"I've Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up to Me." - R. Farina

"..there is always Soma, delicious Soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon..." - Aldous Huxley.

Imagine Hamlet on Soma. Imagine Vincent Van Gogh on Soma. Imagine Hunter S. Thompson on Soma.

I read an article by Peter D. Kramer, the author of "Listening to Prozac," in which he argues that we will be able to eliminate clinical depression as a disease sometime in the near future.

Is this a good thing? Why do we have this romantic notion that depression and "artistic insight," and "literary greatness" go together? Maybe because some of our best writers have been "bummed out?" Shakespeare's "Hamlet," depicts the Sweet Prince as the poster boy of depression (to be or not to be), the quintessential "Melancholy Baby."

Then there's guys like Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, Woody Allen. These guys seem to be able to offer the 'bleak vision,' but somehow, miraculously, they are able to find the trapdoor to absurdity, laughter, joy.

Camus' points out in his famous essay on Sisyphus (the existential hero) who is punished by the gods (the gods intend Sisyphus to suffer) - he is condemned to the futile task of pushing a rock up the hill, only to see it, roll back down, that Sisyphus remains upbeat. His rebellion, his fidelity to self, rests on his refusal to be worn down!

It is joy that opens our eyes to the absurd --- and to freedom! "The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." - A. Camus.

If we could elminate depression, would we make the world safe for Van Gogh? "Beset by great evil, a person can be wise, observant and disillusioned and yet not depressed. Resiliance confers its own measure of insight. We should have no trouble admiring what we do admire - depth, complexity, aesthetic brilliance - and standing foursquare against depression." - Peter D. Kramer