girl is initially resistant to the marriage, telling Nawa, "I do not want to go with this man. Can you please help me?" She ultimately concedes to her father's wishes and marries the smuggler who lives hours away. After several months of no contact between Darya and the family, her mother beseeches Nawa to search for her. Nawa attempts to find the child, saying, "I was immediately attracted to the young girl because she was a mystery and a victim who needed to be saved from barbaric traditions. I thought it was my job as an outsider from the West to rescue her." But ultimately, she must give up because of danger from the child's husband and because the search takes her to the Helmand Province, a perilous place. Nawa believes that Darya will save herself by standing up to her husband, escaping him, or discovering how to cope with her situation. She writes, "Darya offers hope for change. I will always want to know what happened to her, and perhaps someday I will."
Nawa reveals the story of an uncle who kidnaps a six-year-old boy and his friend in Takhar Province, an attempt to coerce the boy's father to settle an opium debt. When the debt is not settled, the boy disappears and his friend's body is found after several days in a river.
She discusses the positive economic impact the opium industry has had on some families. For one woman, poppy cultivation allowed her to buy a taxi for her son and a carpet frame for her daughter. Some newly affluent farmers use some of the wealth to improve the infrastructure of their neighborhoods.
At the book's end, she reveals that she has married Naeem Mazizian, whom she had met at the Herat chapter of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2005, he moves to Kabul. Following four years of companionship, they marry and have a daughter, Bonoo Zahra. Nawa dedicated the book to her daughter and her parents, Sayed Begum and Fazul Haq.
Style.
"Part personal memoir and part history", the book delves into the elements of Afghanistan society seldom seen or comprehended by outsiders. "The Canberra Times" reviewer Bron Sibree called the book a "unique, finely distilled, intense perspective" that was "surprisingly frank and intimate" because women confide in her beliefs they do not tell other people. The book is packed with numerous facts and numbers pertaining to the swell in the drug business. Sibree noted that the narrative is filled with accounts of Afghan history, particularly its traditions and its elegant, multifarious landscapes. Sibree opined that Nawa's intense depiction of the Afghanis, notably the women who are unflappable notwithstanding their adversity, are etched into the mind even after an extended period of time.
Reception.
"Kirkus Reviews" praised Nawa for deftly depicting the "tragic complexity of Afghan society and the sheer difficulty of life there". The reviewer found parts of the book's dialogue to be contrived but noted that Nawa's convincing narrative "clearly stems from in-depth reporting in a risk-laden environment". Novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" praised the book for having a "very engaging narrative" and being "[a]n insightful and informative look at the global challenge of Afghan drug trade". Writing for "The Sun-Herald", author Lucy Sussex called the book "strong, informative reading".
"Publishers Weekly" noted that Nawa "draws rich, complex portraits of subjects on both sides of the law". The review said the book is notable for its "depth, honesty, and commitment" to chronicling women's thoughts regarding their role in the drug trade, placing her life in jeopardy to collect the women's stories. Nawa, the review noted, "writes with passion about the history of her volatile homeland and with cautious optimism about its future". Kate Tuttle of "The Boston Globe" commended the book for its "detailed, sensitive reporting of individual people's stories" and the author for her "clear-eyed reckoning with a country and a people who are beyond her help". Writing in "The Guardian", investigative journalist Pratap Chatterjee found that the book "reminds us that Afghanistan is not just a war, but a country of many ordinary yet unique people, kind and cruel, rich and poor".
In February 2012, "Opium Nation" ranked seventh in the "independent" section of "The Newcastle Herald"s bestseller list. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Chasing the Scream
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs is a book by Johann Hari examining the history and impact of drug criminalisation, collectively known as "the War on Drugs". The book was published simultaneously in the United Kingdom and United States in January 2015. It inspired the 2021 biographical film "The United States vs. Billie Holiday".
Background and summary.
In January 2012, Hari announced on his website that he was writing his first book, a study of the "war on drugs".
The release of the book coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act in the United States, which was the world's first drug control legislation when it passed in December 1914. In "Chasing the Scream", Hari writes that two global wars began in 1914: World War I, which lasted four years, and the war on drugs, which is ongoing.
In the introduction to the book, Hari writes that one of his first memories was of trying and failing to wake up a relative from a "drugged slump", and that he has always felt "oddly drawn to addicts and recovering addicts—they feel like my tribe, my group, my people". He also discusses his history of abusing anti-narcolepsy medication, a class of prescription drugs sometimes taken by people without the disease in order to stay alert.
Hari questions whether or not he is an addict and decides to go searching for answers to questions he has. "Why did the drug war start, and why does it continue? Why can some people use drugs without any problems, while others can't? What really causes addiction? What happens if you choose a radically different policy?"
Hari writes that he spent the next three years in search of answers, traveling across nine countries (United States, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Uruguay and Vietnam).
He profiles early figures in the drug war like jazz musician Billie Holiday, a long-time heroin addict; racketeer Arnold Rothstein, an early drug trafficker; and Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (who had a daily morphine habit).
He also interviews drug addicts, dealers, police and lawmakers today, as well as scientists, drug addiction specialists and drug reform advocates like Danny Kushlick and Steve Rolles, as well as João Goulão, a doctor who has helped steer Portugal's drug policy.
One of his interviewees is Bruce K. Alexander, the researcher behind the "Rat Park" drug addiction experiments done in the 1970s. Alexander's hypothesis is that drugs themselves do not cause addiction, which is largely in contrast to current popular beliefs about drugs and drug addiction.
Hari writes, "Many of our most basic assumptions about this subject are wrong. Drugs are not what we think they are. Drug addiction is not what we have been told it is. The drug war is not what our politicians have sold it as for one hundred years and counting."
Source documentation.
An introductory page of "Chasing the Scream" states that audio files of all quotes in the book from Hari's interviews are available online at the book's official website. On the site, it states that there are more than 400 quotes spoken to Hari appearing in the book: "To be as transparent as possible, they are posted on this website – so as you read the book, you can listen the voices of the people in it, as they tell their stories for themselves." The book also includes 60 pages of explanatory notes on sources and interviews.
The website includes a section for questions and corrections, with a note from Hari asking readers to submit any factual errors in the book to be corrected "for future editions and for the record". This section includes a few transcription errors from recorded interviews that were not noticed until after publication; for example, a quote from Bruce K. Alexander saying "learning to deal with the modern age” was incorrectly transcribed and printed in the book as "learning to live with the modern age". Author and anti-plagiarism campaigner Jeremy Duns accused Hari of inaccuracy in some of his quotations, claiming that Hari had "twisted the truth here because it made his narrative cleaner".
Book reception.
Critical response.
"Chasing the Scream" has received mostly positive reviews from critics and journalists.
Kate Tuttle of the "Boston Globe" called it a "passionate, timely book" and that through reading the stories of Hari's interview subjects, including drug addicts, drug dealers, scientists and politicians, "their combined testimony forms a convincing brief that drug prohibition may have spawned as much crime, violence, and heartache as drug use ever did".
Reviewer Nick Romeo of "The Christian Science Monitor" wrote a lengthy synopsis on "Chasing the Scream", analysing the book's presentation of the history of drug criminalisation, its racial aspects, and scientific data concerning addiction. Romeo wrote of Hari, "His reporting is balanced and comprehensive; he interviews police and prisoners, addicts and dealers, politicians and activists. He also delves into different historical periods as case studies on the costs and benefits of the drug war. His book should be required reading for anyone involved in the drug war, and a glance at the national budget shows that anyone who pays taxes is involved in the drug war."
Ed Vulliamy called the book a "righteous assault" and a "long-awaited history" on the war on drugs, "which imprisons millions and persecutes more". He was critical that the book omitted two crucial aspects of the situation – the first being how the "war" is in reality one waged against addicts and not those who financially profit from drugs, and the second concerning details of how legalisation of drugs would work in practicality. Vulliamy concluded that omission of these aspects does not detract "from the book’s argument, or the righteous movement of which Hari is an estimable spokesman". He noted the author's 2011 scandal, writing that a "shamed" Hari left to dedicate himself to documenting the war on drugs and that "Chasing the Scream" "is the prodigal fruit of that work, and with it redemption, if that was needed."
In his review for "The Guardian", John Harris praised parts of the book but was negative overall. He wrote that although the work is a "powerful contribution to an urgent debate" on drug policy, Hari employs a "gauche journalistic equivalent of the narrative voice found in "Mills & Boon" novels". Harris also questioned why "a mere 52 words" are printed from Hari's interview with Dr. Robert DuPont, the first director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse and the keynote speaker at a World Federation Against Drugs conference Hari attended. Harris also admitted Hari's past record presents a challenge to reviewers, and made him more skeptical over things such as the DuPont interview, writing, "though it might be nice to set aside the events of 2011 and allow him a fresh start, his misdemeanours inevitably colour your experience of the book".
Hugo Rifkind wrote in his review for "The Times" that it is "tempting, albeit petty, to read "Chasing the Scream" less as a book and more as an act of rehabilitation". Rifkind ultimately called it "thoughtful, thorough and questing, and full of fresh and genuine reportage about aspects of the drug economy".
"Kirkus Reviews" praised the book, calling Hari "a sharp judge of character" and that the book is "a compassionate and humane argument to overturn draconian drug policies".
Public response.
David Nutt, an English psychiatrist and neuropsychopharmacologist specialising in drug research, wrote a positive review of "Chasing the Scream" for "The Evening Standard". He praised Hari's research into the early events of anti-drug laws, some of which, Nutt noted, he himself had forgotten ever occurred. He called the personal stories of those affected the most "horrific", writing "The lack of evidence of the war having worked, alongside massive evidence of failure, are detailed with a frightening clarity". Nutt, the former chief scientific advisor on drugs to the British government, concluded, "Read it and demand our politicians take note!"
Seth Mnookin, professor of science writing at MIT, wrote in his "New York Times" review that Hari is "in over his head" when writing about the current science of addiction: "[H]is misunderstanding of some of the basic principles of scientific research — that anecdotes are not data; that a conclusion is not a fact — transforms what had been an affecting jeremiad into a partisan polemic". Mnookin also characterises Hari's historical account of the early prohibition of drugs as "forced". In contrast, Mnookin's assessment of Hari's discussions of current events is generally quite positive. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Chasing the Scream
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs is a book by Johann Hari examining the history and impact of drug criminalisation, collectively known as "the War on Drugs". The book was published simultaneously in the United Kingdom and United States in January 2015. It inspired the 2021 biographical film "The United States vs. Billie Holiday".
Background and summary.
In January 2012, Hari announced on his website that he was writing his first book, a study of the "war on drugs".
The release of the book coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act in the United States, which was the world's first drug control legislation when it passed in December 1914. In "Chasing the Scream", Hari writes that two global wars began in 1914: World War I, which lasted four years, and the war on drugs, which is ongoing.
In the introduction to the book, Hari writes that one of his first memories was of trying and failing to wake up a relative from a "drugged slump", and that he has always felt "oddly drawn to addicts and recovering addicts—they feel like my tribe, my group, my people". He also discusses his history of abusing anti-narcolepsy medication, a class of prescription drugs sometimes taken by people without the disease in order to stay alert.
Hari questions whether or not he is an addict and decides to go searching for answers to questions he has. "Why did the drug war start, and why does it continue? Why can some people use drugs without any problems, while others can't? What really causes addiction? What happens if you choose a radically different policy?"
Hari writes that he spent the next three years in search of answers, traveling across nine countries (United States, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Uruguay and Vietnam).
He profiles early figures in the drug war like jazz musician Billie Holiday, a long-time heroin addict; racketeer Arnold Rothstein, an early drug trafficker; and Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (who had a daily morphine habit).
He also interviews drug addicts, dealers, police and lawmakers today, as well as scientists, drug addiction specialists and drug reform advocates like Danny Kushlick and Steve Rolles, as well as João Goulão, a doctor who has helped steer Portugal's drug policy.
One of his interviewees is Bruce K. Alexander, the researcher behind the "Rat Park" drug addiction experiments done in the 1970s. Alexander's hypothesis is that drugs themselves do not cause addiction, which is largely in contrast to current popular beliefs about drugs and drug addiction.
Hari writes, "Many of our most basic assumptions about this subject are wrong. Drugs are not what we think they are. Drug addiction is not what we have been told it is. The drug war is not what our politicians have sold it as for one hundred years and counting."
Source documentation.
An introductory page of "Chasing the Scream" states that audio files of all quotes in the book from Hari's interviews are available online at the book's official website. On the site, it states that there are more than 400 quotes spoken to Hari appearing in the book: "To be as transparent as possible, they are posted on this website – so as you read the book, you can listen the voices of the people in it, as they tell their stories for themselves." The book also includes 60 pages of explanatory notes on sources and interviews.
The website includes a section for questions and corrections, with a note from Hari asking readers to submit any factual errors in the book to be corrected "for future editions and for the record". This section includes a few transcription errors from recorded interviews that were not noticed until after publication; for example, a quote from Bruce K. Alexander saying "learning to deal with the modern age” was incorrectly transcribed and printed in the book as "learning to live with the modern age". Author and anti-plagiarism campaigner Jeremy Duns accused Hari of inaccuracy in some of his quotations, claiming that Hari had "twisted the truth here because it made his narrative cleaner".
Book reception.
Critical response.
"Chasing the Scream" has received mostly positive reviews from critics and journalists.
Kate Tuttle of the "Boston Globe" called it a "passionate, timely book" and that through reading the stories of Hari's interview subjects, including drug addicts, drug dealers, scientists and politicians, "their combined testimony forms a convincing brief that drug prohibition may have spawned as much crime, violence, and heartache as drug use ever did".
Reviewer Nick Romeo of "The Christian Science Monitor" wrote a lengthy synopsis on "Chasing the Scream", analysing the book's presentation of the history of drug criminalisation, its racial aspects, and scientific data concerning addiction. Romeo wrote of Hari, "His reporting is balanced and comprehensive; he interviews police and prisoners, addicts and dealers, politicians and activists. He also delves into different historical periods as case studies on the costs and benefits of the drug war. His book should be required reading for anyone involved in the drug war, and a glance at the national budget shows that anyone who pays taxes is involved in the drug war."
Ed Vulliamy called the book a "righteous assault" and a "long-awaited history" on the war on drugs, "which imprisons millions and persecutes more". He was critical that the book omitted two crucial aspects of the situation – the first being how the "war" is in reality one waged against addicts and not those who financially profit from drugs, and the second concerning details of how legalisation of drugs would work in practicality. Vulliamy concluded that omission of these aspects does not detract "from the book’s argument, or the righteous movement of which Hari is an estimable spokesman". He noted the author's 2011 scandal, writing that a "shamed" Hari left to dedicate himself to documenting the war on drugs and that "Chasing the Scream" "is the prodigal fruit of that work, and with it redemption, if that was needed."
In his review for "The Guardian", John Harris praised parts of the book but was negative overall. He wrote that although the work is a "powerful contribution to an urgent debate" on drug policy, Hari employs a "gauche journalistic equivalent of the narrative voice found in "Mills & Boon" novels". Harris also questioned why "a mere 52 words" are printed from Hari's interview with Dr. Robert DuPont, the first director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse and the keynote speaker at a World Federation Against Drugs conference Hari attended. Harris also admitted Hari's past record presents a challenge to reviewers, and made him more skeptical over things such as the DuPont interview, writing, "though it might be nice to set aside the events of 2011 and allow him a fresh start, his misdemeanours inevitably colour your experience of the book".
Hugo Rifkind wrote in his review for "The Times" that it is "tempting, albeit petty, to read "Chasing the Scream" less as a book and more as an act of rehabilitation". Rifkind ultimately called it "thoughtful, thorough and questing, and full of fresh and genuine reportage about aspects of the drug economy".
"Kirkus Reviews" praised the book, calling Hari "a sharp judge of character" and that the book is "a compassionate and humane argument to overturn draconian drug policies".
Public response.
David Nutt, an English psychiatrist and neuropsychopharmacologist specialising in drug research, wrote a positive review of "Chasing the Scream" for "The Evening Standard". He praised Hari's research into the early events of anti-drug laws, some of which, Nutt noted, he himself had forgotten ever occurred. He called the personal stories of those affected the most "horrific", writing "The lack of evidence of the war having worked, alongside massive evidence of failure, are detailed with a frightening clarity". Nutt, the former chief scientific advisor on drugs to the British government, concluded, "Read it and demand our politicians take note!"
Seth Mnookin, professor of science writing at MIT, wrote in his "New York Times" review that Hari is "in over his head" when writing about the current science of addiction: "[H]is misunderstanding of some of the basic principles of scientific research — that anecdotes are not data; that a conclusion is not a fact — transforms what had been an affecting jeremiad into a partisan polemic". Mnookin also characterises Hari's historical account of the early prohibition of drugs as "forced". In contrast, Mnookin's assessment of Hari's discussions of current events is generally quite positive. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Elite da Tropa
Elite da Tropa is a Brazilian book written by the ex-police officers André Batista and Rodrigo Pimentel together with Luiz Eduardo Soares. It was first published in 2006. The book originated the film "Elite Squad".
Synopsis.
Based on real facts, this book recounts stories about the Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE), considered an elite squad in Rio de Janeiro's Military Police. The book depicts the officers from BOPE as an incorruptible and extremely violent troop.
This book also describes the plan to assassinate Leonel Brizola, the then governor of Rio de Janeiro. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Dark Alliance (book)
Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion is a 1998 book by journalist Gary Webb. The book is based on "Dark Alliance", Webb's three-part investigative series published in the "San Jose Mercury News" in August 1996. The original series claimed that, in order to help raise funds for efforts against the Nicaraguan Sandinista government, the CIA supported cocaine trafficking into the US by top members of Nicaraguan Contra Rebel organizations and allowed the subsequent crack epidemic to spread in Los Angeles. The book expands on the series and recounts media reaction to Webb's original newspaper exposé.
"Dark Alliance" was published in 1998 by Seven Stories Press, with an introduction by U.S. Representative Maxine Waters. A revised edition was published in 1999. The same year the book won a Pen Oakland Censorship Award and a Firecracker Alternative Book Award. It served as part of the basis for "Kill the Messenger", a 2014 film based on Webb's life.
Synopsis.
According to Webb, in the 1980s when the CIA exerted a certain amount of control over Contra groups such as the FDN, the agency as well as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) granted amnesty to and put on the agency’s bankroll important Contra supporters and fundraisers who were known to the US Government to be cocaine smugglers. Later, at the behest of Oliver North, the Reagan Administration began to use Contra drug money to support the anti-communist Nicaraguan rebels' efforts against the Sandinista government. The Sandinistas were hated by successive Democratic and Republican U.S. administrations for the 1978-79 Sandinista Revolution (the overthrowing of the U.S.-sponsored brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua) and for their support of worker and peasant revolutions developing throughout Central and South America.
Blandon, a cocaine smuggler who founded an FDN chapter in Los Angeles, was a major supplier for Freeway Ricky Ross. With access to cheap, pure cocaine and the idea to cook the cocaine into crack, Ross established a major drug network and fueled the popularity of crack. By 1983, Ross was purchasing 10 to 15 kilos of cocaine a week from CIA-backed Contra supporter Blandon - according to Blandon. All the while, Webb alleges, the CIA was supporting the Contras supplying him with the cocaine. Meanwhile, the US Justice Department and its agencies - who were aware of the Contra-linked drug trafficking operations of the FDN supporters - derailed local police investigations and blocked the prosecution of the Contra-linked cocaine traffickers.
Webb also discusses his experiences writing the investigative series that the book expands on. He notes that the use of the Internet and the uploading of the documents on which his assertions rest "made it possible to share [the files the story was based on] directly with your readers. If they cared to, they could read and hear exactly what you had read and heard, and make up their own minds about the story. It was raw interactive journalism, perhaps too interactive for some." The release of the "Dark Alliance" series on the San Jose Mercury News' state-of-the-art website, complete with images and facsimiles of the copious official US Government documentary record assembled by Webb and his colleagues broke new ground for both journalism and the Internet. Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia enthused that "The unlimited space of the Web allowed the "Mercury News" to move forward into a whole new kind of journalism... the Web... let intelligent readers review the source materials and draw their own conclusions. This step, far beyond the traditional role of newspapers, attracted attention and readers from all over the world." The number of visits or "hits" to the "Dark Alliance" website rapidly climbed to 500,000, then 800,000 and topped out at 1,000,000 a day - phenomenal for this early stage of the development of the modern Internet. In October 1996, two months after the release of the series, a "Boston Globe" reporter wrote "that the story was 'pulsing through [L.A.'s] black neighborhoods like a shockwave, provoking a stunning, growing level of anger and indignation. Talk-radio stations with predominantly black audiences are deluged with calls on the subject. Demonstrations, candle-lighting ceremonies and town-hall meetings are becoming regular affairs. And people on the street are heatedly discussing the topic.'" "Nonetheless, the media slowly turned against Webb and attempted to discredit him. Notably, "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", and the "Los Angeles Times" ran articles calling his argument unfounded. "The Mercury News" originally stood by Webb’s reporting, but, amidst the denunciations by other news sources, executive editor Jerome Ceppos published an apology for much of the series’ content in May 1997.
Critical reception.
Reviewers' opinions of the book were mixed. David Corn, Washington editor for "The Nation" magazine, reviewed the book in "The Washington Post". Corn had previously been critical of aspects of the "Dark Alliance" newspaper series, and he found that the book "reflects the positives and negatives of the original series." He noted that Webb "deserves credit for pursuing an important piece of recent history and forcing the CIA and the Justice Department to investigate the contra-drug connection", but remained critical of several aspects of the book, observing that Webb's "threshold of proof is on the low side".
Michael Massing, an investigative reporter and associate editor of the "Columbia Journalism Review", reviewed "Dark Alliance" in the "Los Angeles Times". Massing found that Webb "seems on solid ground in arguing that money from Nicaraguan traffickers ended up in Contra coffers," but observed that "the sums involved are in question." He believed that Webb does not demonstrate that the CIA was involved in or sanctioned these activities, but did show that agency officials "heard allegations ... but did little to intervene." For the claim that the CIA and the Contras "helped to set off the nation's crack explosion, Massing claims "Webb's account is at its most shaky", and that Webb's overall thesis "seems fantastic." He is also critical of Webb's contacts with Ricky Ross's lawyer Alan Fenster, as recounted in "Dark Alliance".
James Adams, Washington correspondent for the "Sunday Times", wrote a largely negative review for "The New York Times". Adams was critical of Webb's "failure" to contact the CIA to "cross-check sources and allegations," and concluded that "For investigative reporters determined to uncover the truth, procedures like these are unacceptable. Neither the editors of the "San Jose Mercury News" nor the publishers of these books should have allowed their writers to take such relaxed approaches to a serious subject."
One of the most negative reviews was written by Glenn Garvin in "Reason" magazine. Garvin, a reporter who served as Managua bureau chief for the "Miami Herald", was highly critical of Webb's treatment of sources and evidence: "No subject is too great, too small, or too far afield for Webb to distort or falsify," Garvin claimed. While Garvin said that "a few contra pilots and their associates, particularly on the so-called south front" were involved with narcotraffickers, he rejected Webb's account of contra involvement with cocaine trafficking, which he said is "almost entirely drawn from the claims of a few Nicaraguan traffickers facing long jail terms who were using a the-CIA-made-me-do-it defense." According to Garvin, Webb substantially overstated both the importance of these dealers to the Contras and their actual role in the cocaine trade. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Kill the Messenger (Schou book)
Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (New York: Nation Books, 2006) is a biography of investigative journalist Gary Webb, focusing on his 1996 "Dark Alliance" investigative series in the "San Jose Mercury News". The series linked the 1980s' crack cocaine trade in the United States and the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.
"Kill the Messenger" was adapted into a 2014 film by the same name. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Opium Nation
Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords, and One Woman's Journey Through Afghanistan is a 2011 book by Fariba Nawa. The author travels throughout Afghanistan to talk with individuals part of the opium production in Afghanistan, centering on women's role in it. Generally, reviewers felt that the book succeeded in its portrayal of Afghan culture and the impact of the opium trade on Afghans.
Synopsis.
Born in Herat, Afghanistan, nine-year-old Nawa escaped in 1982 with her family during the Soviet–Afghan War. Following 18 years of separation from her homeland, Nawa visits the country in 2000 after the Taliban's rise to power in an attempt to harmonize her American and Afghan identities. Fluent in the dialect Dari Persian, she finds that she has difficulty comprehending the speech of people in her hometown Herat because Iranian words and idioms have seeped into their language. She spends seven years in the country attempting to comprehend and write about its changes. In 2002, she moves to Kabul, serving as a journalist reporting on the War in Afghanistan that began in 2001. From 2002 to 2007, she researches opium production in Afghanistan for her book. In her first visit, she finds that her gorgeous childhood memories are obscured by bleak actualities. Taliban leaders have suppressed inhabitants' aesthetic and academic ambitions.
Nawa discusses opium trafficking in Afghanistan, a trade she said is valued at $4 billion in the country and $65 billion outside it. 60% of Afghanistan's GDP comes from opium, of which two-thirds is distilled into heroin, a more potent drug. Because the distillation requires cooking, the traffickers allow women to take part in it. A large number of women and their families are beholden to opium. About 10–25% of women and children are speculated to be addicted to the drug. Many families serve in the opium enterprise as "opium farmers, refiners, or smugglers".
Nawa describes the story of Darya, a 12-year-old opium bride in the Ghoryan district given by her father to a creditor 34 years her senior to liquidate his opium debts. The girl is initially resistant to the marriage, telling Nawa, "I do not want to go with this man. Can you please help me?" She ultimately concedes to her father's wishes and marries the smuggler who lives hours away. After several months of no contact between Darya and the family, her mother beseeches Nawa to search for her. Nawa attempts to find the child, saying, "I was immediately attracted to the young girl because she was a mystery and a victim who needed to be saved from barbaric traditions. I thought it was my job as an outsider from the West to rescue her." But ultimately, she must give up because of danger from the child's husband and because the search takes her to the Helmand Province, a perilous place. Nawa believes that Darya will save herself by standing up to her husband, escaping him, or discovering how to cope with her situation. She writes, "Darya offers hope for change. I will always want to know what happened to her, and perhaps someday I will."
Nawa reveals the story of an uncle who kidnaps a six-year-old boy and his friend in Takhar Province, an attempt to coerce the boy's father to settle an opium debt. When the debt is not settled, the boy disappears and his friend's body is found after several days in a river.
She discusses the positive economic impact the opium industry has had on some families. For one woman, poppy cultivation allowed her to buy a taxi for her son and a carpet frame for her daughter. Some newly affluent farmers use some of the wealth to improve the infrastructure of their neighborhoods.
At the book's end, she reveals that she has married Naeem Mazizian, whom she had met at the Herat chapter of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2005, he moves to Kabul. Following four years of companionship, they marry and have a daughter, Bonoo Zahra. Nawa dedicated the book to her daughter and her parents, Sayed Begum and Fazul Haq.
Style.
"Part personal memoir and part history", the book delves into the elements of Afghanistan society seldom seen or comprehended by outsiders. "The Canberra Times" reviewer Bron Sibree called the book a "unique, finely distilled, intense perspective" that was "surprisingly frank and intimate" because women confide in her beliefs they do not tell other people. The book is packed with numerous facts and numbers pertaining to the swell in the drug business. Sibree noted that the narrative is filled with accounts of Afghan history, particularly its traditions and its elegant, multifarious landscapes. Sibree opined that Nawa's intense depiction of the Afghanis, notably the women who are unflappable notwithstanding their adversity, are etched into the mind even after an extended period of time.
Reception.
"Kirkus Reviews" praised Nawa for deftly depicting the "tragic complexity of Afghan society and the sheer difficulty of life there". The reviewer found parts of the book's dialogue to be contrived but noted that Nawa's convincing narrative "clearly stems from in-depth reporting in a risk-laden environment". Novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" praised the book for having a "very engaging narrative" and being "[a]n insightful and informative look at the global challenge of Afghan drug trade". Writing for "The Sun-Herald", author Lucy Sussex called the book "strong, informative reading".
"Publishers Weekly" noted that Nawa "draws rich, complex portraits of subjects on both sides of the law". The review said the book is notable for its "depth, honesty, and commitment" to chronicling women's thoughts regarding their role in the drug trade, placing her life in jeopardy to collect the women's stories. Nawa, the review noted, "writes with passion about the history of her volatile homeland and with cautious optimism about its future". Kate Tuttle of "The Boston Globe" commended the book for its "detailed, sensitive reporting of individual people's stories" and the author for her "clear-eyed reckoning with a country and a people who are beyond her help". Writing in "The Guardian", investigative journalist Pratap Chatterjee found that the book "reminds us that Afghanistan is not just a war, but a country of many ordinary yet unique people, kind and cruel, rich and poor".
In February 2012, "Opium Nation" ranked seventh in the "independent" section of "The Newcastle Herald"s bestseller list. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | E for Ecstasy
E for Ecstasy is a book written by Nicholas Saunders and published in May 1993. The book describes in detail the psychoactive substance MDMA (ecstasy), the people that use it and the law concerning it, all enhanced through the backdrop of the author's personal experience.
Subsequent revised versions were renamed "Ecstasy and the Dance Culture" (1995) and "Ecstasy Reconsidered" (1997). The book is available freely online. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The War We Never Fought
The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs is the sixth book by the British author and "Mail on Sunday" columnist Peter Hitchens, first published in 2012.
The book is intended as a rebuttal of what Hitchens sees as the widespread acceptance of drug use and the weakening of drug prohibition in Britain since the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, when a Conservative government adopted a Labour Party policy to implement the Wootton Report. Hitchens believes that there is "de facto" decriminalisation of drugs in the UK, especially of cannabis, contrary to claims of drug "prohibition" from "Big Dope" (name he gives to the cannabis legalisation lobby). Hitchens contends that it is only through much harsher and more stringent punishment – for both consumers and dealers of drugs – that any war on drugs can be successful.
Background.
Before the book's publication, Hitchens had often advocated in his writing a society governed by conscience and the rule of law, which he sees as the best guarantee of liberty, and he had also frequently and at length voiced opposition to the decriminalisation of recreational drugs (arguing that the legal prohibition of drug use is an essential counterweight to "pro-drug propaganda") and had debated a number of figures who are for such decriminalisation, including Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and Howard Marks. He has also debated the topic of drugs with the comedian Russell Brand.
In April 2012, Hitchens had given evidence to the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee as part of its inquiry into drugs policy and called for the British government to introduce a more hardline policy on drugs.
The cover image is an obvious take on the album cover for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
Critical reception.
A month before "The War We Never Fought"'s publication, Ed West in "The Daily Telegraph" said that the book had provoked criticism not only from the Left, but also from the free-market libertarian Right.
In "Prospect" magazine, Peter Lilley wrote that Hitchens "realises there are only two logically coherent policies: prohibition and legalisation. Decriminalisation, the fashionable option of the intelligentsia, makes no sense, though it is the destination which policy in this country has moved towards for several decades" and "the most refreshing aspect of this book is its recognition that drug taking is fundamentally a moral issue". A largely positive review by William Dove in the "International Business Times" stated that, "Hitchens makes a convincing case that the anti-drug laws are not unenforceable as legalisers might claim, but unenforced".
In a very critical review in "The Observer", Nicholas Lezard stated that the book "should never have been published",
while Jonathan Rée in "The Guardian" dismissed the book as "hysterical" and accused its author of "moral racism". |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The Basketball Diaries (book)
The Basketball Diaries is a 1978 memoir written by author and musician Jim Carroll. It is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen. Set in New York City, they detail his daily life, sexual experiences, high school basketball career, poetry compositions, the counterculture movement, and especially his addiction to heroin, which began when he was 13.
The book was made into a film of the same name in 1995 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jim Carroll and Mark Wahlberg as Mickey.
Carroll followed up this memoir with a sequel of sorts called "The Downtown Diaries" which follows his relocation to California and his efforts to end his heroin addiction. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | How to Change Your Mind
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence is a 2018 book by Michael Pollan. It became a No. 1 "New York Times" best-seller.
Summary.
"How to Change Your Mind" chronicles the long and storied history of psychedelic drugs, from their turbulent 1960s heyday to the resulting countermovement and backlash. Through his coverage of the recent resurgence in this field of research, as well as his own personal use of psychedelics via a "mental travelogue", Pollan seeks to illuminate not only the mechanics of the drugs themselves, but also the inner workings of the human mind and consciousness.
The book is organized into six chapters with an epilogue:
Promotion.
Pollan has been interviewed concerning the book on popular podcasts such as The Tim Ferriss Show, The Kevin Rose Show and "The Joe Rogan Experience".
Reception.
"How to Change Your Mind" received many positive reviews.
"The New York Times Book Review" named "How to Change Your Mind" one of the best books of 2018.
Kevin Canfield of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote: "In 'How to Change Your Mind', Pollan explores the circuitous history of these often-misunderstood substances, and reports on the clinical trials that suggest psychedelics can help with depression, addiction and the angst that accompanies terminal illnesses. He does so in the breezy prose that has turned his previous booksthese include "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "", the inspiration for his winning Netflix documentaries of the same nameinto bestsellers."
Jacob Sullum of the libertarian magazine "Reason" gave the book a generally positive review, but faulted Pollan for criticizing Timothy Leary's self-promotion without allocating blame to the politicians and journalists who shut down the promising scientific study of psychedelics.
Writing in "New York" magazine, conservative journalist Andrew Sullivan praised "How to Change Your Mind" as "astounding."
"How to Change Your Mind" received two positive reviews from "Vox". Ezra Klein described it as "one of the most mind-expanding books I have read this year." Sean Illing said that Pollan "describe[s] what it's like to take psychedelics. But beyond that, he also walks the reader through the history of these drugs and surveys the latest research into their therapeutic potential. It's a sprawling book that is likely to change how you think not just about psychedelic drugs but also about the human mind."
Mark Rozzo reviewed "How to Change Your Mind" in "Columbia" magazine. He writes that the book "offers a convincingly grown-up case for the potential of drugs that, having survived decades of vilification, now seem poised to revolutionize several fields, from mental health to neuroscience."
Oliver Burkeman wrote of the book in "The Guardian": ""How to Change Your Mind" is Pollan’s sweeping and often thrilling chronicle of the history of psychedelics, their brief modern ascendancy and suppression, their renaissance and possible future, all interwoven with a self-deprecating travelogue of his own cautious but ultimately transformative adventures as a middle-aged psychedelic novice."
Drew Gwilliams wrote a review of the book for the scientific journal "Chemistry World". He called it "a fascinating history of psychedelic drugs" and said "Pollan approaches the topic with a combination of intelligent curiosity and skepticism, deftly avoiding controversial debates while seeking clarity and comprehension." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Licit and Illicit Drugs
Licit and Illicit Drugs is a 1972 book on recreational drug use by medical writer Edward M. Brecher and the editors of Consumer Reports.
Summary.
The book describes the effects and risks of psychoactive drugs which were common in contemporary use for recreational and nonmedical purposes. "The New York Times" paraphrased some major arguments from the book, saying "'Drug-free' treatment of heroin addiction almost never works", "Nicotine can be as tough to beat as heroin", and "Good or bad, marijuana is here to stay. The billions spent to fight it are wasted dollars." The book identifies marijuana as the most popular drug after tobacco, alcohol, and nicotine. A reviewer for the "Journal of the American Medical Association" summarized it by saying that "Brecher holds that the division of drugs into licit and illicit categories is medically irrational and rooted mainly in historical and sociological factors."
The book's 10 main sections are titled as follows:
Reception.
In the "Annals of Internal Medicine" a reviewer said that the book should be read by every physician who cares for adolescents. In another journal a reviewer described the book as an "important work (which) stresses the historical and social perspectives on the drugs of abuse as well as the current laws, attitudes, and policies concerning all commonly used and abused drugs" and that he was "impressed with the conclusions concerning the failure of the judicial and penal systems" and "that both sides of many controversial issues are presented." "Kirkus Reviews" described the book as, "Liberal in the best sense, rigorously researched, and free from cant, the Consumer Union Report should become a standard referral." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The Rhetoric of Drugs
The Rhetoric of Drugs () in the original French title, is a 1990 work by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Derrida, interviewed, discusses the concept of "drug", and says that "Already one must conclude that the concept of drug is a non-scientific concept, that it is instituted on the basis of moral or political evaluations." In his philosophical-linguistic analysis, Derrida unmasks the socio-cultural mystifications made on the discourses on drugs.
Derrida also discusses drugs use by athletes. Exploring its confines, he says: "and what about women athletes who get pregnant for the stimulating, hormonal effects and then have an abortion after their event?"
Derrida discusses how the link between the rhetoric of drugs and the Western ideology. He also says that "Adorno and Horkheimer correctly point out that drug culture has always been associated with the West's other, with Oriental ethics and religion", and adds: "The Enlightenment [...] is in itself a declaration of war on drugs."
Editions.
This interview was made in 1989 and published more than one time as a journal article. It was included in the Derrida's 1992 book "Points de suspension. Entretiens", as section XIV. The English edition of "Points de suspension. Entretiens", titled "" (1995), contained the interview at pp. 228–254, as the final part of the chapter "Autobiophotographies".
Reactions.
Neurobiologist and anti-drug activist Rita Levi Montalcini, which a few months earlier was the protagonist of an anti-drug TV ad campaign, was bothered by Derrida's work and commented: "Those [substances] that we call drugs are substances that are well identified both on the pharmacological-botanical level and on the behavioural level". |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Les Paradis artificiels
Les Paradis Artificiels ("Artificial Paradises") is a book by French poet Charles Baudelaire, first published in 1860, about the state of being under the influence of opium and hashish. Baudelaire describes the effects of the drugs and discusses the way in which they could theoretically aid mankind in reaching an "ideal" world. The text was influenced by Thomas de Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" and "Suspiria de Profundis".
Baudelaire analyzes the motivation of the addict, and the individual psychedelic experience of the user. His descriptions have foreshadowed other such work that emerged later in the 1960s regarding LSD. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | How to Change Your Mind
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence is a 2018 book by Michael Pollan. It became a No. 1 "New York Times" best-seller.
Summary.
"How to Change Your Mind" chronicles the long and storied history of psychedelic drugs, from their turbulent 1960s heyday to the resulting countermovement and backlash. Through his coverage of the recent resurgence in this field of research, as well as his own personal use of psychedelics via a "mental travelogue", Pollan seeks to illuminate not only the mechanics of the drugs themselves, but also the inner workings of the human mind and consciousness.
The book is organized into six chapters with an epilogue:
Promotion.
Pollan has been interviewed concerning the book on popular podcasts such as The Tim Ferriss Show, The Kevin Rose Show and "The Joe Rogan Experience".
Reception.
"How to Change Your Mind" received many positive reviews.
"The New York Times Book Review" named "How to Change Your Mind" one of the best books of 2018.
Kevin Canfield of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote: "In 'How to Change Your Mind', Pollan explores the circuitous history of these often-misunderstood substances, and reports on the clinical trials that suggest psychedelics can help with depression, addiction and the angst that accompanies terminal illnesses. He does so in the breezy prose that has turned his previous booksthese include "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "", the inspiration for his winning Netflix documentaries of the same nameinto bestsellers."
Jacob Sullum of the libertarian magazine "Reason" gave the book a generally positive review, but faulted Pollan for criticizing Timothy Leary's self-promotion without allocating blame to the politicians and journalists who shut down the promising scientific study of psychedelics.
Writing in "New York" magazine, conservative journalist Andrew Sullivan praised "How to Change Your Mind" as "astounding."
"How to Change Your Mind" received two positive reviews from "Vox". Ezra Klein described it as "one of the most mind-expanding books I have read this year." Sean Illing said that Pollan "describe[s] what it's like to take psychedelics. But beyond that, he also walks the reader through the history of these drugs and surveys the latest research into their therapeutic potential. It's a sprawling book that is likely to change how you think not just about psychedelic drugs but also about the human mind."
Mark Rozzo reviewed "How to Change Your Mind" in "Columbia" magazine. He writes that the book "offers a convincingly grown-up case for the potential of drugs that, having survived decades of vilification, now seem poised to revolutionize several fields, from mental health to neuroscience."
Oliver Burkeman wrote of the book in "The Guardian": ""How to Change Your Mind" is Pollan’s sweeping and often thrilling chronicle of the history of psychedelics, their brief modern ascendancy and suppression, their renaissance and possible future, all interwoven with a self-deprecating travelogue of his own cautious but ultimately transformative adventures as a middle-aged psychedelic novice."
Drew Gwilliams wrote a review of the book for the scientific journal "Chemistry World". He called it "a fascinating history of psychedelic drugs" and said "Pollan approaches the topic with a combination of intelligent curiosity and skepticism, deftly avoiding controversial debates while seeking clarity and comprehension." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Hidden Harvest
Hidden Harvest is a 2014 book by Canadian author Mark Coakley that depicts an illegal drug conspiracy in Canada that was involved in the creation of a gigantic cannabis garden in Barrie, Ontario, concealed inside an abandoned Molson beer factory. The "Toronto Star" called "Hidden Harvest" "thoroughly researched, entertaining … real, sometimes humorous and very Canadian"; a review in Toronto's "Now" was sub-titled, "Buy the Book". On June 16, 2014, Coakley was interviewed on CBC Radio's "The Current" about "Hidden Harvest". |
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Thai Stick – Surfers, Scammers and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade is a 2013 book by Peter H. Maguire about the illicit cannabis trade in Southeast Asia. The book was published by Columbia University Press, and in 2015, it was optioned by surfing competitor Kelly Slater to become a documentary film and television series. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The Botany of Desire
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World is a 2001 nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan. Pollan presents case studies that mirror four types of human desires that are reflected in the way that we selectively grow, breed, and genetically engineer our plants. The tulip, beauty; marijuana, intoxication; the apple, sweetness; and the potato, control.
The stories range from the true story of Johnny Appleseed to Pollan's first-hand research with sophisticated marijuana hybrids in Amsterdam to the paradigm-shifting possibilities of genetically engineered potatoes. Pollan also discusses the limitations of monoculture agriculture: specifically, the adoption in Ireland of a single breed of potato (the Irish Lumper) which made the Irish vulnerable to a fungus to which the breed had no resistance, resulting in the Great Famine. The Peruvians from whom the Irish had gotten the potato grew hundreds of varieties, so their exposure to any given pest was slight.
PBS documentary.
The book was used as the basis for "The Botany of Desire", a two-hour program broadcast by PBS. |
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Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America is a 2015 book written by Bruce Barcott and published by Time Books. |
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Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower is a non-fiction book, written by Canadian writer Michael Poole, first published in 1998 by Greystone Books. In the book, the author chronicles the regrettable consequences of his decision to cultivate marijuana on a commercial level. Goodreads called the book, an "engaging blend of metaphysics, marijuana, and midlife crisis." A panel of Wilfrid Laurier University judges called Poole's writing, "sheer competence".
Awards and honours.
"Romancing Mary Jane" received the 1998 "Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction". |
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This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America is a 2009 nonfiction book by Ryan Grim. Topics covered include the prohibition of LSD and anti-cannabis public service announcements. "Publishers Weekly" said it was a "sharp critique of anti-drug programs". "The Austin Chronicle" recommended it as a holiday gift for "the hard-to-buy-for drug policy reformer on your list". It has been required reading in university public health curricula, and cited in a RAND Corporation drug policy research paper. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Mr. Nice (book)
Mr. Nice is the autobiography of former drug dealer Howard Marks. Published in 1996 it became an international bestseller due in large part to the humour and unabashed bravado the author uses to describe his life and the sheer scale of his drug deals involving, amongst others, the CIA, MI6, the IRA and the Mafia. The book received mostly positive reviews, though some critics were initially sceptical of some of the more outlandish details portrayed. It was adapted for film in 2010 as "Mr. Nice".
Overview.
Welsh born Marks began small scale dealing of hashish in the late 1960s whilst at Oxford University studying nuclear physics and, later, a postgraduate degree course in philosophy.
His activities rapidly expanded after a chance meeting with a Pakistani supplier made him realise how lucrative drug smuggling could be. After teaming up with Jim McCann, a senior member of the IRA, his business was soon bringing in huge amounts of cash and he began setting up various legitimate businesses as a front, to launder the proceeds of his hashish smuggling. At one time he claims to have had 25 such companies, 89 phone lines and 43 aliases, including the name used for the title of this book, Mr. Nice, an alias he adopted after buying a passport from a convicted murderer of that name.
Following his arrest in 1980 in a combined operation by British and Spanish police, Marks managed to avoid a lengthy sentence by claiming to be a spy for the British intelligence agency MI6. He was eventually caught again, this time by the American DEA, and sentenced to life in prison at Terre Haute federal penitentiary in Indiana. He was released after seven years and allowed to return to the UK.
Film adaptation.
The book was adapted into a film "Mr. Nice" in 2010, directed by Bernard Rose and starring Rhys Ifans and Chloë Sevigny. |
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Craft Weed: Family Farming and the Future of the Marijuana Industry is a 2018 MIT Press book by Ryan Stoa. In it, he argues for an American cannabis industry that looks more like the craft beer industry, and less like "Big Marijuana" equivalent of Anheuser-Busch. The author is an associate professor of law at Concordia University School of Law in Boise, Idaho.
Reception.
A review in "The Times Literary Supplement" said the book author's "expertise is undeniable" but "some of his deeper trawls through legislature slow an otherwise intriguing narrative". Another review found merit in Stoa's advocacy for agricultural law reform around craft cannabis, to include an appellation system for cannabis parallel to that of the American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Licit and Illicit Drugs
Licit and Illicit Drugs is a 1972 book on recreational drug use by medical writer Edward M. Brecher and the editors of Consumer Reports.
Summary.
The book describes the effects and risks of psychoactive drugs which were common in contemporary use for recreational and nonmedical purposes. "The New York Times" paraphrased some major arguments from the book, saying "'Drug-free' treatment of heroin addiction almost never works", "Nicotine can be as tough to beat as heroin", and "Good or bad, marijuana is here to stay. The billions spent to fight it are wasted dollars." The book identifies marijuana as the most popular drug after tobacco, alcohol, and nicotine. A reviewer for the "Journal of the American Medical Association" summarized it by saying that "Brecher holds that the division of drugs into licit and illicit categories is medically irrational and rooted mainly in historical and sociological factors."
The book's 10 main sections are titled as follows:
Reception.
In the "Annals of Internal Medicine" a reviewer said that the book should be read by every physician who cares for adolescents. In another journal a reviewer described the book as an "important work (which) stresses the historical and social perspectives on the drugs of abuse as well as the current laws, attitudes, and policies concerning all commonly used and abused drugs" and that he was "impressed with the conclusions concerning the failure of the judicial and penal systems" and "that both sides of many controversial issues are presented." "Kirkus Reviews" described the book as, "Liberal in the best sense, rigorously researched, and free from cant, the Consumer Union Report should become a standard referral." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The Hasheesh Eater
The Hasheesh Eater (1857) is an autobiographical book by Fitz Hugh Ludlow describing the author's altered states of consciousness and philosophical flights of fancy while he was using a cannabis extract. In the United States, the book created popular interest in hashish, leading to hashish candy and private hashish clubs. The book was later popular in the counter-culture movement of the 1960s.
"The Hasheesh Eater" is often compared to "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" (1821), Thomas De Quincey's account of his own addiction to laudanum (opium and alcohol).
Publication history.
First published in 1857, "The Hasheesh Eater" went through four editions in the late 1850s and early 1860s, each put out by Harper & Brothers. In 1903, another publishing house put a reprint of the original edition — and the last complete edition until 1970. , two editions are in print, including an annotated version first published in 2003.
Literary significance.
Ludlow said, "The entire truth of Nature cannot be copied," so "the artist must select between the major and minor facts of the outer world; that, before he executes, he must pronounce whether he will embody the essential effect, that which steals on the soul and possesses it without painful analysis, or the separate details which belong to the geometrician and destroy the effect." Many of his passages, which may have seemed like fantastic myth-making to his contemporaries, ring true today with more modern knowledge of the psychedelic state. Ludlow writes of one hallucination: "And now, with time, space expanded also… The whole atmosphere seemed ductile, and spun endlessly out into great spaces surrounding me on every side."
Ludlow describes the marijuana user as one who is reaching for "the soul’s capacity for a broader being, deeper insight, grander views of Beauty, Truth and Good than she now gains through the chinks of her cell." Conversely, he says of hashish users: "Ho there! pass by; I have tried this way; it leads at last into poisonous wildernesses."
Cultural effect.
The popularity of "The Hasheesh Eater" led to interest in the drug it described. Not long after its publication, the Gunjah Wallah Co. in New York began advertising "Hasheesh Candy":
The Arabian "Gunjh" of Enchantment confectionized. — A most pleasurable and harmless stimulant. — Cures Nervousness, Weakness, Melancholy, &c. Inspires all classes with new life and energy. A complete mental and physical invigorator.
John Hay, who would become a close confidant of President Lincoln and later U.S. Secretary of State, remembered Brown University as the place “where I used to eat Hasheesh and dream dreams.” And a classmate recalls that after reading Ludlow’s book, Hay “must needs experiment with hasheesh a little, and see if it was such a marvelous stimulant to the imagination as Fitzhugh Ludlow affirmed. ‘The night when Johnny Hay took hasheesh’ marked an epoch for the dwellers in Hope College.”
Within twenty-five years of the publication of "The Hasheesh Eater", many cities in the United States had private hashish parlors. And there was already controversy about the legality and morality of cannabis intoxication. In 1876, when tourists could buy hashish at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the "Illustrated Police News" would write about “The Secret Dissipation of New York Belles… a Hasheesh Hell on Fifth Avenue.”
Rediscovery.
Ludlow’s writings crop up in a couple of places in pre-marijuana-prohibition 20th century America. The occultist Aleister Crowley found "The Hasheesh Eater" to be “tainted by admiration of de Quincey and the sentimentalists” but admired Ludlow’s “wonderful introspection” and printed significant excerpts from the book in his journal "The Equinox". Using the pseudonym Oliver Haddo, Crowley also wrote at length about his own cannabis experiences, comparing and contrasting them to those of Ludlow. He “was struck by the circumstance that [Ludlow], obviously ignorant of Vedantist and Yogic doctrines, yet approximately expressed them, though in a degraded and distorted form.”
After the prohibition of marijuana, the writings of Ludlow were interpreted by two camps. On the one hand, there were the prohibitionists, who pointed out Ludlow’s addiction to “hasheesh” and his horrifying hallucinations; on the other, those who believed that cannabis deserved a second chance and saw Ludlow as a literate chronicler of the mystical heights that could be reached using the drug.
In 1938, shortly after the federal government cracked down on marijuana, the prohibitionist warning was carried in the book "Marihuana: America’s New Drug Problem". The book included several pages of excerpts from "The Hasheesh Eater" and noted that
It was Ludlow… who contributed the most remarkable description of the hashish effects. He not only described the acute hashish episode with great intensity and fidelity but recorded the development of an addiction and the subsequent struggle which resulted in his breaking the habit. As an autobiography of a drug addict it is, in several respects, superior to De Quincey's “Confessions”
In 1953, Union College selected the alumnus Fitz Hugh Ludlow as a “Union Worthy” and invited three academics to compose speeches for the occasion. Morris Bishop (who would later include his impressions in his book "Eccentrics"), criticized Ludlow’s later attempts at fiction, writing that his short stories “are today stale and meaningless… echoes of all the other magazine stories of his time, originating in literature, not in life, and conducted with no regard for truth and with little for verisimilitude.” In "The Hasheesh Eater" on the other hand:
is a sincerity, a reality, which he could not recapture when he tried to construct stories solely from his imagination… He finds lyric phrasing to convey the unearthly beauty of his visions, and the unearthly horror of the evil fantasia which succeeded his bliss. He is a drugged Dante in reverse, descending from the Paradiso to the Inferno. His descriptions, drawing from his subconscious a strange mingling of the sublime and the grotesque, often suggest the work of Dali and other surrealists. The writer’s passion gives his work an intensity which the reader recognizes and sympathetically feels. This is a very considerable literary achievement.
Robert DeRopp, in the 1957 book "Drugs and the Mind", was perhaps the first to express skepticism at Ludlow’s “addiction” story, noting that “[n]o one seriously interested in the effects of drugs on the mind should fail to read Ludlow’s book,” but accusing Ludlow of a “hypertrophy of the imagination and an excessive dependence on the works of De Quincey” (although he also found "The Hasheesh Eater" to be “more lively and more colorful reading than… the grossly overrated confessions of that ‘English opium-eater.’”). DeRopp suspected that “in many places scientific impartiality has been sacrificed in the interests of literary effect.”
At this point we are at the dawn of the resurgence of marijuana in the United States and the emergence of psychedelics in the English-speaking world. Researchers, like pioneering mescaline researcher Heinrich Klüver, looked to Ludlow’s seminal writings on the psychedelic experience for insight on the new drugs that were being discovered and synthesized.
In 1960, "The Hasty Papers: A One-Shot Review", a beat literature journal, devoted most of its pages to reprinting the first edition of "The Hasheesh Eater" in its entirety, and David Ebin’s book "The Drug Experience" included three chapters from "The Hasheesh Eater". In 1966, excerpts were published in "The Marijuana Papers" edited by David Solomon. In 1970, a reprint of the 1857 edition was put out by Gregg Press, and the "Berkeley Barb" reprinted several chapters.
By this time Ludlow had been rediscovered, both by mainstream researchers into drugs and addiction, and by the growing drug-savvy counterculture. Oriana J. Kalant, in 1971 in "The International Journal of the Addictions" found "The Hasheesh Eater" to be a remarkable description of the effects of cannabis:
…it is evident that Ludlow recognized, with remarkable insight, most of the characteristic subjective effects of cannabis. He also noted, and interpreted essentially correctly, such pharmacological points as the relation of dose to effect, inter- and intra-individual variations in response, and the influence of set and setting. Most importantly, perhaps, he recorded the development of his dependence on cannabis more comprehensively and astutely than anyone to date. The initial motives — including features of his own personality and temperament — the constant rationalization, compulsive use despite obvious untoward effects, the progression to a state of almost continuous intoxication, the inability to reduce his dose gradually, and the intense craving and depression after abrupt withdrawal, all are clearly described. Ludlow recognized also the lack of physical symptoms during withdrawal, and the difference from opium withdrawal in this respect.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can also identify in Ludlow’s account a number of other features consistent with present knowledge, but which even scientists of his day could not possibly have known. For example, the initial change in tolerance, the continuum between euphoria and hallucinations, the differentiation between the hallucinatory process and the affective reactions to it, the relation between spontaneous and drug-induced perceptual changes, the similarity between the effects of cannabis and those of other hallucinogens, the attempts at drug substitution therapy (opium, tobacco), and the role of psychotherapy and abreactive writing, are all in keeping with contemporary thought. These points permit the modern reader to feel even greater confidence in the extraordinary accuracy and perceptiveness of Ludlow’s record.
The mid 1970s saw two new editions of "The Hasheesh Eater" in print, one by San Francisco’s City Lights Books, and a well-annotated and illustrated version edited by Michael Horowitz and released by Level Press. By the late 1970s, you could even find the face of Fitz Hugh Ludlow on a T-shirt, thanks to his alma mater Union College, which had thrown a “Fitzhugh Ludlow Day” celebration in 1979.
In the 2000s, Ludlow has been introduced to a new generation of psychedelics users through Terence McKenna, who read chapters from "The Hasheesh Eater" for a set of tapes (“Victorian Tales of Cannabis”) put out by Sound Photosynthesis, and who regularly praised Ludlow in his books, saying Ludlow “began a tradition of pharmo-picaresque literature that would find later practitioners in William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson.… Part genius, part madman, Ludlow lies halfway between Captain Ahab and P.T. Barnum, a kind of Mark Twain on hashish. There is a wonderful charm to his free-spirited, pseudoscientific openness as he makes his way into the shifting dunescapes of the world of hashish.”
"The Hasheesh Eater" remains Ludlow's most remembered work. Only one other of his books, "The Heart of the Continent", has seen a new edition since the 19th Century. |
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A New Leaf: The End of Cannabis Prohibition is a non-fiction book about cannabis by investigative journalists Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian, published by The New Press in 2014. |
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Marihuana Reconsidered is a 1971 book by Lester Grinspoon about the effects of marijuana and its place in society, first published by Harvard University Press.
The book has received reviews from publications including "Kirkus Reviews", "JAMA", "Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics", "The New England Journal of Medicine", and "The New York Times". |
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The Pot Book: A Complete Guide to Cannabis is a 2010 book about cannabis edited by Julie Holland M.D., a United States psychiatrist specializing in psychopharmacology. Holland has stated that proceeds from the book's sales will be used to fund further research on cannabis, which she has concluded has therapeutic agents able to induce apoptosis for cancer therapy, and other properties. Holland has also stated that humans and cannabis coevolved. |
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Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market is a book written by Eric Schlosser and published in 2003. The book is a look at the three pillars of the underground economy of the United States, estimated by Schlosser to be ten percent of U.S. GDP: marijuana, migrant labor, and pornography.
The book is divided into three chapters:
Chapter 1: "Reefer Madness", Schlosser argues, based on usage, historical context, and consequences, for the decriminalization of marijuana.
Chapter 2: "In the Strawberry Fields", he explores the exploitation of illegal aliens as cheap labor, arguing that there should be better living arrangements and humane treatment of the illegal aliens the U.S. is exploiting in the fields of California.
Chapter 3: "An Empire of the Obscene" details the history of pornography in U.S. culture, starting with the eventual business magnate Reuben Sturman. Schlosser closes by arguing that such a widespread black market can only undermine the law and is indicative of the discrepancy between accepted mainstream U.S. culture and its true nature. |
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The Emperor Wears No Clothes is a non-fiction book written by Jack Herer. Starting in 1973, the story begins when Herer takes the advice of his friend, "Captain" Ed Adair, and begins compiling tidbits of information about the "Cannabis" plant and its numerous uses, including as hemp and as a drug. After a dozen years of collecting and compiling historical data, Herer first published his work as "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", in 1985. The twelfth edition was published in November 2010, and the book continues to be cited in Cannabis rescheduling and re-legalization efforts.
The book, backed by H.E.M.P. (United States), Hanf Haus (Germany), Sensi Seeds/Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum, Amsterdam, (Netherlands), and T.H.C., the Texas Hemp Campaign (United States), offers $100,000 to anyone who can disprove the claims made within. Quoting from the book's back cover:
The title of the book alludes to Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" (1837). Herer uses Andersen's story as an allegory for the current prohibition of Cannabis. |
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Weed Land: Inside America's Marijuana Epicenter and How Pot Went Legit is a non-fiction book about cannabis by Peter Hecht, published by University of California Press in March 2014. The book's first chapter covers the Drug Enforcement Administration's raid of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz, California. |
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Higher Etiquette: A Guide to the World of Cannabis, From Dispensaries to Dinner Parties is a book about cannabis etiquette by Lizzie Post.
Reception.
"Publishers Weekly" said, "Those new to the cannabis scene, or those curious about it, would do well to check out Post's work, directed as it is to a more enjoyable and stress-free experience for all involved." |
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Too High to Fail is a book about cannabis by Doug Fine, published by Gotham Books in 2012, describing Northern California's legal cannabis industry. |
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The Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library is a library of psychoactive drug-related literature created in 1970 by Michael D. Horowitz, Cynthia Palmer, William Dailey, and Robert Barker, who merged their private libraries. It was named for Fitz Hugh Ludlow, author of the first full-length work of drug literature written by an American, "The Hasheesh Eater" (1857). It was the largest such library in the world and was based in San Francisco, California. The Ludlow Library became part of the Ludlow Santo Domingo Library in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2003. After the death of its owner, Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Jr., his family loaned the book collection to the Houghton Library at Harvard University and the music collection to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
During the 1970s the library grew rapidly and operated out of San Francisco as an international resource for psychoactive drug research, and for the study of psychoactive drug use in contemporary and historical societies. The Ludlow Library flourished during a period of perhaps the most intense media interest ever focused on the personal, social, scientific and political aspects of drug experience. The Library helped hundreds of writers, filmmakers, and news media researchers collect accurate historical information on cannabis, the opiates, coca and cocaine, and psychedelics for their publications.
The library was curated by Michael R. Aldrich, holder of the first Ph.D. ever granted from an American university in the mythology and folklore of cannabis (SUNY-Buffalo, 1970), and he and his wife Michelle Aldrich joined the co-founders as members of the Board of Directors in 1974. The Library's advisory Board of Trustees included a number of eminent researchers and writers, including Chauncey Leake, Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, Alexander Shulgin, Andrew Weil, Oscar Janiger, Ralph Metzner, Laura Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Weston LaBarre, R. Gordon Wasson, Tod H. Mikuriya, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The Man with the Twisted Lip
"The Man with the Twisted Lip", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the sixth of the twelve stories in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". The story was first published in the "Strand Magazine" in December 1891. Doyle ranked "The Man with the Twisted Lip" sixteenth in a list of his nineteen favourite Sherlock Holmes stories.
Plot summary.
The story begins when a friend of Dr. Watson's wife comes to Watson's house, frantic because her husband, who is addicted to opium, has gone missing. Watson helps her pull him out of the opium den and sends him home. Watson is surprised to find that Sherlock Holmes is there too, in disguise and trying to get information to solve a different case about a man who has disappeared. Watson stays to listen to Holmes tell the story of the case of Neville St. Clair.
St. Clair is a prosperous, respectable, punctual man. His family's home is in the country, but he visits London every day on business. One day when Mr. St. Clair was in London, Mrs. St. Clair also went to London separately. She happened to pass down Upper Swandam Lane, a "vile alley" near the London docks, where the opium den is. Glancing up, she saw her husband at a second-floor window of the opium den. He vanished from the window immediately, and Mrs. St. Clair was sure that there was something wrong.
She tried to enter the building; but her way was blocked by the opium den's owner, a lascar. She fetched the police, but they did not find Mr. St. Clair. The room behind the window was the lair of a dirty, disfigured beggar, known to the police as Hugh Boone. The police were about to put her story down as a mistake of some kind when Mrs. St. Clair noticed a box of wooden toy bricks that her husband said he would buy for their son. A further search turned up some of St. Clair's clothes. Later, his coat, with the pockets stuffed with hundreds of pennies and halfpennies, was found on the bank of the River Thames, just below the building's back window.
Hugh Boone was arrested at once, but would say nothing, except to deny any knowledge of St. Clair. He also resisted any attempt to make him wash. Holmes was initially quite convinced that St. Clair had been murdered, and that Boone was involved. Thus he investigated the den in disguise. He and Watson return to St. Clair's home, to a surprise. It is several days after the disappearance; but on that day Mrs. St. Clair had received a letter from her husband in his own handwriting, with his wedding ring enclosed, telling her not to worry. This forces Holmes to reconsider his conclusions, leading him eventually to an extraordinary solution.
Holmes and Watson go the police station where Hugh Boone is held; Holmes brings a bath sponge in a Gladstone bag. Finding Boone asleep, Holmes washes the sleeping Boone's dirty face—revealing Neville St. Clair.
Mr. St. Clair has been leading a double life, as a respectable businessman, and as a beggar. In his youth, he had been an actor before becoming a newspaper reporter. In order to research an article, he had disguised himself as a beggar for a short time, and was able to collect a surprising amount of money due to a skillset uncommon to beggars; his actor's skills enabled him to emulate a more sympathetic character with make-up, as well as provide a repertoire of witty dialogue with which to entertain passers-by to offer coins—he was as much a street performer as a beggar. Later, he was saddled with a large debt, and returned to the street to beg for several days to pay it off. His newspaper salary was meagre and, tempted by the much larger returns of begging, he eventually became a "professional" beggar. His takings were large enough that he was able to establish himself as a country gentleman, marry well, and begin a respectable family. His wife and children never knew what he did for a living, and when arrested, he feared exposure more than prison or the gallows. But there is no murder, so he is released, and Holmes and the police agree to keep Mr. St. Clair's secret as long as no more is heard of Hugh Boone.
Points of interest.
The ability of St. Clair to earn a good living begging is considered by some to be an unlikely event, but others disagree.
The morning the mystery is solved Watson awakes about 4:25 a.m., yet the summer sun is said to shine brightly already.
In one in-universe point of interest, Watson's wife Mary calls him by the name "James" despite his established first name being "John". This led Dorothy L. Sayers to speculate that Mary may be using his middle name Hamish (an Anglicisation of "Sheumais", the vocative form of "Seumas", the Scottish Gaelic for James), though Doyle himself never addresses this beyond including the initial.
Publication history.
"The Man with the Twisted Lip" was first published in the UK in "The Strand Magazine" in December 1891, and in the United States in the US edition of the "Strand" in January 1892. The story was published with ten illustrations by Sidney Paget in "The Strand Magazine". It was included in the short story collection "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which was published in October 1892.
Adaptations.
Film and television.
A silent short film version of the story titled "The Man with the Twisted Lip" was released in 1921. It was made as part of the Stoll film series starring Eille Norwood as Holmes.
In 1951, Rudolph Cartier produced an adaptation entitled "The Man Who Disappeared". This adaptation was a pilot for a proposed television series starring John Longden as Holmes and Campbell Singer as Watson.
In 1964, the story was adapted into an episode of the BBC series "Sherlock Holmes" starring Douglas Wilmer and Nigel Stock, with Peter Madden as Inspector Lestrade and Anton Rodgers as Neville St Clair. The adaptation developed St Clair's attributed ability at repartee by showing him quoting from the classics, including Shakespeare.
Granada Television also produced a version in 1986, adapted by Alan Plater as part of their "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" television series, starring Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke, with Denis Lill as Inspector Bradstreet, Clive Francis as Neville St. Clair, and Albert Moses as the Lascar.
An episode of the animated television series "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century" was adapted from the story. The episode, titled "The Man with the Twisted Lip", aired in 2000.
The 2014 "Sherlock" episode "His Last Vow" begins with Sherlock being found in a drug den by John, reminiscent of the scene in the opium den from this story.
Radio.
Edith Meiser adapted the story as an episode of the American radio series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which aired on 24 November 1930, starring Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson. Remakes of the script aired on 12 May 1935 (with Louis Hector as Holmes and Lovell as Watson) and 22 February 1936 (with Gordon as Holmes and Harry West as Watson).
Meiser also adapted the story as an episode of the American radio series "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson, that aired on 23 October 1939. Other episodes in the same series that were adapted from the story aired in 1940, 1943, 1944, and 1946 (with Frederick Worlock as Neville St Clair and Herbert Rawlinson as Inspector Bradstreet).
A radio adaptation aired on the BBC Light Programme in 1959, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson. It was adapted by Michael Hardwick.
"The Man with the Twisted Lip" was dramatised by Peter Mackie for BBC Radio 4 in 1990, as part of the 1989–1998 radio series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson.
The story was adapted as an episode of "The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", a series on the American radio show "Imagination Theatre", with John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson. The episode first aired in 2012. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | The Acid House
The Acid House is a 1994 book by Irvine Welsh, later made into a film of the same name. It is a collection of 22 short stories, with each story (between three and 20 pages) featuring a new set of characters and scenarios.
Film adaptation.
The 1998 film, "The Acid House", directed by Paul McGuigan, dramatizes 3 of the 22 stories from the book - "The Granton Star Cause", "A Soft Touch", and "The Acid House". |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Ten Stories About Smoking
Ten Stories About Smoking is the debut short story collection by writer Stuart Evers. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Getting Real (short story)
"Getting Real" is a science fiction short story by American writer Harry Turtledove, published in the March 2009 issue of "Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine".
Plot summary.
The short story takes place in a run down Los Angeles, California in the year 2117 where the United States is no longer a world power but an "economic basket case" ever since China refused to renew its loans to the government a century earlier. As a result, China becomes the world's largest military and economic power, in addition in leading the world in technological research and development.
In an earlier conflict a generation prior to the setting of the short story, China took over Catalina Island and the California Channel Islands.
In the current setting, China had been distributing Real throughout the US for years. Real is a powerful hallucinogenic drug that came in the form of a small, colorful square of cardboard-like material. Contact with the skin produced hallucinations that were claimed to be "realer than real life". The drugs use had been undermining productivity since many citizens would rather "get Real" than work or do anything else. The United States government brought the issue to a head at a peace conference held in Los Angeles. Secretary of State Jackson, Secretary of Defense Berkowitz and Secretary of the DEA Kojima meet with Third Minister Hu Zhiaoxing and issued an ultimatum of war if distribution did not end. Hu Zhiaoxing refused and insisted that Real was not a drug but a meta-stimulation of specific brain regions and China was merely supplying a product to consumers and if the U.S. offered its citizens better, there would not be any demand for Real. This leads to the United States to declare war on China.
The US began its offensive with air-strikes by F-27 aircraft on the Channel Islands, particularly Catalina Island off the coast from Los Angeles. The F-27 was the latest United States Air Force air superiority fighter aircraft. It first entered service in the 2050s but constant upgrades in weaponry, avionics and stealthiness kept it state of the art. With afterburner and strap-on rocket packs, an F-27 could climb to the edge of space. However, the Chinese demonstrated the defensive capabilities of meta-reality technology by defeating the attack. Avatars appeared in the cockpits of the aircraft and forced Real onto the pilots. This established control over their senses and deceived the pilots into crashing their aircraft.
The US resorted to sending the Navy to attack the islands. Warships, using elaborate spoofing, approached the Chinese holding in order to shell them. However, the Chinese again used meta reality technology, this time more directly. For instance, the USS "Rumsfeld" (named after Donald Rumsfeld) ran into a giant brick wall at flank speed, causing enough damage to sink it.
Hu Zhiaoxing met with his US counterparts via video conference and indicated that the US attacks were ineffective. He offered relatively soft terms for peace, which included that the US allow Chinese distribution of Real without legal penalty, Chinese citizens arrested in the United States be tried in Chinese courts to ensure fairness, and that the US pay a moderate indemnity. American officials rejected the terms and the war continued.
The Chinese launched a punitive raid on Los Angeles. First all power and telephone services (both cell and landlines) were cut off. Then avatars appeared throughout the city warning the residents to evacuate the city. Two and a half hours later, what appeared to be a giant Pyrex bowl covered the city. However, it is impervious to missile and artillery fire. Then, what appeared to be lightning began causing random damage within the bowl.
Meanwhile, companies of conventionally armed Chinese soldiers entered the city. They left the LA citizens alone unless they offered resistance, though a surprisingly large number were armed and not surprisingly angry. In addition, American soldiers trapped within the bowl were allowed to surrender unless they too offered more than token resistance.
After this show of force and the continued impotence of US forces, the US had no option but to surrender. As Hu Zhiaoxing had warned, the terms were harsher, which included the US would place no further restriction on the distribution of the entertainment known as Real and any criminal or civil penalties would be declared null and void, China would receive a 99-year lease on the ports of San Pedro and Long Beach for one dollar a year and that those ports would have no duty on imports although the Chinese reserved the right to impose duties on U.S. products entering the territory and that the US would pay an indemnity of twenty trillion dollars in either gold, petroleum, uranium or hard currency to be agreed upon with the full amount was to be paid within ten years.
Those actions insured that the U.S. would continue its decline. |
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} | 0edcf331-c7d1-4092-af84-3e8a8325eecc | {
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} | m2d2_wiki | Faith of Our Fathers (short story)
"Faith of Our Fathers" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in the anthology "Dangerous Visions" (1967).
Plot summary.
Tung Chien is a Vietnamese bureaucrat in a world that has been conquered by Chinese-style atheist communism, where the population is kept docile with hallucinogenic drugs. When a street vendor gives Tung an illegal anti-hallucinogen, he discovers that the Party leader has a horrible secret.
Reception.
Algis Budrys said that "the first three-quarters of (the) story appear to be very good", and that although "Dick knows his hallucinogens very well", unlike the superb "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", in "Faith of Our Fathers" "he makes sense only to himself".
"Faith of Our Fathers" was nominated for the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
Dick later said about this story:
and |
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} | 18edaba1-67d2-4262-a405-4222e324c7e2 | {
"provenance": "train.jsonl.gz:53"
} | m2d2_wiki | Larry Niven/Known Space |
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} | m2d2_wiki |
Pollen (novel)
Pollen is a 1995 science fiction novel written by British author Jeff Noon.
Plot summary.
"Pollen" is the sequel to "Vurt" and concerns the ongoing struggle between the real world and the virtual world. When concerning the virtual world, some references to Greek mythology are noticeable, including Persephone and Demeter, the river Styx and Charon, and Hades (portrayed by the character John Barleycorn). The novel is set in Manchester.
Influences.
Noon is said to take his inspiration from music. While working on "Pollen," he often listened to ‘Dream of a 100 Nations’ album by Transglobal Underground on repeat."Things changed for my second novel, Pollen: by then I had really discovered the melancholic joys of house and techno music, and I think the novel reflects that change. Pollen is a much more tangled book, more fertile, a very overgrown, edge-of-wilderness narrative." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Needle in the Groove
Needle in the Groove is a 1999 novel by Jeff Noon. A music/spoken word CD was released on the same day as the book.
It tells its story through the eyes of Elliot, a young twenty-something bassist, as he finds himself playing bass for Glam Damage, a new DJ-based band who are experimenting with a new recording technology - a weird liquid/drug that remixes music when shaken.
The Book.
Previous readers of Noon will be in familiar territory, the book is set in the near future of Manchester 2002, and the drugs as music metaphor is the essence of the novel. Eschewing conventional punctuation, capitalisation and grammar, the book reads as if it is a series of song lyrics.
The book also traces the history of pop music in Manchester, starting with skiffle in 1957, running through the sixties, before coming to an angry explosion with the punk of 1977 and the Buzzcocks. This love for music is also expressed by the names of the streets. Poking fun at the increasing excesses taken towards marketing our heritage, Manchester streets have been renamed after Mancunian bands and musicians. So we are given Ian Curtis Boulevard, a street called Gerald, Bee Gees Avenue and even Northern Uproar cul-de-sac.
This was Noon's farewell book to Manchester, before he moved to Brighton, and, for the time being, seems to be the last set in the Vurt/Manchester universe. His next work, "Falling Out of Cars" is his first not to be set in that city.
The CD.
Released on the same as the book was the musical version of "Needle in the Groove". The CD was produced by both Jeff Noon and David Toop. The music is experimental/ industrial and backs Noon speaking lines from the "Needle in the Groove" book.
The CD was originally available from the "Needle in the Groove" website (now offline) for £10. Now, the CD is available in very limited amounts as there has only been one pressing of the album. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Olive, Again
Olive, Again is a novel by the American author Elizabeth Strout. The book was published by Random House on October 15, 2019. It is a sequel to "Olive Kitteridge" (2008), which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In November 2019, the novel was selected for the revival of Oprah's Book Club. Similar to the first novel, "Olive, Again" takes the form of 13 short stories that are interrelated but discontinuous in terms of narrative. It follows Olive Kitteridge from her seventies into her eighties.
Stories.
"Arrested".
Jack Kennison, a seventy-four-year-old widower and retired Harvard professor, drives to Portland to buy whiskey to avoid the possibility of running into Olive, who he has since separated from, at the grocery store in Crosby. Jack is pulled over by the police and given a ticket for speeding.
"Labor".
Olive attends a "stupid" baby shower. One of the pregnant guests goes into labor and Olive attempts to drive her to the hospital, but finds herself having to deliver the stranger's baby in the back of her own car.
"Cleaning".
Kayley Callaghan is a fourteen-year-old girl living in Crosby whose father died two years earlier. She begins to find a passion for playing the piano, which her father played. While cleaning the house of Mrs. Ringrose for money, Kayley begins experiencing sexual feelings and touches her breasts. She opens her eyes to find Mr. Ringrose watching her, urging her to continue. She agrees and later finds an envelope filled with money left for her by Mr. Ringrose when she leaves. She and Mr. Ringrose continue their unspoken arrangement every time she cleans the house. When her mother eventually finds the envelopes of money, Kayley instead hides it in the piano. One day, she comes home to find her mother sold the piano since she stopped playing it. Mrs. Ringrose tells Kayley she is no longer needed for cleaning. In the last days of summer, Kayley learns from Olive Kitteridge that Mr. Ringrose's behavior has become abnormal and he is being put in a nursing home. Two days before Kayley begins high school, she rides her bike near the nursing home and feels a longing for Mr. Ringrose.
"Motherless Child".
Olive invites her son Christopher, a podiatrist living in New York, to finally come visit Crosby with his wife, Ann, and their four children. Olive reveals her plans to marry Jack and Christopher expresses disbelief and anger. When Jack comes to meet Christopher and his family the next day, Christopher expresses anger at his mother but is quickly chastised by his wife. Christopher immediately apologizes and appears "pale as paper", though Olive feels pity for her son. Olive recalls yelling at her late husband Henry in public similar to how Ann yelled at Christopher. Olive reflects that she has "failed on a colossal level" with both Henry and their son Christopher and has "lived her life as though blind."
"Helped".
Suzanne Larkin returns to Crosby, where her childhood home recently burned down with her father having died in the process. Suzanne finds a platonic consolation through conversations with her father's lawyer, Bernie. Bernie's compassion and empathy make a grieving Suzanne feel "as though huge windows above her had been smashed—the way the firemen must have smashed the windows of her childhood home— and now, here above her and around her, was the whole wide world right there, available to her once again." Bernie feels a similar connection to Suzanne, and is astonished by her "uncorrupted" nature.
"Light".
Olive encounters a former student of hers, Cindy Coombs, while grocery shopping. Coombs, who previously worked as a librarian, is gravely ill. Olive visits her unannounced one day and continues to see her afterwards. The two discuss mortality, and Olive confesses her "pretty awful" treatment of Henry. She says that she has become "a tiny — tiny — bit better as a person" but feels sick that Henry is not alive to receive her that way. The story's title refers to Cindy and Olive's mutual appreciation for the light in February: "how at the end of each day the world seemed cracked open and the extra light made its way across the stark trees."
"The Walk".
Sixty-nine-year-old Denny Pelletier is walking alone one night in December in Crosby. He thinks something is wrong with his children but can't think of the answer. He reminisces about his childhood, his own children, his first love Dorothy Paige, and finally his wife Marie Levesque. Denny stumbles upon a man bent over a bench and calls the police, who arrive and intervene by injecting him with Naloxone. Denny walks home and realizes it is with himself that something is wrong, that he had been "saddened by the waning of his life, and yet it was not over." When he returns home and is greeted by his wife Marie.
"Pedicure".
Olive gets her first pedicure. Jack contemplates his late wife, Betsy, and his affair with Elaine Croft. He thinks of and is frightened by "how much of his life he had lived
without knowing who he was or what he was doing."
"Exiles".
Jim, Bob and Susan Burgess — the siblings from "The Burgess Boys" (2013) — reunite in nearby Shirley Falls. The brothers' wives, Helen and Margaret, do not like one another. One evening, after drinking wine, Helen finds herself falling down the stairs and breaking several bones. Following Helen's accident, Margaret confesses to her husband that "I couldn't stand her and she knew it, Bob. And I feel terrible." It is also revealed that Bob Burgess and his wife know Olive.
"The Poet".
Olive, now eighty-two years old, drives to the coffee shop in Crosby. She runs into a former student of hers, Andrea L'Rieux, who went on to become the United States Poet Laureate. Olive and Jack take a trip to Oslo, Norway. Later, in autumn, Jack dies in his sleep beside her. The following May, Olive is anonymously sent a poem written by Andrea that is based on their encounter. She is initially offended by Andrea's characterization of Olive as lonely. However, Olive eventually admits, "Andrea had gotten it better than she had, the experience of being another."
"The End of the Civil War Days".
Married couple Fergus and Ethel MacPherson live on the outskirts of Crosby and have been married for forty-two years. Though, the two have barely spoken to each other in the last thirty-five years. They have lived with yellow duct tape separating their house ever since Fergus had an affair. Their silence and separation is somewhat broken when their daughter, Laurie, returns from Portland to tell them she has become a dominatrix and is the star of a new documentary. The story draws parallels between the performance aspect of Fergus' Civil War reenactments with their daughter's work as a dominatrix.
"Heart".
Olive, eighty-three years old, suffers a heart attack in her hairdresser's driveway. She is assigned round-the-clock care in her home by nurse's aides. Olive befriends two of the nurses: Betty, a Trump supporter, and Halima, the daughter of a Somali refugee. Christopher visits Olive frequently and eventually helps her get into Maple Tree Apartments, an assisted living facility.
"The Friend".
In Maple Tree Apartments, Olive befriends Isabelle Daignault — the mother from "Amy and Isabelle" (1999). The two form a close friendship, caring for one another. Isabelle reflects with regret and shame for cutting off her daughters hair, saying to Olive, "The memory haunts me." Olive's oldest age mentioned in the novel is eighty-six-year-old.
Reception.
The review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, noted that the novel generally received rave feedback, based on a total of 28 reviews: 16 "Rave" reviews, 10 "Positive" reviews, and 2 "Mixed" reviews. "Kirkus Reviews" praised the novel, writing, "Beautifully written and alive with compassion, at times almost unbearably poignant. A thrilling book in every way." While "Publishers Weekly" called the novel "cohesive" and wrote, "Strout again demonstrates her gift for zeroing in on ordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people to highlight their extraordinary resilience." In her review for "The Washington Post", Joan Frank gave the novel a positive review, calling it "arguably better than the original" and writing, "Sentences flow in simplest words and clearest order — yet line after line hammers home some of the most complex human rawness you'll ever read." |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Requiem for a Dream (novel)
Requiem for a Dream is a 1978 novel by American writer Hubert Selby Jr., that concerns four New Yorkers whose lives spiral out of control as they succumb to their addictions.
Plot.
This story follows the lives of Sara Goldfarb, her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion Silver, and his best friend Tyrone C. Love, who are all searching for the key to their dreams in their own ways. In the process, they fall into devastating lives of addiction. Harry and Marion are in love and want to open their own business; their friend Tyrone wants to escape life in the ghetto. To achieve these dreams, they buy a large amount of heroin, planning to get rich by selling it.
Sara, Harry's lonely widowed mother, dreams of being on television. When a phone call from a reality show casting company gets her hopes up, she goes to a doctor, who gives her diet pills to lose weight. She spends the next few months on the pills, wanting desperately to look thin on TV and fit into a red dress from her younger days. However, the casting company does not notify her about the details of her show. She becomes addicted to the diet pills and eventually develops amphetamine psychosis after her life continues to go downhill. She eventually ends up in a mental institution, where she undergoes electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Harry, Marion, and Tyrone become addicted to their own product. Eventually, when heroin becomes scarce, they turn on each other, slowly hiding the drugs they obtain from the other two members. On their way to Miami, Harry and Tyrone are arrested, convicted, and sentenced to jail. Harry's arm has become infected from repeated injections, and has to be amputated. Left alone, Marion becomes a prostitute to support her addiction. In jail, Tyrone faces frequent abuse from the guards due to his race.
Film adaptation.
The novel was later adapted into a critically acclaimed eponymous film, released in 2000. The film was directed by Darren Aronofsky and stars Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans and Ellen Burstyn. Burstyn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Sara. |
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} | m2d2_wiki | Lullabies for Little Criminals
Lullabies for Little Criminals is a 2006 novel by Heather O'Neill.
The book was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 edition of "Canada Reads", where it was championed by musician John K. Samson. "Lullabies for Little Criminals" won the competition.
Plot summary.
(Includes Spoilers) The novel revolves around the twelve-year-old protagonist named Baby and follows her for two years. Baby lives with her father Jules, who has a worsening heroin addiction. The two move frequently, to various places around Montreal, where they encounter many other characters, among them junkies, bums, pimps, and abused children.
Baby was born while Jules was in high school with her mother, who died soon after Baby was born, though the cause of death is not revealed immediately.
Jules often leaves young Baby by herself wherever they may be living, for anywhere from a week to over a month at a time. Baby becomes distraught and finds herself wandering the streets of Montreal on her own. She is eventually taken away by Child Protective Services and put into a foster home while Jules is in the hospital with tuberculosis. There she makes friends with two boys, Linus Lucas, a 14-year-old who all the children think is the very height of cool, and Zachary, a mellow, happy 12-year-old. When Jules finally picks her up, he promises that everything will return to normal.
As Jules and Baby begin to settle down again, Jules' addiction gets the best of him and he begins to lash out at Baby, often for no reason. Baby eventually runs away and finds a semblance of security with a pimp named Alphonse. Around this time, she is taken into juvenile detention, and spends about a month in there. Alphonse develops an intimate relationship with Baby, taking her virginity, and forcing her to become a prostitute. She becomes one of his "girls" and is fearful of leaving him. She attempts to return to the apartment she had shared with Jules, but it is locked from the inside and nobody is there, so she assumes Jules has abandoned her. Alphonse also exposes her to heroin, making her addicted to it.
Baby goes back to school while still prostituting herself and meets an odd boy named Xavier. Xavier and Baby slowly but surely become closer and begin to date. As their relationship grows, they become very intimate, and have sex at Alphonse's hotel room, the only place they can be alone. When Alphonse returns to find them there, he beats Xavier and sends him home. Alphonse then beats Baby and takes all of her heroin. When Baby wakes up the next morning, she finds Alphonse dead of a drug overdose.
Baby leaves Alphonse's room and is left with nowhere to go. She decides to go to a nearby homeless shelter where she had heard that Jules was staying. They embrace, and Jules explains that he has set up a place to stay with his cousin. They pack up and walk to the local bus station. On the bus, Jules explains that Baby's mother died in a car crash while Jules was driving. The other driver was drunk at the time.
Upon arrival at Jules' cousin's house in Val des Loups, the story ends.
References.
LULLABIES FOR LITTLE CRIMINALS. (2006). Kirkus Reviews, 74(15), 747. |
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