My Notes on "Quittin' Ain't Easy"
by Ann Bogle
I attended the first Minneapolis screening of Bill W. on a Thursday evening in July and had a complex reaction to it.
My date was born in Akron, not a friend of Bill W., had not even heard of him, but when I invited him, he said he wanted to go.
My A.A. friend, J., drove. His girlfriend from high school, K., the third of four of us, turned to us in the backseat. “Are you friends of Bill?” she asked. I was better friends with William Carlos Williams—Bill C. Bill—but I did not say that. I said, “I am not-not friends with Bill.”
That sounded off to her. J. and I became lifelong friends after A.A. and I had parted. It had been a while since I had been near anyone as cult-oriented as K. She and I talked in the theater lobby as we waited with tickets in hand for the door. Inside, my date and I split off from J. and K. to find seats. I told my date that K. had inspected me for alcoholism at the border.
He and I sat near the front where there was a narrow stage, surrounded by friends of Bill, many with overhanging guts, as I noticed in my row, eating popcorn, drinking pop. Afterward, my date said he had noticed a familiar Akron building in the documentary. He mentioned it to his mother who had just flown in from Georgia. She told him that his grandfather had been the attorney who had represented Dr. Bob.
I am a programmed survivor, twenty years after a therapist had urged A.A. and other 12-Step groups (Al-Anon, CoD.A., S.A., and CoS.A.), repeatedly, a kind of conversational hypnosis.
Sorry, I think I was jotting and not writing. I see a dropped article that would clarify my interest. I purposely didn't describe my alcohol use. There, I just did.
David James b/c'd me to be sure his satire is sound. I said it is: What is a backstory? Do people like this term? to describe a further story that belongs not necessarily not exactly to the writer but to the reader?
I agree with John Riley. And satire is a powerful response. So is documentary.
The original A.A. literature is sound.
I hope it is okay that I find “Quittin' Ain't Easy” to be scary funny and not “not funny.”
In countries where wine and beer and sweet liqueur are food. In countries where the Internet is an invention of freedom. In this country, treatment centers [programs] segregate by gender [genre]. My religious heritage doesn't segregate. Did it segregate? Did it invent co-education? The Scots.
To desire not to drink is different in feeling from having no desire to drink. I do not desire a drink. A drink might slow the keys. Ta-ta, good to see you, gotta run, as if learning to need avoidance.
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Author's Note
August 1, 2012 re: July 27, 2012
June 10, in its second year, is the annual date for screenings in cities around the country of the documentary, Bill W.
Appears along with eight other stories in a group called "In Audience," _Connotation Press_, Robert Clark Young, Ed., Issue II, Volume VII, November 2015.
Other stories by Ann Bogle
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Steve Gowin, great comment. Post if you're inclined, your best. It's on target. The story is composed of facts, but people don't trust facts. ~Ann
i love this and the many gems hidden in it. all those questions work for me, too: easy to adopt, easy to put on your life like a glove on a third hand, but when i stick it in my mouth like a pizza slice, i find it's too large because it's your life slice.
Marcus, I slept, I dreamt of Deep Yiddish Pizza. The beau of this story texted me:
--buon giorno bella, Ann, Avanti! Are you going to do battle today?
--No, battle torn.
--Have a wonderful day Bella Ann.
--Thx sweetie U 2.
--Sweetie and not Swedie or Twedie.
--Deep Yiddish Pizza. A kraut sd my life slice of pizza too big for him bec not his slice, mine, and I sd I slept, I dreamt of deep Yiddish pizza. His comment was public, shd mine?
--It depends on the consequences.
--How cd I tell even later cuz they all lie and hide? Asking you if it's a good answer to his paternalistic German advice online?
--What would make you happiest and proudest of your action?
--Marcus deleted deep Yiddish pizza so I reposted.
--Deep Yiddish pizza ... I thought you were talking about me.
--I have a higher deeper regard for pizza than the kraut does since I met you, tho I always liked it. The kraut is saying eat your own pizza and don't show it to me to eat. My dad kept a photo of spinach on a plate in his office. His motto for himself was eat your spinach, so that's my idea today.
...
William Carlos Williams,
In the American Grain
Dense yet delicate, like Borges.
And here's the Borges comment:
This reads to me like meta fiction. I only vaguely know what that means but remember somebody talking about Borges and meta fiction at some point. Given that “notes” is in the title, I think I’m on track with this.
I liked the abbreviations and shorthand which of course work well with the structure the title sets up.
I think using the word “pop” for soda is incredible bold. We used it where I came from but left off about the time of university to avoid being ostracized by East Coast and Chicago kids.
Cool beans here, Ann.
Thanks, Steve, so much for posting.
Luis, coincides with a comment from Steve Gowin.
To Steve: "I saw Borges read in Madison. I said he stepped onto the stage like a grand piano. My friend, BF, fainted in the auditorium that night. She is [American] Russian, Jewish and her distant relatives had moved to Argentina. She toppled on the steps (fainting), but B'go and I stopped her fall. Thanks for writing. That museum in the department store sounds too small for him, but then the Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls is the size of a bookshop."
Revised June 5-6, 2013.
June 10, in its second year, is the annual date for screenings in cities around the country of the documentary, Bill W.