Talk:Lament of an alcoholic./@comment-7706473-20140713080820

Hmn, a bit too close to home, having know a great many alcoholics - some who don't even drink - in my time. I'll start, as is customary, with the things that did not click so much. I felt it was perhaps needlessly crude and descriptive at the beginning, and though I enjoyed the language you used, it perhaps veered too much away from the darkly tragic, to the darkly comic. Schadenfreude is all well and good, but I think the tragedy and horror should be the focus, more then anything that could cause laughter. The other thing is, I felt this would work better as a short story - perhaps twelve to seventeen pages or so, accompanied with more elaboration and detail. Not really a complaint, but a thought.

The good is that this is quite tragic, and tragic stories are the most scary. There is an element of hope at the end, but it isn't the life - the lament - of the alcoholic that is frightening, or even the addiction. It is the resignation to such a life, to such a lack of desire (or even fear of) change that lurks so readily in so many. I imagine many readers will know of someone, or be someone, who has suffered or suffers from such an inner apathy, an inner fear - and that's sad and scary, in all too many ways.

But hey, any story with Bob Ross (the boss) can't be completely scary or sad, can it? Now, if only I could paint happy little forests...