Romantic Claptrap | Devil in a Blue Dress

Romantic Claptrap

Books in the Making - Devil in a Blue Dress

Written by Douglas Wilson

Monday, 11 May 2009 08:38

"In modern society the main cause of drug addiction, apart from the fact that many people have nothing to live for, is a literary tradition of romantic claptrap, started by Coleridge and DiQuincey, and continued without serious interruption ever since" (Dalrymple, Romancing Opiates, p. 61).

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Last Updated on Monday, 11 May 2009 08:38

Comments

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Joshua Gibbs

Monday, May 11, 2009 1:40 pm

The romantic claptrap seems like a way, way distant second. I doubt anyone smoking crack in Compton really got suckered by Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

Robert Seward

Monday, May 11, 2009 3:41 pm

This is the most absurd thing that you have ever posted and I LIKe you ;-)

Douglas Wilson

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 12:25 am

Josh and Robert, Dalrymple argues (and to my mind, proves) that the self-justifying literary paradigm for addiction referred to above dominates and guides the addiction treatment industry. I do commend the book to you.

Jane Dunsworth

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 1:31 am

So, IOW, the problem in Compton wouldn't be the problem in Compton, if the people who are supposed to be the smart ones in dealing with it, weren't captive to a sensibility informed by romantic notions rather than a realistic understanding of the nature of addiction?

Ed L	Tuesday, May 12, 2009 2:05 am

Mr. Wilson posted the thesis statement of the chapter that makes the case for the statement. So it is not just a bald statement without justification. I have been impressed with Dalrymple, especially his "An Intelligent Person's Guide to Medicine"

Douglas Wilson

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 2:11 am

Jane, exactly.

Joshua Gibbs

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 4:40 am

I'm not arguing with the guy. He's asserting that "having nothing to live for" is a greater reason for drug addiction than silly romanticism, right? Seems logical. That the two reasons are even in the same ballpark doesn't "pass the sniff test" as you once taught me to say.

Darius T.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 5:31 am

I recommend all of Dalrymple's writing. Even if one doesn't agree with him, one can't deny that he will make you think more than almost any other writer. You can find his ongoing work here: http://blog.skepticaldoctor.com/

As for the above quote, Jane nails it. The underclass hasn't read Coleridge or Lawrence, but those in the ruling class and the liberal intelligentsia(the "mandarins," as Dalrymple would call them) have and they apply that irrational "claptrap" to how they address problems in the other classes.

Joshua, the two are not separated as much as you may think. As Richard Weaver would say, ideas have consequences and they play out in some of the most indirect of ways. The Western underclass doesn't know that they have nothing to live for unless the elite academics inform them that they are merely cogs in an unjust, Darwinian system and that the only good to which one can aspire is self-gratification. Else, why are the impoverished in Africa so much happier than their counterparts in the West?

Darius T.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 5:32 am

Sorry about the lack of paragraph breaks.

Robert Seward

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 5:18 pm

I just think that a lot of drug addiction is due to the desire to flee from pain, physical, emotional, spirtitual