• xantoxis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    123·
    2 months ago

    I’m reminded of this story

    (All credit to SK for actually quitting his habits.)

    • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
      373·
      2 months ago

      I used to be far more productive when I was on drugs. The only reason I quit is because of the police harassing me. Now I’m just a shell being addicted to online media. I’m currently waiting until I can get my drivers license back which was taken. Not because I was driving under the influence, but because they simply found some stuff in my saliva. They really want to make the world safe of drugs so now I’m depressed at home trying to pay off my debt to the government because they want to keep me safe? Well it doesn’t make sense but if me being punished and repeatedly being kicked to the ground is the correct way of making the world safe I will do that! Instead of being a happy guy, driving safe on the road and doing some drugs at parties sometimes, I will embrace the nights of insomnia the government forces upon me. At least I can’t drink all of the problems they caused me away, as the only money I have is now considered theirs. What a great society to live in.

      • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.netEnglish
        6·
        2 months ago

        Reading about the guy, I’m convinced he was autistic too. “Diagnosing” historical people is always a bit sus, but I believe this because I know so many autistic nerds in academia who are so much like Erdős. More than that though, I see the ableism in how his narrative is framed. Take for example the following passage from Wikipedia

        “He would typically show up at a colleague’s doorstep and announce “my brain is open”, staying long enough to collaborate on a few papers before moving on a few days later. In many cases, he would ask the current collaborator about whom to visit next.”

        That quote isn’t one of the bad ones, but other stories about the same thing often frame him turning up at his colleagues’ homes almost like charity, and they emphasised how he had basically never lived independently and struggled with many essential daily living tasks. Except the charitable vibes are diminished by how this is often framed like a trade — housing the genius man-child is an inconvenience and a stress, but ultimately worth it for the ability to bask in his genius and collaborate. It can reduce Erdős down to a 2D character, and adds a weirdly transactional vibe to what is better understood as a community, separated by geography but united by love of maths, supporting each other.

        Maybe it’s because I’ve known people like Erdős — weird people who you remember forever because if anyone deserves the label “genius”, they do — but also, they’re just people who have some things they struggle with, and plenty of stuff that they can do, but prefer not to. Hell, I even have one of them crashing on my floor right now, while he’s between homes.

        • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlEnglish
          7·
          2 months ago

          They don’t enhance creativity but when you take them, instead of sitting there thinking/stressing about how you are gonna do your creative endeavor, you just do it. It allows you to act on you creative urges and allows you to formulate them into full concepts rather than jumping from one idea to the next.

          Imagine you want to write a paper, you have this idea you desperately need to write down, not just to share it with others but also to help yourself fully understand the idea you have but instead of writing this personally important paper you instead sit there and stress about the action of writing for so long that you lose energy and motivation despite never writing a single word. For so long that you lose sight of that original glorious idea and if you eventually write that paper it feels like an utter dissapointment. It took so much damn energy just to think about and when its finally done its shit. Its not even close to what you had in your head and now you don’t even want to improve it bc the whole process was exhausting.

          ADHD meds get reduce the severity of that original issue, that executive dysfunction. So no it won’t make you more creative but it will stop you from stressing so much about the process that you forget the creative part.

  • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
    73·
    2 months ago

    Let’s not forget the movie, Maximum Overdrive Cocaine.

    On a less auspicious note, 1986 also marked the nadir of the cocaine addition phase of King’s career in the form of Maximum Overdrive, the first, last and I think it’s safe to assume, only, adaptation of Stephen King’s work to be directed by Stephen King himself. In Hollywood’s Stephen King, King says, with characteristic self-deprecating bluntness, that he was“coked out of [his] mind all through its production, and [he] really didn’t know what [he] was doing.”

    That comes through loud and clear in every frame of the movie. King is credited as director here but this might be another case of a giant bag of cocaine becoming sentient and deciding to direct a movie that reflected its sensibility in its purest form. King is one of our greatest storytellers, but a movie about a crazy world full of Southern-fried assholes where all the machines suddenly become sentient and try to kill all humans sure seems like the kind of idea a sentient bag of cocaine would come up with.

    • Adderbox76@lemmy.caEnglish
      19·
      2 months ago

      Maximum Overdrive is crazy fun schlock. It’s not even a guilty pleasure for me; I simply unironically and full-throatedly love it.

      Not all movies need to be Citizen Kane. Sometimes a coke-fueled, overly acted B-movie is exactly what the soul needs.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      161·
      2 months ago

      Carrie: The Musical was also around that time. It was one of the biggest flops in Broadway history. I would not be at all shocked if cocaine played a big role in Stephen King okaying a musical based on Carrie.

      • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
        34·
        2 months ago

        Cocaine “Hey Stephen.”

        Stephen King “Yeah, cocaine?”

        Cocaine “You like musicals, right?”

        Stephen King “I do now.”

        Cocaine “You know how people are trying to get Carrie turned into a Broadway musical?”

        Stephen King “Yeah…”

        Cocaine “You should a okay and use the money.”

        Stephen King “What should I buy?”

        Cocaine “More cocaine.”

        Stephen King “Damn good idea.”

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        2 months ago

        King pretty famously gave the thumbs up to pretty much anyone who wanted to adapt certain stories. It was the “Dollar Baby” program and it ran from the late 70s/early 80s to about 8 months ago.

        Plus, you know, cocaine.

    • thejoker954@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      2 months ago

      Granted I haven’t seen it since I was a kid, but I remember Maximum Overdrive as a cheesy fun B movie.

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zipEnglish
    19·
    2 months ago

    I think it was Cujo he doesn’t remember, and it was because he was just drunk af the whole time

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      201·
      2 months ago

      Wikipedia agrees with you:

      King discusses Cujo in On Writing, referring to it as a novel he “barely remembers writing at all.” King wrote the book during the height of his struggle with alcohol addiction. King goes on to say he likes the book and wishes he could remember enjoying the good parts as he put them on the page.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cujo