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Addiction and Identity in American Postwar Junkie View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Texas A&M Repository "AS UN-AMERICAN AS RABIES": ADDICTION AND IDENTITY IN AMERICAN POSTWAR JUNKIE LITERATURE A Dissertation by ABIGAIL LEIGH BOWERS Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2009 Major Subject: English "AS UN-AMERICAN AS RABIES": ADDICTION AND IDENTITY IN AMERICAN POSTWAR JUNKIE LITERATURE A Dissertation by ABIGAIL LEIGH BOWERS Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Sally Robinson Committee Members, Mary Ann O'Farrell Chuck Taylor John J. McDermott Head of Department, M. Jimmie Killingsworth December 2009 Major Subject: English iii ABSTRACT "As Un-American as Rabies": Addiction and Identity in American Postwar Junkie Literature. (December 2009) Abigail Leigh Bowers, B.A.; M.A., Bowling Green State University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Sally Robinson The years following World War II symbolized a new beginning for the United States. While at the height of global power, Americans founds that they were able to experience a leisurely existence where items, desired instead of necessary, could be purchased by almost anyone. This increased prosperity, however, also caused a rise in the number of addicts that included not only the hard-core drug users, but "junkies" who were addicted to filling the emptiness within through the use of illegal drugs to television to sex in order to do so. This dissertation examines the phenomenon of the rise of addicts following World War II, using the literature of addiction in order to elucidate the reasoning behind this surge. Contemporary American authors formed a new genre of writing, "junkie literature," which chronicles the rise of addiction and juxtaposes questions of identity and the use of "junk." Burroughs's Junky and Trocchi's Cain's Book are among the first to represent the shift in the postwar years between earlier narratives of addiction and the rise of junkie literature through an erasure of previously held beliefs that addiction was the result of a moral vice rather than a disease. Jim Carroll's The Basketball Diaries, iv Ann Marlowe's How to Stop Time: Heroin from A to Z, and Linda Yablonsky's The Story of Junk continue this trend of semi-autobiographical writing in an effort to show the junkie's identity in society, as well as the way addiction mirrors capitalism and consumerism as a whole. Finally, Hubert Selby's Requiem for a Dream, Bret Easton Ellis's Less than Zero, and John Updike's Rabbit at Rest explore a different kind of junk addiction, focusing on the use of television, diet pills, sex, cocaine, and food to fill an ineffable void inside that the characters of the novels find themselves unable to articulate. Using Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection, as well as various socio-historical critics, this dissertation investigates the rise of addiction narratives in the postwar years, linking the questions of identity to consumerism in contemporary American culture. v DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the following people: to my mother, who has always been there to pick me up when I fall; to my father, who taught me that sometimes we get answers to questions we don't know we've asked; to Marina, the Sam to my Frodo; to my brother and sister-in-law, who taught me the meaning of persistence and compromise; to Paradox and Finn, who taught me that all work and no play make for a dull girl; to Crux, who taught me the meaning of infinite patience and fortitude; and finally, to Rugger, for whom there are no words. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Sally Robinson, who read through numerous drafts with patience and humor, and who let me dream as big as I wanted to with this project. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Mary Ann O'Farrell, for all the good advice and criticism; Dr. Chuck Taylor, for his insight and suggestions; and to Dr. John J. McDermott, for his support. Thanks also go to the Texas A&M Department of English and, in particular, Paulette Lesher. I would also like to acknowledge the Texas A&M University College of Liberal Arts, as well as the Glasscock Center. I would also like to acknowledge the role that each of these people played in the writing of this dissertation: Rachel Gaspar, for more than twenty years of friendship and support; Amy Montz, for her ever-present ear, sage advice, and unconditional support; Anthony Rintala, for his humor and ability to find an appropriate comment or reference always; Harley Quinn, for her encouragement and love; Lowell Mick White, for his unfailing support and friendship; the Krutsch family—Jill, Rick, Jordan, Adelle, and Lauren—for being there whenever I need them; Don Heilshorn, for being the best person I know; Mike and Cindy Heilshorn, for their support; Wendy and Joe Martin and their canine kids; Danielle Brown; Micah Gallup; Shirley Witteborg; Howard Johnson; Dr. Michael Staub; Dr. Valerie Rohy; Dr. Ellen Berry; and finally, my gratitude to Josh Altherr. vii I would also like to acknowledge and extend gratitude to those who helped inspire this project: Kurt Cobain, Jim Carroll, and William S. Burroughs. Finally, thanks to Albinoni, Howard Shore, Tool, Nirvana, The Posies, The Jim Carroll Band, The Smiths, Damien Rice, and Leonard Cohen, who provided an inspirational soundtrack for my writing. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: "WOULDN'T YOU? YES YOU WOULD": POST-WORLD WAR II AMERICA AND THE RISE OF JUNKIE LITERATURE ..................................................................................... 1 II UNMASKING THE MYTH: CONFESSIONS OF THE UNREDEEMED DRUG ADDICT IN WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS'S JUNKY AND ALEXANDER TROCCHI'S CAIN'S BOOK ................................................................................................... 22 III NOT FADE AWAY: THE ABJECT IDENTITY OF THE JUNKIE IN JIM CARROLL'S THE BASKETBALL DIARIES, ANN MARLOWE'S HOW TO STOP TIME: HEROIN FROM A TO Z AND LINDA YABLONSKY'S THE STORY OF JUNK ..................... 77 IV USELESS TOYS AND PRETTY BOYS: THE SOCIETY OF MONSTROUS CONSUMPTION IN HUBERT SELBY'S REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, BRET EASTON ELLIS'S LESS THAN ZEROAND JOHN UPDIKE'S RABBIT AT REST ............................... 134 V CONCLUSION: A REQUIEM FOR THE DREAM .......................... 195 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................ 199 VITA ......................................................................................................................... 212 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: "WOULDN'T YOU? YES YOU WOULD": POST-WORLD WAR II AMERICA AND THE RISE OF JUNKIE LITERATURE The realm of addiction is not limited to drugs; addiction incorporates anything that has the potential to cause negative consequences for the person over-indulging in the act, whether it is one of eating, ingesting drugs, or even enmeshed in an unhealthy relationship. According to Sadie Plant in Writing on Drugs, the "addict" as an identity emerged in the late nineteenth century as "an individuated outsider born . [a] figment[] of a modern imagination that needed to define its own normality, drawing the boundaries around the upright, productive, and reproductive members of twentieth-century society" (164). A "thing" for which desire existed without regulation and check, the addict soon became mythologized as a person simply lacking the control and desire to stop destructive behavior. Society imagined the addict as a monster, a thing that voraciously consumed but offered nothing in return. As the nineteenth century waned and the twentieth century began, there was little that the government could do to stop the influx of the monstrous consumer. America enacted several laws and regulations to control the addicts, but these only resulted in a much larger, and certainly more insidious, threat emanating from inside society. By the time World War II ended, the country was deeply entrenched in one of the first waves of the "War on Drugs," and addiction was no longer being limited to repressed middle-class females who were the victims of doctor-induced, This dissertation follows the style of PMLA. 2 or iatrogenic, practices. Instead, a new breed of addict was born in the postwar world, and this, in turn, gave rise to a new type of literature. The post-World War II years symbolized a new beginning for America. At the height of global power, Americans were able to experience, for the first time, a leisurely and luxurious existence where items, desired instead of necessary, could be purchased by almost anyone. The postwar years ushered in what David Riesman in The Lonely Crowd refers to as a revolution that cut Americans off from the traditional family values that historically existed, giving way to "a whole range of social developments associated with a shift
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