"Still Living Flesh": Beckett, Merleau-Ponty, and the Phenomenological Body
Theatre Journal December 1, 1993 DOI: 10.2307/3209015 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Mescaline |
| Citations | 18 |
| Key points | Describes perceptual distortions under mescaline: approaching objects appear to grow smaller, body parts seem disproportionately enlarged, distances and empty space are exaggerated, motion may vanish so people seem transported magically, and other people appear like puppets moving in dreamlike slow motion. |
Abstract
Under mescaline it happens that approaching objects appear to grow smaller. A limb or other part of the body, the hand, mouth or tongue seems enormous, and the rest of the body is felt as a mere appendage to it. The walls of the room are 150 yards apart, and beyond the walls is merely an empty vastness [. ] Sometimes motion is no longer seen, and people seem to be transported magically from one place to another. The subject is alone and forlorn in empty space, complains that all he can see clearly is the space between things, and that this space is empty. Objects are in a way still there, but not as one would expect. .. . Men are like puppets and their movements are performed in a dreamlike slow-motion.