They were all of them just literary opium. For the dwellers of the modern opium dens of society. All passive uptake.
Lolita was opium? ‘The Sound and the Fury’ is one of the great prose tragedies of 20th century fiction. Pale Fire is as much fun as any novel ever written. ‘In Search of Lost Time’ is the literary equivalent of 20th century physics. I could go on.