Thread replies: 56
Thread images: 13
Thread images: 13
File: Charles-Bukowski.jpg (901KB, 1617x1508px) Image search:
[Google]
901KB, 1617x1508px
Notes of a dirty old Man,
>everywhere we hang onto the walls of the world, and in the darkest part of hangover, I think of two friends who advise me on various methods of suicide. what better proof of loving camaraderie? one of my friends has razor scars running all along his left arm. the other jams pills by the bucketloads into a mass of black beard. they both write poetry. there is something about writing poetry that brings a man close to the cliff’s edge. probably, though, all three of us will live into our nineties. can you imagine the world of 2010 a.d.? of course, the way it will look will depend a lot on what is done with the Bomb. I suppose men will still eat eggs for breakfast, have sex problems. write poetry. commit suicide.
>I think that it was in 1954 that I last tried suicide.
anyone read this? The collection is pretty good, with rare cases of Buk writing fiction, like a short story that seems inspired by Metamorphosis.
In "Notes", Buk is old and is more bitter than ever. What was absent from his earlier work is recurring themes of murder and vengeance. He also writes about current events, the death of the Kennedies, all the left-wing getting shot, the coming revolution (before 1968) (he says contradictory things, that revolution is ugly and that a revolutionary is someone who wants the power, like anyone else, so nothing gets better after a revolution ; and then he says he's happy to live in a time where he sees the little man uprising)
he also often talks about other writers ("poets"), most of whom he has known personally. He realizes that they're all supported by the wife or Mommy, which explains why their poetry is so gay. He expresses his feelings after reading a Movable Feast by Hemingway : some of them good writers, but the disappointment of seeing them smiling in pictures, selling out to rich aristocrat Gertrude Stein, who paid them to entertain them in Paris and write shit.
I'm not doing well these days, so this is the only thing I can read, quite relevant to my interests. He shits on most writers, except a few that he saves, like Kafka, Fante or Turgeniev.
Oh, and most importantly, in "Notes" (basically a collection of magazine articles), you see a sometimes suicidal Bukowski, who's bitter about the happiness of the faggots, the feminine mamma's boys, the wussies, the sellouts... Very honestly, he wonders if he's not weak too. He spent his life pushing people away, and when black thoughts are coming, he stares at his phone for hours, wondering which x-mistress he will call, or which friend. He realizes that always playing the tough guy who doesn't need anyone brought him to loneliness. And he still has money problems. All in all, lots of interesting feels.
Now post anything Buk related. Indulge. Have a drink.
>>
File: 1423612175233.png (264KB, 500x531px) Image search:
[Google]
264KB, 500x531px
>reading bukowski
>>
>>7430054
>one-liners
>>
>>7430049
Thanks, definitely looking it up
I enjoyed ham on rye, factotum and post office, but i can understand how /lit/ dislikes Bukowski
>>
>>7430072
yw
he's coming back, apparently en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukowski_(band)
>>
>>7430054
>being a faggot
>>
I'm reading his WPD article, actually he was not more bitter than ever in "Notes of a dirty old man", it was mostly *before* his literary career (though he was already 49).
After this column in Open City and Free Press, he decided to quit the Post Office, that's when he wrote and finished his first novel, Post Office.
So the bright side is that it seems the suicidal thoughts left him once he embraced the literary career full-time.
At 50, he obviously had accumulated a lot of material.
>>
File: DSC00029.jpg (4MB, 3840x2160px) Image search:
[Google]
4MB, 3840x2160px
>[prominent literary/magazine editor, female] Great story! Now, who the hell are you?
> -- I'm fucking Bukowski!
He must've been less than 40.
That's when he decided to stop writing for 10 years.
I'm no shrink but it seems he found it hard to handle success. He was def. better at rejection.
>>
File: 51ee8c02e2c9e.gif (1014KB, 500x500px) Image search:
[Google]
1014KB, 500x500px
>>7430054
>i dont read him because he is not an intellectual, such as myself.
>>
>>7430049
Why is his head darker than the rest of his body?
>>
DUDE LIQUOR AND WHORES LMAO
>>
rye sucked dick
he's a prentious little shit wallowing in his own self-pity.
>>
This is clearly a bait thread for Bullkowski.
>>
Bukowski is okcupidcore.
>>
>>7430433
Isnt he the ICP of literature?
>>
>>7430442
Yeah, pretty much.
>>
>>7430442
it truly is. a real intellect wouldnt read such swill, they would much rather read proper literature such as shakespeare or a dr who manga adaptation *sips tea quaintly*
>>
>>7430383
>prentious
If he was just pretentious, he would only have written about winning fights and getting girls.
what's interesting is how he breaks the tough guy image by describing what he felt when his father was beating him, or when his headmaster was crushing his hand, pretending he wasn't.
He also writes about how the girl nobody could have became attracted to him, followed him everywhere, because he was the only one looking so cold.
The guys ended up making fun of him when they saw "his girlfriend" with someone else.
Buk writes that what they didn't know is that he never fucked her or even kissed her.
He writes about getting caught in the tough man façade. It's not that he didn't want this very pretty girl. It's that he got addicted to looking mysterious and tough.
But when a girl wanted him to take her, it was a dilemma : if I try to make a move, she will realize I'm an anxious kissless virgin, she will understand that behind all the mystery, everything was fake.
I don't think pretentious people become writers. Except maybe Joyce. But he was a faggot, wasn't he?
>>
>>7430338
Being a worker in South California.
>>
>>7430523
>kissless virgin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5cxkh0euvU
>>
>>7430562
damn... the sincerity through which he tells that story is respectable.
>>
>>7430574
this
you can also see the experienced story teller.
>>
Just finished reading Hollywood. I think Bukowski's a much better poet than a novelist but I really enjoyed it. How do Pulp and Factotum fare against the rest of his books?
>>
>>7430562
Huh. This is the first thing to make me want to read Bukowski. Will definitely be trying him out.
>>
>>7430599
>much better poet than a novelist
really?
he's my hero *despite* his ridiculous poetry IMO. Have I missed the good collections? Can you post anything that's more than lazy prose disguised as poetry?
once again, I respect and admire the man as a novelist (aka auto-fiction writer)
>>7430659
I too used to be completely uninterested in this drunk AW, indulging in everything. Then I read Ham on Rye.
"They will kill him because he has not died at all. I have died nine-tenths but keep the other one-tenth like a gun."
- Notes of a dirty old man.
>>
from More notes of a dirty old man
(might come out wrong on small screens)
God knows I am not too hippy. Perhaps
because I am too much around the hip and I
fear fads for, like anybody else, I like
something that tends to last. Then, too, the
hippy foundation or diving board or resting
place or whatever you want to call it does
suck in its fair share of fakes, promoters and
generally vicious people trying to overcompensate
for some heinous psychological defect.
But you have these everywhere—hippy
and non-hippy. But, like I say, the few people
that I know are either a bit on the side of the
artistic, the pro-hip or the understandinghip,
so I have been generally getting more of
this slice of cake and it has seemed a bit
SWEET.
But, lo, the other day I got the OTHER bit
and I think I’d rather eat sweet than shit. Being
locked into a large building where 4,000
people work at dull and menial tasks has its
compensations but it has disadvantages
too—for instance, you can never be sure who
is going to assigned to work next to you. A
bad soul makes for a worse night. Enough
bad souls can kill you.
He was balding, square-jawed, mannish???,
with this look of hate-frustration
upon his face. For months I had sensed that
he had wanted to talk to me. Now I was
hooked—he was assigned to the place to my
left. He complained about the air-conditioning
and a few other things, then worked in a
question about my age. I told him that I
would be 47 in August. He said he was 49.
“Age is only relative,” he said. “It doesn’t
matter if you are 47 or 49, it doesn’t make
any difference.”
“Umm,” I said.
Then the speaker screamed out some announcement:
ALL THOSE QUALIFIED ON
THE L.S.M. MACHINES REPORT TO . . .
“I thought they were going to say LSD,” he
said.
“Umm,” I said.
“You know,” he said, “that LSD has put a
lot of people in madhouses—brain damage.”
“Everything puts people in madhouses.”
“Whatcha mean?”
“I mean the LSD brain damage scare is
probably an exaggeration percentage-wise.”
“Oh no, leading doctors and laboratories
and hospitals say so.”
“O.K.”
We worked away without conversation for
awhile and I thought I had escaped him. He
had one of those easy mellow voices that
drowned and warbled in its own conviction.
But he began again:
“Are you for LSD?”
“I don’t use it.”
“Don’t you think it’s a passing fad?”
“Nothing that is against the law ever
ceases to exist.”
“Whatcha mean?”
“Forget it.”
“Whatcha think of the hippies?”
“They don’t harm me.”
“Their hair stinks,” he said. “They don’t
take baths. They don’t work.”
“I don’t like to work either.”
“Anything that is unproductive is not good
for society.”
“Umm.”
“Some college profs say that these kids are
our new leaders, that we should listen to
them. HOW THE HELL CAN THEY KNOW
ANYTHING? THEY DON’T HAVE ANY
EXPERIENCE.”
“Experience can dull. With most men experience
is a series of mistakes; the more experience
you have the less you know.”
>>
>>7430704
“You mean to say you are going to listen to
what some 13-year-old kid tells you?”
“I listen to everything.”
“But they aren’t mature, they aren’t
MATURE, don’t you see? That’s why they’re
hippies.”
“Suppose they got jobs? Suppose they
went into industry, went to work turning
bolts for General Motors? Wouldn’t they still
be immature?”
“No, because they’d be working,” he said.
“Umm.”
“Furthermore, I think a lot of these kids
are going to be SORRY that they didn’t go to
the war. It’s going to be an experience they’ll
wish they hadn’t missed. They’re going to regret
it later on.”
“Umm.”
There fell again the peaceful silence. Then
he said, “you’re not a hippy, are you?”
“I’m working, damn it. And I told you I
was 47.”
“The beard doesn’t mean anything then,
does it?”
“Sure it does. It means, at the moment, I
feel better wearing a beard than I do the other
way. Maybe next week it will be different.”
Silence, silence. Then he switched his
stool, turned his back to me as much as possible
and continued working. I got up and
walked to the men’s crapper and stuck my
head out the window for fresh air. The guy
was my father all over again:
RESPONSIBILITY, SOCIETY, COUNTRY,
DUTY, MATURITY, all the dull-sounding
hard words. But why were they in such
agony? Why did they hate so much? It
seemed simply that they were very much
afraid that somebody else was having a
damn good time or was not unhappy most of
the time. It seemed that they wanted everybody
to carry the same damn heavy rock they
were carrying. It wasn’t ENOUGH that I was
working beside him like an idiot; it wasn’t
enough for him that I was wasting the few
good hours left in my life—no, he also
wanted me to share his own mind-soul, to
sniff his dirty stockings, to chew on his angers
and hates with him. I was not PAID for
that, the fucker. And that’s what killed you
on the job—not the actual physical work but
being closed in with the dead.
I got on back to my stool. He had his back
turned to me. Poor, poor fellow. I had let him
down. He’d have to look elsewhere. And I
was white and he was white and most of
them were black. Where ya gonna find a decent
white man in a place like this? I could
sense him thinking.
I suppose he would have gotten around to
the Negro question if I had sent out the
proper rays. I had been spared that.
His back was to me. His back was broad,
American and hard. But I couldn’t see his
face and he didn’t speak any more. What had
hurt him worst was that I had neither agreed
with or argued with him. His back was to me.
The remainder of the night was peaceful and
almost kind.
>>
>>7430708
>And that’s what killed you
>on the job—not the actual physical work but
>being closed in with the dead.
Damn.
Got me in the feels.
Luckily in my field there's been at least a few among the living at each place I've worked, but I know that feel all too well.
>>
File: 1449348567517s.jpg (3KB, 118x125px) Image search:
[Google]
3KB, 118x125px
>mfw no one likes Girl in A Miniskirt as much as me
>>
>>7430599
I thought Pulp sucked, though not exactly not worth reading... I mean, if you like Buk, might as well take the day or two to read it but it's definitely the weakest of his novels. Factotum is good though.
>>
>>7430338
you need to go outside more.
>>
>>7430338
dirty old man
>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTPxWkBgW6U
based bukowski blowing out the pretentious hacks
BIM BIM BIM
>>
>>7430562
wow this is dope.
>>
>>7430049
'South of No North' is a good collection, Gay Brewer has writter a good book analysing Bukowski, I would suggest reading that.
>>
>>7431493
You know why? Because it's complete shit.
>>
>>7433079
>'South of No North'
I'll check it out.
>>7431447
yeah, and he has a way to write it.
this short story (the first in "More notes of a DOM") looks like a manifesto.
he was not really a bum or a loser.
he wanted two things : be tough, but not like his crazy father (unemployed during the depression, but always preaching about the american dream, child abuser, control freak, maniac, preaching about being good and square)
I too would rather work with a hippy hypocrite than a control freak hypocrite.
>>
>>7433672
w/e i like it
>>
File: o-NEANDERTHAL-facebook.jpg (403KB, 2000x1000px) Image search:
[Google]
403KB, 2000x1000px
>>7430049
>>
>>7433895
wow
you think Buk was the last Neanderthal?
>>
>>7430708
>What had hurt him worst was that I had neither agreed with or argued with him.
typical Buk
doesn't need to convince anyone
>>
>>7433045
>BIM BIM BIM
That's certainly one thing I like in his writing. He lived so many stories first-hand that he doesn't need to fill pages with wikipedia cut and paste or useless attempts at style.
One of the few writers he respected was Céline.
I'm still reading Notes, about halfway he has a story about a gangster bar, that I'm about to spoil. Noone goes there because it's the gangster bar. One day he goes there, orders a beer. Spots a hot woman, sad and lonely. Sits with her, offers her a beer. When she goes to the crapper, gang guys tell him she's the boss' gf, if you stay here we'll have to kill you. He offers her another drink.
Then he goes to the "crapper" downstairs, feeling he's followed by the two guys. While pissing, they punch him hard in the head.
He sees stars but doesn't collapse. Turns to face them. Goes back up with blood spilling from the back of his head. Sits with the same woman.
Then he switches to the bar, content he had made a point. Drinks more, soon followed by the gang men. At the end of the night, they talk outside : "You know what? We think you should join the gang. We liked you attitude. We need more men like you"
- No, thank you.
>>
File: so we'll hate him.jpg (37KB, 505x286px) Image search:
[Google]
37KB, 505x286px
>>
File: thesink.jpg (101KB, 960x718px) Image search:
[Google]
101KB, 960x718px
>>7433982
>>
>>7433982
story of that tripfag?
>>
File: neanderthal.jpg (194KB, 800x1217px) Image search:
[Google]
194KB, 800x1217px
>>7433901
sure looks like one
>>
>>7434029
The greatest tripfag of all time.
>>
still not a fan of his poetry, but looking at the tattoos people get, I found his bluebird poem seems to be famous
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8509539-Bluebird-by-Charles-Bukowski
but this is better (fellow alcoholic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pf92bOpM0w
>>
File: poetry in motion.png (82KB, 778x375px) Image search:
[Google]
82KB, 778x375px
>>
>>
File: a buttkowski on refuting me.jpg (168KB, 775x419px) Image search:
[Google]
168KB, 775x419px
>>7434313
>I believe there's also a bluebird behind the tough façade of the guy who made this weak cartoon.
Haha, oh god. Thanks for the laugh.
There is no bukowski bluebird behind my "tough façade".
>>
>>7434329
thanks for that second cartoon.
I'll read this someday.
>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL1ly1GMwwc
>>
File: silence is golden.jpg (127KB, 779x380px) Image search:
[Google]
127KB, 779x380px
>>7434336
You're quite welcome.
>>
>>7430562
woah, his voice isn't what i expected at all, thought he'd have a tom waits-esque growl
>>
>>7434530
Sounds like a florida jew, doesn't he?
Thread posts: 56
Thread images: 13
Thread images: 13