When I read the great writers Poe and Coleridge I sometimes think, “Wow, if I did opium like they did I wonder if I could write like this too.” There is no doubt that their opium habits had to effect their writing. But I’ve read that both Poe and Coleridge talked about going through opium withdrawals, and feeling like they had lived a hundred years in a single night, or getting long, wet kisses from alligators. Nothing is worth that.
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Poe certainly was a messed up guy for sure.
I think they’re just great writers naturally who chose to use drugs. Probably some link between substance abuse and creativity for these two, but I think it’s more that great writings make opium use seem desirable as opposed to opium use being helpful.
I also think their pain amplified by their addiction fueled their writings.
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I did some of my best fiction writing while tipsy!
Can’t remember who it’s from but “write drunk, edit sober”
There was a time when I would have done just that - enthusiastically. But I can’t control myself well enough when I am drunk. I’ll have to write the Great American Novel unaided by mind altering chemicals. There was a time when a lot of people were doing acid in the hope that it would expand their consciousness and make them some kind of counter culture guru. Ken Kesey wrote a couple of very good books when he was taking acid, but maybe he would have written twenty good books if he hadn’t. That’s something we’ll never know.
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that’s really strange…I have always wondered if doing opium would help creativity too…? I am not going to of course but I did wonder.
I think it did. They probably wouldn’t have written differently if they hadn’t done opium, but I see the effect of opium in their work. The grotesque descriptions, the surreal stories. I think it is very likely they did.
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Opium is very sedating.
Ringo Starr once said in an interview many years after the Beatles broke up that multiple times all four of them would go into the studio high off pot or LSD to record albums and singles. He said they laughed a lot and they all thought they had done brilliantly but the next day they would listen to it and Ringo said it was all crap, none of it was ever good enough to make it on their records.
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