Question of the Week
Question of the Week #9: Benders in Books
Welcome! I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed this Friday, and my upcoming trip into anesthesia-land got me thinking about drug/alcohol benders in books.
Drugs and alcohol appear in many of the English language's most notable works: sometimes they provide comic relief, at others they allow characters to leave their bodies and gain a truer view of themselves.
If you've come across drug- or alcohol-fueled action in books, what did you think of it? Was it funny, revelatory, both, neither? If you haven't, what book or character could really use a good trip?
One of my favorite books, David Copperfield, includes a short scene in which the lovable hero David overindulges in beer with his friends. There's slapstick humor--I think David falls down the stairs--and some less-than-successful attempts, on David's part, to impress a lady friend. But when drunken David looks in a mirror, he sees a strange vision of himself that is illuminating in the context of the novel.
What about you?
Replies (7)
Posted by
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Alice in Wonderland anyone?
Jan 12, 2009 5:27 pm
by littlelupin -
Ah, yes, littlelupin--the book that makes *you* feel as if you're on a bender! That is should be the third part of the question: what books have made you feel as if you were on a wild trip?
by MaggieH (admin) -
Alice in Wonderland doesn't make me feel "high", although I sometimes wonder if that book wasn't written as a result of drug use by its author....? I have also heard that the Grimm brothers were on drugs when they wrote their famous and (let's face it) REALLY WIERD fairy tales.
Sherlock Holmes uses cocaine to while away the time and obliterate his ennui in between mysteries. Reading this little bit of information about everyone's hero detective made me feel let down and disappointed!Jan 14, 2009 4:26 pm
by AndreaNo1 -
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley is his account of an experience with mescaline. Huxley saw psychedelic drugs as a means for everyone to access a hidden or forgotten mystical/spiritual life. It's really interesting to read how he describes his surroundings under the influence of the drug and then what he makes of the experience.
Alternately: towards the end of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, the hero of the story realizes her husband has started using LSD. Through the drug, he's found an ecstatic and spiritual place, but he sounds crazy when he describes it and his wife knows that she's lost him forever.
The book is about trying to understand and discover the truth about something that's cryptic and un-understandable. I think that with that scene, Pynchon is acknowledging drugs as one way to try to reach a transcendental state, but not necessarily an effective one.Jan 15, 2009 5:15 pm
by emilyyoung -
Well, as part of what may be the younger crowd of DailyLit, I feel that Impulse by Ellen Hopkins gave me a bit of a rush. While reading that book, which is written in first person through three different perspectives, you're following three suicidal people who have experienced the tougher side of life. The descriptions are remarkable, in that I truly felt how they would have felt; the pain, the happiness and everything else.
Jan 19, 2009 9:02 pm
by books -
Perhaps the greatest description of an alcohol-drenched book is 'Moscow to the End of the Line' by Erofeev. It's Russian and depicts a man's train ride to visit his girlfriend. It might not sound too terribly exciting, but the writing reflects the protagonist's experience, including confusing time and space. There are also angels who help guide him to more alcohol. It really is brilliant.
Jan 20, 2009 4:04 pm
by mayadare -
This is a tough one, in that there are so many. I love reading about the author as much as I love reading their works. Off the top of my head I have to mention: Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas, Charles Bukowski, Hemingway, O. Henry. Hunter S. Thompson, Jim Carroll...wow, I really could go on and on...got to love those free souls!
Jan 21, 2009 11:00 pm
by litrags