Thursday, april 15, 2021 • ThE BullETiN
GO! MAGAZINE • PAGE 17
LOCAL LITERARY HIGHLIGHTS
bendbulletin.com/goread
TOKIN’ ABOUT BOOKS
Reading and writing under the influence
BY DAVID JASPER • The Bulletin
T
he way marijuana affects focus and retention, reading is probably not on many stoners’ list of things that are fun to do. But there are some people that can
do it. Self-described book snob Karie Alexander, of Bend, is among them. In fact, she prefers being high when she reads, she said.
“I did go through a period of being sober,
and I didn’t enjoy reading as much. I find
(reading while high) way more interesting,
and I get the dark humor of it all — I guess
it’s the books I’m reading, as well.”
Among her favorites are contemporary
authors Irvine Welsh (“Trainspotting”) and
Kurt Vonnegut (“Slaughterhouse-Five”).
Reading while high doesn’t seem to impact
her memory of what she’s reading, she said.
“I find it’s the only way I can almost med-
itate,” she said. “I’ve found that I can really
get into the book and concentrate more, and
retention is fine. I try to read a book a week,
so I’m really engrossed in it.”
Alexander likes to take a toke or two
in the morning before heading to a cof-
fee shop near her east Bend home, where
she has a bagel and reads for an hour every
morning.
That’s been a tradition for her for 20
years, Alexander said.
“I find that if I’m really stoned, I can get
through” books such as “Don Quixote,”
which she’s reading now. Written by 17th-
century Spanish author Miguel de Cer-
vantes, “Don Quixote” is the adventure story
of Alonso Quixano and his squire, Sancho
Panza, Alexander said.
Absent cannabis, “I would probably find
the adventure to be a very adolescent-type
book,” she said. “I would think you would
have to be (high). … I really get a kick out
of it.”
Stoned authors
While Alexander enjoys her chosen
method for reading, a number of famous
authors used marijuana and other drugs
to fuel their writing. Among them are Jack
Kerouac, who used Benzedrine while writ-
ing “On the Road,” and Hunter S. Thomp-
“I find (reading while high) way more
interesting, and I get the dark humor of
it all — I guess it’s the books I’m reading,
as well.”
— Karie Alexander, self-described book snob
son (“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”) used
a lot of drugs daily, including acid, cocaine
and marijuana, according to The Indepen-
dent.
Horror master Stephen King wrote his
1981 classic “Cujo” under the influence of
cocaine and alcohol, according to screen-
rant.com: “‘Cujo’ was written during a pe-
riod where King was both high on cocaine
constantly and sometimes getting blackout
drunk, and in his later memoir ‘On Writing,’
the author admitted he barely had any recol-
lection of doing so.”
Even farther back, there are some pretty
famous stories of writers working under the
influence, such as Romantic poet Samuel
Taylor Coleridge wrote his classic “Kubla
Khan” with the memorable opening “In
Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately plea-
sure-dome decree” under the influence of
opium, to which he became addicted.
Though the drug soma was insidious
in his book “Brave New World,” Aldous
Huxley later pried open the doors of per-
ception using mescaline, a hallucinogenic
derived from a small cactus. According
to The Guardian, “Huxley was to remain
a dedicated psychonaut for the rest of his
life.”
Author Robert Anton Wilson began us-
ing marijuana around 1950, and in the
1960s tried mescaline eventually becom-
ing a counter-culture favorite with books
such as the “Cosmic Trigger” series and his
friendship with Timothy Leary.
There are a great many more books that
could be considered drug-related in one
way or another, be it author, protagonist or
subject matter. I decided to conduct an in-
formal Facebook survey asking friends for
some of their favorites. Here are but a few ti-
tles that came up, and to be honest, I haven’t
read them:
• “Novel with Cocaine,” by M. Ageyev
• “Junkie” and “Naked Lunch,” by Wil-
liam S. Burroughs
• “Jesus’ Son,” by Denis Johnson
• “Chronic City,” Jonathan Lethem
• “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui
Way of Knowledge,” by Carlos Castaneda
• “The Great Shark Hunt,” by Hunter S.
Thompson
• “The Rose of Paracelsus,” by William
Leonard Pickard
• “Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor
Dung,” by Lester Bangs
e e
David Jasper: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com
Kirk Alexander/Submitted photo
Karie Alexander, of Bend, enjoys reading un-
der the influence of marijuana. Here, she poses
with a book by Irvine Welsh, one of her favorite
authors.
IN THE BALANCE OF COMPETING HARMS - WE SHALL PREVAIL
541-788-5858
905 SW Rimrock Way Suite 100A
Nolan Town Square • Redmond, OR
ladiesofl eadusa@gmail.com
Sharon Preston