Drugs in Pynchon's fiction

[rj]

Paul Mackin <pmackin at clark.net>:

> 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

There's something very sterile and bookish (or newspaper reporterish)
about this view of Pynchon as an Encyclopaedist, merely studying sources
and commentating rather than actually living through the experiences he
writes about. When I said that he seems to share Kerouac's
"phenomenological" attitude to writing fiction, I meant that his life
and his writing seem to be deliberately intertwined. 'A Journey Into the
Mind of Watts' is the key text here, I think, where Pynchon is trying to
get into the "mind" of that neighbourhood. But, his experiences as a
corporate employee at Boeing (--> "Yoyodyne"), his work on aerospace
safety, even his Jazz Club and post-Beat partying, all find their way
into his fiction. In this respect I also think that his references to
drug consumption and mind-altered states are more than the product of a
quick cerebral dip into Hilde Hemme's Herbal Encyclopaedia.

The other thing that strikes me is how much Slothrop's (reputed)
appearance on the back cover of The Fool's record cover is emulated by
Pynchon's own Godzilla-shirted guest spot on Lotion's LP.

best