Robert Silverberg

“ Science fiction not only offers those values in abundance but also, in its facet as satirical commentary on the here-and-now world, provides a perspective on our rapid social changes that has great appeal to readers, especially the young. ”

“ During the period of social dislocation—marked by radical changes in styles of clothing and dress, assassinations of political leaders, disruption of the governmental processes as a response to a war commonly seen as immoral, rampant inflation, and other traumas and upheavals—that corresponds to the spread of drug use in the United States, science fiction has become one of the most popular specialized subgenres of literature. Once the obscure amusement of a few thousand cultists, science fiction is now read by millions ”

“ Drugs as mind controllers Annotation:An endocrinologist has charted a monthly human cycle of emotional peaks and depressions, and, for the sake of greater efficiency and harmony in society, has developed a drug that will control and adjust the cycle so that everyone treated will peak or drop at the same time. This works well during the high part of the cycle, but once the lows set in, mass hysteria develops among the inoculated populace, there is a wave of suicides, and a chain reaction of interlocking depressions virtually destroys society. ”

“ The cultural assumption of science fiction as a whole can clearly be seen to follow, rather than to lead, public opinion: most science fiction published in the twentieth century has been market commercial fiction which, however daring its departures from everyday reality, has generally tended to adopt the conventional moral dogmas of middle-class society, as does most commercial fiction. ”

“ Surveys have shown that the audience for science fiction primarily adolescent and above-average in intelligence; most of the readers are between 15 and 25 years of age (though of course some remain addicts of the genre throughout their lives) . Therefore, there is great correspondence between the main drug-using and science-fiction-reading segments of the population, and it is worthwhile to examine science fiction for insights into the use of mind-altering drugs and for views of what drug use may lie in the future. ”

“ In the past, therefore, professional science-fictionists almost automatically chose a cautionary position for stories embodying drug-related themes, the drugs being symbolic of decay rather than growth, and it is only in the last few years that some writers have felt free to depict the use of certain mind drugs in a positive—even evangelical—light. ”

“ Typically, a scientist working in secret (often a mad scientist) devises a drug whose effects operate on the mind in some extreme fashion, and through secret experiments demonstrates the perils of this drug. ”

“ With drug use now a matter for the news media as well as for solitary experimenters and literateurs, experience with mind-altering phenomena grows; many authors now sample marijuana and LSD and use their experiences as a basis for projections of trends. The changes in society are presumed to be permanent and become fixtures in stories, so that characters in a story set in 1999 use drugs like marijuana and LSD as casually as characters in a futuristic story written in 1950 would use cigarettes and alcohol. ”

“ Science fiction of the 1920's and 1930's reveals a remarkable degree of racism no longer acceptable to general readers in what they read (though they may cling to prejudices in daily life) . Science fiction of the 1940's and 1950's is marked by casual sexism likewise no longer officially acceptable. ”

“ A story about a vampire is pure fantasy; a story that rationalizes vampirism in terms of metabolic phenomena is science fiction. It is the attempt at inducing a willing suspension of disbelief by supplying a plausible scaffolding for the implausible that gives science fiction its identity within the greater realm of fantasy.
But because science fiction is a form of fantasy, it is ideally suited for the exploration of drug-related phenomena. A drug is a kind of magic wand ”

“ Huxley's negative outlook toward the drug is not, though, an expression of work-oriented Puritan morality so much as a classic liberal-humanitarian distrust of technology: the Huxley of 1932 plainly believed that mankind coddled by drugs was something less than what mankind could be. The young Huxley felt contempt for those who needed mechanical aids or who depended on anything other than the force of their own intellects. ”

“ And science fiction in general has shown a strong, if implicit, bias in favor of capitalism, the work ethic, Puritan sexual morality, and other pillars of western industrial society. Drug-users in science fiction stories until quite recently were analogous to heavy users of alcohol in mainstream fiction: their reliance on a consciousness-altering substance was seen as a sign of weakness of character. In the past decade there has been a major cultural shift in our society toward hedonistic behavior, at first furtively, now openly ”

“ Though at present the spread of heroin addiction appears to be once more confining itself to low-income groups and LSD has become less fashionable among the experimental-minded, certainly marijuana has established itself as an almost universal drug used regularly by millions of Americans, and use of more potent mind-alterers remains heavy if no longer greatly accelerating. ”

“ Drug use is taken for granted in the future, and new uses are postulated as an outgrowth of a richness of drug experience not available to earlier science-fiction writers, who had neither the personal experience nor the wealth of published data that present-day writers may draw upon. ”

“ Drugs as mind-expanders Annotation:Aware that most of the capacity of the human brain remains unused, an experimenter devises a drug that will raise him to superhuman intelligence by giving him access to his entire brain. ”

“ Drug as contemptible anodyne, drug as gateway to higher reality—those are the poles bounding the handling of drugs in science fiction. The older science fiction was preponderantly negative, as, for example, James Gunn's The Joymakers, published in 1961 but written half a decade earlier, in which a repressive government sustains itself through mandatory use of euphorics. ”

“ Drugs as intelligence-enhancers Annotation:Scientist concocts a protein-based drug that frees the subject from all need to sleep. Narrator takes the drug and enters into a condition of enhanced perceptivity in which he is capable of penetrating the visionary recesses of his own mind and visiting the dream-creating processes. The experience eventually exhausts him, but unable to give up use of the drug, he looks forward to death as the only release from its effects. ”

“ The extent of the shift may best be illustrated from the work of a writer who, although he wrote science fiction, cannot be considered a professional science-fictionist nor an advocate of conventional morality, and whose career was conducted almost entirely outside the taboo-ridden assumptions of mass-market publishing: Aldous Huxley. ”

“ Husband has become addicted to marak, a euphoric drug that keeps him in a constant state of good nature and well-being. This makes meaningful conversation between him and wife impossible, since he is so agreeable that all discussions trail off immediately, and she is growing irritable for lack of stimulating company. ”

“ A professional writer discovers he can write only when in physical pain, and requires his wife to drive a corkscrew into his back to get him started. But the pain of the corkscrew is impossible to sustain for long, and they seek medical help. The doctor they consult discovers that it isn't the pain itself but rather certain hormones secreted as a response to the pain that encourages literary production, and synthesizes a drug that makes writing easier. Doctor takes his own drug and writes a best-seller. ”

“ Drugs as mind-controllers; Drugs as euphorics Annotation:Unscrupulous theatrical producers enhance the box-office appeal of their comedy by surreptitiously dosing the audience with a gas that induces euphoria; they leave convinced they have seen an extraordinarily funny show, and business booms, until one night an overdose is given that amplifies not only happy feelings but passing moments of depression, causing everybody to leave in a black despondent mood that kills the show. ”

“ Science fiction writers tend to be no more radical as a group than any other randomly selected cross-section of middle-class educated contemporary citizenry, so far as my extensive personal acquaintance with them has shown ”

“ While this increase in the popularity of science fiction is in part a response to the wide publicity accorded the space explorations of the United States and the Soviet Union, I think it is much more to be ascribed to some of the same forces that have stimulated so much interest in drug-taking. ”

“ Drugs as reality-testers Annotation:Psychiatrist encounters a patient who has committed murder and who has the delusion that he was on board a spaceship, defending himself against lizard-men from Venus, at the time of the killing. Patient totally denies the reality of actual world, and tells psychiatrist to take a yellow pill that will awaken him to the true reality of the spaceship-world. Psychiatrist is amused by concept of a yellow pill that can bring one out of a delusion ”

“ Drugs as mind-expanders Annotation:A French molecular physicist develops a drug known as hexostyromolybdenum, HSM, which has the property of vastly increasing the human metabolism. Motion, body speed, the rate of living, and other functions are accelerated 100,000 times. ”

“ Drugs as mind-controllers Annotation:The scene is the not very distant future, after the Third World War. Nine tenths of the human race has been destroyed and the survivors are ruled by a benevolent dictator who reduces conflict situations by imposing an enforced equality: personalities are standardized, numbers are used for names, women undergo plastic surgery so that none will seem too beautiful or too ugly. ”

“ Not only do they conform to prevailing cultural beliefs more than outsiders are likely to suspect, but, as is true of most who depend for their livelihoods on mass-audience acceptance, they quite readily espouse a surprising conservatism of philosophy in their work. ”

“ Drugs whose effects are achieved through amplified or extended bodily sensation-response, perhaps analogous to marijuana in our society.
Drugs as Reality-Testers: Drugs which permit the user to penetrate the "real" realities beyond the surface manifestations of daily life. ”

“ Drugs as panaceas Annotation:Narrator is an advertising man who tells how, after a cigarettes-and-lung-cancer scare, researchers discover a cheap, allegedly harmless and non-addictive euphoric drug, and it goes on the market in chewing-gum form as a replacement for cigarettes. ”

“ Drugs as euphorics Annotation:A pioneering space exploration voyage brings back, by accident, spores of an extraterrestrial plant that sprouts on Earth. The flower of this plant gives off a fragrance that induces intoxication, coma, and opium-like visions. Tripping on glowworm-flower fragrance becomes addictive for many of Earth's finest minds, though lesser folk are relatively immune. The plant is eradicated everywhere, possession of it is made illegal, and all space missions are banned lest spaceships again be contaminated with the sinister spores. ”

“ Drugs as euphorics Annotation:Under the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 2003, hedonism is the law of the land. The function of government, it has been decided, is "the preservation and promotion of the temporary happiness of its citizens." Gloom is outlawed and happiness is mandatory. ”

“ Drugs as panaceas Annotation:The spores of a Martian lichen are an agreeable stimulant to Martians of the 28th century but throw Earthmen into deep trances in which they experience prolonged ecstatic dreams. The dream-dust becomes immensely popular on Earth and is outlawed when everyone seems headed for the oblivion it provides. ”

“ Drugs as mind-expanders Annotation:The Earth has been invaded by slug-like parasitic beings that attach themselves to men's backs and dominate their minds and bodies. The protagonists, Sam Nivin and Mary, are members of a secret security agency fighting the invaders. In the middle of the struggle they decide to get married ”

“ She sinks into a kind of stasis. Unable to perfect an antidote, he injects himself also, and the two of them enter a strange suspended animation in which extreme psychological effects of the metabolic slowdown manifest themselves. ”