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Kicking the Gong Around
Oct. 21st, 2012 03:50 pmMy brother posted this on Facebook, and I already shared it there, but thought it was interesting enough to link here: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/journey-into-the-opium-underworld/
It's an interview with a historian/collector who became fascinated by opium-smoking paraphenalia and eventually took the habit up as research, because there are very few *accurate* depictions from the era (mostly just a lot of "and now our story takes us to an opium den, because EXOTIC! DECADENT!"). Short version -- it's harder (or it was for him) to become addicted to opium than to the more concentrated modern drugs, but once you are the withdrawal symptoms are hell.
He eventually gave it up, partly because a colleague and fellow-smoker died and her fate scared him; mainly because he realized he would have to sell his collection to make ends meet, and the antiques addiction was stronger than the drug addiction.
I like his comment that "All paraphernalia was made with lots of little facets and angles to reflect this lamp light. It all seems so magical. In fact, that’s the thing you really miss after you’ve quit smoking—the damn lamp, it’s just so beautiful."
ETA -- my comment to my brother was that most "opium addicts" in the Western world were probably laudanum addicts, and thinking about it, yeah -- even the ones like De Quincy or Coleridge were basically going, "Dude, this headache medicine -- I hear in China they smoke it for fun." "Cool, let's mix some of it with our tobacco and try!" "Dude!"
It's an interview with a historian/collector who became fascinated by opium-smoking paraphenalia and eventually took the habit up as research, because there are very few *accurate* depictions from the era (mostly just a lot of "and now our story takes us to an opium den, because EXOTIC! DECADENT!"). Short version -- it's harder (or it was for him) to become addicted to opium than to the more concentrated modern drugs, but once you are the withdrawal symptoms are hell.
He eventually gave it up, partly because a colleague and fellow-smoker died and her fate scared him; mainly because he realized he would have to sell his collection to make ends meet, and the antiques addiction was stronger than the drug addiction.
I like his comment that "All paraphernalia was made with lots of little facets and angles to reflect this lamp light. It all seems so magical. In fact, that’s the thing you really miss after you’ve quit smoking—the damn lamp, it’s just so beautiful."
ETA -- my comment to my brother was that most "opium addicts" in the Western world were probably laudanum addicts, and thinking about it, yeah -- even the ones like De Quincy or Coleridge were basically going, "Dude, this headache medicine -- I hear in China they smoke it for fun." "Cool, let's mix some of it with our tobacco and try!" "Dude!"
