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The Zen of Drinking Alone

drunkard.com

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Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#261

Post by fsloth »

coldtea wrote: post #118
delusional wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This magazine or blog or whatever seems to either be an elaborate joke or bait or something: >Are you guys for real? >Yes. While there is some satire involved, we believe to the very core of our >souls every word we write. >Who are you? >We are a group of functional alcoholics based primarily in Denver, CO. Included in our ranks are published novelists, filmmakers, English gentlemen, barflies, punk rock musicians, co…

> This magazine or blog or whatever seems to either be an elaborate joke or bait or something Or you know, part of the once respected in some circles tradition of self-destruction with style, before everybody started jogging and going vegan to live to 100 years old as a "productive" boring member of society...

There is nothing exciting about drinking. It's a substance, and the only reason people like to associate with famous and interesting people is twofold. a) it gives you an excuse to drink b) it takes the famous person down a notch.

The famous people did not become famous because they drank, but due to other reasons - working their arse off, talent, ambition, networks etc. The reason they are also famous alcholics is just an correlation and not causation.

I don't judge alcohol use but it's an end in itself, and it does not improve anything.

It's nice to enjoy a drink once in a while, but it does not improve a person in any way.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#262

Post by SyzygistSix »

littlecosmic wrote: post #60
bar_de wrote: post #15

We are supposed to perform and add value to the world. Not become mystics and monks. That's the Zeitgeist slave's mentality. Doing unhinged introspection with the help of booze or other drugs is frowned upon as you you will realise that are not living for others but yourself on our shared pale blue dot in your personal short glimpse of experienced history and reality.

If you are doing it everyday, I agree, but only living for others is a recipe for burnout.

I'm assuming it is sarcasm? So many in this thread seem to think the purpose of life is for them to be healthy and productive, like Van Gogh or Bukowski.

It's great if that is their life's purpose but fortunately not everyone is the same.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#263

Post by SyzygistSix »

pdimitar wrote: post #260
SyzygistSix wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't respect anyone for being a drunkard but I sure do respect a lot of people who were drunkards.

Me too. Anyone overcoming that much negative inertia and then taking their life back in their hands demands huge respect.

A lot of them took their life in their own hands from the get go and brought us back great art nevertheless.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#264

Post by dilap »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #191
dilap wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've definitely had realizations drinking alone. It's not a state you want to be in all the time, or even often, but it can be useful. It's sort of like a random jump in the mental search space to get out of local minima. (Though perhaps I could train myself mentally to be able to enter these more loose states w/o alcohol, and that would be even better?)

Alcohol isn't special in this regard. There are many ways to shake oneself out of their standard mental cycles. There are lots of other drugs, and there are also plenty of non-drug techniques and experiences.

Yes, very fair point. (Alcohol is very lindy, though!) Any non-drug techniques in particular you've had good experiences with?

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#266

Post by dubeye »

It's really great, (especially as someone else said, a companion to creative writing) but your body has finite defences against it, and much of the real damage is silent, so it's particularly dangerous in the stealth damage it causes to mind and body.

Shame as I'd be still drinking today if my body could cope with it. For sure. But my liver has had more than a lifetime filter through it.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#268

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

d-yakovlev wrote: post #165
deepvibrations wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't, then i don't think alcohol is the solution here tbh.

Sure, it's not a solution in and of itself. It's useful to destabilize you from well-rehearsed thought patterns, though - and if you manage to hit the Ballmer Peak of soggy introspection, maybe you can manage to make some progress.

This sounds like an opportunity to put the beer money towards a therapist for the same effect.

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#269

Post by biztos »

SyzygistSix wrote: post #246
rainonmoon wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drinking is so normative that not drinking became the punk ethos via the hardcore scene, straight edge etc. Two of the most punk guys alive (Ian MacKaye and Henry Rollins) have been sober longer than some people in this thread have been alive. Getting blackout has more in common with hair metal so if your hero is Nikki Sixx, more power to you.

I found the straight-edge scene intellectually lightweight and often insufferable. Substance abuse is common among artists for a reason; many are psychonauts. Merely being a drinker does not a psychonaut make, but then again, Hemmingway wasn't just another drunk. Producing art is akin to shamanism.

Hemingway (claimed he) never wrote a word while drunk. In fact he was highly critical of contemporaries who drank and wrote.

Hemingway wrote, and Hemingway drank, but in that order on any given day.

[edit: I agree with your point, I just wanted to clarify re: Hemingway specifically]

Re: The Zen of Drinking Alone

#270

Post by biztos »

Sebb767 wrote: post #200
elric wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think all of your statements need to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Plenty of people will give you the stink eye if you're by yourself in public. Some arse once loudly informed me I was a loser for being at the movies by myself. That happened once, but it was enough to make me realize that some people really can't fathom the idea of people having fun by themselves. Drinking with friends is likely to be much m…

> Some arse once loudly informed me I was a loser for being at the movies by myself. This is something public, though, while the parent only listed activities in private. Drinking alone in public is shunned even worse. Not that I agree with that guy, of course. Enjoy your time at the movies alone, it's nothing to be ashamed of.

> Drinking alone in public is shunned even worse.

It is most definitely not shunned in American dive bars, nor anywhere in Central/Eastern Europe, nor in a hotel bar anywhere in the world.

Getting shit-faced by yourself in public is frowned upon because it’s annoying, but flying solo on a barstool is as common as can be, and nobody has any problem with it in many, many places.

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