Infinite Summer

Was it just me or did those pages make you feel anxious just reading them?

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Oh, I'm with you on that one. I've never "done" weed (which, as my sister has pointed out, is painfully obviously because apparently, you don't "do" weed), but I've heard about this type of drug anxiety and paranoia that can come on before the drugs even enter the body. And the paragraph length only adds to the anxiety. I feel like I need to go on a long run after reading that passage!

With withdrawal, it is in fact the lack of drugs entering the body that induces this level of anxiety and paranoia. Addicts who are quitting (or trying) are in this state - to a lesser or greater degree, depending on strength of and proximity to desired drug - pretty much constantly.

I think this reaction could be seen in any addiction. I read a few years ago someone did a study showing that people who are addicted to something as seemingly benign as the internet would have increased heart rates and feelings of anxiety while waiting for the "next fix", in that case either access to the internet or just the period between signing on and seeing any email, for instance.

But wasn't it funny how much preparation he went through for something that might not happen?

This section did, indeed, kinda make me feel anxious. But, also, a little weird because I've never heard anyone being "addicted" to pot.

Which made my start thinking about other things and, eventually (and what I think is obvious by the end) it's not that Erdedy is addicted to weed, but that he's addicted to the ritual of it. He's an OCD case to the extreme and it was kind of both and all three sad and terrifying and anxious at the end as he's trapped between answering the door or answering his phone.

Then again, all of this could change as I continue reading.

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First time reader.

Maybe I'm taking things differently than I should, but I found this chapter really funny. (The first chapter was downright hilarious.) It reminded me of my old days when I used to prepare with snacks and soda and the proper Netflixes for a debaucherous smoke-down Friday night, and you're sitting there with money in your pocket tapping your foot watching/not-watching tv, waiting for that bell to ring.

The whole Erdedy section (I assume he'll be back, so I'm of course referring to the first mention of him) made me really uncomfortable. It was so similar to my first failed attempts to quit smoking (cigarettes) some years ago. I'd throw out packs, lighters, ashtrays. Then I'd buy a pack, smoke one, then tear up the rest of the pack. Then go buy another pack and repeat the process. In secret of course because I had told all my friends I had quit. So this chapter really hit close to home. I thought it was brilliant while at the same time making me think oh #$!&% I really was addicted in that creepy DFW way, whew, glad that's over.

I thought this section was hilarious. It really took the ritual associated with a smoking session and blew it up to monumental multi-day proportions. It did make me a bit anxious, mostly because I remember the feeling of knowing that eventually you get to the point where smoking no longer is "a release or relief or fun", but you still want to do it.