/lit/ - Literature

I've been reading literature and philosophy for 20 years and I agree. Bukowski was based. The sheer contempt he had for flaccid, dead-end prose was what eventually made me swear off half the canon of the 20th c. He's right. The shit blows. Say something in one or two brilliant searing images or don't.

The other authors may have been more prosaic, but they were also better in content.

>>21989534
I just read 3 of his poems, all I can say is pee pee poo poo.

>>21989534
They will be reading Celine

>>21989614
Yeah, I agree. The images that Celine creates are unmatched by Bukowski. Maybe Burroughs comes close

>>21989534
>Kerouac
Will no longer have a small army of pseud hipster fans buying into his LARP but will likely have a small place in the American canon.
>Ginsberg
Will be remembered for his obsenity trial more than his writing (and him being a member of NAMBLA will probably become more pronounced instead of buried).
>Henry Miller
I honestly haven't read anything by him or enough about him to offer an opinion. From the little I know it seems he's mostly known for how pornographic his writing was so similar fate to Ginsberg?
>Celine
His association with Nazis will fade and he'll be less obscure in the future.
>Bukowski
WIll be seen as one of the pioneers of the Confessional movement and will be judged positively versus what that movement morphed into (i.e. self-centered poetry that isn't self-reflective (it forgets the "confessional" part), Rupi Kaur is an example).

>>21989534
Retard.

>>21991082
Why? Have you even read Bukowski's short stories and poetry?

>>21992649
>sure m'lady, you can borrow anything from my vast and diverse library
>mind the 'pops though

>>21992649
>funkopops

>>21991819
>>21991407
sovl

>>21989534
>BIM BIM BIM, BIM BIM BIM

Truly a visionary
(but I do actually agree with you desu)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_aTcfLXvYQ&t=10

>>21992649
>trump funkopop
Not sure why I'm surprised.

Brautigan is better than Bukowski, but they're both trash, btw.

>>21989534
Him and Burroughs are the only so-called 'Beats' of note, and the latter's coattail riders were the harbingers of half a century of Ameriboomer trash literature. A lot of filler poems and expanded short story novels that overstay their welcome, but when he nails it it is clear that swathes of enjambled retards like Rupi Kaur are cargo cultists.

>>21989534
where do you suggest to start/go from him?

>>21993581
I would read the novels in chronological order (real life chronology):
Ham on Rye
Factotum
Post Office
Women

and dip into the letters and the poems too

>>21989534
It's been 30 years since his death and literally no one's reading him. Except farmboy literati who can't get over that tired 1930s 'drunk and masculine' Hemingwayan shtick.
Pretty sure you've found your first volume of Bukowski in your straw bed.

where can I post sci-fi? any tips? I only know places for f*ntasy

>>21993776
How come there are like dozen of Bukowski videos on YT with millions of views. Seems a bit odd if nobody's reading him.

>>21989534
>A completely uneducated man
He "attended Los Angeles City College for two years, taking courses in art, journalism, and literature", I think he started writing fiction as a child, then spent a lot of his early adult life in libraries, read tons of stuff, Dostoevsky, Huxley, Ezra Pound, Steinbeck, Hemingway etc., read philosophers, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche I think, he also mentioned reading nonfiction, all while corresponding with other writers and artists. Not sure how that makes him completely uneducated.

I huddle in front of this cheesebox of numbers
poking in small cards
addressed to non-existent
lives
while the whole town is drunk
and fucks in the street and sings
with the birds
I stand under a small electric light
and send messages to a dead Garcia,
and I am old enough to die,
I have always been old enough to die,
and I stand before this wooden cage
and feed its voiceless insides,
this is my job, my rent, my whore, my shoes,
the sickening task of leeching the color from my eyes;
master, damn you, you’ve found me a sweet lock,
my mouth puckering to a mewking cry,
my hands shriveling across my lonely
red-spotted sunless chest;
with these elements I could die on any rug
you have ready, not the street, Sir Sam,
the street is so hard, at least
give me the walls I have paid a life for,
and when the Hawk comes down
I will meet him halfway,
we will embrace where where the wallpaper tears,
where the rains came in
where the heater said so steadily steady
and then
was shut off;
I stand before wood and numbers,
I stand before a graveyard of eyes and mouths
of heads hollowed out for shadows,
and shadows enter and sit
like mice and look out at me

I put in cards with secret numbers,
listening to toilets flush;
agents cut the wires and test my heartbeat,
listen for sanity
or cheer or love, and finding none,
satisfied, they leave:
flick, flick, flick, I stand before the wood
and my soul faints on a floor crawling with bugs
and beyond the the wood is a window
with sounds, grass, walking, towers, dogs,
but here I stand and here I stay,
sending cards noted with my own ending;
and I am sick with caring: go out, everything,
and send fire.

>>21993458
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP

>>21992649
I had that same pleasures of the damned book in high school as well. I saw the black and white portrait of Bukowski on the cover, thought it looked cool and bought it. Still has the index labels I put on my favourite poems.

>>21995300
Rupi Kaur for middle-aged men.

>>21989534

Bold of you to assume they'll be reading in 200 years.

>>21995300
Is this supposed to be good?

>>21996494
Apparently her poems are described as "concise" and "minimalist", which doesn't apply to the Bukowski poem at all

>>21996494
LMAO, calling Charles Bukowski "Rupi Kaur for middle-aged men"? Dude, you clearly have no clue what you're talking about. Bukowski is the OG of raw, gritty poetry. His work is a middle finger to societal norms and a celebration of the underbelly of life. It's about drinking, sex, and the harsh realities of the human condition.

Comparing him to Rupi Kaur? Are you out of your mind? Bukowski's poetry is the antithesis of Kaur's Instagram fluff. He doesn't sugarcoat shit or wrap his verses in pretty bows for the masses. His words hit you like a punch to the gut, waking you up to the dark side of existence. His poems are filled with despair, passion, and a gritty honesty that Kaur could only dream of.

You might not like his work because it doesn't fit your delicate sensibilities or your safe, sanitized version of poetry. But guess what? Bukowski doesn't give a damn about pleasing the masses. He's all about speaking his truth, no matter how ugly or uncomfortable it may be. That's what makes him a legend.

So, next time you want to spew some ignorant comparison, do your homework and understand the immense impact and influence Bukowski has had on poetry. Calling him "Rupi Kaur for middle-aged men" just makes you look like an ignorant fool.

>>21989534
I listened to the audiobook of the one where he wastes his life being a drunkard and doing menial work at a post office. Utterly mediocre boomercore.

>>21989534
Bukowski isn’t always bad, Ham on Rye and Factotum are pretty good. He does get boring as fuck a lot though. And his persona gets tired when you think this is just a sad alcoholic bum pushing this image to not face how sad he is.

>>21996999
based and checked

>>21991076
>Henry Miller
Too rambly and reliant on his degenerate lifestyle. In some sense, it would be interesting for future generations (as it already is for a 21st century zoomer) to read about the debauchery of American expats in France bumming it, fucking mercilessly, going to clubs, getting wasted.

>bim bim bim
>bim bim bim

>>21989534
What did his anus smell like after a long day? I imagine it would be pretty moist.

>>21993581
Post Office. It's the shortest and best IMO of the autobiographical novels.
>>21998431
The only Bukowski novel I'd say can get boring is Hollywood, because there's really not much of a struggle going on. He's well-off and has a wife by that point. I think that's why his next novel was s not autobiographical (Pulp). He had nowhere else to go with that stuff. He was still a good writer though. I'd actually say Pulp is up there with Post Office for his best works.

The decline of the west if bukkakekowski is remembered... >_<

>>21996523
>this kills the /pol/tard

>>21996523
Whites have always been a minority of world population, who gives a shit?

>>21993950
I would say that this is a good place for that, right here I mean

>>21996999
Clearly written by GPT

Where to start with him?

I know what he means but those examples he gave weren't that great, he couldn't even improve them quickly so he went with bim bim bim

>>22002163
ham on rye for sure

>>22002163
>>22002180
or maybe post office