I have a guilty pleasure.
It involves being alone, alcohol and my computer.
No, it’s not what you think it is. Haha… But seriously, it’s not. After a hellish hard day of work, I sometimes engage in a certain ritual which involves a couple glasses of wine (or Sam Adams), music and writing.
After blogging, I usually get lost in solving logic games (from moderate level ones to Cal-Tech status stuff).
I think this style of writing is taking off within the blogosphere. Tim Ferriss recently outlined his typical day on Zen Habits, which included the ritual that I, too, partake in: wine, music, blog.
Of course, I don’t know how many others adopt this type of blogging “zone,” but my sample size of one tells me it’s a trend. And my brain tells me it’s not new.
So, tonight I decided to research other writers who have written some classics with a hint of alcohol flowing through their veins. I’m certain I don’t have a comprehensive list, so please, chime in and let me know of some other notable individuals that have procured masterpieces from similar “arrangements,” if you will.
First off, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Some of you dreaded his work, The Great Gatsby, as your were required to read it in high school; while others, loved it—it may have inspired you. I was neither. Frankly, I don’t remember a lick of it. I was into my own literature at the time, as well as football and a T-Shirt company I launched…which eventually faded into non-existence once the college days began.
Back to F. Scott Fitzgerald—He’s an example of an author that took alcohol way too far. He became an alcoholic. Yet, he understood the costs of alcohol. In a letter, he reasoned that alcohol is okay for short writing sessions (blog posts); however, for individuals that are writing a novel, alcohol may destroy the piece of work you’re trying to create. Why? Memory.
A novel requires one to be in the “zone.” You must literally live within the novel and feel what your character is feeling. If this is to be achieved, it must be achieved when the mind is fully capable of recalling facts (sober).
Fitzrgerald wrote, “A short story can be written on a bottle, but for a novel you need mental speed that enables you to keep the whole pattern in your head and ruthlessly sacrifice as Ernest did in “Farewell to Arms.” If a mind is slowed up ever so little it lives in the individual part of a book rather than in a book as a whole; memory is dulled.”
If blogs were around when Fitgerald lived, he’d probably substitute “a story that can be written on a bottle,” with a blog. So, essentially, he’s saying that alcohol is okay if you’re blogging.
Another author that had an alcohol problem was Earnest Hemmingway.
Hemingway’s drinking had started already when he was a reporter. He could tolerate large amounts of alcohol. For a long time, drinking did not affect the quality of his writing. In fact it enhanced it. It brought out evocative thought patterns that was revealed through his raw work. However, tn the late 1940s he started to hear voices in his head, he was overweight, his blood pressure was high, and he had clear signs of cirrhosis of the liver. His ignorance of the dangers of liquor Hemingway revealed when he taught his 12-year-old son Patrick to drink.
Again, he’s an example of a person that took alcohol way too far. However, in the world of blogging, can you imagine one taking this route? personally, I couldn’t. Their blog would probably suck after a while.
Yet, here’s where the paradox arises. The best blog posts are ones that touch the emotion, break through the unthought thoughts and command a responses. If you want to accomplish this, oftentimes some alcohol is the solution. It hacks away at the “up-tight” walls ingrained in us through the “daily grind.”
Hemmingway once said, “An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.”
The third author to dabble in alcohol is good ‘ol William Faulkner. Rather than the others, Faulker argues that alcohol is only sensible when you’re in your fifties: “There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn’t fool with booze until he’s fifty; then he’s a damn fool if he doesn’t.”
I don’t know about that. The antithesis is more likely to exist today.
The fourth author is, hands down, the coolest: Edgard Allen Poe. The man was straight weird. Seriously. But his work is ingenious (although partly insane). He once reasoned, “I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”
Other authors that dabbled in alcohol include: Jack London, Jack Kerouac, Harry Crews, Raymond Chandler (plus more).
They all had two things in common: being legendary writers, and second, alcohol.
Many of them had another thing in common: early death and insanity.
Bottom line:
If you’re going to drink alcohol, blog. Don’t write a novel.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
i would posit that drunk-twittering is even less risky (and less taxing), plus it has the additional benefit of being feasible while outside with friends. on the other hand, once you tweet something, it’s irrevocable; blog entries with embarrassing bits in them can still be changed if caught early enough.
Many great literary writers, music writers and artists have created amazing work that has inspired generations. And many of them have done so with the use of alcohol or drugs – as mentioned above. In my opinion they are cheating. The creativity is not theirs, it is the result of something else.
Those who are creative without the help of additional substances are the true geniuses (and I know one very well myself).