Elizabeth Wurtzel

Adderall Diaries: 8 Great Works of Speed-Fueled Literature

As Joshua Foer once pointed out, ”depressives have Prozac, worrywarts have Valium, gym rats have steroids, and overachievers have Adderall.” Particularly, as it turns out, the literary ones — W.H. Auden was addicted to one of its cousins (Benzedrine, as it happens), just like James Agee, Graham Greene, John-Paul Sartre, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick. This week, we read Kate Miller’s “The Last All-Nighter” at the New York Times and were inspired to look into some Adderall lit, whether memoirs of addiction, novels, or just entire scrolls (yes, that one) written on the stuff. After the jump, a few great works of amphetamine literature — focusing on Adderall, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Benzedrine, just plain speed — and let us know if we missed your hyperactive favorite in the comments. … Read More

The Funniest Twitter Reactions to Elizabeth Wurtzel’s ‘New York’ Magazine Piece

Yesterday evening, New York Magazine’s The Cut published an essay by Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation and a lot of pretty controversial articles over the years, entitled “Elizabeth Wurtzel Confronts Her One Night Stand of a Life.” It’s a rather rambling and entitled affair, though not completely without its moments, we’d say. Twitter, by and large, hates it. In case you’re not following along, we’ve collected the funniest responses to Wurtzel’s piece (as of this morning) after the jump — check them out below, and let us know whether you agree, and what you thought of the article in the comments. … Read More

10 Ridiculously Long-Delayed Movies

This Friday is a day that Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, and Allison Janney probably thought would never come: the release date of Margaret, writer/director Kenneth Lonergan’s long, long, long awaited follow-up to his 2000 debut film, the Oscar-nominated You Can Count on Me. Shot clear back in 2005 (and capturing Paquin pre-True Blood and Damon at around the time he shot The Departed), the picture has spent the last six years in a perpetual state of post-production, with most parties involved blaming the perfectionist writer/director, who has seemed unable or unwilling to settle on his contractually-guaranteed final cut.

Meanwhile, Fireflies in the Garden, the familial drama starring Ryan Reynolds and Julia Roberts, is finally getting a release as well this fall — three years after its debut at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. (Its extended delay appears to be the collateral damage of its original production company’s shutdown.) With both of those dawdling dates finally coming into view, we thought we’d take a look at a few other movies that took (or are taking) a bit longer than the standard one-to-two-year gestation period to make it to the big screen (or to your television). … Read More

Writers We Loved in the ’90s: Where Are They Now?

The ’90s publishing paradigm favored confessional memoirs, legal thrillers, and books about genetically recreated dinosaurs taking over amusement parks. We couldn’t get enough of the stuff. But though we still enjoy the confessional memoir, we’re less inclined to go for a Crichton rip-off today, for whatever the reason. Probably because we’re too engrossed in reading vampire fiction for chaste teens or books about four-year-olds seeing the light. What were the authors you loved in the ’90s that you think fell of the map a bit, readers? Let us know in the comments section below. … Read More