Times change--who would have thought that we'd ever see a non-judgemental mainstream anthology of writings about mind-altering drugs? Editor Mike Jay delivers scores of well-selected hits of wild wisdom from Homer and his cronies to William Burroughs in Artificial Paradises. His mild-mannered but insightful introductions and links between pieces prime the reader for a series of expansive trips through other people's minds as they grapple with various medical, moral, artistic and spiritual puzzlers posed by drugs. Hopped-up coke fiend Sigmund Freud rants about his favourite little helper while painter Henri Michaux complains that mescaline is a poor muse. The pieces are usually amusing and sometimes penetrating. Jay wisely avoids most of the propaganda we've been over-subjected to in recent decades, instead focusing on the experience and assessment of drugs and their cultural value. Sections include "Researches Chemical and Philosophical: Drugs and Science" and "The Algebra of Need: Drugs and Addiction", with selections from such disparate writers as Jean Cocteau and Thomas Szasz. Most of the pieces are very short--one or two pages--but highly concentrated, giving an immediate sense of the author's intent and attitudes, often inspiring a trip to the library for another dose. When it's time to turn on, tune in and drop out, prepare yourself with the guidance of Artificial Paradises. --Rob Lightner

Product Description

Revealing the diverse roles mind-altering drugs have played throughout history, this collection brings together a multiplicity of voices which explore the presence of drugs in science and religion, pleasure and madness, individualism and social control.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly readable anthology of drugs in literature, 19 Dec 1999

By A Customer

Excellent assemblage of passages and thoughts from writers, scientists and religionists about drugs through the ages - and mercifully, polemicists (whether pro or anti) are excluded. Do get it ... you'll find yourself dipping into Baudelaire and Conan Doyle as never before ... of course, drugs hee means the smoking, sniffing, injecting type - rather than nicotine or alcohol - and the perspective is understandably mainly Western, though there are many excerpts from Native Americans and others who used drugs as a route to the infinite ... Not faddish but extremely erudite in a casual, balanced way.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich, varied and exhilarating survey of drug literature, 10 Mar 2000

By A Customer

A well researched and organised anthology - you start to dip and end up reading it from cover to cover. Clinical science, literature, anthropology and poetry are wittily and intriguingly juxtaposed. For more on the ancient history of drugs and religion, check out Mike Jay's mindblowing 'Blue Tide: The Search for Soma'.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly readable anthology or drugs in literature, 19 Dec 1999

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