75 years of legal boozing...

A couple days late on my part, but Dec 5th was the 75th anniversary of the end of prohibition. I have mixed feelings about this, mostly that prohibition kind of jump started a cultural revolution in art and social acceptance of freaks, and in it's very backward way, was one of the best things that ever happened to the US, creatively. Granted, it also created an entire generation of binge drinkers, but the same could be said of the college system today. It makes me wonder if the forbidden nature of illicit drugs today actually served to create the communities and art that have grown out of them. In addition to making parent-less children, and ghettos, and lifetime prison residents. Anyways, go have a nice cocktail and dance on a table somewhere.

Posted By HellKatonWheelz at 2007-12-07 12:41:44 permalink | comments

Tags: alcohol prohibition 75th anniversary

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HellKatonWheelz : 2007-12-10 09:22:58

I haven't read anything specifically devoted to the topic, but historically, the combination of prohibition and the women's rights movement resulted in a general cultural explosion that affected music, writing, film, and visual art. by creating a forbidden place that people gathered, women, men, black, white, straight, gay all wound up mingling. you can read any fitzgerald, dorothy parker, look at any o'keefe, steiglitz, watch any precode movies from the time, listen to any jazz. but i think the more important effect it had on our culture was that it cracked open the possibility of things like that, and a lot of deeper things grew out of that possibility. the art that was created in the twenties was kind of juvenile and joyful, because it was really the first time all sorts of people had to explore their art. a decade later, the tone of the country was obviously much darker, and the artists themselves had matured, so you had writers like henry miller and faulkner, you had far more elaborate films being made, jazz had been elevated to practically an orchestral form. Obviously there's a lot more to it than can fit in a comment thread, but I really think prohibition set the stage for all of those things happening and reaching the average public. I don't think anything since has really had the same kind of lasting revolutionary effect on our culture. Maybe the 60s and vietnam, but I feel like the effect of that on art and culture is still too cartoonish by comparison.

I guess I would recommend reading biographies of artists from the time. Zelda by Nancy Milford is pretty amazing, if incredibly depressing. Anything about the transition to talking pictures and precode movies. Anything about speakeasy culture. Especially the history of jazz. Jazz is actually the thread that ties everything together. It is pretty representative of how what had been considered dirty and forbidden became mainstream.

stevenandrew : 2007-12-09 12:33:26

where can i read more about how prohibition has affected art?

Perseus : 2007-12-08 10:15:45

Lots of different alcohol concoctions imbibed in liquid form. Hops are just flavouring.

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cf:

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It is open question whether different alcohol produces different changes in the partaker?

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