The multitude of 'DRUGS LMAO' criticisms I've seen on this board has made me critically aware of including drug usage in my own fictional writings. Self-censorship is helpful to a certain extent, but I once almost completely purged any and all drug references in my writings to only find a depth lacking in what I wanted to say (a self-awareness also explored in depth in the film Adaptation, esp. concerning drugs). However, there is an authentic way to express the real phenomena of drug-use; how it shapes experiences, manifests friendships, makes you thankful for life through their negative aspects, etc. The 'DRUGS LMAO' critique can be valid for cases of glorifying or romanticizing drugs, but a lot of anons here like to disregard any book with drug references, in an almost blanketing criticism, reducing drug-use to a topic not suited for literary expression. All it really takes is honesty in exploring this theme in an authentic way and with literary merit: Taipei is one example of how this is done. I'll end my rant here and direct those still interested in this topic toward my initial reactions of Taipei found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CL-bqdVZ9evceTTnJqtHSJOO0Jj738phm0XaeFivJ08/edit?usp=sharing
No, I'm not Tao.
inb4 go to bed tao
Sometimes I get the feeling people disregard drug and drug references because they are straight edge "good kids" who have little to no drug experience. Keep in mind too that the rhetoric for drugs in this country is based on misleading information and stereotypes. Basically, they are lil nublets who find it easier to denounce drugs than to admit they have any experience with them.
>>8256403
I'll read the document soon. But an above-average book which incorporates drugs is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A character constantly trying to escape particular feelings and realizations about the death of the American dream through use of drugs only to have the drugs metastasize those very same feelings.
I have no issue with drugs incorporated into literature. It's just very easily done terrible.
I just try to incorporate drug usage as realistically as I can. I've had plenty of friends who've used drugs and I've used drugs and I don't think drugs are magical or "cool" or whatever, so I try and depict them the way you might depict people drinking together, or having coffee together.
>>8256417
I'm currently wearing my Fear and Loathing shirt actually. I hate that college freshman think that book is just "DRUGS LMAO".
>>8256413
I would generally agree with this but I think there are a significant number of people who used their drug use as a status symbol ("dude i was so fucking baked last night" etc.) and including usage to the extent that Taipei did kind of comes across in a similar fashion where it's only really telling you that the narrator does drugs and not a lot more
>>8256403
>je nais se quoi
It's "je ne sais quoi," which literally translates as "I don't know what."
>>8256403
While writing you should probably shouldn't use "what would /lit/ think" as a way to gauge your work's worth. Don't temper your writing for the biases and opinions of an online community.
>>8256585
yeah, that one. I'll fix the typo. thanks
>>8256607
It's not that I was gauging my work's worth on the opinions of an internet forum, but more that I was grappling with my own recognition of finding some validity in the critique: a critique I just so happened to find the most instances of here on /lit/.
