Covered and Bound January 21, 2008

Literature and Drugs
How literature looks at drugs, is usually in the context of (broadly speaking) human relationship to drug use. This literary study, The Road of Excess: A History of Writers on Drugs by Marcus Boon asks, why literature and drugs came to be associated and shows the different literary experimentation with drugs and how the writers on drugs describing their experiences, almost sound and act as scientist?
Opium use was widespread in 19th Century European and American societies and in this study Marcus Boon does not limit himself, in terms of time frame and the diversity of the works covered. In the prologue Marcus Boon says, "I have written this book not from the point of view of literature, or from the point of view of science, but the way an ethnographer would, studying how society came to believe certain things. Literature and drugs are two dynamically developing domain of human activity that have coevolved alongside and interpenetrated with many other such domains, human or not. As Such, this is a history of books that were written and published, but equally of the lives of those who wrote them, the substances they took, how those substances became available, what those substances were. The histories of religion, literature, and science all intersect in the production of the artifact know as the writer on drugs."

Covered and Bound

Today on "Covered and Bound" we continued the lecture "Reefer Madness" by Eric Schlosser, this was after we paid a small musical tribute to Canadian Jazz GREAT Oscar Peterson. We discussed Family Literacy Day being sponsored by ABC Canada and we discussed our book for the Month, "The Road of Excess." It is a literary study of Writers on Drugs by Professor Marcus Boon of York University. We, Jacky and I liked that Eric Schlosser ended his lecture on a religious note, we all have a responsibility, regardless of faith to help those who need it. Eric Schlosser is trying to bring awareness to the plight of the immigrant workers in America whom are mostly Mexicans, and he tells us that they are treated no better than the slaves were. They are just that, modern day slaves as fellow human beings there is a responsibility that we all have to help the poor, no matter what faith we profess.

First show for 2008

Today Covered and Bound featured "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labour" a look at America's black market by investigative reporter, Eric Schlosser. Schlosser looks at three of the black market's main supports; pot, porn and illegal immigrants. These obscure economies have a wide range of influence on American society, they comprise 10 percent or more of America's overall economy and they are growing. These undercover economies are a mainstay of what represents American culture; hypocrisy, greed, and idealism. This award winning author also wrote, "Fast Food Nation:The Dark Side of the American Meal" and "Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food.
The Eric Schlosser lecture will continues next week.
We are looking forward to our Book Club reading for a month or two, The Road of Excess:A History of Writers on Drugs by Marcus Boon which is part of our goal, featuring York Writers for the New Year. Professor Boon's book, is a fascinating read which deals with the subject of writers that use drugs from the time of Homer's Odyssey to William Burroughs Naked Lunch.
Marcus Boon is an Associate Professor of English here at York University and he teaches contemporary literature and theory.

Books

Medicine for the soul.
~Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes

Covered and Bound is a radio show by James O'Hearn, who has left a legacy of interviews with a wealth of authors, available on his website, Engaging The Word. In February of 2007 I started volunteering for this Literary Collective, by using the interview by James O'hearn, and bringing writers, readers, poets and talkers live into the studio, Jacky Tuinstra and I share our love for books and reading. Covered and Bound remains a most rewarding experience for me.


We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate. ~Henry Miller