Acid is a Gift From God

“Drinking out of Cups” is a representative animation of a monologue that was recorded during the latter stage of one man’s trip on acid after he locked himself in a closet for hours. Looking to elements of classical literary criticism, we can shed light on this piece, in terms of the Platonic concept of the muse. Plato maintains, "[...] the only thing each individual poet is able to compose well is what the Muse has stirred him to do" (Plato 6). Taking this argument into account, we would need to consider some source of inspiration. According to Plato, every aspect of this video, right down to the man locked in the closet is divinely inspired. He states, "[...] god takes away their reason and uses them as servants, as he uses prophets and divine seers, so that we who hear them may know that it is not these people, whose reason has left them, who are uttering such valuable words, but that it is god himself who speaks and addresses us through them" (plato 6). This statement illuminates the issue which is brought to light through this clip; through acid, this man was able to send the message of God to the audience.

Accodring to Plato, art and poetry are three times removed from the source of what inspired it. In his "Ion" he writes, "[...] your spectator is the last of the rings which [...] derived their power from each other [...]. The middle one is you, the rhapsode and actor, and the poet himself is the first. Throught all these, the god draws the souls of men wherever he wants, making the power of one depend upon the other" (plato 7). What this alludes to is that what we see in the clip came from the twice-removed rhapsode, who is essentially an actor conveying the message of the poet, who is still not the source of the inspiration. The random words uttered by the man are the product of a seemingly profound experience with psychotropic drugs. But according to Plato, the Muse is the source of the inspiration. God, if you will, is what drives this piece. So, would it be a stretch to say that, since the random utterances of the rhapsode are a result of a deep acid trip, that acid is a gift from God? According to Plato, the answer is no. He writes, "[...] for it is not skill that makes them utter these fine things, but a divine force; since if they knew how to speak well about one topic through skill, they would be able to speak about all the others, too" (Plato 6).

Looking again at the significance of this masterpiece in terms of classical literary theory we invariably find that there exists some intangible source of inspiration. This God, or God-like muse, inspires the poets whose works are recited through means of a rhapsode. After its passage through each filter, works like “Drinking out of Cups” are copies of the original, and as close as we—the audience—will ever get to the source.

Works Cited
Classical Literary Criticism. Trans. T.S. Dorsch and Penelope Murray. London: Penguin Books, 2004.
Clip: Dan Deacon and Liam Lynch: Drinking out of Cups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skCV2L0c6K0