Page:Drug Themes in Fiction (Research Issues 10).djvu/18



As the reader surveys this modest bibliographical foray into drug- related literature, he will no doubt be struck by the variety of writers represented, the myriad of possibilities revealed for further research, and perhaps some omissions, which may be added to the next effort in this line of research. I would like to make some observations about two hindrances in this research effort and make some suggestions for further exploration.

The first hindrance is the non-linear nature of the drug experience which naturally takes its forms of expression outside of literature. For the drug users of the 'fifties, heroin was a life style of its own, requiring no particular expression (although a significant argument could be made for the influence of drugs in jazz music during that period when a large percentage of musicians were addicts or were closely involved in the drug world). In the 1960's, which embraced widespread availability of LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and marijuana, life style played an important part in the subcultures of Haight-Ashbury and Chelsea. But during that era of drug use, "total environments" of a temporary and artificial nature became the more significant artistic manifestations of narcotic experimentation. Little has been written, for example, about the imaginative design of light shows and freak-outs which were almost nightly occurrences during this period. The creative projections of technology—blacklight, lasers, holographs, multi-image projection, and stroboscopic spotlights—became commonplace adjuncts to the drug culture. "Trip films" such as, , , , and filled theaters with zonked-out marijuana-smoking long-haired kids. And rock and roll music, both in performance and in recordings, utilized drug-influenced distortions of sound which have had great impact upon both popular and classical music.

In the instance of this first hindrance, I feel it is clear that future studies of literature which are undertaken should not be limited to directly drug-related fiction. Much of the nonfiction writing of this era—articles from the underground newspapers, defunct youth publications such as and, or even descriptive writings from the legitimate press—reveals the substance and flavor of that drug