The Museum Dose

This is the kind of book that I've anticipated for a very long time without knowing it. So it feels like this book came out of nowhere for me. I don't even remember how I stumbled upon it. It might as well have appeared on my dresser after a night of lucid dreaming. And thankfully, it has retained that sense of peculiar existence even after reading.

I really think the conception of this essay collection is perfect. Upon reading the synopsis my mind shot off into an expanse of possibilities. There is easily an entire genre of interpretations latent in this one idea, which I'm only at the beginning of sussing out.

With that said, I placed way too many expectations on this one book. I went into it expecting an entire genre's worth of exploration, recounting, revelation, and discovery. While there certainly are instances of each, they come off in a similar vein to Daniel's prescriptions, microdoses.

These essays are a wonderful display of being present in an aesthetic experience and reflecting on the consciousness that arises from that presence, but there are very few instances where the author connects those aesthetic experiences to anything else in his life. For such an intimate subject I came away feeling like I do not know much about the author, or even the chemical compounds and the process of their curation.

Despite all this, I truly enjoyed reading The Museum Dose, and highly anticipate Daniel's second book. I hope this book becomes an entry-point for similar exploration to many others.