Thread: Charles Bukowski

People go nuts over Bukowski. They either love him to death or they can't abide him.

I like a lot of his poems. Sometimes I think he must have had flashes of inspiration in which he saw something others didn't and he managed to write down in his immitable style. Other times, however, I think he was just a drunken, primitive misogynist who was jealous of other writers.

Haven't read his stories or his novels yet. Saw an awful movie with Matt Dillon about him, though.

Your views?

Hate him.

Can't write.

Boring.

I love Bukowski. Buddy Glass, I know the movie you're talking about, it's called "Factotum", based on the novel by the same name, which if I'm not mistaken was one of Bukowski's first novels. I agree the movie isn't good at all, but that's simply because Bukowski didn't write the kind of stories that make good movies.

He's definitely an acquired taste, true, but there's something about his spare, simple language that I really appreciate.

His poetry is also pretty much the only poetry I've ever really liked. That's probably because Bukowski was always first and foremost a short story writer who drifted into poetry, rather than the other way around. Because of that, his poetry tells a story, and flows more like prose.

Originally Posted by Frabes

I love Bukowski. Buddy Glass, I know the movie you're talking about, it's called "Factotum", based on the novel by the same name, which if I'm not mistaken was one of Bukowski's first novels. I agree the movie isn't good at all, but that's simply because Bukowski didn't write the kind of stories that make good movies.

He's definitely an acquired taste, true, but there's something about his spare, simple language that I really appreciate.

His poetry is also pretty much the only poetry I've ever really liked. That's probably because Bukowski was always first and foremost a short story writer who drifted into poetry, rather than the other way around. Because of that, his poetry tells a story, and flows more like prose.

Factotum, that's right. Not too good, but then novel adaptations rarely are.

No, I definitely see why Bukowski is so popular. His style, though heavily imitated, was quite different from anyone else's at the time. I like the simplicity of his short poems, those moments or flashes of insight:

Miracle

I have just listened to this
symphony which Mozart dashed off
in one day
and it had enough wild and crazy
joy to last
forever,
whatever forever
is
Mozart came as close as
possible to
that.

Or this one:

well, that's just the way it is...

sometimes when everything seems at
its worst
when all conspires
and gnaws
and the hours, days, weeks
years
seem wasted -
stretched there upon my bed
in the dark
looking up at the ceiling
I get what many will consider an
obnoxous thought:
it's still nice to be
Bukowski.

My absolute favorite Bukowski poem.

listening to Wagner
as outside in the dark the wind blows a cold rain the
trees wave and shake lights go
off and on the walls creak and the cats run under the
bed...

Wagner battles the agonies, he's emotional but
solid, he's the supreme fighter, a giant in a world of
pygmies, he takes it straight on through, he breaks
barriers
an
astonishing FORCE of sound as

everything here shakes
shivers
bends
blasts
in fierce gamble

yes, Wagner and the storm intermix with the wine as
nights like this run up my wrists and up into my head and
back down into the
gut

some men never
die
and some men never live

but we're all alive
tonight

Incidentally, there's a really good documentary about Bukowski called "Born into This". Really interesting, lots of insight. Actually what first turned me on to Bukowski.

Originally Posted by Frabes

My absolute favorite Bukowski poem.




Incidentally, there's a really good documentary about Bukowski called "Born into This". Really interesting, lots of insight. Actually what first turned me on to Bukowski.

That's a great one, too. I have it in my You Get So Alone collection.

I can see why he would gravitate towards poetry, now.

He couldn't write a cohesive story, even if he tried.

Horrible fiction writer.