How does the theme of writers and alcohol change from culture to culture
(for instance, Italian writers, Russian writers, Indian writers)?

On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 5:09 PM, Bradley Kadel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>  Given our round table last month on writers and alcohol, I thought the
> following from Brian McDonald<http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/author/brian-mcdonald/> might
> be of particular interest.  Be sure to look at the comments, for you'll find
> many more suggestions of titles wherein alcohol plays a prominent role,
> as the author's trusty muse or the subject for exploration through
> characters and places.
>
>
> http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/under-the-literary-influence/?emc=eta1http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/under-the-literary-influence/?emc=eta1
>
> Would it be too much to ask list members for their own favorite authors and
> titles?
>
> For my part, I don't think anyone in the twentieth century described gritty
> barroom intoxication better than James Farrell, especially in the last
> volume of his Studs Lonnigan trilogy. Of course Farrell's writing is quite
> dark, and certainly the tone of most writers describing drunkenness shifts
> considerably by the early 1960s. Ideas?
>
> Brad Kadel
> Fayetteville State University
>
> *************************************************
>
> A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world. That means
> trying to understand, take in, connect with, what wickedness human beings
> are capable of; and not be corrupted - made cynical, superficial - by this
> understanding.
>
> Literature can tell us what the world is like.
>
> Literature can give us standards and pass on deep knowledge, incarnated in
> language, in narrative.
>
> Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are
> not us or ours.
>
>
> From Susan Sontag's acceptance speech on the occasion of being awarded the
> Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels,
> the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
David M. Fahey
Professor of History
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
USA