RE: [Leica] Re: Nutmeg

[Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com>]

Here's what Burroughs has to say about nutmeg in "Naked Lunch":

"Convicts and sailors sometimes have recourse to nutmeg. About a tablespoon
is swallowed with water. Results are vaguely similar to marijuana with side
effects of headache and nausea. Death would probably supervene before
addiction if such addiction is possible. I have only taken nutmeg once.
   There are a number of narcotics of the nutmeg family in use among the
Indians of South America. They are usually administered by sniffing a dried
powder of the plant. The Medicine Men take these noxious substances, and go
into convulsive states. Their twitchings and mutterings are thought to have
prophetic significance. A friend of mine was violently sick for three days
after experimenting with a drug of the nutmeg family in South America."

I seem to recall he also talks about shooting nutmeg, in "Naked Lunch" I
think (couldn't find the passage - maybe I'm hallucinating).

Guy


>Nutmeg reminds me of reading a Bird (Charlie Parker) biography where I read
>that it was an early pick-me-up, which gave one quite a buzz, if eaten
>fresh. (the dried stuff has lost its zing). A college friend then proceeded
>to try and eat the rest of our packet of ground nutmeg and said it gave him
>nothing more than 'a pleasant headache'!
>
>Jem
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:	Douglas Cooper [SMTP:douglas@dysmedia.com]
>
>Oh, and by the way:  those colonial nutmeg facilities in Grenada are
>*unbelievably strange.*  It's all about ghosts.  Nutmeg used to be a major
>commodity, in the line of frankincense and myrrh, and Grenada is
>essentially
>a garden.  Almost none of the plant species are indigenous:  the British
>came over and planted the island, primarily as a factory for the production
>of nutmeg.  Now, of course, nutmeg isn't really the world's most exciting
>substance, so all of these plantations are superfluous, and almost
>deserted.
>You still have chalk marks on the walls, to mark the weight and  measure of
>nutmeg; old iron scales from the colonial era; bats.
>
>Douglas Cooper
>http://www.dysmedia.com
>
>NO ARCHIVE