Drug themes in science fiction
Part 4
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Author: Jones, Langdon
Title: The eye of the lens
In: _The Eye of the Lens_ (By Langdon Jones)
Publisher: Collier Books, New York
Date: 1972
Pages: 53–90
Format: Short novel
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: Avant-garde story without summarizable plot: it attempts to depict various cinematic and psychedelic modes of perception and includes (p. 84) an explicitly psychedelic scene within a British cathedral of the near future where hallucinatory religious rituals take place.
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Author: Nelson, Ray
Title: Time travel for pedestrians
In: _Again, Dangerous Visions_, (Edited by Harlan Ellison)
Publisher: Doubleday and Co., New York
Date: 1972
Pages: 140–159
Format: Short story
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: Protagonist, using crushed “flower seeds” plus auto-hypnotic techniques, embarks on a trip in which his consciousness perceives past existences. He travels mentally to medieval northern Europe, to Egypt shortly after the time of Jesus, to medieval southern France, and other eras.
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Author: Niven, Larry
Title: The fourth profession
In: _Best Science Fiction of the Year_, Vol. I, (Edited by Terry Carr)
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
Pages: 293–340
Date: 1972
Format: Short novel
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: Alien beings known as Monks come to Earth and, to serve purposes of their own, distribute a variety of strange pills. One of these drugs is an intelligence-enhancer, another is a memory-destroyer, another induces instantaneous transport from one place to another. Story explores the effects of these and other alien-given drugs and the motivations of the aliens who distribute them.
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Author: Silverberg, Robert
Title: _Dying Inside_
Publisher: Charles Scribner’s and Sons, New York
Pages: 245 pp.
Date: 1972
Format: Novel
Descriptor: Drugs as means of communication
Annotation: Story takes place in 1976. Narrator is middle-aged New York intellectual who has had the power of telepathy since childhood and now is losing it. The power has embittered him by rendering him a freak, and he has taken pains to conceal knowledge of it from others. He tells how, in 1968, a close love relationship of his was terminated when he and his woman friend took LSD together; the trip had the unexpected effect of opening a two-way telepathic channel between them, so that not only could he read her mind as usual but she briefly had access to his, giving her a bad trip and causing her to recoil from him.
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Author: Spinrad, Norman
Title: No direction home
In: _Best Science Fiction of the Year_, Vol. I, (Edited by Terry Carr)
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
Pages: 227–244
Date: 1972
Format: Short story
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: Scene is United States of the near future in which psychedelic drugs of all kinds, including many not yet known, are legal and widely used on all levels of society. Story speculates in detail on the nature of a commercialized legal psychedelics industry and on the forms future drugs may take.
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Author: Bradley, Marion Zimmer
Title: _Darkover Landfall_
Publisher: Daw Books, New York
Pages: 160 pp.
Date: 1973
Format: Novel
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: Story describes the arrival on the extrasolar planet of Darkover of a shipload of colonists from Earth, and explores the impact on the Earthmen of the Ghost Wind, a native meteorological phenomenon that has psychedelic effects, caused by pollen, dust, or virus, which liberate ESP powers in their minds. The settlers, bombarded by hitherto unfamiliar sensory data, are plunged into conflict that transforms the group.
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Author: Brunner, John
Title: _The Stone That Never Came Down_
Publisher: Doubleday and Co., New York
Pages: 206 pp.
Date: 1973
Format: Novel
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: Scene is London, 1980’s: a time of chaos with World War III imminent. Chemists discover drug called _VC_—_viral coefficient_—which has the property of greatly intensifying sensory perception and amplifying intelligence and memory. Drug has ability to multiply in proper environment like living organism. When an unemployed teacher who has had an experimental dose of _VC_ donates blood to central bloodbank, he unwittingly spreads _VC_ widely to the world at large, causing an epidemic of sanity in which world leaders, now greatly more intelligent, take steps to abolish warfare and establish an ideally rational society.
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Author: Dickson, Gordon R.
Title: _The R-Master_
Publisher: Lippincott, Philadelphia
Pages: 216 pp.
Date: 1973
Format: Novel
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: In the middle of the 21st century an intelligence-enhancing drug called _Reninase-47_ has come into wide use. Though normally it simply stimulates the thought process, _R-47_ occasionally does massive damage to the mind, and in a few cases creates a supergenius, an _R-master_. Protagonist’s brother takes _R-47_ and suffers brain damage. In order to help him, protagonist also takes the drug and unexpectedly emerges from treatment as an _R-master_, a member of an extraordinary elite group, and from another _R-master_ he learns of the need for a vast reorganization of governmental policies. He becomes a revolutionary leader and works toward a transformation of society.
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Author: Free, Colin
Title: _The Soft Kill_
Publisher: Berkley Books, New York
Pages: 159 pp.
Date: 1973
Format: Novel
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-controllers
Annotation: Protagonist is a scientist stationed aboard an orbiting research station of the far future. Needing a holiday, he is transferred to a place called HighTown—an overpopulated city where a totalitarian government maintains control by dosing the citizens with a variety of tranquilizing and euphoric drugs. Novel explores the effect of government-by-chemistry.
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Author: Pumilia, Joseph F.
Title: As dreams are made on
Journal: _Fantastic Science Fiction_, Vol. 22, No. 3, 18–29
Publisher: Ultimate Publishing Co., New York
Date: 1973
Format: Short story
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: Teenage boy obtains a supply of _metamorphium_, a drug that induces fantasy-gratification dreams. Not only are his dreams richly satisfying, but he discovers that his girlfriend, whom he sees in the dreams, is aware of the visions as if the drug has induced some telepathic link between them. He has a vision of a time when everyone is linked through shared _metamorphium_ dreams—“one big dream, one big mind asleep and dreaming all the time,” even though individual dreamers will wake from the big dream.
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Author: Rotsler, William
Title: Gods of Zar
Journal: _Amazing Stories_, Vol. 47, No. 3, 20–40
Publisher: Ultimate Publishing Co., New York
Date: 1973
Format: Short story
Descriptor: Drugs as euphorics
Annotation: An Earthman stranded on an alien planet becomes god of the local native race. When his people are attacked by a hostile tribe he defeats the enemy soldiers by dosing them with _tazeel_, a euphoric drug of the planet that destroys their discipline and converts them instantly from Spartan ferocity to self-indulgence.
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Author: Scortia, Thomas N.
Title: The weariest river
In: _Future City_, (Edited by Roger Elwood)
Publisher: Trident Press, New York
Pages: 108–148
Date: 1973
Format: Short story
Descriptor: Drugs as euphorics
Annotation: The scene is about 350 years from now. An immortality treatment has been perfected and the world has become a savagely overcrowded, polluted urban sprawl in which people live forever. Drugs are the main refuge from boredom among the immortals. The protagonist is the inventor of the immortality serum, whose life is spent in an endless search for illegal drugs to palliate his guilt and spiritual malaise.
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Author: Spinrad, Norman
Title: The weed of time
Journal: _Vertex_, Vol. 1, No. 3
Publisher: Mankind Publishing Co., Los Angeles
Pages: 58, 92–93
Date: 1973
Format: Short story
Descriptor: Drugs as mind-expanders
Annotation: An exploratory mission to the fifth planet of the star Tau Ceti in 2048 discovers a plant that is given the name of _Tempis ceti_, seeds and leaves of which have a psychedelic property: they destroy the linear perception of time and enable the subject to view all moments along his lifespan simultaneously. Seeds of the plant prove to be fertile on Earth and the drug comes into common use. Protagonist is a time-drug user whose simultaneous perception of his 110-year lifespan sends him to a mental hospital.
AUTHOR/TITLE INDEX TO ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
_Abyss, The_, 23
_Addicts, The_, 25
Aldiss, Brian W., 35, 40
Anderson, Chester, 35
_As Dreams Are Made On_, 51
_Barefoot in the Head_, 40
Barnes, Arthur K., 18
Bartel, Philip J., 15
Benford, James, 42
_Beyond Bedlam_, 32
Binder, Eando, 20
Bradley, Marion Zimmer, 49
_Brave New World_, 13
Brunner, John, 49
Buck, Doris Pitkin, 29
_Bug Jack Barron_, 40
Burgess, Anthony, 28
_Butterfly Kid, The_, 35
_Camp Concentration_, 38
_Carcinoma Angels_, 37
_Clockwork Orange, A_, 28
Coblentz, Stanton A., 19
Collins, Hunt, 32
_Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming_, 29
_Control Drug, The_, 14
_Darkover Landfall_, 49
Davis, Grania, 45
Devaux, Pierre, 26
_Diabolical Drug, The_, 12
Dick, Philip K., 33, 34, 36
Dickson, Gordon R., 50
Disch, Thomas, 38
_Down the Digestive Tract_, 43
_Downward to the Earth_, 44
_Dream-dust from Mars_, 20
_Dying Inside_, 48
_Elixir of Peace, The_, 24
_Elixir of Progress, The_, 15
_Emotion Gas_, 19
_Emotion Solution_, 18
_Eye of the Lens, The_, 46
_Facial Justice_, 27
Fearn, John Russell, 14
_Final Programme, The_, 39
_Fourth Profession, The_, 47
Free, Colin, 50
_Ganymede Takeover, The_, 36
Gatter, George F., 19
_Glowworm Flower, The_, 19
_Gods of Zar_, 51
_Golden Nemesis_, 21
_Greenplace_, 29
Guin, Wyman, 32
Gunn, James, 27
Hall, Charles F., 21
Hamilton, Edmond, 15
Harris, Clare Winger, 12
Harrison, Harry, 34
Hartley, L. P., 27
_He Never Slept_, 14
Heinlein, Robert A., 24
_Hellflower_, 25
Herbert, Benson, 14
Herbert, Frank, 38
Hollis, H. H., 46
_Hormone Menace, The_, 20
_How Can We Sink When We Can Fly?_, 43
_How It Was When the Past Went Away_, 39
Huxley, Aldous, 13, 28
_I Remember Oblivion_, 22
_Island_, 28
Jones, Langdon, 46
_Joy Makers, The_, 27
Keller, David H., 13, 23
Kyle, David A., 21
Lafferty, R. A., 42
Lester, Irvin, 12
_Literary Corkscrew, The_, 13
Lupoff, Richard A., 36
McCombs, Larry, 30
MacDonald, John D., 23
_Make Room! Make Room!_, 34
_Mind Parasites, The_, 37
Moorcock, Michael, 39
Morrison, William, 25
_My Head’s In a Different Place Now_, 45
Nelson, Ray, 36, 47
_Night That All Time Broke Loose, The_, 35
Niven, Larry, 47
_No Direction Home_, 48
_Now Wait for Last Year_, 34
_One Million Centuries_, 36
Panshin, Alexei, 43
_Peacock King, The_, 30
Phillips, Rog, 26
_Plutonian Drug, The_, 18
Pohl, Frederik, 22
Pratt, Fletcher, 12
_Pulse_, 42
Pumilia, Joseph F., 51
_Puppet Masters, The_, 24
Purdom, Tom, 29
_R-Master, The_, 50
_Roger Bacon Formula, The_, 12
Rotsler, William, 51
_Santaroga Barrier, The_, 38
Scortia, Thomas N., 52
Sheckley, Robert, 43
Silverberg, Robert, 39, 41, 44, 45, 48
_Sky_, 42
Slesar, Henry, 22
Smith, Clark Ashton, 18
Smith, George O., 25
_Soft Kill, The_, 50
Spinrad, Norman, 37, 40, 48, 52
_Stolen Minute, The_, 26
_Stone That Never Came Down, The_, 49
_Stoned Counsel_, 46
_Sundance_, 41
_Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The_, 33
_Time Drug, The_, 21
_Time of Changes, A_, 44
_Time Travel for Pedestrians_, 47
_Tomorrow and Tomorrow_, 32
_Trojan Horse Laugh_, 23
_Truth Gas, The_ 15
Viot, H. G., 26
Vonnegut, Kurt, 41
_We Can Remember It For You Wholesale_, 33
_Weariest River, The_, 52
_Weed of Time, The_, 52
_Welcome to the Monkey House_, 41
Wellman, Manly Wade, 20
_What to Do Until the Analyst Comes_, 22
White, Ted, 30
Williams, Robert Moore, 24
Wilson, Colin, 37
_World Inside, The_, 45
_Yellow Pill, The_, 26
DHEW Publication No. (ADM) 75-190 Printed 1975
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ALCOHOL, DRUG ABUSE, AND MENTAL HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE 11400 ROCKVILLE PIKE ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 20852
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Transcriber’s Note (continued)
Errors in punctuation and simple typos have been corrected without note. Archaic or variant spelling, inconsistent hyphenation, etc., has been left as it appears in the original publication unless as noted in the following:
Page iv – “science fiction” changed to “science-fiction” (Silverberg is the author of many science-fiction novels) Page 3 – “science fictionists” changed to “science-fictionists” (for the speculations of science-fictionists) Page 4 – “brain-washing” changed to “brainwashing” (analogous to brainwashing) Page 5 – “science fiction” changed to “science-fiction” (Drug-users in science-fiction stories) Page 5 – “Science fiction” changed to “Science-fiction” (Science-fiction writers tend to be no more radical) Page 7 – “The Joymakers” changed to “The Joy Makers” (The Joy Makers, published in 1961) Page 27 – “The Joymakers” changed to “The Joy Makers” (Title: The Joy Makers) Page 27 – “noncomformity” changed to “nonconformity” (it lowers vitality and reduces nonconformity) Page 43 – “science fiction” changed to “science-fiction” (In: _Four Futures_, a science-fiction anthology) Page 54 – “Joymakers” changed to “Joy Makers” (Joy Makers, The)