So, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this final project, and here is what i've come up with:
Drugs are popular in creative circles. Many, but not all, famous writers and artists have experimented or abused drugs. Why is this? Many people who use drugs argue that they expand the mind. This argument can be seen in a lot of the writing done during the 1960's, especially about LSD. Yet, drug use among writers did not simply begin in the 1960's. Drugs have existed, and been used as early as Ancient Greece ( don't quote me on this, a neighbor told me that the some oracle in Greece was actually emitting a toxic gas, and was making people high, which is why they thought they were having a religious experience).
There has been a lot of work done about the literature of the 1960-1970's. We all know about writers like Hunter S. Thompson, and William S. Burroughs, and while there are many resources to write a paper around the effects of LSD on these writers, I have chosen to go earlier than the 60s.
19th century romantic poets such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron experimented with opium, and a mixture of opium and alcohol called Laudanum. In my paper I would like to look into the effects that opium has on the users sensory perception, as well as the more clinical effects on the brain. Does opium enhance creativity? Or does it damage parts of the brain used for creativity over long term use?
Possible Texts:
Opoids in Mental Illness: Karl Vereby
Opium and the Romantic Imagination: Althea Hayter
Opium and the People: Opiate use in 19th Century England: Berridge, Virginia, and Griffith Edwards.
Poetic Vision and the Psychedelic Experience: R.A. Durr
Intoxicating Minds: Cieran Regan
"Drugs of Abuse- The Myth of Creativity and The Reality of Destruction": Sylvester Vizi
Comments (1)
Hi Jessica
I think that your topic is quite interesting. I know I would like to hear more about this topic.
I feel that these questions are wonderful in opening such a discussion on opium, but can be expanded a tiny bit still: Does opium (and Laudanum, such/similar mixtures) enhance creativity? (If so, how? What effect might it have on the brain and why?) Or does it damage parts of the brain used for creativity over long term use? (Again, how, what, and why?)
Since opium has been used by quite a few artists/authors in the 19th century, are there going to be only a couple that will be discussed in terms of the way that their drug addiction affected their work?
If you do plan to use some authors as case studies for addiction, which I think you will:
Do you have some strong proof (other than the secondary sources; primary sources are some of the best, and the most challenging to look at and analyze, for this type of project: journal entries, medical/doctor reports detailing drug use, even journals of friends, colleagues, relatives) that these authors used opium?
I know you would be adding to this discussion (creating proof, so to speak) by analyzing these authors in connection to the science (looking at the effects/symptoms of opium addiction and then analyzing the authors' texts to show that the addiction indeed exists and how it affects the writing over time), but it would be great if the analysis you bring proves the evidence that is already there. You would be lending some historical credibility to these primary sources.
In addition, for the authors that you plan to discuss, alongside the scientific discussion, do you have a control group of works (works that you know have been written prior to drug use that can be contrasted with those that were written after addiction set in)?
I'm going to see if there's anything that can be added to your source list.
I hope I haven't thoroughly confused you with all this.
See you on Tuesday.
Posted by Rebecca Pesantez | November 24, 2007 11:17 PM
Posted on November 24, 2007 23:17