Trip (book)

Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change is a 2018 nonfiction book by Tao Lin. It is his first nonfiction book, and eighth book total.

First edition cover
AuthorTao Lin
Original titleTrip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreNonfiction, memoir
PublishedMay 1, 2018, Vintage Books
Media typeBook
Pages320
ISBN1101974516 (US)
Preceded byTaipei 
Followed byLeave Society 

Cover

On January 9, 2018, Entertainment Weekly debuted the cover.[1] The article also included an excerpt of the book in which Lin takes psilocybin mushrooms alone in his room and then emails a friend. The article stated that, "The jacket features Lin’s own illustration, one that reflects the themes of chaos and art so intrinsic to the book." The art was one of Lin's mandalas.[2]

Summary

Trip is in eight chapters, with an introduction, epilogue, and appendix. The chapter titles are "Why Am I Interested in Him?", "Terence McKenna’s Life," "My Drug History," "Psilocybin," "DMT," "Salvia," "Why Are Psychedelics Illegal?" and "Cannabis."

Lin describes getting addicted to pharmaceutical drugs and feeling suicidal due to his addition and to the bleakness of his life and his society. At his lowest, he encounters Terence McKenna, the psychedelics enthusiast. McKenna's philosophy changes Lin's perspective from pessimistic to optimistic. He relates his experiences with various psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin and DMT. At the end of the book, Lin visits McKenna's ex-wife Kathleen Harrison, an ethnobotanist. He takes a plant-drawing class with her and meets her children, Finn and Klea, that she had with McKenna.

Release and reception

Trip was published on May 1, 2018. It received mostly positive reviews. Emily Witt, writing in the New Yorker, said, "Lin avoids writing in figurative language, and there is little hyperbole in these reports, nor references to nineteen-sixties-era acid metaphysics. Trip is, if not a guide to self-help, a book about a person trying to be happier, in part by changing the kinds of drugs he uses."[3] John Horgan, in Scientific American, wrote, "If an aspirant asks for an example of experimental science writing, I’ll recommend Trip. The book veers from excruciatingly candid autobiography to biography (of McKenna) to investigative journalism…to interview-based journalism to philosophical speculation to first-person accounts of the effects of DMT and Salvia."[4] In the Irish Times, Rob Doyle gave the book a mixed review, concluding, "Trip is a sane book about becoming sane, and Lin’s most valuable work to date."[5]

Foreign editions

A French edition from Au Diable Vauvert was published in 2019.[6]

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References
  1. Canfield, David (2018-01-09). "Preview Tao Lin's psychedelic nonfiction debut, Trip". ew.com. Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 2020-07-11. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  2. "Tao Lin". taolin.tumblr.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-17. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  3. Witt, Emily. "The Psychedelic Renaissance: Trip Reports from Timothy Leary, Michael Pollan, and Tao Lin". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2019-03-15. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  4. Horgan, John. "Oneness, Weirdness and Alienation". Scientific American Blog Network. Archived from the original on 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  5. Doyle, Rob. "Two books to help get your head around the psychedelic". The Irish Times.
  6. "Lin, Tao". Archived from the original on 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
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