Drinking, Smoking and Screwing

Great Writers on Good Times
Edited by Sara Nickles
Introduction by Bob Shacochis
by Autumn

It would seem society has again forced itself into a vicious parallel reality: While the Christian Right wags its moral finger and preaches abstinence, the creative forces in print are launching an all-out celebration of the very things “leaders” are condemning: Drinking, smoking and screwing, for the most part. The publication of an anthology devoted to these very topics (1994) is a damn strong indicator that vices sell… perhaps even better than virtues.

The introduction by Shacochis is a must-read. Not only does it tie the authors together, but it offers some sharp pop-cultural criticism in rather slick order. Such an un-P.C. intro is a rare thing in the land of big publishing… and it manages to make a case for knocking authors as diverse as Mark Twain, Erika Jong, Spalding Grey, Henry Miller, and Charles Bukowski up against each other.

It’s probably best to notice that the selections offered are those of the most basic type. Bukowski’s piece, for instance, is from Women, and Miller’s from Tropic of Cancer. Other notables include Anaïs Nin with a predictable excerpt from Henry and June and a taste of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. But rather than rail against Sara Nickles for her inclusion of only major works, it seems more in order to congratulate her. This is a daring theme for the suits and ties who actually front the money to print a book, and by offering only the authors’ most notable pieces, Nickels makes Drinking, Smoking and Screwing a primer in fringe voice. The better to sell and enlighten by.

So even if you are an avid reader of the avant-garde classics and have already read these selections in their entirety, Drinking, Smoking and Screwing highlights them in a compact package for a mere $11.95. They’re enlightening, even if it is your fourth time through.

Note: And if this type of anthology interests you, check out its predecessor in kind, The Olympia Reader, edited by Maurice Girodias and published with true audacity by Grove Press in 1965. It, too, includes erotic work by Henry Miller, as well as William S. Burroughs, Georges Bataille, Jean Genet, Marquis de Sade, Samuel Beckett, and Pauline Réage, among others.