Blackout_ Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget - Sarah Hepola
I’m in Paris on a magazine assignment, which is exactly as great as it sounds. I eat dinner at a
restaurant so fancy I have to keep resisting the urge to drop my fork just to see how fast someone will
pick it up. I’m drinking cognac—the booze of kings and rap stars—and I love how the snifter sinks
between the crooks of my fingers, amber liquid sloshing up the sides as I move it in a figure eight.
Like swirling the ocean in the palm of my hand.
I’m in Paris on a magazine assignment, which is exactly as great as it sounds. I eat dinner at a
restaurant so fancy I have to keep resisting the urge to drop my fork just to see how fast someone will
pick it up. I’m drinking cognac—the booze of kings and rap stars—and I love how the snifter sinks
between the crooks of my fingers, amber liquid sloshing up the sides as I move it in a figure eight.
Like swirling the ocean in the palm of my hand.
POWER BALLAD People who quit drinking become terrified they will lose their power. They believe booze makes them the people they want to be. A better mother. A better lover. A better friend. Alcohol is one hell of a pitchman, and perhaps his greatest lie is convincing us we need him, even as he tears us apart. I needed alcohol to write. At least, that’s what I believed. I had no idea how people wrote without alcohol, which is a bit like wondering how people construct buildings without alcohol or assemble watches without alcohol. I’m sure it happens all the time, but I’d never done it. Years ago, when I worked at the Dallas paper, I used to sit at the bar with the other writers, and we’d elbow each other out of the way to reach the punch lines. Writers are often insecure by nature, but in those hours I felt indomitable. We could disagree about music, politics, the use of the serial comma, but we never disagreed about drinking. Writers drink. It’s what we do. The idea made me feel special, as though I got a pass on certain behaviors, as though self-destruction were my birthright. The bar also made me feel like real work was getting done, even if the real work turned out to be arguing the merits of Saved by the Bell. I liked talking about writing much more than actually writing, which is an unspeakably boring and laborious activity, like moving a pile of bricks from one side of the room to the other. Talking about writing was exciting. It was all possibility. Let’s talk about the story at the bar! Kick it around over a few drinks, brainstorm that bad boy. And in those sinking moments when I realized two hours had passed, and no one had brought up the story we were supposed to fix, I had the perfect antidote in front of me. Another glass of guilt-be-gone. But booze wasn’t merely a collective procrastination tool. It was the tool I took home with me when I needed to sit by myself and get the words out onto the page. Writing is a lonely profession. Nobody wants to walk in darkness alone. Alcohol was an emancipator of creativity. It silenced my inner critic. It made me bigger and smaller, and my writing required both delusions: to believe everyone would read my work, and to believe no one would. I even loved writing hungover, when I was too exhausted to argue with myself, allowing words to tumble onto the page. If I ever grew anxious about the empty bottles my work required, I could wrap myself in an enabling legend. Writers drink. It’s what we do. As long as the work gets done, you can coast on these words for a very long time. But the dynamic pivoted for me. The drain and the time suck of my habits became too much to tolerate. I was no longer a writer with a drinking problem. I became, as Irish author Brendan Behan once said, “a drinker with a writing problem.” Something had to go, and given how conjoined my writing and drinking were, I figured it had to be both. Well, actually, I did have a history of writing without alcohol. It was called childhood. Kids are wizards of imagination, and I was one of those youngsters scribbling all day long. Children are not hobbled by an awareness of others or the fear of people’s judgment. Children don’t have to face professional failure, public disinterest, the criticism of colleagues, lacerating Twitter commentary,
the scorn of strangers. They skip through a grassy meadow where every picture they paint is important, every story worth telling, whereas today’s online writer traverses an enemy territory where any random dude with a Tumblr account can take you down. Perhaps I was using alcohol not to spark my creativity but to blunt my sensitivity. I needed someone to hold my hand. After I quit drinking, I didn’t write for six months. I was too fragile. I spent that time editing personal essays for Salon. I loved reading stories of other people’s lives, extraordinary things happening to ordinary people. One woman met her dream guy only to watch him die of an aneurysm that very day. One woman was trapped under the rubble after the earthquake in Haiti. She was saved, but the other woman in the house wasn’t. It was mind-blowing what could unfold in the course of a life. The stories got me out of myself, but they also stoked my writer’s envy, which isn’t necessarily bad. Envy can be an arrow that points to the things you want. The more I read those stories, the more I thought: I could do that. That might feel good. I should join them. The first thing I wrote in sobriety was an essay about quitting drinking. It felt like insurance for a person prone to relapse. I wanted to be on record. I wanted to double down on public humiliation to keep me from backsliding. The story wasn’t easy to write, but it wasn’t that hard, either. When I was done, it sounded like me. The me I remembered. After the piece published, writers I admired responded with kind words and strangers in the comments responded with a warm stream of urine down my leg. But I was starting to realize this online anger wasn’t about me. It was a by-product of garden-variety powerlessness. Usually when I reached out to one of those people, they would say similar things. Oh, I didn’t think anyone was listening—which suggests the true source of their rage. I kept writing. I began waking up at 6:30 and writing for the first four hours. No procrastinating. No rearranging the furniture. Just wake up and stare down. The work was never easy, but it became easier. Less like a geyser I kept waiting to blow and more like a faucet I could turn on and off. We ascribe such mystery and magic to the creative process, but its essence is quite basic. Moving a pile of bricks from one side of the room to the other requires strength. Time, discipline, patience. Writers write. That’s what we do. “The idea that creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time,” Stephen King wrote in his memoir and instruction manual about creativity, On Writing. King is one of the many heroes I’ve had who turned out to be an addict. He was a serious beer binger, who admits he could barely remember writing his novel Cujo. When I read the stories I wrote during my heaviest drinking years, I don’t think they’re bad. I am a little appalled, though, at how frequently alcohol intrudes. Interviews take place in bars. Entire narratives revolve around drinking. Jokey asides are made about hangovers and blackouts. A beer or a glass of wine sits in the corner of nearly every piece, like some kind of creepy product placement. A friend of mine is a music teacher, who says pot helped him truly hear music for the first time. “But if you smoke too much pot,” he said, “you get that Jamaican high. Everything turns to reggae.” Whatever creative growth alcohol and drugs might offer at first, it doesn’t last. You stop learning and noticing. “Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost,” Henry James wrote. I first heard the quote in an interview with Pete Hamill, author of the 1994 memoir A Drinking Life. As an old-school
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POWER BALLAD<br />
People who quit drinking become terrified <strong>the</strong>y will lose <strong>the</strong>ir power. They believe booze makes<br />
<strong>the</strong>m <strong>the</strong> people <strong>the</strong>y want <strong>to</strong> be. A better mo<strong>the</strong>r. A better lover. A better friend. Alcohol is one hell<br />
of a pitchman, and perhaps his greatest lie is convincing us we need him, even as he tears us apart.<br />
I needed alcohol <strong>to</strong> write. At least, that’s what I believed. I had no idea how people wrote without<br />
alcohol, which is a bit like wondering how people construct buildings without alcohol or assemble<br />
watches without alcohol. I’m sure it happens all <strong>the</strong> time, but I’d never done it.<br />
Years ago, when I worked at <strong>the</strong> Dallas paper, I used <strong>to</strong> sit at <strong>the</strong> bar with <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r writers, and we’d<br />
elbow each o<strong>the</strong>r out of <strong>the</strong> way <strong>to</strong> reach <strong>the</strong> punch lines. Writers are often insecure by nature, but in<br />
those hours I felt indomitable. We could disagree about music, politics, <strong>the</strong> use of <strong>the</strong> serial comma,<br />
but we never disagreed about drinking.<br />
Writers drink. It’s what we do. The idea made me feel special, as though I got a pass on certain<br />
behaviors, as though self-destruction were my birthright. The bar also made me feel like real work<br />
was getting done, even if <strong>the</strong> real work turned out <strong>to</strong> be arguing <strong>the</strong> merits of Saved by <strong>the</strong> Bell.<br />
I liked talking about writing much more than actually writing, which is an unspeakably boring and<br />
laborious activity, like moving a pile of bricks from one side of <strong>the</strong> room <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r. Talking about<br />
writing was exciting. It was all possibility. Let’s talk about <strong>the</strong> s<strong>to</strong>ry at <strong>the</strong> bar! Kick it around over<br />
a few drinks, brains<strong>to</strong>rm that bad boy. And in those sinking moments when I realized two hours had<br />
passed, and no one had brought up <strong>the</strong> s<strong>to</strong>ry we were supposed <strong>to</strong> fix, I had <strong>the</strong> perfect antidote in<br />
front of me. Ano<strong>the</strong>r glass of guilt-be-gone.<br />
But booze wasn’t merely a collective procrastination <strong>to</strong>ol. It was <strong>the</strong> <strong>to</strong>ol I <strong>to</strong>ok home with me<br />
when I needed <strong>to</strong> sit by myself and get <strong>the</strong> words out on<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> page. Writing is a lonely profession.<br />
Nobody wants <strong>to</strong> walk in darkness alone.<br />
Alcohol was an emancipa<strong>to</strong>r of creativity. It silenced my inner critic. It made me bigger and<br />
smaller, and my writing required both delusions: <strong>to</strong> believe everyone would read my work, and <strong>to</strong><br />
believe no one would. I even loved writing hungover, when I was <strong>to</strong>o exhausted <strong>to</strong> argue with myself,<br />
allowing words <strong>to</strong> tumble on<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> page.<br />
If I ever grew anxious about <strong>the</strong> empty bottles my work required, I could wrap myself in an<br />
enabling legend. Writers drink. It’s what we do. As long as <strong>the</strong> work gets done, you can coast on<br />
<strong>the</strong>se words for a very long time.<br />
But <strong>the</strong> dynamic pivoted for me. The drain and <strong>the</strong> time suck of my habits became <strong>to</strong>o much <strong>to</strong><br />
<strong>to</strong>lerate. I was no longer a writer with a drinking problem. I became, as Irish author Brendan Behan<br />
once said, “a drinker with a writing problem.” Something had <strong>to</strong> go, and given how conjoined my<br />
writing and drinking were, I figured it had <strong>to</strong> be both.<br />
Well, actually, I did have a his<strong>to</strong>ry of writing without alcohol. It was called childhood. Kids are<br />
wizards of imagination, and I was one of those youngsters scribbling all day long. Children are not<br />
hobbled by an awareness of o<strong>the</strong>rs or <strong>the</strong> fear of people’s judgment. Children don’t have <strong>to</strong> face<br />
professional failure, public disinterest, <strong>the</strong> criticism of colleagues, lacerating Twitter commentary,