{"id":683,"date":"2024-07-08T04:42:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T04:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2024\/07\/08\/reading-now-the-blake-bailey-bio-of-charles-jackson\/"},"modified":"2024-07-08T04:42:40","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T04:42:40","slug":"reading-now-the-blake-bailey-bio-of-charles-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2024\/07\/08\/reading-now-the-blake-bailey-bio-of-charles-jackson\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Now: The Blake Bailey Bio of Charles Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bailey has been called the literary biographer of his generation. That strikes me as no exaggeration. He is fabulously good and his productivity is astonishing with stomping tomes on Richard Yates, Charles Jackson, John Cheever, and Philip Roth. I have yet to find a bad sentence in the two I've read.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jackson's main claim to fame is his novel, The Lost Weekend<\/em>, perhaps the best booze novel ever published. That's not just my opinion. The novel appeared in 1944 and  was made into a  film-noir blockbuster<\/a> of the same name.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jackson (1903-1968) was a big-time self-abuser, his drugs of choice being alcohol and Seconal. (We called them 'reds' in the 'sixties.)  Jackson died, at age  65, a total physical and mental wreck. <\/span><\/p>\n

The mystery of self-destruction, so common among novelists.<\/span><\/p>\n

See also: Reading Now: Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

…………………….<\/p>\n

Dave Lull writes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

My late friend Roger Forseth <\/a> wrote about Charles Jackson in an article for Dionysos: The Literature and Intoxication Triquarterly<\/em>: \u201c\u201cWhy did they make such a fuss?\u2019: Don Birnam's Emotional Barometer,\u201d a copy of which you can find here<\/a> and a slightly edited version of which was reprinted in his posthumous book Alcoholite at the Altar: the Writer and Addiction: the Writings of Roger Forseth<\/em>, which was reviewed by Frank Wilson here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It's great to hear from you, Dave.  The Forseth article to which you linked is very good, and so is Wilson's review of Forseth's book. I ordered the book. The clincher for me was our mutual friend Patrick Kurp's Amazon blurb:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
When I learned that Roger, on alternative nights, read one of Shakespeare's sonnets or a letter by Keats, my first reaction was: how sensible. This is a man who knows how to enjoy himself and understands what's important, an impression confirmed when we exchanged thoughts on such mutual enthusiasms as Coleridge, Auden, and Raymond Chandler. His scholarly work on alcoholism and American writers will prove invaluable to future scholars and readers, but I will always think of Roger as the man who knew what to read before turning out the light. <\/span>— <\/span>Patrick Kurp of <\/span>Anecdotal Evidence<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
As I recall, it was via Kurp's blog that I first made your acquaintance, years ago. <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
This, from Wilson, also  made me want to buy the book:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
Like them, he [Forseth] had had a drinking problem, complete with bouts of delirium tremens. He is quoted here as saying, during the last year of his life, that \u201cthe problem with alcohol is a philosophical problem dating back to Plato\u2019s Symposium <\/em>and Phaedrus<\/em>, how to manage the desire for intoxication, for ecstasy. I started writing about this late\u2026I think I had to wait until the alcoholism experience penetrated my theoretical mind.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I've had a similar thought. It is the misdirected desire for fullness of life, ecstasy, joy that drives some of us to reach for the 'joy juice.'  "All joy wants eternity," sang Nietzsche's Zarathustra, "wants deep, deep, eternity." I myself am too bloody rational to overindulge: I know what the sauce does to the brain and the liver, and that knowledge keeps me within strict limits.  On the other hand, I consider the teetotaler an extremist.  It's all a matter of self-knowledge. For some, alcohol is the devil in liquid form. For others it is a delightful adjunct to a civilized life.  Know thyself!  If you discover that you cannot handle the hooch, then it is your moral obligation to abstain from it.  If you become an alky, then it's on you and your despicable refusal to control yourself.  If you compound the folly  by drunk driving, then  I want the book thrown at you. <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Is alcoholism a disease? You can guess my answer.I should dig up and dust off my old posts on the question.  Of course, it is undeniable that the stuff affects different people in different ways. But once you discover how it affects you, then it's on you and your free will.  Man up and take responsibility for your actions.  <\/span><\/div>\n
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 <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bailey has been called the literary biographer of his generation. That strikes me as no exaggeration. He is fabulously good and his productivity is astonishing with stomping tomes on Richard Yates, Charles Jackson, John Cheever, and Philip Roth. I have yet to find a bad sentence in the two I've read. Jackson's main claim to … Continue reading “Reading Now: The Blake Bailey Bio of Charles Jackson”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol-tobacco-and-firearms","category-literary-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}