Book Review: Psychedelic Modernism: Literature and Film by Raj Chandarlapaty

Psychedelic Modernism: Literature and Film by Raj Chandarlapaty

268 pages, Hardcover

Published: February 7, 2024 by Vernon Press 

This will be a short review because I admit I read only the first one hundred pages about Audlus Huxley and the two chapters on Philip K. Dick. The other is presenting one of the chapters on Phil at the PKD Fest. (I am very much looking forward to that)

This is a topic I didn’t know much about; drugs and Psychedelic literature are something I have an interest in despite being straight edge myself. The first 100 pages taught me a lot about the author of Brave New World Audlus Huxley, I didn’t know that he was pretty much a campaigner for mind-expanding adventures, that the Doors got their name from his book all new to me. RC's research and details about this author’s life are worth picking up this book. 

The two chapters on PKD are certainly strong. The statement that I really liked was this one. “Author D. Scott Apel summed up the terminological axis most favorable to our inquiries: The unknown side of Phil was that he probably was a philosopher in a world where philosophy and philosophy had been replaced by technology. Now we have science, what do we need philosophy for? We can find out what works and what’s real. Nobody needs to speculate about it. If you want to be a philosopher, be a physicist. But Phil was a traditional classical philosopher.”

I am sure there is excellent, well-researched material throughout the book, but the Dick and Huxley stuff worked really well for me. I look forward to this lecture at PKD fest.