Como reza el subtítulo de este mi blog semanal, Como hablar de todo sin saber de nada, me aventuro a recomendar y escribir sobre un libro y un autor totalmente desconocido para mí hasta anteayer (por lo que huelga decir que todavía no lo he leído), pero tanto las personas que me lo han recomendado como el sello editorial que lo ha publicado en España (Tf. Editores) me garantizan que no me voy a equivocar en compartir con todos vosotros mi singular descubrimiento.
Fitz Hugo Ludlow (1836-1870) es el gran desconocido de la literatura americana injustamente enviado al ostracismo a pesar de haber formado parte del círculo literario (con W. Whitman o Thomas Aldrich) y bohemio de Nueva York que a mitad del siglo XIX supuso cambio de guardia en la literatura norteamericana. En 1955 se publicó El comedor de hachís (mismo año en que apareció en Francia Las flores del mal), hasta hoy uno de los mejores trabajos sobre los efectos del hachís en la mente, en el que Fitz relata sus experiencias visionarias junto a sus reflexiones religiosas, filosóficas y médicas sobre los estados alterados de la mente que produce el cannabis.
Junto a Las confesiones de un comedor de opio, de Thomas de Quincey, y Los paraísos artificiales de Charles Baudelaire, la obra de este outsider americano forma el tridente fundamental de textos literarios sobre los efectos de las sustancias alteradoras de la mente. Y mi recomendación va para todos mis lectores que el tema les interesa por las mismas razones que me interesa a mí, y porque personajes de este calibre no deberían haber caído en el olvido nunca. Pintón desde su portal añade su grano de arena para recuperar a este ángel (y fumeta) maldito.
Una leyenda familiar, más tarde usada para explicar su atracción por las sustancias tóxicas, dice que cuando tenía dos años se subió a la mesa e ingirió pimienta y cayena. Al conocer esta anécdota me he visto moralmente obligado a preguntar a mi madre si de pequeño me había ocurrido algo similar; parecer ser a los cuatro años me sorprendieron chupando chiles como si fueran regalices. Ahora lo entiendo todo.
12 comentarios:
Que bien escribes, Pinton, y como me gusta tu blog. Llevo una semana con "las confesiones de un comedor de opio" de Thomas de Quincey. Luego, y gracias a ti, pasaré a Fitz Hugo Ludlow.
un abrazo
Lucky
Ya veo que eres muy fan, Lucky, pero di que no te pongo una pistola en la cabeza para que escribas esas cosas sobre el rincón de pintón.
un besazo
Muchas gracias pinton, por tus sugerencias, de este Fitz Hugo Ludlow nunca he oído hablar.
Un súper-regalo para mi boy-friend.
Besos
Maria Ricardi
I smoked joints when i first started experimenting with hashish, but now i only vaporize. It’s much better for your lungs. But I do enjoy occasionally rolling and smoking a joint alone or with friends at White House. I used to be one of those people who thought I didn’t need drugs to have fun, but I just realized that everything I thought I knew about hashish & marijuana was wrong. I still have fun without drugs (sometimes, I must say), but when I’m watching a movie or really stressed out, or feel like waking the dog with my friends, I love to smoke some pot first. Everyone should try pot at least a couple times (It takes more than once to fully appreciate it) I do most of my research at marijuanaboutique.com.
And I tried to convince my dearest friend, the hostess and socialite Ana Dominguez to smoke one. I used to tell her "smoking a joint is definitely worth doing. But if you’re only going to do it once, make it a fatty. Oh, and for future reference all you newbie’s at the weed game, the high you get in the beginning may freak you out or make you paranoid, but the first high you get is totally different from the continual high you get when you smoke it regularly. Its more mellow and consistent. EVERYONE should try smoking a joint at least once". she is so sweet, she says just NOOOOOOOOO
Dearest Nancy, I do not want to go deep into this but, believe me, I am a woman with a past.
Oh dear Ana, of course I know you are a woman with a past. However, the thing i like most about you is your lovely house, where you definitely should invite me to.
"It is always an adventure to enter a new room; for the lives and characters of its owners have distilled their atmosphere into it, and directly we enter it we breast some new wave of emotion..."
Virginia Woolf in Street Hauting
Let's smoke a joint.With Bryan Ferry. I know you are completely crazy about that lad.
kisses and kisses and kisses and I love you, Annnnna.
Nancy, I had my doubts about inviting you to my parties. I have always been fond of Clinton. But since Bill said he smoked a joint in the sixties but he did not inhale...well, what can I say, the fact that you go all the way to vaporizing makes you more likeable. Even if I am not fond of drugs I am of people who lives life to the full and in the open. Just give me a day that suits your agenda and I will recieve you in my not-so-white house.
Here I am, the super-elegant Nancy (meeeee....) to the hipper-elegant Ana Dominguez. By the way, do you have anything to do (relatives, I mean) with the Santo Domingo's, you know, Tatiana ?)
Well, oh my God the White House.... in fact I always wanted to face and throw out all the middle class respectabilities and want to live like an old hen wife among ducks and chickens on the countryside. And then, you know, comes the fucking White House...
My dearest, I'd just adored to be part of your life. It would be parties, intimate, grand or bohemian (with drugs, lots of drugs, darling, you must, please…) in Madrid and long week ends in each other's company on Rocio's estate in Seville with Lady Davies, of course, presiding over the teapot. We would sample, enjoy and gossip incorrigibly about the more lavish entertainment on offer at Patricia Reznak-Ferreira or Pinton cool's parties, and delighted in the simpler fare of toasted muffins and home-made jam eaten in Lord Davies's kitchen at his new palazzo in Barcelona, where ducks and chickens wander from room to room and the rules of decorum are so relaxed…
By the way, who told you I am American?.
Nancy, who told me you are american? That pot is really affecting your clarity of mind... You can't go around letting people know your real name and your White House past and then pretend you have nothing to do with it! What can I say? it didn't seem to me that you were based in a cottage in Surrey and were a good customer of Mark and Spencer's (M&S!!!).
Anyway, which is your favorite kind of tea? I mean drinking tea, not smoking one. I would like to offer you something you like the afternoon you come home. I used to buy my teas at Fortnum and Mason's but since it went into a rehab to become modern it has lost all the flair. I still buy at Mariage Fréres dans le Marais in Paris, those young guys in their aprons...hmmm... but you might have a tip for me on american teas which ignore completely. You know americans have never been "my cup of tea" so I never paid attention to their culinary habits, but again I may be wrong. Please advise. Yours truly.-
oh my God,Ana Santodominguez, first of all you must select exquisite old tea cups, of finest china, with a fine tea pot, all sprigged and diferent. Much charming...then you'll ask me about tea, o.k.?
Beso
Nancy Reagen
P.S: you are dying to meet me. You are a snob.
yo le eche un trago a una botella de Brummel que habia en el cuarto de mi padre...en esas expediciones clandestinas que se solian hacer cuando los padres dormian la siesta en verano,en las que coqui se convertia en mi sombra....
ah se me olvidaba decirte que el de yonki(burrughs)tb es a tener en cuenta,no?
tu blog es la caña,besos lorcinos
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