Drugs, Depression, and Social Change
How Magic Realism Morphed Into Social Change in the Writings of Norman Mailer
Keywords:
drugs, magic realism, Aldous Huxley, Beat Generation, Lipton Journal, Harry Ransom CenterAbstract
The article examines three primary thrusts of Mailer’s extensive writing debut in the taking of narcotic and hallucinogenic drugs: 1) the relationship between letters and unpublished journals to the form of Mailer’s published works; and 2) the exchange of ideas between Mailer and other narco-theorists such as Aldous Huxley, the Beat Generation, and later writers; and 3) the stance of Mailer’s “magic realism,” whereby anti-rational and unconscious diagrams of self and society manifest changes in society’s management of social and cultural policy. The bulk of this work is derived from The Norman Mailer Collection and includes the Lipton Journal, along with selections from The Aldous Huxley Collection. Some research is also derived from J. Michael Lennon’s landmark biography, A Double Life.
