Bukowski Thread

Go ahead, take it - I don't care.

fuckyeahbukowski!

we made it to page two motherfuckers!

okay, i wrote fuckyeahbukowski as a joke, but turns out: http://fuckyeahbukowski.tumblr.com/

That site is actually pretty cool.

I can't remember exactly how I first heard of Bukowski, or how I knew about what he wrote. What I do remember is being interested, but too lazy to do anything about it. Around the same time, Factotum happened to be playing on (Starz?). Of course, the description starts out saying "something something novel by Charles Bukowski".

I watched the movie(eh, not bad), but really thought the coincidence odd that I had never heard of the man until a few weeks earlier--weeks I spent on the fence about whether I should read him or not. It must have been a sign, because that was the decision maker. I bought Love is a Dog from Hell shortly after.

Honestly, this changed my life. It changed the things I read; the way I write. Led me to Chuck(and beyond). Ultimately, it brought me to the Cult. And more importantly, to the WS. Anyone who takes their writing seriously has joined the WS as a novice knows how important of a step this is.

Thank you, Buk--for your beer breath, hard dick, and fucked up point of view!

"She had a tight pussy and she took it like it was a knife that was killing her."

- Henry Chinaski, from Factotum

I loved that line. And also the section a bit before that when he's fucking the tall girl in the bunk on the yacht.

""I'm fucking you," I said, "feel that thing going in and out of your body, in and out, in and out, in and out, flup flup flup.""

hahahaja. I laughed for days when I read that.

My most recent short story is mostly true and it happened while I was carrying Ham on Rye with me. So I wrote it as a tribute to Bukowski.

It's called The Special. It might suck, I dunno, because the first comment someone says, "I feel like I understand Hank Moody a little better now."

Who the fuck is Hank Moody?

Anyway, link: http://anthonydavidjacques.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/the-special/

you're obviously joking, aren't you, Tony?

No... I mean, is he a Bukowski character? I've only read a little Bukowski.

Should I have googled this first?

So I can tell by reading the google results at a glance that he's a character on a Showtime series played by David Duchovny.

I don't watch TV much, and I don't have cable, so I don't know how I should have known that or why it relates...

well. Hank Moody was based on Henry Chinaski circa "Women". so that's the relevance.

and, Californication is an amazing show. you really should watch it, dude.

and, i read the story, and fucking loved it. i left you a little love in the comments box. it as seriously a great little short, mate.

Ooooooohhhhhh.... haven't read Women yet. I had no idea that was the premise of the story.

Now I get it. Maybe I should look into that show, sounds good.

And thanks for the kind words.

Bukowski abused his audience at readings. Palahniuk abuses his audience with his books. So there's some difference there.

(Oh, I'm gonna catch such shit for that...)

no worries, man. i honestly dug the shit out of it.

it's a great show. when i say "based on" i mean loosely. story goes: Kapinos (the writer) read the story, got inspired, wrote the character, loosely based on that era chinaski. in the sense that he's an aged, famous writer that loves him some ladies.

It's not really based on the book. Just inspired by.

I too can be awesome like Bukowski. Now for some novels, some sex and some booze...

!!!

seriously, though. i spend so much time on the toilet. i do everything there; poo, wee (they're obviouly the to main ones, oh, no, wait, reading would be there, too), reading, play guitar, jerk it, drink booze, vomit, i've even eaten on there, cult it up all the time (there's good internet reception in there), i've even had sex on the toilet before (after wiping, of course).

so, the picture is perfect for me.

i can read bukowski all day and never get tired of him. the insight beneath the prose is ungodly. the folks that talk him down just don't get it, and i really have no patience or interest in convincing them otherwise.

fuckyeahbukowski!!!

thread revival motherfuckers!

i got Pulp and Notes of a Dirty Old Man in the mail yesterday.

oh, and Natalie has taken to calling me Dirty Old Man. not because of Buk, but just because she think i am in fact, a dirty old geezer. she used to say it to me every now and then but it seems to be popping up more frequently nowadays.

PULP is...interesting. Buk was a crazy fucker. I liked it, although it's definitely different than most of his stuff you've read (most likely).

And THE BUKOWSKI THREAD LIVES!

I've read that Pulp touches on everything. It should be read last of the novels. You should be pretty well into your Bukowski addiction before picking it up.

The next Bukowski I plan on reading is Ham on Rye. I might read that next after finishing Columbine. I'm sure I'm gonna need something lighter and quicker after that.

I liked Ham on Rye, but not Pulp. There was just something about it I didn't enjoy. I did like the ending imagery, though (sorry to sound like a tool-ish tenth-grade English teacher).
Notes of a Dirty Old Man is entertaining. I think Pulp is the only thing I've read of Bukowski's that I didn't like (besides some of his poetry, but that's an entirely different story).

Women is making it's way to the top of my to-read pile. Just a few books to go. It was hard putting it off for so long after reading Post Office.

You've got it backwards. After Ham On Rye, Columbine is party clowns and pinatas.

Women is a good read. Fittingly, porn starlet Kayden Kross filched my copy from set one day, ha ha.

Goddamnit, Tyler. Your life is so much more interesting than mine.
I've only had a douchebag from my bus steal my copy of Women.

I wouldn't think of someone stealing my books as being interesting. I don't care if it's a porn star or a douche on the bus. It's just shitty.

I'm ordering Post Office next. Ham on Rye was very enjoyable.

I've said it a hundred times in these forums, but Ham on Rye is my favorite Buk. Post Office is also great. Women wasn't as good as I had anticipated--partially because it's the same Bukowski I had read over and over in various shorts(and even a little in Post Office).

Does anyone else here like any of his poetry?

At the book store yesterday my boyfriend showed me a big book with lots of his poems. I read some and really really liked them. I want that book, but I'm banned from buying books for a while, I'm spending too much money, ugh.

you know, i haven't actually read anything of his poetry. not really anyway. i have flicked through a book at the library, nd kind of read a couple. not properly though. poetry demands ones attention.

i have been meaning to get a coule of collections. recommendations?

haha I just watched "born into this" again. The part were he starts to fight with his girlfriend in front of the camera is really something. I wonder what was going through the camera mans head.

Run with the Hunted is a collection of a lot of his poetry. It's thick but it's a quick read.

Love is a Dog from Hell was the first Buk I ever read. A lot of poetry with similar themes to Women (surprise). Poems from the early 70s.

Probably my favorite is The Roominghouse Madrigals. Early poems from the mid 40s to the mid 60s. Good dhit.

Read Women. Fell short of Post Office but was still a good read. I'll probably pick up Ham on Rye at some stage.

If you want poetry from Bukowski then read Septuagenarian Stew and Betting on the Muse.

Both are excellent volumes--snapshots into his life at varied times. From an obscure writer scrounging for pieces of pencils and scrap paper, to when he was dealing with terminal illness.

One of the books, don't remember which of those two, has a short story about a suicidal man who is on a bridge to jump to his death. He doesn't jump, he drives to a diner and meets a lonely woman. There's an armed robbery that unfolds around them. I won't ruin it but it was such a beautiful story.

Outstanding work in both books.

---

I re-purchased Post Office. Been a decade since I've owned/read it.

That story I mentioned in the above post is "The Suicide", and it's in Betting On The Muse.

A Google search led me to a filmed version of the story. It's on Youtube, but a brief shot of man-ass may make this NSFW. Use discretion.

Read the prose, though. Seriously. There is no comparison.

Part One:

Part Two:

this reminded me of a story i read a couple of months ago by one of our very own, Edward Rathke.

to cut it right down, it was about a man that sees a girl about to commit suicide. she doesn't. they go to a dinner and chat.

again, beautiful story. i believe it's getting published somewhere soon, too. so, that's good.

Wow, great find. Thanks for posting.

I, for one, really enjoyed it. But do you think it stayed true to the syntax and sentiment of the source material?

It was okay. Close to the story as can be expected. There are key moments in prose that can never be articulated in a film.

So many moments were missed, like the moment the man leaves, waits by the woman's door, and comes to an important realization in his mind.

There's a poem in Bone Palace Ballet called "A Model". Charles, then near seventy, was recounting a moment in Paris when he observed a successful jerk get his way in an exclusive restaurant. This caused an introspective moment for him. He decides that his life (in his mind) is a failure.

The night I was being evicted and had nowhere to go, I too a break from sorting through my life, deciding what of my possessions I could keep and what had to be discarded. I went online for the last time and looked up Bukowski on Netscape--before Google existed--and found the poem. Those words fucked me up.

Yes, I love his poetry for his conversational, open style. He wrote prolifically about everything, and he wasn't ashamed of writing bad poetry in order to write what was good. The first essay that I ever wrote about a poem was about his "How to be a Writer."

A friend introduced me to Factotum during my freshman year of college, and since then, I've read all of his novels. Strangely enough, while Factotum was the first that I read, it's still my favorite. I should read it again.

I like the little doodle-face he uses with his signature. Autographed books sell for hundreds on eBay. Otherwise, I'm sure I'd have a few.

I always thought it was cool too.

Ham On Rye was my favorite book ever, but was like the fifth or sixth I read by Bukowski at the time. I owe thanks to Mickey Rourke (for being my idol in high school and making me fall in love with Barfly) and my 10th grade English TA (who was reading Buk at the time and when I told him about Barfly's Henry Chinaski, he mentioned the protaganist in the books he was reading had the same name and identical premise) for showing me the way and the light.

Also, if you haven't read Hollywood, it's worth a read but watch Barfly first, since it's basically Bukowski's book on making the movie. It's fun to read through it and try to figure out which actors and directors he's referencing in the novel since he uses fake names.

BUK THREAD = 100 COMMENTS!