When the novelty wears off

De Quincey splits Confessions of an English Opium Eater into three sections - an introduction, a section titled "Pleasures of Opium" and another titled "Pains of Opium". I found it interesting and revealing that, in the  section dedicated to the pleasures of the drug, De Quincey describes the drug in a flurry of technical jargon and medical terminology. He discusses the medicinal uses of opium and the chemical process by which it numbs pain and alleviates symptoms of stress, but never praises it on a level of personal experience. This reveals that, at the time of writing Confessions, De Quincey held a negative perspective on opium and was unable to reflect positively on the drug due to the years of pain and torment his abuse brought him. When a drug user who has not yet crossed the threshold into destructive abuse writes about the drug in use, that user might describe how much more enjoyable it makes his personal every day experiences or how it improves his ability to work on his craft. De Quincey has moved away from that period of productive indulgence with opium and now sees it as an agent of mental instability. To him, it is no longer fun and enlightening (as we find out in "Pains of Opium") and the only "pleasures" to be derived from the stuff is strictly medicinal.

Drugs and the Gothic

We always talk about the Gothic and way it lets us as readers into the characters head. Well what better way to get inside someones head than to see them on drugs. In the case of Thomas De Quincey we see this through his "confession" or "autobiography." Even though his "confession" is a true story it provides insight into his mind and a narrative into the pain that comes with an opium eater. By placing us in the mind set of someone with an opium addiction, are we not also placed into the mindset of the Gothic? I believe that Thomas De Quincey was first and foremost a writer so when it came to his, time to confess, he wanted even his opium addiction to be written about in a way that shows off his skills as a writer. In this way when we get to the second half of his confession, the pain, we see a narrative that pulls us into his mind and leaves us almost fearful of the drug opium, and yet at the same time sympathetic with Thomas De Quincey.

Random facts about De Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium Eater"

First published anonymously in 1821 in the London magazine.

Served as inspiration to Hector Berlioz's famous piece Symphonie Fantastique.

Thomas De Quincey

Thomas De Quincey's Grave

Insomnia...the worse form of horror

In Confessions of an English Opium Eater, De Quincey goes through the different stages of the effects of Opium. To me it sounded a lot like the arguments today for legalizing marijuana where you have the one side that claims that it's an abomination and that it should not be used for any reason. Then you have the other side which claims that it is a very beneficial herb that can be used to treat serious diseases and help people cope with the pain that these diseases bring. The position that De Quincey takes on opium is similar to this medicinal marijuana viewpoint. He downplays the pleasures that opium can bring by emphasizing the pain that it treats as well as the side effects that he experiences along the way. One of these side effects that he experiences when his body starts going into withdrawals from the drug is not being able to enjoy sleep and almost forcing him into becoming an insomniac. Now I'm not sure how many of you have ever gone long periods without sleep, but it truly can be a terrible thing. I was awake for 3 days straight once and it was the most terrible thing I have ever experienced. When you sleep, your brain is cleansing itself of toxins that it has become subject to throughout the day so when you don't sleep, your brain  is not able to go through this process. Add opium to the mix and you have yourself some pretty intense hallucinations going on, as De Quincey demonstrates. Anyways, the point I am trying to make is that De Quincey has been experiencing the highest form of terror which locks you in your own head and makes you a prisoner of your own imagination in both the conscious and unconscious states. Now I could go into a spiritual take on things, if some want to hear that than let me know and I will go into that but otherwise I will leave that alone for now.

Keats, opening lines and fear of mortality

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As most have mentioned, I read Keat’s “When I Have Fears” as a poem about poet and his fear of death, or mortality. Most of Keat’s work was about death. He was obsessed with it. Compared to most of Keat’s work, this poem paints a more vivid picture of death.

The opening lines: “When I have fears that I may cease to be / Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain, / Before high-piled book, in charactery / Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain,” is quite specific. It’s about the poet’s fear of dying before feeling a sense of accomplishment— dying before reaching his full creative potential. This idea could be related to any artist, or anyone— anyone who is displeased with their current state

Keats and Negative Capability

The thing that I love about Keats' poetry is its negative compatibility. Negative compatibility is the ability to contemplate the world without the desire to try and reconcile contradictory aspects or to fit it into closed rational symbols. This is something that Keats' discussed in many of his letters with the second wave of Romantics (usually in regard to Shakespeare). But this theme is also seen in his own poetry. For our purposes, When I Have Fears is the best example of negative compatibility.

The narrator of the poem admits that he has fears of death, and that he will never have the opportunity to fully live. But, he still takes comfort in the "night's starr'd face", beauty within his "fair creature of an hour", and "unreflecting love." It is key, however, that the narrator does not try to rectify his fears; he does not attempt to reconcile contradictory aspects such as love and death and beauty into neat little boxes. He merely accepts his fate, the fate of humanity, which is to die just as surely as you have lived. For if there is one thing that we know, it's that whomever is born must also die. I feel that the couplet is the epitome of being human,
"Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink."

Confessions of an English Opium Eater

In class, we discussed the difference between terror and horror. The idea that this kind of "pleasing terror" can be similar yet different from what De Quincey describes, particularly in the section called Pains of Opium, was interesting to me. To me, it seemed that terror is something physical that can be controlled or manipulated- it's the helmet in the garden, or the skeleton in the chest. There is a way away from it, and there is a way to escape it. Horror, on the other hand, is internal.  This section is full of intense imagery that continues to build upon itself, for example, "I was the idol; I was the priest; I was worshipped; I was sacrificed," (199). This building of imagery shows the decline of mental stability. What De Quincey experiences in Pains of Opium does not go away. It manifests itself within his dreams, within his every waking moment. Because this horror is so internal, there is no way for De Quincey to escape it, and it essentially drives him mad.

Incomplete

Keats' poem, "When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be" is a resonating poem that reflects a moment of contemplation that eventually everyone in their life reaches. The recognition that each person has of their own mortality and that, ultimately, they will leave the world incomplete and with unfinished business. As he laments that he will expire before his "pen has glean'd [his] teeming brain", we come to realize that the point of his poem is that you could live forever and never be finished with everything you have to do because as long as you live, you'll still be doing these things. He is saying that he could never live long enough to say everything he has to say or write everything that he has to write and this poem is acknowledgment that his time is limited and even if he had forever, there would always be something to occupy his attention and he will never succeed at doing everything it is that he wants.

Inner Opiates

Having read and discussed De Quincy's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, we see the effects of opium on someone of a high intelligence and how the processes in his brain became both enlightened and twisted while on the drug. De Quincy talks about his experience of everything becoming vast and infinite, expanding forever outward and making him feel insignificant. I think that this is an interesting effect of the drug considering that in the footnotes of Coleridge's Kubla Khan, Coleridge was under the influence of an anodyne described as opium and fell asleep after reading a few short lines about "The Khan Kubla" and awoke to write an entire poem based around these few lines. The footnote goes on to say how he was detained during the writing of this poem and when he returned back to his desk, had forgotten most of what he was picturing so vividly only an hour before. What is interesting when looking at some of the lines in what came to be his poem Kubla Khan are some of the identical descriptions to De Quincy's Confessions. He writes about "ancestral voices" and a "deep romantic chasm" not unlike what De Quincy experienced in his dream states. It is perhaps the line: "The shadow of the dome of pleasure" that best describes what De Quincy and Coleridge experienced, as they both found an immense pleasure in their "trips" but not without some sort of balanced out darkness, whether it be in Coleridge's case, a visual chasm, or De Quincy's, an emotional panic and overwhelming sensation of horror.

Death = Comfort Food?

At first glance “Sonnet: When I have fears” can be read as someone that has become aware and fearful of their own mortality. John Keats was a little death obsessed too I think, so it would make sense for him to have such an awareness and fear of death. Both his parents were dead by the time he was fourteen years old, and his brother died from tuberculosis (like their mom)a few years after “Sonnet: When I have fears” was written after all.  However, after re-reading “Sonnet: When I have fears”, I felt like the fear of death was both an issue and an illusion of what Keats was really reflecting upon. Keats does share that he is afraid of death more or less because he does not want to die unsuccessful or unloved. Let’s face it, who really does want to die without love or some sort of fame in their life? Death has a tendency to create a sense of anxiety in one. At the same time though, I also felt like Keats made death out to be more of a double agent that frees one from that anxiety. Death makes everything else mentioned meaningless. Both success and love are twisted into something that ultimately means nothing in the end, so why worry or fear? Death appears to be the problematic cure according to Keats, and not something to completely fear.

Paradigm shifting to the head!

I think that Radcliff really does a great job of not going by the status quo. She draws her readers in thinking that they are getting the traditional story and then slaps them upside the head with paradigm shifting literature. It really is a great tactic on her part for the time period that she is living in. If you take into account the fact that women weren't viewed as equals quite yet it's easy to see why she originally published this under a pseudonym and started everything off the way that she did. She wants her readers to start off in their comfort zone. It is a great tactic to draw your reader in before challenging tradition views of society. It isn't until part 3 that she even starts challenging the French government. If someone starts challenging traditional thought process too soon, then people will just put down the book. However, if you draw the reader in, get them attached to the characters, and then start changing the way that they think towards the end it's like shooting fish in a barrel. The reader is already too far down the metaphorical rabbit hole to put the book down and the author gets her point across while the reader is none the wiser.