July 20, 2017

"The light did him harm, but not as much as looking at things did; he resolved, having done it once, never to move his eyeballs again."

"A dusty thudding in his head made the scene before him beat like a pulse. His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum. During the night, too, he’d somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by secret police. He felt bad."

Wrote Kingsley Amis in "Lucky Jim," quoted in "The Metaphysics of the Hangover."
Amis may go over the top, but still: A small woodland creature of the night voids himself there, then finds it a convenient place to end its days. (Elvis Presley, stepping to the mic in Vegas, complaining, maybe, of his own hangover, once growled, “My mouth feels like Bob Dylan’s been sleeping in it.”) But the night before—ah, the night before—the mouth was a source of great pleasure—the marvelous taste and scent of the wine, the beer, or the spirits.

20 comments:

tim in vermont said...

Kingsly Amis had some talent and that was a great novel.

Jeff Gee said...

No Dylan tag??

Carol said...

Lucky Jim was a riot. The other books, not so much.

Wince said...

Compared to a hangover, "being a corporate lawyer has it's upsides."

"I’d rather Queen Latifah shit in my mouth from a fucking hot air balloon."

Jeff Gee said...

Okay. I guess it needs a 'Celebrities Doing Stuff In Your Mouth' tag now.

Ann Althouse said...

"No Dylan tag??"

Fixed.

Had intended to include that.

Big Mike said...

Kris Kristofferson summarized hangovers perfectly with the first stanza of "Sunday Morning Coming Down":

"Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt."

buwaya said...

My hangovers were never that bad.

Or maybe some people just like to dramatize their discomfort, I don't know. It seems a poor way to deal.

Sadly I can no longer conduct such a test, having sworn off the juice.

Ditto on "Lucky Jim".

Sebastian said...

“My mouth feels like Bob Dylan’s been sleeping in it.” I'd like to nominate this for best quote-post ever on this blog.

Earnest Prole said...

"He felt bad."

rhhardin said...

It's plagiarizing Lautreamont.

maldoror.txt

Rusty said...

Reads like J P Donleavy

Earnest Prole said...

“The telephone blasted Peter Fallow awake inside an egg with the shell peeled away and only the membranous sac holding it intact. Ah! The membranous sac was his head, and the right side of his head was on the pillow, and the yolk was as heavy as mercury, and it rolled like mercury, and it was pressing down on his right temple . . . If he tried to get up to answer the telephone, the yolk, the mercury, the poisoned mass, would shift and roll and rupture the sac, and his brains would fall out.”

— Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

Earnest Prole said...

From The Guardian, The 10 Best Fictional Hangovers: The morning after the night before in print, film and song

virgil xenophon said...

In the service the worst hangovers were when one had a case of the "zackleys." That's when your mouth tastes 'zackly like your ars*hole.

Rocketeer said...

Kris Kristofferson summarized hangovers perfectly with the first stanza of "Sunday Morning Coming Down"

One of my favorite Johnny Cash recordings.

Jupiter said...

Oh, Lucky Jim!
How I envy him.

Knucklehead said...

May be the funniest book I ever read. Read it a second time and laughed just as much. Thanks for that Kingsley Amis.

Big Mike said...

@Rocketeer, I much preferred the song as Kris sung it himself. Something about his gravelly voice suggests the pain of a hangover.

Rocketeer said...

@Big Mike, I like them both actually, but I think Johnny Cash's conveys the poignancy and loneliness better.