Literature that crosses the line: Cocaine in books

[cbabe]

https://english.elpais.com/culture/2026-01-03/literature-that-crosses-the-line-cocaine-in-books.html

Literature that crosses the line: Cocaine in books

Since the mid-19th century, the drug has been a cultural constant, and today, reveals ego addiction in a world under the influence

NADAL SUAU
JAN 02, 2026 - 23:45 EST

In the first four pages of Roberto Saviano’s ZeroZeroZero (Penguin Books, 2013), an account of how cocaine rules the global economy from the criminal underworld, colonizing nearly every sphere of human existence, the author recites a very long list of people who might be doing the drug. They come from all walks of life: a teacher, your favorite writer, your neighbor, your department head, your oncologist, a family member — anyone, really. To top it off, Saviano writes, “But if, after you think about it, you’re still convinced none of these people could possibly snort cocaine, you’re either blind or you’re lying. Or the one who uses it is you.”

You won’t forget those four pages, because they’re telling the truth.

That truth may be approached from different angles — financial, therapeutic, political — to understand how cocaine affects decision-making in small, private lives and in presidential offices. There’s the issue of the euphoria and the wounds the drug may be amplifying, what empires it sustains, how many heads are cut off in its name every year. And then there is the cultural perspective, of cocaine entering and exiting books, starring in them, embellishing them, stimulating, exhausting, and deforming the minds of the writers who pen them and the readers who read them. The following lines speak to this angle.

Cocaine culture

Since well before Bret Easton Ellis and his 1990s classic American Psycho, the ritual associated with snorting cocaine has constituted a fantastical visual synthesis of unrestrained capitalism. It involves a substance that looks like a pharmaceutical, placed on a surface in the form of graphic lines with the help of a credit card. We inhale through a rolled-up dollar bill. Bridging the gap between bestseller and literature (think what you will about those categories), Ellis’ novel, which was published in 1991, has with time become a most popular portrait of a cruel and materialist way of inhabiting the world, that of the ruling class of speculative capitalism. In its pages, violence takes the shape of gore, yes, but also that of a banal conversation, a grotesque outpouring of luxury brands (clothes, household electronics, cars) and most certainly, stunted communication. The friends of its protagonist Patrick Bateman call him “a good guy.” Then, he does a gram, looks at himself in the mirror, and commits murder in his high-end apartment. In American Psycho, cocaine is a source of fascination and revulsion in equal measures (although probably the best novel on the subject from the same generation is Jay McInerney’s 1984 Bright Lights, Big City).

… more …

(Oil and cocaine. Something for everyone.)

[txwhitedove]

1. Wow. More books for my list. I have seen this in much of Trump's actions. My own knowledge

from lliving with a cocaine addict is it makes them think they are the smartest person in the room, constantly juggling and moving to stay above the rest of us who realize something is very wrong...but WTF.

[mwmisses4289]

2. Wonder if the author also refers to Sherlock Holmes?

Sherlock injected a seven percent solution, as I recall. The author of those stories was writing in the late 1800s, when cocaine and many other drugs were considered relatively harmless.

Edited to add: I see that he does mention Sherlock. As for Stephen King, I have seen articles where has been asked if he uses, and has vehemently denied using any drugs at all, except those prescribed by his doctor.

[cbabe]

3. From the article:

…

Since the mid-19th century, cocaine has occupied a particular position in culture. To mention a few of most canonical, even clichéd examples of its ubiquity: Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes were familiar with its charms. Sigmund Freud consumed, prescribed and elaborated on it in several works, including On Cocaine. The German poet Gottfried Benn, one of the most somber voices of the interwar period, addressed the subject directly when he thanked cocaine for “the dissolution of ego, that sweet, deeply longed-for state, this is what you give me.” Here too are the nightmares of early Stephen King, which certainly would have been different were it not for his own enthusiastic consumption.

…

[mwmisses4289]

4. Thank you. I was posting my edit at almost the same time, lol.

[cbabe]

5. Cheers.