All this talk of Tuk-Tuks reminds me of a psilocybin mushroom experience I had in Thailand twenty years ago. It was, at first, a royally bad trip, full of some of the most horrifying scenes the mind can cook up. Then William Burroughs, standing beside my mosquito-canopied jungle bed, dressed in a white linen suit, told me, "Embrace the horror: Dive into the molten lava, love the boiling babies and swim into the mouths of the giant snakes." When I overcame my fear and did as he suggested, the trip turned around and I attained a Tiger! Tiger! (Alfred Bester) godlike, flying around the world, clarity and power, followed by the subtlest, most blissful and still poise and peace imaginable - my too-small, white-framed, plastic sunglasses balanced on one aura-glowing finger, as if they contained all the wisdom of the universe.
I've been doing my best to embrace the horror ever since. Thanks Bill.
Image is the 1956 Galaxy Magazine cover illustration for the first publication of Tiger! Tiger!, aka The Stars My Destination.
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