Rediscovering Addicts — Constructions of the Drug Addict in English and American Narrative Literature (1822–1999) Vom Fachbereich für Geistes- und Erziehungswissenschaften der Technischen Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig zur Erlangung des Grades Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) genehmigte Dissertation von Christian Volker Kurt W e i g e l t aus Frankfurt am Main Eingereicht am: 17. Dezember 2004 Mündliche Prüfung am: 2. März 2005 Referent: Prof. em. Dr. Hans-Joachim Possin Korreferent: Prof. Dr. Viktor Link Druckjahr 2005 Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Dissident Realities 16 2.1 Narcotics, Stimulants, Psychedelics - An Introduction to the Different Types of Drugs . 25 2.2 A short History of Opiate Use and Drug Laws . 30 2.3 Outsiders – Drugs and Addicts as the Other . 41 2.4 The Addict: Patient or Criminal? . 51 2.5 Parallels between the Discourses on Addicts and Homosexuals . 56 3 The Junky – Opiate Addicts from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater to how to stop time - heroin from A to Z 61 3.1 “How unmeaning a sound was opium at that time!” — Thomas De Quincey: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822/1856) . 61 3.2 Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868) . 88 3.3 Charles Dickens: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) . 95 3.4 The early twentieth century . 100 3.4.1 Aleister Crowley: Diary of a Drug Fiend (1922) . 100 3.4.2 James S. Lee: Underworld of the East (1935) . 109 3.5 Junkies in America . 119 3.5.1 Nelson Algren: The Man with the Golden Arm (1949) . 119 3.5.2 William S. Burroughs: Junky (1953) . 124 3.5.3 Alexander Trocchi: Cain’s Book (1963) . 134 3.6 Changing Paradigms? . 143 3.6.1 Irvine Welsh: Trainspotting (1993) . 143 3.6.2 Ann Marlowe: How to stop time – heroin from A to Z (1999) . 153 3.7 Summary . 168 1 CONTENTS 2 4 Counterculture: Beats and Drugs 175 4.1 Introduction . 175 4.2 “. some of the feel of what he was on most as he wrote it.” - Jack Kerouac’s Writing on Drugs . 181 4.3 The Junky Beat - William S. Burroughs and Drugs . 211 4.4 John Clellon Holmes . 225 4.5 A Marginal Character . 232 4.6 Summary . 240 5 Conclusion 243 A Bibliography 252 A.1 Primary sources . 252 A.2 Secondary sources . 254 B Zusammenfassung in deutscher Sprache 258 Chapter 1 Introduction ‘But how do they do it?’ Chamcha wanted to know. ‘They describe us,’ the other whispered solemnly. ‘That’s all. They have the power of description, and we succumb to the pictures they construct.’ Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses1 The transformation that is explained in the above quotation is one that has taken place in the realm of magic realism in Salman Rushdie’s best known novel. After falling from an exploding plane and miraculously surviving, Saladin Chamcha, an Indian who had formerly lived a well adapted life in England, has been transformed into a demon-like creature resembling the Greek god Pan. In the novel, this metamorphosis symbolises the Otherness projected onto foreigners, and the form Rushdie has given his character is one that represents the capacity of the Other to inspire fear. This thesis examines a different kind of Otherness. It is the Otherness attributed to some users of certain substances and the substances themselves. The substances are those that are subsumed under the name ‘drugs’, and certain individuals who take them are labelled ‘addicts’. The ‘addict’ is a frequently despised and sometimes feared identity, one that is shaped to a large extent by stereotypes that are a historical product of the discourses on drugs. A common perception of the situation of the addict is succinctly described by John Booth Davies, who questions the validity of this perception in The Myth of Addiction: At the present moment, the standard line taken by a majority of people in the media, in treatment agencies, in government and elsewhere, hinges around notions of the helpless addict who has no power over his/her behaviour; and 1Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, (Harmondsworth: Viking Penguin, 1988), p. 168. 3 4 the evil pusher lurking on street corners, trying to ensnare the nation’s youth. They are joined together in a deadly game by a variety of pharmacologically active substances whose addictive powers are so great that to try them is to become addicted almost at once. Thereafter, life becomes a nightmare of withdrawal symptoms, involuntary theft, and a compulsive need for drugs which cannot be controlled. In fact, not one of these things is, or rather needs to be, true.2 The transformation that produces the addict from an individual who frequently was ‘nor- mal’ and well adapted, is sometimes likened to a ‘fall’, one that is believed to be produced by a substance. This view invests drugs with an immense power over the person who takes them. As I will show, this view is untenable. This thesis maps the constructions of the addict and other drug-using identities in narrative literature and examines both the representations in literature of the discourses on drugs that shape the ‘social world’3, and the possible effects that literature has on these discourses. In particular, I am interested in rediscovering the addict as an individual whose behaviour, contrary to the common stereotypes, is volitional and influenced by a self-identification, i.e. addicts are individuals who “succumb to the pictures” constructed by the discourses on drugs. The use of drugs is frequently considered to be a deviant behaviour and, since the early twentieth century, is also a punishable action in many countries4. Yet the use of illegal drugs is a part of our culture. Despite all attempts to eradicate it, the use of illegal drugs is prevalent among all age groups, social strata, and ethnicities. Data from the 2002/2003 British Crime Survey has led researchers to estimate that 12% of the 16- to 59-year-old population in Britain had used one or more illegal drugs in the previous year, and 36% in the same age group have used at least one illegal drug in their lifetime5. It is obvious from these numbers that it is not the use of an illegal drug alone that currently is a sufficient criterion to justify the labelling of a person as an addict. Many of the psychoactive substances that are labelled ‘drugs’ have been with us for millenia, used for numerous purposes: as medicine, healing and relieving pain; in re- ligious and divinatory ceremonies, strengthening communal ties and contributing to the formation of cultural identities; as instruments of control, both over dominated peoples and ethnic groups6, and over individuals; as weapons, like the amphetamines given to 2John Booth Davies, The Myth of Addiction, 2nd ed., (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997), p. x. 3I.e. the possible ways in which we can ‘make sense’ of drugs and addiction and their effects. 4If the use itself is not criminalised, then steps that are a prerequisite for use, e.g. possession of a drug or obtaining it, are. 5Condon, J., and Smith, N., Prevalence of drug use: key findings from the 2002/2003 British Crime Survey. Home Office Research Findings No. 229, (London: Home Office, 2003). 6E. g. alcohol and the American Indian peoples, or crack and the African Americans 5 fighter pilots in the Second World War7, or the LSD investigated by some armies as a potential component of psychological warfare8; as a substitute currency in inofficial (il- legal) trade; as a means of recreation and a supposed source of pleasure. It is mainly as the latter that psychoactive substances have come to be regarded as dangerous and a ‘scourge’ of humanity, leading to the demand for strict control over substances and their users. It is, however, by no means all drugs that are the target of restrictive legislation: medicinal drugs are exempt from persecution (at least until their ‘abuse’ for pleasure leads to calls for certain techniques of prohibition: the reclassification from ‘over-the-counter drug’ to ‘prescription drug’ to ‘illegal drug’), as are the ‘traditional’ and widely accepted psychoactive substances of the Western societies, namely caffeine, alcohol and tobacco. All drugs—including medicinal drugs—can have negative effects. While the nature of the possible negative physical and psychological effects is mainly determined by the drug used, their occurrence and severity depend less on the substance itself, than on the way in which it is used (e.g. the amount taken and the frequency of use) and on factors related to the user him- or herself (e.g. physical and psychological constitution, the age and mental development of the user, reasons for the use). A teenager who regularly uses large amounts of cannabis can experience more negative consequences of his use than an adult who occasionally uses heroin does. The physical and psychological effects of drugs (which can be called the primary effects), are not the only ones that affect the user. For a large number of users, grave effects stem from the legal sanctions and social stigmatisations that the discourses on drugs have produced. These secondary effects often influence the behaviour of addicts to a greater degree than the primary effects. The nature and consequences of drug use cannot be divorced from the con- texts within which it takes place; the experience and social consequences of drug use are not fixed entities, but vary according to the social, legal and other sanctions that surround the activity. Consequently, the reports of drug users about their experiences and behaviour are primarily revealing about the circumstances and conditions under which drug use takes place, rather than revealing immutable and certain facts about the inevitable nature of drug use itself.