Friday 8 April 2011
Monday 4 April 2011
A Critical Tripology
'Different people, let alone different cultures, have quite clearly approached the same drug differently, and the common thread linking the disparate cultures in their relationship with drugs is more correctly an attitude of ambivalence.
'. . . I think the time is right for psychedelia to undergo a critical and reflexive self-examination. Quite understandably given the legal situation, it has adopted a defensive attitude, seeing itself as a persecuted and misunderstood minority which, nonetheless, possesses privileged access to the truth. To question any of its tenets is to risk being branded ‘anti’, but not to do so, I would argue, is to leave ourselves open to the much more serious accusation of embracing irrationalism.
'. . . A postmodern approach, however, lives with the uncertainty of knowing that all experiences are culturally mediated. If the ‘essence’ of the psychedelic experience necessarily eludes our grasp we must look, instead, to the ways in which experiences are discursively constructed and contested . . . what I’m arguing for is a return to the original questing spirit of the 1950s and 60s which, bizarrely and perhaps counter-intuitively, necessitates a move away from modernist certainties – We need a new, critical Tripology.'
Andy Letcher (from an interview by Psychesdelic Press UK)
'. . . I think the time is right for psychedelia to undergo a critical and reflexive self-examination. Quite understandably given the legal situation, it has adopted a defensive attitude, seeing itself as a persecuted and misunderstood minority which, nonetheless, possesses privileged access to the truth. To question any of its tenets is to risk being branded ‘anti’, but not to do so, I would argue, is to leave ourselves open to the much more serious accusation of embracing irrationalism.
'. . . A postmodern approach, however, lives with the uncertainty of knowing that all experiences are culturally mediated. If the ‘essence’ of the psychedelic experience necessarily eludes our grasp we must look, instead, to the ways in which experiences are discursively constructed and contested . . . what I’m arguing for is a return to the original questing spirit of the 1950s and 60s which, bizarrely and perhaps counter-intuitively, necessitates a move away from modernist certainties – We need a new, critical Tripology.'
Andy Letcher (from an interview by Psychesdelic Press UK)
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