It’s hard to believe it has been 38 years since the publication of Raymond Carver’s monumental first short story collection, Will You Please Be Quiet Please?
To celebrate the anniversary the folks at Black Balloon Publishing have come up with a clever idea; to track the drinks within Raymond Carver’s stories.
Here’s how they did it:
Each mention of drink in each story got a tally.
If it said three drinks were poured, they made three tally marks.
If another round was had, They marked a drink for each character. If people were drinking and someone came in drunk with an empty glass, it was noted.
No drink left behind.
Then the author, Freddy Moore, went to work and drew up some “bar tabs” based on six of Carver’s best known short stories:
The craziest thing about tallying the drinks in these stories is that it hardly does the drinking justice. Half the time, stories begin with “another drink” and leave you with the notion that everyone just kept drinking non-stop. Sometimes the amount someone had to drink isn’t even measured by glasses but by showing someone so piss drunk that they fall smack over a coffee table, drink in hand (which happens in “Vitamins”).
more at The Airship, How Many Drinks Does It Take to make a Raymond Carver Story?