Drugs in IV vs. GR

[Victor Lazzarini]

Also in relation to drugs in GR, I often wondered how 'popular' and  
available was cocaine in the depicted era and location. I always had  
this impression that the modern form of the drug (powder to be  
'snorted') was a late sixties phenomenon. But since I have never read  
a history of recreational drugs, I don't know. The only thing I know  
about it are the references to it in Sherlock-Holmes-derived material  
(I have not read many Conan Doyle originals either, only a couple and  
they don't go into the subject). So in other words, I'm pretty  
ignorant in this subject and would love to be enlightened.

Victor


On 10 Nov 2009, at 09:42, John Carvill wrote:

> One small, fairly obvious point: GR could have been written without
> any drug use being depicted, given its ostensible WWII setting. On the
> other hand, the setting of IV pretty much demands that habitual drug
> use be depicted.
>
> When Wood picks up on Jones's line about IV being "probably as close
> to getting stoned as reading a novel can be", and then sneeringly
> adds, "(which he takes as high praise)", the critic who comes off
> looking bad is Wood, not Jones. I don't think there's a need to
> explain why that is.