/lit/ - Literature

thoughts with bukowski

>>5803331
Shit surrounding shit concealing the tiniest silver nugget.

>>5803331
Everything /lit/ has to say about him is either false or could be read in any halfassed preface

I think I could have beat him in a drinking contest.

>>5803331
hurrdurr i drink , i wrrite, i become artists, i win

>>5803367
Exactly.

All of his poems after the 70's:
>Here I am pounding away at this keyboard listening to classical music drinking wine and smoking, shit I'm out of matches, lol look at my cats, I wonder if I should get into that third bottle of red, I used to be poor, insert racetrack anecdote, at least they like me in Europe.

It appeals to some people. Enough people to be famous, but enough people who hate it to be conteoversial. I's say that Bukowski is very personnal. Either you'rd that kind of guy or you'rd not.

Cool to hate him so i hate him

>>5803367
>>5803419
Exactly what is wrong with his work?

>>5803331
this was all i needed to see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUeGsTjIj0A

fun begins at 3:20 but the whole interview is cringey and pathetic

His poetry is just cut and stacked prose, every time I hear someone say that Bukowski is their favorite poet a part of me dies. His prose reads like someone who just got their ass kicked and thought of something to write when they were in the shower washing the blood and shame from their face. His prose is edgy escapism and his poetry is utter shit.

He's alright. Nirvana is a good poem.

I did find myself wishing he'd cut it with the stacked prose thing though, and just go full on Hemingway with paragraph long short stories or something.

It's funny when manchildren shit on Bukowski because two Dutch twins did not fly over to america to fuck them like they did Bukowski.

>>5804264
People who dislike Bukowski are manchildren? I understand the appeal but that is insanely backwards if you're gonna call anyone manchildren.

>>5804163
>His prose reads like someone who just got their ass kicked and thought of something to write when they were in the shower washing the blood and shame from their face.

lol love it

>>5803515
confusing the writer with his writing

I like Bukowski. His stories can be mundane and he just writes about being a loser but then every once in a while he has these things come up that are fucking beautiful! It's a really weird dichotomy. People tend to love him or hate him.

how are his short stories? i'm probably gonna check Hot Water Music out of the library one of these days. i've read Ham on Rye and a handful of his poems and i generally like his style, though he certainly leaves something to be desired.

>>5804305
Amen to this -- he was a dick in many regards (he was dealt a crappy hand in life by brutal Ger. dad, weak mother) but his poetry is often like fresh air, modern but not time-bound. It will hold up maybe into the next 50 years, maybe? Major egoist. "Hollywood" novel stinks.

>>5804163
You could almost put that on a blurb, it makes it sound so compelling.
>not even kidding

I like him as an insight into the life he lived. I can see why people don't like him as most of the people who like him like him for the wrong reasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Vsp1Nh3hM

>>5803433
nothing. he is a fun writer to read

>>5803331
If whoever was publishing him employed a decent editor, Bukowski's standing would probably be a lot higher. But given the way he organised his writing, it's understandable I suppose.

I bought a collection a while ago that was basically just him drinking, smoking and reading kant in his bathrobe at 3pm on a weekday and so on, but in the middle had one long-ish story where the narrator meets a beautiful woman who has a psychic affinity with all nature's creatures, and keeps a zoo in her back yard, and together they rediscover their repressed inner selves, a mix of naive purity and primal lust, which was a lot more adventurous and less formulaic then every other story in the book.

There must be enough stories like this in his output for one first rate story collection, but as far as I know most of his stuff is put out in a fairly undifferentiated manner.

Shame really because I rather like him. He may not be very highbrow but he can turn a better phrase than a lot of modern writers, and pretty much everything he wrote is dripping with the kind of joy-of-writing that is the main reason I read books.

>>5804368
I thought Post Office was really funny.

>>5804305
in this case they are exceptionally similar

>>5803422
I wish this wasn't so accurate. His later short stories are better though

>>5804526
Do you remember what that story was called?

I read his first novel Post Office, it was pretty shocking how nonchalantly he can describe horrible shit, I also love how he looks at the world as a complete outsider. Even though he gets self-righteous about how little he cares, he is great at seeing the true existential darkness of life.

>>5803515
3 minutes in, and it looks like Tommy Wiseau directed this

>>5803422
>Here I am pounding away at this keyboard listening to classical music drinking wine and smoking, shit I'm out of matches, lol look at my cats, I wonder if I should get into that third bottle of red, I used to be poor, insert racetrack anecdote, at least they like me in Europe.

I only read some of his poetry and didn't like it at all. It was basically prose, but with random linebreaks. It also attempted to be rather gritty, but it never worked out for me, since he just randomly puts words like "whore" as a single line and it is all just so silly.

I once read a parody poem aping his style on /lit/ but sadly didn't save it. Some anon wrote it. Does anyone remember it or maybe even have a link to the archive?

>reminder that John Martin edits all posthumously released poetry collections to conform to his own prudish judeo-christian values

>>5803331
Bukowski was a jerk! Berryman was best!

That's what Nick Cave sez, anyway.

>>5804163
>His prose reads like someone who just got their ass kicked and thought of something to write when they were in the shower washing the blood and shame from their face.
Is that supposed to make it sound bad?

>>5806822
It means that he's inauthentic

>>5803331
>I was drunk
>whiskey again
>sheila came in drunk
>that whore
>I put on the radio
>and felt her
>cunt

Maybe it means something to you if you are some burnout who used to party and do drugs and are now in your 40s.

I can't stand it though.

>>5803422
... and there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that.

You forgot about his rants about fighting with various ladies in his life, though, to complete that list.

>>5804163
I love Bukowski but I would still hesitate to call him a poet, or any of the things he wrote poems. You're right, they are mostly just dry prose about being a loser. They're still good. Relentless as the Tarantula is my favourite.

Ham on Rye is the crudest thing I have ever read
That doesn't mean it's bad though

>I'm angry so I'm cool!

>>5803422

I've only read "Tales of Ordinary Madness", a book of short stories, and some of them seem written lightly; they have the structure of the short story but they don't feel like short stories, the feel like anecdotes.

But some of the others are great and very funny, like "The Great Zen Wedding", "An Evil Town" and etc.

Sorry for my shitty English.