Happy Birthday, LSD!

[S.R. Prozak]

Time does not exist here...
Whoah.

----- Original Message -----
From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 16:34:33 -0700 (PDT)
To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Happy Birthday, LSD!

> <http://www.flashback.se/archive/my_problem_child/>
> 
> "[...] In 1935, these studies were temporarily
> concluded. Looking for a new field of research, I
> asked Professor Stoll to let me continue the
> investigations on the alkaloids of ergot, which he had
> begun in 1917 and which had led directly to the
> isolation of ergotamine in 1918. [...] I thought it
> was high time that Sandoz resumed chemical research on
> ergot alkaloids, unless we wanted to risk losing our
> leading role in a field of medicinal research, which
> was already becoming so important. 
> 
> Professor Stoll granted my request, with some
> misgivings: "I must warn you of the difficulties you
> face in working with ergot alkaloids. These
> are-exceedingly sensitive, easily decomposed
> substances, less stable than any of the compounds you
> have investigated in the cardiac glycoside field. But
> you are welcome to try." 
> 
> And so the switches were thrown, and I found myself
> engaged in a field of study that would become the main
> theme of my professional career. I have never
> forgotten the creative joy, the eager anticipation I
> felt in embarking on the study of ergot alkaloids, at
> that time a relatively uncharted field of research. 
> 
> [...]  Last Friday, April 16,1943, I was forced to
> interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of
> the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a
> remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight
> dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not
> unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized
> by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike
> state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be
> unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted
> stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes
> with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some
> two hours this condition faded away. [...]"
> 
> -Doug, wondering which pointsman threw the switches
> that led Hoffman to LSD
> 
> "Jamf at the time was working for a Swiss outfit
> called Psychochemie AG, originaly known as the Grossli
> Chemical Corporation, a spinoff from Sandoz (where, as
> every schoolchild knows, the legendary Dr. Hoffman
> made his important discovery)"
> -Gravity's Rainbow, p. 250
> 
> 
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NO GODS          NO MASTERS
           -I-
NO SLAVES        NO MORALS


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