Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Carroll, Jim - Cassie Carter (essay date Winter 1996)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

Cassie Carter (essay date Winter 1996)

SOURCE: “‘A Sickness That Takes Years to Perfect’: Jim Carroll's Alchemical Vision” in Dionysos: Literature and Addiction Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 1, Winter 1996, pp. 6-19.

[In the following essay, Carter offers an assessment of Carroll's diaries, poems, and rock lyrics. Carter discusses the role of Carroll's drug use and addiction in the “ongoing struggle to transform the raw materials of his life into a pure reality” that defines him as an artist.]

pollution is a result of the inability of man to transform waste. the transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest preoccupation of man. gold, being the chosen alloy, must be resurrected—via shit, at all cost. inherent within us is the dream and task of the alchemist. to create from clay a man. and to recapture from the excretions of man pure and soft then solid gold.

—Patti Smith, “The Salvation of...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Seamus Cooney (review date 1 November 1973)
   2. Gerard Malanga (review date November 1974)
   3. Jamie James (review date February 1980)
   4. Chet Flippo (essay date 26 January 1981)
   5. Publishers Weekly (review date 4 April 1986)
   6. Daniel L. Guillory (review date 15 April 1986)
   7. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (review date 9 July 1987)
   8. Peter Delacorte (review date 12 July 1987)
   9. Kirkus Reviews (review date 15 May 1987)
   10. William Hochswender (review date 18 October 1987)
   11. Jim Carroll with Thomas Gladysz (interview date 1987)
   12. Cassie Carter (essay date Winter 1996)
   13. Publishers Weekly (review date 28 September 1998)
   14. Booklist (review date 15 October 1998)
   15. Jim Carroll with Suzan Alteri (interview date 13–19 January 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright