I found this fantastically interesting article regarding the coincidental downfall of writers after they sober up. It seems there is a common trend in the quality of art, music, and literature after the artist becomes sober; temperate rock n’ roll, poetry and paintings just aren’t that great.
Look, I get that drugs and alcohol has robbed us of a score of greats – Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, Dinah Washington, John Bonham. I know a lot of artists have converted to a clean and sober life and continue to rain in the success of their creativity, however, the absence of that “self-destructive art” leaves out the romanticizing and soul-crushing feed we all want to indulged in; Highway to Hell type gig you feel me?
There is a famous quote by Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud about making oneself flourish by “an immense, long, deliberate derangement of all the senses,” and it appears plenty of artists follow that handbook. Gregg Allman even said “just leave your mind alone and just get high.” Whatever side your on you can’t deny the fact that some of the greatest music of all time came out of the maddened minds of artists under the influence.
Whether their creative product was amazing may have just been a coincidence but its fun reveling with the devil; sometimes we want to believe living a straight life leads to another destruction of the body besides death and sometimes that is much worse.
(Link: "When Novelists Sober Up" By Tom Shone; moreintelligentlife.com)
http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/content/tom-shone/when-novelists-sober
(Photo: Jack Kerouac)
No comments:
Post a Comment