Vineland and smoking dope..

[hb]

It seems to me that really the only drug Pynchon writes about frequently is
marijuana, hashish....  and LSD I believe in Zoyd's case, but the only one
he really takes to effects is pot/hash which he is most likely familiar with.
        Due to his lack of main stream use of harder drugs like other
60s-70s writers, ex. Dilaudid, Morphine, Heroine, intravenous drugs in
particular, It is very likely he didn't dabble like these others.  Hell, he
didn't need to.
        While all these other dudes were needin to get high to write the
most freaked out shit...Pynchon was the true freak.  He didn't need it.  He
didn't rely on drugs or have to entwine them as much, he had/has better
tools and mediums which is what separates him from the pack.
        I'm sure smokin pot and hash was enough for Pynchon...  Smoke
probably got him just as high as the junkie...
        I hope i didn't write this in haste, meaning over looking characters
in his novels and/or the drug use...  No brainstorming, just what I recalled
at glance at these posts.
        I can't remember much drug in _V._ and that thing is whacked...the
Priest Rat...  V. and her cybernetics...  Veishu (sp?)..some place that it
seemed everything was on acid... and the orgy at whatevers house...crazy
         _Lot 49_ was the begin of his novel use of smoke and such but as he
says...the 60's etc.... and his short stories too...Everyone was doing it...
It just took him awhile to veer from it and grow into other stuff.
        _GR_ of course used drugs in a carefree funny way, w/ Slothrop
rampaging Europe in his cape and helmet....but such a small thing to the
book as a whole.
        _Vineland_ had to have'm for Zoyd and the punks...  The 60's
stereo-type stoner and the 80's stereotype Sid Vicious/Johnny Rotten/Young
Ones punks.

        So anyway...  I don't think he was ever a serious dabbler but what
do i know?  I guess that's what this list is for.  Surely he smoked or
smokes...again, what do i know?



At 02:37 PM 1/9/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Also, I recall Tokin' Tom referring to mj as "that very useful drug" (or
>something like that) in the intro to "Slow Learner" (I think).  So who
>knows about that drug-ladder, eh?
>
>John
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From:	Chris Stolz [SMTP:chstolz at canuck.com]
>>Sent:	Thursday, January 09, 1997 11:10 AM
>>To:	pynchon-l at waste.org
>>Subject:	Re: Vineland and smoking dope..
>>
>>
>>>
>>>And while this newbie is at it, what's the consensus on 
>>>TP's drug usage. Verifiable?
>>
>>
>>If Jules Siegel wasn't lying, TRP apparently told Siegel that he was "so
>>fucked up" writng _GR_ that he couldn't figure out what he was talking about
>>when he went back later to re-read stuff.  Of course he's smoked 
>>tons of pot.  I imagine, though, that he's climbed the drug-ladder and has
>>left it behind.
>>
>>chris
>>Chris Stolz      Internet:  chstolz at canuck.com
>>		Hard mail:  405-7A St. N.E.  
>>                            Calgary, AB, Canada
>>                            T2E-4E9  (403) 234-8653
>>
>>	Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake.  But this
>>wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the
>>torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason.  When we
>>emerge, perhaps we will realise we have been dreaming with our eyes open,
>>and that the dreams of reason are intolerable.  And then, perhaps, we will
>>begin to dream once more with our eyes closed.
>>
>>			-- Octavio Paz, _The Labyrinth of Solitude_	
>>
>
>