Charles Bukowski & the underbelly of society or would life be better.
Charles Bukowski thought he was ugly. Most would agree. I would agree. What a terrible thing to say! Well, apparently he was a terrible man, with views and a life now not suited for the tenor of our times. Imagine he was up on a cross with Ezra Pound on one side of him and Celine on the other. Who would you save and why. You have to save one, though not two like in the crucifixion of Jesus.
I posted an ugly picture of Bukowski on Facebook on his birthday. Yes he’s dead. Not even one ‘like.’ I pretty much figured his time was up when I picked up four or five of his major collections for really cheap in a Brandon bookstore in 2005. Redact Poetry Night could be a lot of fun.
Bukowski wrote from his life and for his life like he says in “such an arrangement.” He wanted to die at the typer. One of his collections surfaced among my books and you know there are many good poems in the book. Likely more in the others in my storage locker. His plain style, sometimes vulgar, sometimes obscene is out of fashion, but really I think it’s his lifestyle that has taken his work out of service, even when the writing packs an emotional wallop not seen very often anymore. Even ” wallop” could be questioned now for it’s aggressive tone. But I don’t get out much, feeding all my paranoias (yes I left the s there on paranoias on purpose, yes it’s wrong) without a reality checker in my Gimli apartment.
Readers should not mistake the representation of an action for the action itself. And then mistake it’s representation as an approval of the action by the author. I’ll find the Gide quote to finish.