295.36: ' "Micro" Graham '

[Tim Thomas]

Doug:
>but the novel as a whole seems to rather joyfully affirm
> the psychedelic experience in itself.  When you get right down to it,
> melting into the landscape, talking to the trees and listening to them
talk
> back, ....... and the rest of the novel's hallucinatory material could
come as
> easily from LSD as from mushrooms or from any number of synthesized
> psychedelics.

Or from dreams, nightmares, weird euro-folktales, mythologies, literature,
poetry, film, and heck, even the authors Imagination! I don't disagree that
drugs (and their culture, economics, experience, mythology etc) are
important to the novel  - but to argue that the 'hallucinatory' aspects of
the writing come from psychedelics is too simplistic. It reminds me of
people who, when confronted with an artwork they judge to be other than
'realistic', ask "Wow Man what were you On?!"  As if the only way a take on
the world that is 'other', that is hallucinatory (or whatever), can have
come about is through an experience with drugs. [note that I said "reminds
me", I dont actually believe you think like this...]
I think you can say the novel as a whole "joyfully affirm[s] the psychedelic
experience in itself" only if you use the term "psychedelic experience"
metaphorically. You recognise the hallucinatory aspects as being similar to
psychedelic ones because that is the reference point you choose (and
presumably because you know when the book was written, snippets of TP's
life, hints in the text etc...). But all of the 'weird shit' in the novel,
from its structure to the hallucinatory aspects, could perhaps more
fruitfully be described as joyfully affirming the rainbow technique TP
uses - it draws from everything, it is coloured by everything and is
playful, but it is also critical, serious and even politicised. It seems to
me that this is what is being affirmed - an attitude - but one I doubt
struck the author simply upon encountering pyschedelics (which is just
conjecture - as are any thoughts about whether they free'd his mind.)

> Speaking of MDMA, isn't the active ingredient in nutmeg (Osbie's choice in
> the early innings) chemically similar?  I thought I read something like
> that recently.

I think this comes from the fact that Safrole (which can be extracted from
Nutmeg oil) is sometimes used as a precursor in order to manufacture MDMA
and other methoxylated amphetamines.

cheers
Tim