295.36: ' "Micro" Graham '

[Meg Larson]

>Amen, brother Doug.  Amen.
M.

> And you will look in vain throughout nearly 3 years of posts on
Pynchon-L
> to find one in which I attribute TRP's inspiration to psychedelic
drugs.
> But, the fact is, many passages in GR bear comparison to
descriptions of
> hallucinations produced by LSD and related substances -- passages in
Tim
> Leary's _High Priest_, to name one book that comes to mind. And no I
am not
> naming Tim Leary as an "influence" on TRP. This is not to say that
TRP
> wrote like this because he was on acid or anything of that sort.
Whether
> it's from direct personal experience or not (and I would be
surprised to
> learn he hasn't taken LSD), TRP does incorporate a huge sample of
50s and
> 60s experience into his novels, including drugs (re the "microgram"
> reference here, for example, and the direct mention of LSD -- how
many
> serious authors were writing about LSD in the '60s, in their great
American
> novels?), along with the obvious historical research. Psychedelics
or not,
> TRP's literary imagination is awesome and that's no Valley
Girl-speak.
>
> d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n
> http://www.dougmillison.com
> http://www.online-journalist.com