Ether / Or

May 13, 2023 7:36 AM

The strands of medicine, consciousness expansion, intoxication, addiction, and crime were tightly entangled in fin-de-siècle Paris, where ether and chloroform circulated among bohemian demi-mondaines alongside morphine, opium, cocaine, hashish, and wormwood-infused absinthe ... Literary references to ether abounded, either as a signifier of decadence or as a literary prop to shift a realistic narrative into the landscape of dreams and symbols, where its dissociative qualities became a portal to strange mental states, psychological hauntings, uncanny doublings, and slippages of space and time. from The Ether Dreams of Fin-de-Siècle Paris by Mike Jay
posted by chavenet (3 comments total)

If ether was our only intoxicant, I would have lived an extreme Straight Arrow life.

I had ether anesthesia for tonsillectomy and hernia surgery as a kid, and I found the smell to be indescribably awful!

I hurt my mother's feelings after one of those surgeries when I told her that she couldn’t hug me because she smelled like ether.
posted by jamjam at 10:23 AM on May 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

Ah, those decadent Parisian bohemians (cite Jerrold Seigel). Interesting artwork.
posted by ovvl at 4:00 PM on May 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Unlike hashish dreams or the “somewhat sickly” visions of opium, the state that followed was one of heightened mental clarity

Speaking as the guy who was the sober one at college parties: Yeah dude. That sure is, uh, interesting.
posted by AlSweigart at 10:16 AM on May 14, 2023 [1 favorite]