Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'roll

Francoise Sagan was one of the precocious authors I was thinking of a couple of posts back - 'Bonjour Tristesse' was published at 18, she was instantly dubbed a 'charming little monster', and lived up to the label by driving sports cars barefoot round St Tropez and taking so many drugs that her dog overdosed sniffing her handkerchief. Scandals followed - debt, bisexual love affairs - she was a female playboy. Her dieting was apparently 'a conceptual art form', and a photo I have of her on file shows a gaunt, joyless face with sorrowful eyes. I've said before how much her work influenced me, but is part of creativity necessarily this pain? When I first read the book I knew none of the back story of her life - I just fell for her words. Is it something to do with our cult of celebrity that now even writers are prized as much for their lives as their books?



The tabloids are endlessly fascinated by celebrity addictions - David Duchovny is the latest, following in Michael Douglas' footsteps for sex addiction treatment. In the UK, Amy Winehouse's tortured descent is drooled over - you just want to shout at the paper 'leave the poor girl alone!' She even celebrated it in a song 'You tried to make me go to rehab, and I said no, no, no ...' As a mother you kind of think taking her away for an extended break from everything would be a really good idea, let her catch up with herself after all the craziness. How do you cope with that at such a young age? It's like no one will be happy until she follows in the footsteps of Billie Holliday and other jazz casualties. It's interesting that it's normally rock stars and actors you associate with glorified excess, the whole 'burn out and fade away' - James Dean, Jim Morrison, Michael Hutchence, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, the list goes on with Heath Ledger being the latest tragic loss. I remember seeing Jim Morrison's tomb in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris - even at first light there were wan looking teenagers keeping a candlelit vigil. Michael Hutchence hit particularly hard, because he was very much 'our' generation in the late 80s and we all had a crush on him. Maybe it's something to do with the teenage psyche that tragic excess is so attractive. Is battling addiction sometimes used like a badge of honour - as a signifier of creative depth and struggle?



Now of course, we have dear old Ronnie Wood allegedly holing up in Ireland with a nymphet and copious supplies vodka, or Kate Moss' ex Pete Doherty - maybe I really am getting old but suddenly 'sex, drugs and rock'n'roll' doesn't seem quite so ... well, rock'n'roll, gorgeous or original anymore. Writers have always held their end up - everyone from Scott Fitzgerald to Eugene O'Neill, Jack London's 'pleasant jingle' from the first drink of the day after he hit his word count, and Hunter S Thompson's 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' - another 'unfilmable' book that has been successfully filmed.

I read a fascinating book debunking the whole 'all artists are addicts' myth (of course, can't remember the title - sorry). Julia Cameron also puts up a great argument that artists and writers don't have to be 'mad, bad and dangerous to know'. The basic argument of the book was that addictive personalities are just that - doesn't matter whether you write or work in accountancy. There are stacks of writers out there who balance work, family and the occasional beer/bottle of wine with friends/whatever else takes your fancy - just like millions of other non-artists. I guess happiness doesn't make good headlines. One line that stuck with me about the long term effects of addiction on writers was 'the loss of productivity, the absence of joy.' It is of course the myth that you 'need' that drink or hit to work that takes people down a tragic road. I've seen enough of that in my own loved ones and friends to have decided drugs weren't for me (my mind is quite interesting enough as it is). I made a deliberate choice - joy and productivity, and it's never stopped me having fun.

A little of the addictive hunger can be useful though - with me it's not bottles of gin stashed behind the cornflakes as 'mother's little helper', but books hidden around the place, and the drive to write. Perhaps I am a bookaholic - they certainly appear among the groceries and I have little recollection of having bought them ... I've come to think that if writers aren't all alcoholics, (which seems to be the drug of choice for many famous addicts - maybe it's the constant proximity to the drinks cabinet working from home, setting your own hours or the book launches?), and just a little addicted to the words perhaps this hunger can be channeled for good. Friday nights used to mean Private Views, cocktails and dinner with friends drinking and talking into the wee hours, theatre, opera or jazz at Ronnie Scotts. These days it's more likely to be getting a head start on the laundry, checking a manuscript or crashing out after a couple of glasses of wine and Valerian tea with the pilot and a movie. Perhaps, harking back to yesterday's post, a family - the security, the routine, the need to wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed every single morning - can be a writer's saving grace?

TODAY'S PROMPT: Giving anything up, you have to want something else more. I think that's the key to any bad habit that's holding you back and you want to kick. Doesn't necessarily need to be the usual cigarettes, alcohol, coffee (I loved that when Diane Keaton's clean, uptight, Hamptons living playwright went to Paris in 'Something's Gotta Give' she chain smoked, drank and knocked back the espressos. 'When in Rome' - or this case Paris). Apparently even the lovely Jilly Cooper allows herself a Christmas cigarette. You've got to live, but 'don't trade what you want the most for what you want today'. Perhaps addictions are just extreme versions of the habits that make us human? Maybe figuring out what you want in the long term, and seeing if there is a bad habit stopping you feeling more joy, and being more alive and productive today would be a good way to head into the autumn. Rowena mentioned the benefit of taking 'baby steps' towards a goal and I couldn't agree more - I've always loved the concept of Kaizen - continuous small change. Take that first step - who knows where it will lead.