Saturday, June 6, 2009

What I have been trained to do


I enjoy reading. It's one of the things that I have always enjoyed, from childhood through adulthood. Many of the modern writers that are considered creative geniuses were alcoholic. Take for instance Sinclair Lewis, Hart Crane, Eugene O'Neill, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway: All were alcoholic. Sinclair Lewis once asked, ''Can you name five American writers since Poe who did not die of alcoholism?''

There are about thirty writers who were seriously knocked around by drink, and seven or eight killed by it. One of the interesting semi-autobiographical novels about alcoholism was written by Jack London. In John Barleycorn, he writes: "I achieved a condition in which my body was never free from alcohol. Nor did I permit myself to be away from alcohol. If I traveled to out-of-the-way places, I declined to run the risk of finding them dry. I took a quart, or several quarts, along in my grip. I was carrying a beautiful alcoholic conflagration around with me. The thing fed on its own heat and flamed the fiercer. There was no time in all my waking time, that I didn't want a drink."

London also writes about the hopelessness of his drinking: "I have decided coolly and deliberately that I shall continue to do what I have been trained to want to do: I will drink--but oh, more skillfully, more discreetly, than ever before." For the next three years he tried to do that. He decided to go on drinking because he decided he had a right to; that this right derived from his having "been trained to want to."

Jack London rationalized his drinking. He thought that the problem was totally one driven by a "habit of mind". His need was mental and social: "When I thought of alcohol, the connotation was fellowship. When I thought of fellowship, the connotation was alcohol. Fellowship and alcohol were Siamese twins. They always occurred linked together."

He tried to drink "more skillfully" and perhaps for a while his attempt at controlled drinking may have seemed to work. But Jack London was almost as consumed with his drinking problem as he was with the drink itself. Eventually though, drinking got the best of him.

For him, there was no 12 step program. The book John Barleycorn tells 'what it was like'. But there was no 'what happened, and what it is like now.' He became comatose early in the morning of November 16, 1916. By seven that evening he was dead. His death was from a lethal dose of morphine sulphate with complications from uremia and kidney failure. Jack London was just forty and world-famous. The book is a chilling portrait of what alcoholism did to London.

19 comments:

  1. So that is where the John Barleycorn as referenced in the Big Book came from? I learn something every day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i didn't know that... gonna look up that book. oh, by the way, have you read 'for one more day' by mitch albom? very very good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I read that the "most creative" were alcoholic/addicts, I think that is ridiculous. (I know you are not saying that here)The names you mentioned are always brought up to support this view. For every alcoholic that was creative, one could name 10 famous writers that were not. It's an excuse to continue destructive drinking. Odd that no one ever says, "wow, that Shakespeare sure was talented without being a drunk."

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is interesting how addiction plays mental tricks on a person and leads one along a path to self destruction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Syd, thank you for a very interesting blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fascinating post, I enjoy all the authors you mentioned. I don't think we can generalize anything so can't say "the most creative" were alcoholic/addicts; but there is something to it. For me personally, I write the best poetry when I am depressed. I think a lot of creative people that were depressed drank/used. There's a book called "The Van Gogh Blues" that talks about it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lond Jack is falling down, falling down, falling down,
    London Jack is falling down.
    And he done died.

    ReplyDelete
  8. and let us not forget Paul Bowles who smoked hashish, William Burroughs who was a junkie, and Henry Miller who was more than likely a sex addict.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow, this is really interesting. This post makes me want to read the book to remind myself of how tragic alcoholism can be. Thanks for writing about this.

    ReplyDelete
  10. My dad who is a avid reader once told me that, he said many a author had been ruined through drink, I dont think at the end I associated drink with being sociable it was more being alone with stuff for me a place to escape to on my own.
    The Lost Weekend is my favourite about the depths of drink described in graphic detail

    ReplyDelete
  11. Stephen King says it's bullshit that writers are more creative from their drinking. He says it's the alcoholism that tries to convince artists that this is true.

    I'm totally paraphrasing, but it is in King's book On Writing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hey November 16th is a pretty auspicious day for Alkies. Dr Bob, me. I wonder if its more than a coincidence.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thanks for this tip, Syd...I RAN to the library today to get this and it IS riveting.

    As a "double winner" I am especially struck by his attempt at "controlled drinking"...rings so true.

    ReplyDelete
  14. it is sad how insane our twisted thinking is. and how easy we believe the lie. i read about David Carradine and how he was found naked and bound by a rope hanging in his closet. his family is sure there was foul play. the sad truth is that is how fast our inner insane addict can get the better of us. that is also a clear cut sign of addiction. alcohol/addiction are considered two different animals. i think they are very closely related. i never could control my drinking any more than i could control my using it is both scary and sad and that is the struggle we have everyday in recovery and that is the road we fight to stay away from. thanks for this as always you are thought provoking and amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It's remarkable to me that without fail, no matter how famous or infamous, alcoholics have that same mindset. Very interesting dialogue in this post. Hope you've had a great weekend on the boat.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I never know what I'm walking into when I come to your blog, but one thing is for certain. I never leave disappointed.

    You are such an inspiration to so many others with your excellent daily topics. Thanks for your hard work and dedication toward having such an incredible, powerful blog.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I didn't know that, Syd. Very interesting and sad post.

    Love,

    SB

    ReplyDelete

Let me know what you think. I like reading what you have to say.