Writing: The drug of the 80's

The eighties were notorious for drugs, clubbing, and the “literary brat pack” of writing.

This so-called “brat pack” consisted of Jay McInerney, David Leavitt, Tama Janowitz and Bret Easton Ellis. These writers often hung out at clubs and used those atmospheres for inspiration; for instance, the opening scene of Bright Lights Big Cities takes place in a nightclub; this fictional club was inspired by a real nightclub called The Odeon. In fact, The Odeon is the building that is shown on the cover of McInerney’s novel Bright Lights Big City.

Writing in the eighties could not have been an easy feat for someone like McInerney who was known to partake in alcohol and cocaine; how could his brain have been clear enough to be creative? On the other hand, perhaps it was his usage of drugs and alcohol that made him the perfect person to create a character, who like himself was a cocaine using, alcohol drinking, fact checker.

No matter how difficult writers may have found it to write in their drugged states, publishers did not seem to care. Publishers appeared to be publishing, just for the sake of doing so, even if the book may not be a bestseller. Publishers were taking on many new and previously unheard-of writers; giving them chances to prove themselves. Even if the books received terrible reviews these fresh-faced authors did not care because at least people were buying their books, for example Tama Janowitz said, "‘If I get people really screaming about the book, it’s more to my advantage than a boring review saying ‘Oh, this is just lovely.’...I don’t care what people say. I just want them to buy the book.”