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Plant, Sadie Writing on Drugs ISBN 13: 9780312278748

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9780312278748: Writing on Drugs
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Through a series of close, fascinating examinations of writing on drugs via, among others, Coleridge on opium, Freud on cocaine, Michaux on mescaline, and Burroughs on all of them, Writing on Drugs combines literary criticism with both socio-cultural history and pharmacological science to show how and why drugs have so thoroughly invaded modernity in ways precise and various, profound and unique.

Right or wrong, safe or dangerous, Plant illustrates that narcotics, stimulants, and hallucinogens have actually been integral to the cultural life of modern times. They have shaped some of the era's most fundamental philosophies and provided much of its economic wealth. They have even exposed the neurochemistry of the human brain, which, like society itself, has never been drug-free. Writing on Drugs fully and compellingly explores the pervasive and ongoing influence of drugs on contemporary thought, word, and deed.

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About the Author:
Sadie Plant is the author, most recently, of Zeros + Ones. She has been a lecturer at the University of Birmingham and a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. She lives in Birmingham, England.
Review:
"Riveting . . . One of the most intriguing and provocative books written about the subject in years. Plant has written a book that will appeal even those who have no experience with illegal drugs . . . Writing on Drugs will tax the mind, but the rewards are well worth the trip."--Mark Luce, San Francisco Chronicle

"Packed with fascinating details from two hundred years of psychotropic exploration . . . Remarkable."--Catherine Saint Louis, The New York Times Book Review

"[Plant is] a Nietzchean free spirit [who is] hip to what's happening now . . . Her book is far more than an extended piece of niche-specific lit crit; what is being examined here is nothing less than a history of the modern mind as refracted through the weird prism of narcotics."--Geoff Dyer, Book Forum

"Plant subtly entices us. Much like a drug, this book has been crafted to evoke the reader's own experience and opinion"--Lindsay Cropper, San Diego Union Tribune

"Plant doesn't win you over by argument so much as through the accretion of evidence and intoxication of style."--The Village Voice

"PIant's bravery is matched only by her exquisite prose . . . The reader is absorbed by her fluent accuracy, thus becoming needy as the user looking for an angry fix. Only this is a book that leaves you with a great, purer knowledge . . . Plant displays a voice rare and poetically beautiful."--Derek Beres, African Sun Times

"Elegant, erudite Plant is at her most dazzlingly effective when sketching the twisty little mazes which link drugs with politics and commerce."--Charles Shaar Murray, The Independent

"The value of Sadie Plant's latest book Writing on Drugs is that she detours past the legalization debate, tracking the multiple effects which drug use has had on all sorts of human systems."--Steve Beard, The Sunday Herald (Glasgow)

"The best and most original book I've yet read on the history and implications of ubiquitous computation."--William Gibson, author of Idoru

"A diverse and insightful look at an old relationship. It vibrates somewhere between an engaging facticity and a contact high. I had always suspected Dionysus was imbibing more than wine."--Spalding Gray

"Very good on the strange connections drugs oblige us to make, analogous to the discovery of certain neural receptors: locks in the brain which will be turned by nothing but cannabis, opium, or the wildly hallucinogenic tryptamines. It has been arranged by a thoughtful mind, one good at noticing affinities both cultural and scientific."--Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

"Compelling . . . Smart and lively."--Salon.com

"Enlightening . . . Legends of drugs are legion [and] Plant's genius lies in having woven them into a compact and fluid history of humanity."--LA Weekly

"This book has it all . . . Writing on Drugs tells us the source and history of drugs, ranging from Coca-Cola and tobacco to Aldous Huxley's soma in Brave New World, providing informed insight into almost every topic on drugs worthy of discussion. For such a short and easy-to-read book, Plant's study contains an astounding amount of information . . . Writing on Drugs is educational and entertaining. I find it encouraging that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde during six days and nights of a cocaine high, while it is also nice to know that the architect responsible for the Statue of Liberty, Bartholdi, was a coke enthusiast."--Howard Marks, The Observer (London)

"A fascinating cultural quest. Plant plays the role of informed guide rather than drug-snorting advocate. As with her incredibly illuminating first book about women and technology, she balances accessibility with intellectual rigour."--Tim Teeman, The Times (London)

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  • PublisherPicador
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 0312278748
  • ISBN 13 9780312278748
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages304
  • Rating

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