Diary of a Drug Fiend

250 The Diary of a Drug Fiend y foetor of the foul breath of the dragon who is on his _ way.to crunch you. = If you make up your mind to endure the disgusting Vsymptoms, the demon soon proceeds to more serious measures. u has explained in her diary more or less what these are. But even with the help of the poet, one cannot give any idea of what it is like. For example, the question of cold. The reader thinks at once of the cold of winter. If he has travelled a little and has some imagination, he may think of the chill spells of fever. But neither of these give much idea of the nature of the cold produced by abstinence. Our poet, whoever he is (his name is not given in the magazine) certainly succeeds in conveying to his reader the truth, that is, provided his reader already knows it. I can’t imagine how it would strike any one who had not experienced it. For he conveys his meaning, so to speak, in spite of the words. This business of expression is very curious. How could one describe, say, a love affair to a person who had never had one or imagined one ? All expression doesis to wake up in the reader theimpressionsin his own experience which are otherwise dormant. And he will interpret what is said or written only in terms of that experience. Lamus said the other day that he had given up trying to communicate the results of his researches to people. They couldn’t even be trusted to read words of one syllable, though they might have taken the best degrees in Humane Letters at Oxford. For example, he would write, ‘Do what thou wilt” to somebody, and would be attacked by return of post for having written “ Do as thou wilt.” Every one interprets everything in terms of his own experience. If you say anything which does not touch a precisely similar spot in another man’s brain, he either misunderstands you, or doesn’t understand you at all.