Monday, August 25, 2008

Faulkner, Hemingway Books to be Asterisked?

NEW YORK, NY--News of Usain Bolt's stunning dominance at the Bejing Olympics along with subsequent questions about whether he has used steroids (he hasn't), struck a chord of familiarity for those in elite literary circles who feel a bit queasy these days concerning their heroes. Just how much of their talent was alcohol-aided?

The prestigious National Book Awards recently announced that writers will have to attest that none of their writing was done while under the influence of alcohol or risk having their works forever after referred to with an asterisk.

"You just know Faulkner and Hemmingway did some writing over the bottle, although I assume there was a lot of sober re-writing also," said one panel member who declined to be identified since he happened to have a gin & tonic in his hand. "And in order to level the playing field for those who don't imbibe, we'd like to make sure we at least identify which classics had 'some help'."

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