Lawrence Block: When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes
Rich Dubiel
Univ of Wis-Stevens Point
From: Alcohol and Drugs
History Society [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bradley
Kadel
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 4:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Under the Literary Influence
Given
our round table last month on writers and alcohol, I thought the
following from 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.
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.