( continues...) dulled."
So, no proof but some evidence and theories.
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
( continues...) dulled."
So, no proof but some evidence and theories.
Well, it does make it hard to look to your heroes for inspiration: "What Would Chandler Do?: drink his weight in gimlets. I think I'll pass. The voices in my head are down with substance abuse(maybe even fascinated by it--writers ALL love Bubbles, don't we? DS says he identifies with him most of all..so I guess I just said The Wire is art...where was I?) but there are other parts of me that would object.
Hmmm, here's another reviewer looking at Goodwin's book:
In his study Goodwin uncovered medical statistics that show, in the US, writers are more susceptible to alcoholism than virtually any other profession. Goodwin suggests three reasons to explain writers' increased propensity to drink. Firstly: The hours are good - poets and novelists have relative freedom to drink and recover from heavy sessions, unrestricted by strict working hours. Secondly: It is expected - alcoholic writers are curiously indulged, while inebriation in other jobs is unacceptable. Goodwin suggests writers need inspiration - echoing the romantic belief that alcohol can serve as some mysterious creative fuel, invoking a heightened state of consciousness through which to perceive the world.
Also, it occurs to me that my argument re: art and standards is descriptivist rather than prescriptivist. I am describing how cultural value is assigned, not gatekeeping. And I am arguing that that assignation of value is not subjective but arrived at by bullshit consensus. Also that the distinction is widely held leading bookstores to having "Literature" and "Popular Fiction" sections, or tacitly acknowledging (but ignoring) the distinction with B&N's "Fiction and Literature" section.
As for the High Art/Low Art debate, I think that is a debate traditionally bound by the choice of medium. Novel and poetry and opera can be art; comics and stand-up comedy and hip hop are not. Obviously, I think the medium does not determine the artfulness of the work.
Here's a study: Verbal creativity, depression and alcoholism.
BACKGROUND. An earlier study of 291 world famous men had shown that only visual artists and creative writers were characterised, in comparison with the general population, by a much higher prevalence of pathological personality traits and alcoholism. Depressive disorders, but not any other psychiatric conditions, had afflicted writers almost twice as often as men with other high creative achievements. The present investigation was undertaken to confirm these findings in a larger and more comprehensive series of writers, and to discover causal factors for confirmed high prevalences of affective conditions and alcoholism in writers. METHOD. Data were collected from post-mortem biographies and, where applicable, translated into DSM diagnoses. The frequencies of various abnormalities and deviations were compared between poets, prose fiction writers, and playwrights. RESULTS. A high prevalence in writers of affective conditions and of alcoholism was confirmed. That of bipolar affective psychoses exceeded population norms in poets, who in spite of this had a lower prevalence of all kinds of affective disorders, of alcoholism, of personality deviations, and related to this, of psychosexual and marital problems, than prose fiction and play writers. CONCLUSIONS. A hypothesis is developed, which links the greater frequency of affective illnesses and alcoholism in playwrights and prose writers, in comparison with poets, to differences in the nature and intensity of their emotional imagination. This hypothesis could be tested by clinical psychologists collaborating with experts in literature on random samples of different kinds of writers.
But then my ideas started percolating again and I was able to address them with more clarity
Speaking from the Bipolar side of the house, getting the proper medication made the world of difference for me. When I was on antidepressants, my words went away. I wanted to write, but couldn't put the thoughts together in a meaningful way or have the energy to actually write. Once I got properly diagnosed and on the right meds for me, they all came back, plus some. My output is greater and, I think, better than it had been. I don't have a clue, though, if anyone would call it art. I just do it because I have to or I get antsy. It sucked being mentally antsy and not being able to write, I don't ever want to go back to that.
Hmm, seems I've missed another stereotype, in addition to "Blondes have more fun." Bummer.
Or say, anything on Broadway.
Well...
I'll just add my most favorite elitist quote, said by a friend when he was dismissing a movie (that he hadn't seen) that another friend enjoyed:
I don't have to eat shit, I can smell it.
Great, right?
ION, we watched Atonement last night. Eh. It was gorgeous, the acting was good, but it just didn't have That Quality for me. Three out of four stars.
Here's one on Creativity and Bipolar Disorder.
Key quotes: " Many investigations have occurred that correlate creativity with mental illness..."
" Jamison's article continues to cite evidence for the strong correlation between bipolar affective psychoses and creativity."
Goodwin suggests writers need inspiration - echoing the romantic belief that alcohol can serve as some mysterious creative fuel, invoking a heightened state of consciousness through which to perceive the world.
This used to work for me when I was younger. Now, not so much. Trying to write while drunk produces things like:
"Hank hastily dropped to the floor and began assembling the...thing. That he needed. Badly.
Bernice, in her role as look-out, turned to see Hank fumbling with the thing he badly neededed and said 'What the fuck are you doing?! the Gaurds are on their way!'
Hank burst into tears and screamed in reply 'JUST FUCK YOU, OKAY?! OKAY?! JUST...YOU NEVER LOVED ME! WHAT THEE HELL ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE? THE FUCK? I'm sorry, baby, I'm sorry. I'm fucking tired, you know? Just...man.
then the gards busteded in and fucking killed them both becaus3 that's the way the fucking world works, you know what I'm sayin? You know?
Oh, fuck you, why am I tlaking to you anyway?"