“One of the main motivations behind a happy hour is to drink and be merry, to shake loose from the unhappiness otherwise prevailing in our lives, just as one of the main reasons we turn to great writing is to console ourselves in our unhappiness. But we might, ironically, end up feeling that unhappiness more intensely by drinking, just as we might call up our darkest feelings by reading poetry—so put the two together and we've got ourselves a potent cocktail.
In this Olio (Un)happy Hour, Professor Jason Koo will lead a close reading of Denis Johnson's landmark 1982 collection The Incognito Lounge—one of the great literary depictions of rock bottom—and explore the power of desolation in writing. We'll pair this activity with the Corpse Reviver #2 (or N/A alternative), seeking to rouse ourselves from the dead with this pre-Prohibition, absinthe-laced cocktail intended to cure hangovers—or perhaps, as The Savoy Cocktail Book's Harry Craddock warned, to "un-revive the corpse again" if consumed with sufficient enthusiasm.”