Why Writing and Booze Go Together So Well
Last week I got this email invite from one of my favorite Internet writers, Charlie Jane Anders from io9 and Tor:
You cannot handle the subversive raptures of February's Writers With Drinks! Your buffers will overrun. You will be dividing by zero! Luckily, we serve alcohol, which helps you multiply by infinity again. Here are the thrilling details...
It does, doesn't it?
A stiff drink absolutely helps you multiply by infinity again – which if you've ever done anything creative, is what it's all about. Ripping beauty and meaning from nothingness. Releasing something from your fingertips that will outlive your human form in this universe.
If we are, as the Mircobrains of Velara III put it, "ugly bags of mostly water,"1 then titrating with alcohol may be our only proven way to transcendence.
I missed Writers With Drinks last weekend. It hate missing it.
I've blogged about the monthly reading hosted by Anders at the Make-Out Room before. It's one of the best ways San Francisco reminds me that if I were to just glance up – while I'm doing the laundry, proofreading a newsletter, laying spreadeagle on the couch watching How I Met Your Mother, while I'm masturbating my life away – fiery stars are dancing and exploding right above my head.
A drink in hand, wonderment is always a Planck distance away.
1Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1, Ep. 17, "Home Soil"
