{"product_id":"existential-drinker","title":"Existential Drinker","description":"\u003cp\u003eDrinking to excess has been a striking problem for industrial and post-industrial societies – who is responsible when a ‘free’ individual opts for a slow suicide? The causes of such drinking have often been blamed on genes, moral weakness, ‘disease’ (addiction), hedonism, and Romantic illusion. Yet there is another reason which may be more fundamental and which has been overlooked or dismissed: the drinker may act with sincere philosophical intent. \u003cem\u003eThe Existential drinker\u003c\/em\u003e looks at the convergence of a new kind of excessive, habitual drinking, beginning in the nineteenth century, and a new way of thinking about the self which in the twentieth century comes to be labelled ‘Existential’.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA substantial introduction covers questions of self, will, consciousness, authenticity, and ethics in relation to drinking, while introducing aspects of Existential thought pertinent to the discussion. The Existential-drinker canon is anchored in Jack London’s ‘alcoholic memoir’ \u003cem\u003eJohn Barleycorn\u003c\/em\u003e (1913), where London claims he can get at the truth of existence only through the insights afforded by excessive and repeated alcohol use. The book goes on to cover drinker-texts such as Jean Rhys’s interwar novels, Malcolm Lowry’s \u003cem\u003eUnder the volcano\u003c\/em\u003e, Charles Jackson’s \u003cem\u003eThe lost weekend\u003c\/em\u003e, and John O’Brien’s \u003cem\u003eLeaving Las Vegas\u003c\/em\u003e, and less well-known works such as Hans Fallada’s \u003cem\u003eThe drinker\u003c\/em\u003e, Frederick Exley’s \u003cem\u003eA fan’s notes\u003c\/em\u003e, and Venedikt Yerofeev’s \u003cem\u003eMoscow-Petushki\u003c\/em\u003e, ending with A. L. Kennedy’s novel \u003cem\u003eParadise\u003c\/em\u003e (2004). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book will appeal to anybody with an interest in drinking and literature, as well as those with more specialised concerns in drinking studies, Existentialism, twentieth-century literature, and medical humanities.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57318798262654,"sku":"NW9780719099618","price":69.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780719099618.jpg?v=1778702809","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/existential-drinker","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}