GRGR Re: Drugs in Pynchon's fiction

[Paul Mackin]

I think Tim's comment on this discussion is quite useful. Although
I must have sounded too cocksure in my earlier dismissal of P and MDMA
and did feel Doug's comment on what I said was justified I still frankly
can't imagine  a gifted and industrious artist like Thomas Pynchon
spending a lot of time on what I personally consider to be  rather silly
dope quests. But again I don't rule out the possibility. Anything can
happen and of course everyone has to try it once to find out for himself
but studying the dope culture as a social phenomonom and something
to write about is nothing like the same as being a part, even a marginal
part, of that culture.

As to whether Nirvana was used metaphorically I guess I assumed it was.
The quote which I've long since erased so can't consult said the
experience was LIKE what some call Nirvana if I remember correctly.

					P.


On Mon, 25 Oct 1999, Tim Thomas wrote:

> Jeremy wrote:
> >In the introduction to Slow Learner Pynchon says neither to whom nor
> >how, marijuana can be useful. Any notion that it is useful To Artists
> >and Storytellers, or it is useful In A Shamanic Context, is the
> >reader's.
> 
> Maybe we can say this is true for refs to drugs in GR, Vineland etc also? -
> as some have already done. S'funny innit? - how much some people want to
> think their heroes share the same opinions as themselves. Which is probably
> unfair since Terrance, Doug et al have all made pretty good arguments for
> their respective readings...Bu-ut:
> 
> >Doug Millison wrote:
> >GR, especially, drips with psychedelic insight, >
> 
> Nah, Carlos Castaneda drips with psychedelic insight, drip, drip, drip...
> GR is simply full of insight. Aaaand, its more Exile on Main st, or Physical
> Graffitti (70's), than Sgt Peppers or Surrealistic Pillow (60's) - in my
> opinion, of course.
> 
> Paul Mackin wrote:
> >Alcohol or marijuana would
> > be better, both offering mild stimulation in small quantities. In large
> > quantities they too put you in a state of Nirvana.
> 
> You must be using the word Nirvana metaphorically? Otherwise you should go
> tell this to all those Buddhist monks wasting their time sitting around up
> in the mountains....[and yeah that also goes for the so called pynchon quote
> about MDMA]
> Its interesting that most of those hippy dippy hopes of enlightenment seem
> so naive now. Kids use LSD, Dope, Ecstasy, Cocaine and all the rest because
> of their physical effects, - for entertainment - gone is the pseudo
> spiritual pusher speak. I guess thats just the way people used to talk...
> 
> Tim
>