Thinking as high

Thomas De Quincey helped popularize the notion of addict-as-celebrity. But even though much attention has been paid to De Quincey from a variety of perspectives, little attention has been paid to the role that thinking ? intellectualizing for the sheer pleasure of it ? was also central to De Quincey"s work. This is surprising, given De Quincey"s clear and repeated facility for elegant thought. Moreover, De Quincey"s facility for abstraction and dreamy intellectualizing can itself be seen as a type of “addiction”.