One more thing...

john v. omlor (omlor@packet.net)
Sun, 05 Apr 1998 17:23:07 -0500

Just one plug for a book, if it's allowed.

For a fascinating and entertaining take on the questions being discussed
concerning literature, madness and drugs and addiction check out Avital
Ronell's delightful experiment called *Crack Wars: Literature, Addiction,
Mania* (Univ. of Nebraska P, 1992).  Ronell also speculates on addiction as
a dominant metaphor for our times and more and she uses as her case study
another famous literary creation: Emma Bovary (who was, of course addicted
to many things, including the Romance novels of her youth, and who had her
own pyschological problems).  This isn't yet another psychoanalytic reading
of a novel (my day job is filled with them, from Shakespeare all the way
through to this month's releases) but rather a fascinating piece of
speculation about the patterns of addiction and Emma as a modern product
and a collage of related sources and citations.  It's fun.

Anyway, dinner's approaching and I need a drink.

--John