If you're looking for bottom, this seems to be about as good a place ...

[Vladv1]

"If you're looking for 1.bottom, this seems to be about as good a place as any--although I'd be the first to admit that 2.the bottom has been a moving target inmy dark and twisted, speed metal version of a Dickensian life. Impoverished, transient childhood? Check. Abusive, alcoholic parent? Check.Mind-f**king religious weirdness (in my case the extremes of the Jehovah's Witnesses and Satanism)? Check. Alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness? Check, check, check. Soul-crushing professional and artistic setbacks? Check".
Dave Mustaine "A Heavy Metal Memoir".

Could you please explain the absence of the article in 1.? Would it be correct to say "a bottom" or "the bottom". And then in 2. the article "the" appears, why? Please explain the logic.

 

[Tarheel]

I'm fairly sure I would use "a bottom" there.

 

[jutfrank]

It might help if you tell us what 'bottom' means. There's obviously some missing prior context here. What is it?

 

[Vladv1]

It might help if you tell us what 'bottom' means. There's obviously some missing prior context here. What is it?

It is the first sentence of the book.

 

[emsr2d2]

I would assume it means something similar to "rock bottom". He goes on to describe what sounds like a pretty awful childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. If you're looking for the definition of [rock] bottom, he's it.

 

[Vladv1]

I would assume it means something similar to "rock bottom". He goes on to describe what sounds like a pretty awful childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. If you're looking for the definition of [rock] bottom, he's it.

Thanks. What does rock bottom being the moving target mean in other words?

 

[emsr2d2]

I think he means that every time he thought he'd hit rock bottom, it would move, meaning things would get even worse (even though he probably thought that was impossible).

 

[jutfrank]

Given that, the zero article in (1) is there to express the idea of 'bottom' as an abstract uncountable notion, similar in meaning to 'bottomness'. In (2) it's now specified in relation to his individual life experience.