What do you think?
Rate this book
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
“So I have called the aforementioned insatiability a metaphysical feeling as it is rooted in the opposition between every individual’s infinite wholeness of Existence and the delimitations imposed by Time and Space.”The “insatiability” that Witkacy so often speaks of is, as I understand it, an underlying (or as he would say, metaphysical) voracity for existence (being). As will be made clear by a quote included at the bottom of this review he believes that we cannot fully satiate this craving for life, grounded in the fact that our individual consciousness is limited by nature’s constraints on us, and that all we can really do is temporarily satisfy it, for example by work or creative outlet. If this is not possible then his view is that narcotics are the only other thing able to make existence bearable, the only alternative means for us to extinguish our insatiability for the metaphysical.
“I believe that home cleanliness and, moreover, public cleanliness are an extension of personal cleanliness. If we start in our own backyard, the rest of our environment will all gradually become clean in time, because a hygienic person simply refuses to be surrounded by dirt.”Beyond this section there is an excerpt from his fictional work Farewell to Autumn in which multiple characters take numerous doses of cocaine whereupon the effects of said drug are illustrated in vivid detail. These final pages were actually some of the most enjoyable ones in the entirety of Narcotics for me personally. Another wonderful aspect of this new edition of the book that deserves to be mentioned is that it contains 34 full-colour reproductions of Witkacy’s various portraits. They complement the rest of this work quite nicely (because most of them were created while under the influence of narcotics), as well as being a great showcase of one of the author’s many other creative talents.