A wildly imaginative dianoetic rambling concerning the the “basic text” of Alcoholics Anonymous (viz. the Big Book)
“PREFACE
This
is the fourth edition of the book “Alcoholics Anonymous.” The
first edition appeared in April 1939, and in the following sixteen
years, more than 300,000 copies
went into circulation. The second edition, published in 1955, reached
a total of more than 1,150,500 copies. The third edition, which came
off press in 1976,
achieved a circulation of approximately19,550,000 in all formats.
Because
this book has become the basic text for our Society and has helped
such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there
exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it.
Therefore, the first portion of this volume, describing the A.A.
recovery program, has been left largely untouched in the course of
revisions made for the second, third, and fourth editions. The
section called “The Doctor’s Opinion” has been kept intact,
just as it was originally written in 1939 by the late Dr. William D.
Silkworth, our Society’s great medical benefactor.
The
second edition added the appendices, the Twelve Traditions, and the
directions for getting in touch with A.A. But the chief change was in
the section of personal stories, which was expanded to reflect the
Fellowship’s growth. “Bill’s Story,” “Doctor Bob’s
Nightmare,” and one other personal history from the first edition
were retained intact; three were edited and
one of these was retitled; new versions of two stories were written,
with new titles; thirty completely new stories were added; and the
story section was divided into three parts, under the same headings
that are used now.
In the third edition, Part I (“Pioneers of A.A.”) was left unchanged. Nine of the stories in Part II (“They Stopped in Time”) were carried over from the second edition; eight new stories were added. In Part III (“They Lost Nearly All”), eight stories were retained; five new ones were added.
In the third edition, Part I (“Pioneers of A.A.”) was left unchanged. Nine of the stories in Part II (“They Stopped in Time”) were carried over from the second edition; eight new stories were added. In Part III (“They Lost Nearly All”), eight stories were retained; five new ones were added.
This
fourth edition includes the Twelve Concepts for World Service and
revises the three sections of personal stories as follows. One new
story has been added to Part I, and two that originally appeared in
Part III have been repositioned there; six stories have been deleted.
Six of the stories in Part II have been carried over, eleven new ones
have been added, and eleven taken out. Part III now includes twelve
new stories; eight were removed (in addition to the two that were
transferred to Part I).
All
changes made over the years in the Big Book (A.A. members’ fond
nickname for this volume) have had the same purpose: to represent the
current membership of Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately, and
thereby to reach more alcoholics. If you have a drinking problem, we
hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty-two personal
stories and think: “Yes, that happened to me”; or, more
important, “Yes, I’ve felt like that”; or, most important,
“Yes, I believe this program can work for me too.”
(our
emphasis)
Comment:
Loads of 'black bits' (print) in this section - and pretty
straightforward. But the moral of the story – if it works don't fix
it!
Coming
next – Foreword to First Edition
Cheerio
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
Caution: This curse (sorry!!) COURSE is not to be taken as AUTHORITATIVE nor is it to be regarded as DEFINITIVE in any way. Anyone found to be according it any undue status will be reported to the appropriate authorities (ie. GSO York or whoever) who will then do …. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! (quite rightly too we say!). Moreover any person discovered to be quoting from the aforementioned course will be TERMINATED with extreme prejudice!
Caution: This curse (sorry!!) COURSE is not to be taken as AUTHORITATIVE nor is it to be regarded as DEFINITIVE in any way. Anyone found to be according it any undue status will be reported to the appropriate authorities (ie. GSO York or whoever) who will then do …. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! (quite rightly too we say!). Moreover any person discovered to be quoting from the aforementioned course will be TERMINATED with extreme prejudice!
No comments:
Post a Comment