Well he died of bone cancer not liver disease or alcohol related illness anyone can get leukemia and lots of alcoholics live a long time some are better writers than others some don't write at all was his point. Think if he were young and nice looking instead he could have been an alcoholic like Jim Morrison and been too exciting harassed by cops at his own shows charged with being lewd overdosed at 27 just not his fate.
not brilliant at all. his own shit is so boring. but maybe not to him. the most important thing is that he has fun writing, I guess. and of course it sells.
As someone who takes particular interest in Fantasy and Sci-Fi, both genres suffer from a severe dearth of decent poetry - not _poetry_ as in verse, but poetry as a practical method and an exercise in creative flow. I can't tell you how many celebrated authors have bored the total shit out of me over such a lack. Don't describe your world, make me live in it. Don't write your characters, make me know them.
Regardless of his life philosophy Bukowski makes good points about writing. He definitely had a gift to go mining for the right words instead of talking around a subject. He showed fortitude persevering in shitty jobs and situations then writing at night. No wonder he hit the booze.
Love his writing. I finished Factotum last week. All six of his novels are great. His writing style is so much fun and his stories capture a different era, bringing to life the streets of LA from a poor man's perspective. 🍺🥃😏
@@oinkooink, I agree, Ham on Rye is a good one because he opens up about his childhood. The others I would recommend are Post Office, Factotum & Women..
Yer breakin the law, get thee to a Library, I hooked up w/a librarian once after she confessed to me she had stolen the Bukowski book I was lookin for.
@@gonufc I dont think anyone on earth would say he was a good human being. Why would you even think he should be? He's a famous writer, not a famous "good human"
@@gonufc good juman/ bad juman, he’s allowed to have a good thought or frame of thinking come out of his mouth I don’t know much about him but based off my life experiences obviously not relating to domestic violence it resonated with me. It’s hard to move through life getting stuck on that shit learn to appreciate
Bukowski occupied an interesting position among writers. If you surveyed 10 American English professors, seven have never heard of him, two think he's a pornographer, and one thinks he is the greatest literary genius since Shakespeare. I even like his poetry. His poems are his stories written vertically, and his stories are poems written horizontally. He is the best at what he does, but nobody else is in the exact same category; he's kinda like the Keith Richards of literature.
"If you surveyed 10 American English professors, seven have never heard of him" : really ?? Professors ? He's pretty famous over here in France, I'm sure every litterature professor knows him.
I provoked two housewifes on a local train in Italy, and they tried to disrespect me by comparing my looks to Bukowski. So he’s no hidden gem anymore over here.
I'd say he's a lot like Picasso. He's able to take things down to their most essential elements, and make them fun and bright while still retaining depth and definitely a good punch.
I love this guy. He is so real yet ultimately subjective and full of shit. His words bring me to tears, and his interviews make me grin or drop my jaw. Very wise of him to welcome death, btw, as it is very natural.
Orwell talked about this on his rules for good writing. Do not embelish excessively a sentence to say something or it will lose its power. If you can say something in 4 words instead of 10, go for the first option.
So this is why I like Bukowski's style, I've been trying to figure it out. I summed it up as its simplicity but now I'm seeing this I understand. The juice. He has it in his sentences. Its direct. Sometimes there's no need for all the extra things.
Reading Bukowski made me understand what true writing is. Difficult to put it in words but when you read it you know it's the thing. And art appart, his stories are so fun and so bright, great guy
@@nikolausgerszewski2086 Ach there's honesty even in the Ach I wrote through text Everything is honesty, even if linked and chained by lies and whatnot, it conducts to the same person, to the same mind. Fuck all and have a beer is what I think, that could cheer people up. Introduce more syncopation in our mainstream music.
@@giuseppebonsignore4397 this is all just bragging and boasting and judging without any basis. Lowry is obviously a way better writer, or as I would rather say: a writer at all. Bukowsky is just boulevard.
The thing about Bukowski though is that his writing reflects that repetition that he complains about it this interview. If you read more than a few of his stories or novels they all kinda blend together, it's all Henry Chinaski drinking and screwing or drinking and getting in fights. Factotum and Post Office are basically indistinguishable in my memory except for the fact the in one of them he's working as a mailman. Then there are some short stories of him going to the racetrack to place bets and those are some of the dullest things I've ever read, even when I was reading a bunch of Bukowski a few years ago those racetrack stories would make my eyes glaze over. That being said, I've always appreciated his novel Ham On Rye
Old timey writers were arguably worse with writing filler. Even the great Tolkien, you can cut entire sentences out of a page without changing any information passed on to the reader.
Genre authors who write fantasy and sci-fi are bad with that. They complain about not being taken seriously by the literary establishment but bloat their books with so much meaningless drivel and pointless world building. A lot of them should just stick to playing D&D instead of writing novels.
Not in the same way, once you choose to pursue ceativity, you join a fraternity of similar creators. They influence us as we will the ones who come after.
@@redsol3629 I think create is a misnomer. What we term create is just us assembling and re-arranging preexisting ideas that are we taught. As someone said before, there is no original or unique idea.
@Abe McGee Just because something is built on the foundation of history does not mean it is not unique. You speak like someone who has never created anything. There is something intangible the new apprentice brings to the craft. His own spirit and sovereignty as an individual.
@@redsol3629 "There is something intangible the new apprentice brings to the craft. His own spirit and sovereignty as an individual." That intangible is still not unique, for the individual has long been shaped by the ideas of his environment. stick an individual in a room devoid of any knowledge or experience from birth, the first idea he comes up would be more original than anything the so called creators you speak of, can come up with.
@Abe McGee Ah yes the empty room argument, your point collapses on itself with that perspective. You argue that artists move things around, yet you put your example in a room with no pieces. Are you a creator?
If you are unfamiliar with Bukowski's work. He wrote several novels and several collections of poems. One of my favorite poems is The Man With The Beautiful Eyes. There's a great narration/animation of it on RU-vid
I agree a hundred percent. I find myself being bored to death when the writers spend time beating about the bush with exaggerated phrases to describe a simple thing to sound more profound.
There's this idea of being a writer-- it's a certain pretentiousness that goes with it, grand entrances and gestures. Vocabulary words to create a mirage of intellect. It's pompous and ever so boring. Write like you've lived.
I highly recommand Paul Auster. Though I think most of you probaby know him. His writing is, at least to me, the way Bukowski describes the "Bim-Bim-Bim effect". Sure, he doesn't write about the stuff Buk did. But that doesn't matter. It's simply great writing.
'Under the Volcano' is a dull read, but Hank's a poet applying poetic judgment to literary prose. He sounds like a poet looking for like effects in all the prose he tried to read. There's a place for rapid-fire, rat-a-tat-tat writing, but that's what '40s detective noir novels were for (and some others, of course). 'Dull' doesn't equate to 'bed' if by 'dull' the critic means 'It didn't snap and crackle like a poem.'
Equate to "bed" who even said that? And as if the style of prose he's describing is exclusive to 40s noir novels. Hes 100% correct about literary fiction being (mostly) boring.
Dostoyevsky was wordy and highly detailed but boy his books are damn good reads. They don't exactly bim bim bim. Crime and Punishment was a ripper book.
@@oedipamaas2067 It's really only boring for people with defective brains. It's like people who think classical music is suppose to relax you or help you fall asleep
The professional drunk line is my favourite and most savage and hysterical comment ever made on this planet. You died choking on your own vomit? Amatuer! What you do after a big drink is position your head over the bed so you vomit on the floor, fucking idiot!. What a glorious person and i like his wit as it feels half serious. If you are going to be a fuck up in life and do stupid things like drugs or alcohol abuse, you better have some sort of plan in place on how to deal with that stuff and not just go into it willy nilly.
I must be living on a different level because life continues to surprise me even in late middle age. I learn and grow every month, sometimes even in the space of a week! But times are different.
I'm 84 and feel the same. I sit down to play music, and something different comes out every time. It's not all worthy, but the search is worth the effort.
This is so cool. Honestly I thought there was something wrong with me that I couldn’t get with the kinds of writing that he was criticizing and that I could only keep my interest with writers who do bim bim bim. Nathaniel West comes to mind as one of my favorites who totally exudes that style in Miss Lonelyhearts. So glad I came across this!!
not really. that'd make things just as dull. you can pick up art you like that follows other structures, because art is about your own expression. even dull art can be called art because it came from a dull person expressing their dull feelings on a canvas.
@@b_delta9725 It's not the "approach" that would be dull, it's the result that may be dull. That depends on the insight and skill of the artist. Artist as in all forms of artistic expression.
He's a tired old drunk but he's right. If you're doing everything to set up a climax, no one will even care about it if you've bored them along the way to get there.
As an english major I have such mixed feelings about what I'm hearing.. But I'm dropping out so I guess in the end he must have some kind of point lol This killed me 3:55 💀💀
I follow Ezra Pounds dictum; "Make it new." No matter how many times I play a piece of music, I'm always listening for the one phrase that will lead me somewhere different, or a "mistake" that will send me in a different direction.
@George Neidorf Yeah, that's good. I am trying to do that myself. I realize that even in the mundane existence of repetition, there are some gems within it if I pay attention enough.
Charles Bukowski was all about the harsh truth most of the time, but he had a Poet's heart and sometimes a flower bloomed out of that mire. What he is talking about here is a good contrast between poetry and prose really, but there are boring poets too of course.
@unfortunatebeam by prosaic I mean epic, grandioise and poetic. Much different technique than bukowski. Not that bukowski wasn't poetic but he definitely wasn't grandiose or epic lol
Wolfe was at his best when he went full bim with his philosophical deep dives. Those moments were always better than his often plodding scenes. The intro lines to Look Homeward, Angel are brilliant. But then the story begins, and it's just ok.
Whatever happened to Hank's yellow shirt? It should be in a museum - it's the sunlight, the juice - the essence of all he was...and underneath, the caption - BIM BIM BIM....got it?