Title: The 20-Year Lost Weekend: Rip Van Winkle Was a Drunk
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The 20-Year Lost Weekend: Rip Van Winkle Was a Drunk
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The 20-Year Lost Weekend: Rip Van Winkle Was a Drunk
DAVID GERMAIN July 31, 1990
POUGHQUAG, N.Y. (AP) _ Rip Van Winkle did not sleep the sleep of the enchanted, snoozing 20 years away in the haunted Catskill Mountains. The lovable rogue of Washington Irving’s story was a real man who abandoned his wife and children to become an 18th century barfly in New York City, claims literary detective Steven Press. Real or not, Rip was not so lovable, says Press, a theater professor at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie. And Rip should be an example for today, when alcoholism is acknowledged as a disease, and the drunk’s loved ones are recognized as victims. ADVERTISEMENT
It’s wrong ″that we have romanticized the drunk and castigated the woman who tries to hold the family together,″ Press says. True or false, Press’ theory reflects society’s growing sympathy toward alcoholics, said David Musto, a professor at Yale University’s medical school. ″Even the fact that he’s writing about this and people are interested is a reflection of our times,″ Musto says. In the early 1800s, heavy drinking was considered a sign of individuality rather than a disease, says Jeffrey Hon of the National Council on Alcoholism.