As John Cusack's character says in the wonderful High Fidelity, "what really matters is what you like, not what you are like." To some extent, the same can be said of drinks and authors; as much as they are what they drink, they often write like they drink. Let's take a look at some examples:
"After the first glass of absinthe you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world. I mean disassociated. Take a top hat. You think you see it as it really is. But you don’t because you associate it with other things and ideas. If you had never heard of one before, and suddenly saw it alone, you’d be frightened, or you’d laugh. That is the effect absinthe has, and that is why it drives men mad" - Oscar Wilde.
Absinthe. If you've had it, you know what it's capable of; if you haven’t, you've probably heard something similar to what Oscar detailed above. Here's the lowdown: the average bottle of absinthe, and there are countless varieties, is 70% alcohol. That's pretty high and with the fun belief that absinthe either does, or once did, contain hallucinogenic components, the wide-spread appeal of absinthe is not difficult to understand. The ethos of absinthe is strongly based in its association with creativity, freedom, and insanity. Many writers and artists at the turn of the 20th century had a strong affinity to the drink as a result of those associations. But everything about absinthe is perfectly suited to Wilde like it is to no other. Just as his writing is an examination of the eccentricities of life and beauty, absinthe entices the consumer to follow the mysterious green fairy on whatever dalliances she fancies. Who knows what you could experience if you just go a little crazy.
Hemingway liked absinthe too; he supposedly drank it everyday while living abroad, and that was even after it was outlawed. The law never stopped old Ernest anyway. But, according to an article on npr.org, Hemingway's perhaps favorite drink was the mojito. This surprises me because I like to think that Hemingway was too much of a man to drink anything with light rum in it. But, alas, this further reveals the sensitive person that seemingly hit beneath the bravado. I like to picture my Hemingway drinking a whiskey neat. But that's because I believe the drink makes the man, and Hemingway was simply not a man made by mojitos. But, what really mattered to Hemingway seemed to be one thing: that he became intoxicated by whatever means necessary, and in that regard he and Jack Kerouac would have gotten along splendidly. "A man does not exist until he is drunk" - Hemingway. Ah. Gotta love that man.
In the literary bar of my mind, Fitzgerald just walked in, took a seat next to his buddy Hemingway, and ordered a gin neat. Supposedly, Fitzgerald preferred this drink because it could be easily concealed with little odor to reveal its presence. It must also be noted that Fitzgerald was a beer drinker if for no other reason than he was Irish. An Irishman is not an Irishman if he doesn't drink beer. Now it may seem a little unfair to in anyway judge Fitzgerald on his drinking habits being that it is widely noted that he was a true lightweight. However, just as Fitzgerald's prose is like a lighter, more easily consumable variation of Hemingway's more harsh and sometimes off-putting constructions, so too can their drinking styles be compared. And Fitzgerald's lightweight nature never stopped him from trying; as determined as he was to be the greatest writer who ever lived, he was equally set on consuming beyond his means. He once said, "In a real dark night of the soul it is always
Last, but not least, the absolutely insane life of the party just walked in. If no one has gone running through the night breeze with a shotgun in their hands just for the sheer exuberance of it, that will be happening soon. Of course, I'm referring to Hunter Thompson. That stir-his-drink-with-his-bare-finger madman. And that finger was normally being inserted into (please ignore how dirty the first part of this sentence sounds) a glass of rum on the rocks. Thompson was a true outlaw, living outside the bounds of any kind of conventional society, so what else would he choose but the drink of a pirate? For Thompson, the connection between living life and the consumption of large amounts of intoxicants was undeniable: "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."
These drinks, and no doubt the other substances that they were often consumed with, may have very well played major roles in the demise of these men. Oscar Wilde and Scott Fitzgerald both died because their bodies ultimately fell apart in their forties. While, Hemingway and Thompson may have lived to be older men, they eventually chose to take their own lives, a choice that shows a deterioration of mental health if not physical, a process that is no doubt aided along by the over-consumption of alcohol. But, as Thompson seems to allude to in his quotation above, what would these men have been without these substances? This question is not meant to imply that these men were only great because they drank and/or abused drugs; nor is it meant to diminish the signifance of health, happiness, and well-being to any human's life. All of that said, the answer to the above question is undeniably, "they would not have been the same." We would not have A Picture of Dorian Grey, "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," The Great Gatsby, or Fear and Loathing in
Until next time,
Leena
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6624971
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