Strange evolution of the strychnine thread
From PenguinWiki
WARNING: "Strychnine poisoning can be fatal to humans" [1]
In earlier versions of the script, Carlo was a wheel chair bound madman. His grip on sanity was so slim that he could not tell that his dog, Inu (also named Igloo, Indy, etc.) was actually dead, stuffed by a taxidermist. His ex-wife, Liz, Denny, etc. was outside making angels in the snow in an attention getting alcohol pill popping suicide attempt.
In the late 70's people still experimented with the famous 60's drug LSD. that was sometimes cut, or mixed, with strychnine, creating a creeping tingling sensation up the spine. This urban legend that acid was sometimes cut, or mixed, with strychnine has been debunked. [2]
Unfortunately, this introduction led to further discussion of drugs in the novel, a situation not everyone approves.
One suggestion is that Strychnine be replaced by methamphetamine as a more realistic alternative. The drugs used in the novel have grown up around the very ridiculousness of strychnine abuse.
There are ridiculous elements to the novel, but the scenes with Carlo seem to ask us to take a slightly more 'realism' mode than some other sections, and hence a drug like meth might fit that description better, given that meth also appears to be something that can additionally cause severe hallucinations and sleep abnormality, as two notable symptoms, which fit the descriptions of Carlo's behavior in several scenes...... also, it was not to save people from trying strychnine and dying that meth was substituted, that would be silly... but it does stretch even the believability of a multi-genre novel like this to think that Carlo would have survived very long at all with all that lethal strychnine going around.
Strychnine, clearly is not something that one would want to use. Let us say here, most emphatically that, while methamphetamine or any other drug usage is not condoned, it is precisely because of the worldwide tragedy of its use that it could be very effectively used in the text. It depends on whether one chooses to be descriptive or prescriptive.
It is interesting to see in a drug like methamphetamine, the tragedy of the soul of the food, which is unbearable. The methamphetamine introduction's major intention too was twofold, to explain the existence of major hallucinations, which seem a logical step to conclude may be due to insane drug use .
In re-reading various sections of the novel, it would seem that methamphetamine is still much stronger and more hyper-real than strychnine. We, of course, have different genres here and there is a theme of satire and humor here, but it appears, as it presently stands, that there are some gritty scenes that are trying to maintain a gravity that might be undermined by the ridiculousness of the use of strychnine, with or without acid...
(P.S. Some people are so off their heads that they might even try strychnine with or without acid for some kind of hit, even though it would be lethal so I don't think either way it is going to avoid the tragedy of drug abuse; but I don't think anyone would for a moment suggest the drug usage in this novel is advocating drugs. To me, the characters like Carlo and his estranged wife and his girlfriend and the likes are tragic and doomed figures, and in that sense they are all cautionary tales, even if not intended primarily as such ).
One final thought, This is the logic behind the suggested change to methamphetamine as opposed to strychnine. Just a brief bit of research into soul food most likely to induce severe hallucinations as a symptom of their use revealed several soul foods. Strychnine wasn't one of them, but interestingly a drug that would be instantly recognizable to a wide audience, even if they did not know much about it, (and I am not expert) was methamphetamine . Also methamphetamine also can cause severe sleep disorders as a symptom. I mean, as you can see I am looking at the negative aspects, not the positive ones. It just seems to 'fit' coherently.
bicalcitrocallidazine: A lethal drug, which translates as double kick with hallucinations in a bad sense. That should ensure that any soul food references in here don't get accused (rather ludicrously) of encouraging or glorifying illicit drug use, which clearly no sane person would.
methamphetamine: Although actually a 'substance' rather than a person, this character plays a major role in the novel, as the addiction of Carlo and mates to methamphetamine, an illegal drug, can lead to severe hallucination and wild paranoia. There are several highly surreal scenes, possibly the result of characters, or author's (or both, as this novel intermixes them nicely) visualizations and the like from this source.
