WRITERS ON THE ROCKS
from nypost.com
MODERN lit just can't hold its liquor. From David Carr to Augusten Burroughs, writers today seem as committed to not drinking as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald once celebrated their alcoholism, both in real life and on the page.
So has the literary lush all but dried out?
"Hard drinking used to be seen as a badge of respect, whereas now it's seen as a crutch," says Edward Hemingway, the grandson of Ernest. "Alcoholism is understood as more of a disease now than it was back in my grandfather's day."
Hemingway's illustrated "Bartending Guide to Great American Writers" includes 43 authors and their favorite cocktails. (His grandfather's was the mojito.)
No author writing today made the book's list of 43, simply because contemporary scribes don't drink enough to measure up. There are a few theories to explain the teetotalers of the 21st century.
"The professionalization of the literary world has led to a less romantic view of writers in general," says literary agent David Kuhn. "I suspect that a lot of writers today drink as much as their heroes and heroines, but just don't advertise it since we live in a more politically correct time."
Still, Kuhn himself says he has never personally joined any writer for a three-martini lunch.
Elaine Kaufman, who has served generations of writers at Elaine's, her literary watering hole, offers another explanation.
"When you don't have anything else to write about, you write about being drunk," she says. "But now that the world is moving so fast, there are a lot more things to write about, so drinking excessively is not as popular or necessary as it once was."
Even if its popularity has faded, Pulse uncovered a few local scribes who haven't completely given up on the power of strong drink. [more]
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my favorite quote...
Douglas Rushkoff
"Media Virus," "Ecstasy Club," etc.
Favorite drink: The Margarella; it's like a margarita but made with vodka instead of tequila. I was friends with Tim Leary, and he once asked me to bring him tequila. But I thought he said Ketel One. So I got there with the vodka and he told me not to worry about it. He went to the kitchen and came back with this cocktail he called the "Margarella," a margarita made with vodka! Later I was on a date with this disco rave girl, telling her about the Margarella, and she told me that the drink is actually called a kamikaze.
On drinking and writing: Real writers don't drink cocktails. Real writers drink straight liquor. You've got to be able to dose it properly. When I was a drinking writer, I would write with a bottle of sipping whisky with me. But very few of us are still drinking writers. Writing has been divorced from some of its essential chemicals. Writers these days can have fairly normal marriages, with kids. And that doesn't really mix with drinking at 11 a.m. A lot of writers are also on antidepressants now, which doesn't make writing better. Prozac cures the need to write. You're also not supposed to drink on Prozac.
On not drinking and writing: The thing that's been lost is the machismo. The Norman Mailer, Hemingway thing. We are all soft and squishy little writer people now. I mean, who are edgy writers now? Dave Eggers? Jonathan Safran Foer? Great guys, and pushing an envelope for sure, but we're telling a different story now. In the old days, you got your advance and then independently suffered through writing your book. Now a writer coming up has to have a blog, and a forum, and do regular media articles and a column, and they are much more like little enterprises of their own. The new writer culture is more about personal celebrity and memoir - a thin sexy girl who used to be a stripper and is now a writer. This new media culture is not about going to Chumley's with someone. The bar is no longer at the center of writing culture.
current mood: laughing
current noise: "Tangled Up in Blue" by Bob Dylan
from nypost.com
MODERN lit just can't hold its liquor. From David Carr to Augusten Burroughs, writers today seem as committed to not drinking as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald once celebrated their alcoholism, both in real life and on the page.
So has the literary lush all but dried out?
"Hard drinking used to be seen as a badge of respect, whereas now it's seen as a crutch," says Edward Hemingway, the grandson of Ernest. "Alcoholism is understood as more of a disease now than it was back in my grandfather's day."
Hemingway's illustrated "Bartending Guide to Great American Writers" includes 43 authors and their favorite cocktails. (His grandfather's was the mojito.)
No author writing today made the book's list of 43, simply because contemporary scribes don't drink enough to measure up. There are a few theories to explain the teetotalers of the 21st century.
"The professionalization of the literary world has led to a less romantic view of writers in general," says literary agent David Kuhn. "I suspect that a lot of writers today drink as much as their heroes and heroines, but just don't advertise it since we live in a more politically correct time."
Still, Kuhn himself says he has never personally joined any writer for a three-martini lunch.
Elaine Kaufman, who has served generations of writers at Elaine's, her literary watering hole, offers another explanation.
"When you don't have anything else to write about, you write about being drunk," she says. "But now that the world is moving so fast, there are a lot more things to write about, so drinking excessively is not as popular or necessary as it once was."
Even if its popularity has faded, Pulse uncovered a few local scribes who haven't completely given up on the power of strong drink. [more]
==============
my favorite quote...
Douglas Rushkoff
"Media Virus," "Ecstasy Club," etc.
Favorite drink: The Margarella; it's like a margarita but made with vodka instead of tequila. I was friends with Tim Leary, and he once asked me to bring him tequila. But I thought he said Ketel One. So I got there with the vodka and he told me not to worry about it. He went to the kitchen and came back with this cocktail he called the "Margarella," a margarita made with vodka! Later I was on a date with this disco rave girl, telling her about the Margarella, and she told me that the drink is actually called a kamikaze.
On drinking and writing: Real writers don't drink cocktails. Real writers drink straight liquor. You've got to be able to dose it properly. When I was a drinking writer, I would write with a bottle of sipping whisky with me. But very few of us are still drinking writers. Writing has been divorced from some of its essential chemicals. Writers these days can have fairly normal marriages, with kids. And that doesn't really mix with drinking at 11 a.m. A lot of writers are also on antidepressants now, which doesn't make writing better. Prozac cures the need to write. You're also not supposed to drink on Prozac.
On not drinking and writing: The thing that's been lost is the machismo. The Norman Mailer, Hemingway thing. We are all soft and squishy little writer people now. I mean, who are edgy writers now? Dave Eggers? Jonathan Safran Foer? Great guys, and pushing an envelope for sure, but we're telling a different story now. In the old days, you got your advance and then independently suffered through writing your book. Now a writer coming up has to have a blog, and a forum, and do regular media articles and a column, and they are much more like little enterprises of their own. The new writer culture is more about personal celebrity and memoir - a thin sexy girl who used to be a stripper and is now a writer. This new media culture is not about going to Chumley's with someone. The bar is no longer at the center of writing culture.
current mood: laughing
current noise: "Tangled Up in Blue" by Bob Dylan
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