7:08pm
10th July 2010
2 notes
There was nothing left, nothing else to swallow or smoke or love, there was nowhere to go now. ↘
-from Matthew Klam’s essay “Experiencing Ecstasy.”
Klam’s essay makes Ecstasy sound, quite frankly, amazing. According to him, it can help you get through the rough patches in your first few years of independence, and dropped instantly. Yes, he discusses worst case scenarios—Kyle (who he portrays as vaguely addicted and equally vaguely in denial) and Leah Betts (an 18 year old British woman who died after drinking too much water during a trip), but the number of cautionary tales in his essay pale in comparison to the positive stories.
I can acknowledge the fact that as a writer, his goal is to convey a specific idea, and he does so with nuance: ecstasy can be life-changing, even life-saving, though it isn’t a foolproof cure. However, I can’t help but feel misled by this largely whitewashed impression of a drug that I’ve been warned against by countless Health teachers (not that I would expect them to encourage it).
Thoughts?
