"Entrepreneurs aren’t risk takers, they’re risk eliminators." Jake Endres, Crooked Run brewery.
420 thread?
Once in a while a topic pops up here that takes me by surprise. I'm not adverse to the subject, nor do I feel it undeserving of the board's attention. I aim not to dissuade. I am puzzled though, given the discussion on the relative merits of alternative pharmacopoeia "trade" publications being thoroughly covered elsewhere.
For myself, the subject of drugs depicted in literature tends to evoke the work of three authors. The first is an utterly surprising scene of a final voyage drug trip undertaken in a forgotten novel by Gore Vidal. Vidal mixes in his usual pet peeves on sexuality and society. More important, he uses this scene to swim through symbolism so as to bury earlier themes and characters he will no longer explore in his novels. Amusing to see how an author learns how to let go. Finally, taken at face value–if you were lucky to have survived such an ordeal–this scene is as horrifying as it is peaceful. Vidal got the details of ODing in this way down pat. Something I never expected to see from Vidal.
Frederick Prokosch touches on the means of running heroin across the middle east in one of his novels. It's not central to his novel, though. What is interesting is his historical depiction of the existence of an underground drug trade in the 1920s. When people get all nostalgic for the 1960s, or the 1980s, their memories are, most often, just more of the same of an older generation.
Hunter S. Thompson. No more should need be said, although I find people most often skip by his message in favor of the bedazzling mayhem. Thompson was far more literary than he is given credit for.
Anyway, to the point of OPs request, personal endorsements of meaningfully useful non-fiction would be the most welcome. And, the most interesting. I hold some observations of my own, but I prefer to compartmentalize and separate my opinions elsewhere, as per the leading quote. For the rest of the board, feel free to share whatever, and thank you!
