Miserable Miracle (New York Review Books Classics)

(I was quite surprised to find that no one had taken the time to review this little gem of a book here on Amazon. Given the history behind it, especially. I'll briefly try to sum up "Miserable Miracle" here, with due apologies to the complexity of Michaux's work.)It was in the mid-1950's that Henri Michaux, one of the most radical artists of the twentieth century, began experimenting with mescaline. "Miserable Miracle" is the result of his first experiences with the drug, including an overdose which took him months to recover from. Yet belying his reputation as an avant-garde poet and painter is Michaux's clarity and precision here, as interesting a read on the subject of mescaline as Aldous Huxley, whose "Doors of Perception" is often considered the final word on psychedelics. Yet where Huxley sees a vision of an infinite universe suddenly opened up before him, Michaux finds a spectacle about which he can only be ambivalent. If mescaline reveals something to him about the workings of the universe (or, more likely, the processes which make up our consciousness), much of what it ultimately reveals is mechanical, disquieting, or simply painful. The chapter on his overdose in particular portrays just how agonizing the experience can be, as Michaux undergoes the ordeal of ego death that often accompanies a full psychedelic "trip." Having read widely on these substances, both from the perspective of those who extol them and those who continue to demonize them, I must say that it is Michaux more than any other writer who best describes the changes in a person's interior space while under their influence.More importantly, though, Michaux is one of very few writers to address the relationship between the artist and mind-altering substances frankly and without pretension; he fits in comfortably with Thomas De Quincey and Charles Baudelaire, though he had none of the problems with addiction that plagued those two. The true value of "Miserable Miracle" lies in its examination of creativity and individual temperament. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book is contrasting the main text to the later notes Michaux wrote, in which he is able to conclude what benefits he actually drew from mescaline more than a decade after the fact. It is unfortunate that more of his work from this era is not available in English, as I ended up wishing I could see the full development of his views on the drug, which seem to have changed considerably over the years. As Octavio Paz notes in his introduction, "Miserable Miracle" is only the first of three books detailing Michaux's encounters with mescaline. At the end of the day, though, it alone is significant enough to make for essential reading for anyone interested in psychedelics, and even more significant for fans of Michaux's other work. The illustrations of Michaux's infamous line drawings, done under the influence, are alone worth the price of admission. A very enjoyable and enlightening book, overall.(Note: For those interested, City Lights will be publishing "Thousand Times Broken" in September of this year, which includes three of Michaux's books of poetry from this period of experimentation that have never before been translated into English.)

Love it

Very nice and artistic description of enteogen experience wrote by a great poet