Buk and Mainstream Culture (1 Viewer)

J

jac185

Since I became a Buk disciple it has always interested me to see how he is perceived from various quarters. I had always assumed he was somewhat shunted by certain literary circles and also that he was too edgy to ever really be accepted into the popular consciousness.

So this brings me to yesterday. I was browsing my local HMV shop, as I often do, not for their ridiculously overpriced records but for the books they sell, often relatively cheap. I have picked up Fear and Loathing there before, seen On The Road, Catcher In The Rye etc amongst the Twilight books and other book to movie to book reprints. I noticed that Ham On Rye was now for sale at a cut price. It got me thinking that perhaps Buk is now starting to get recognised as one of those key writers people accept into their lives when they are growing up; epochal writers whose life one divides into before and after discovering them.

Buk has always been one of those for me, if not THE one for me, and for a few others I know, but I never thought of him as being as universal as Kerouac and the like - one of those names everyone is aware of and recommended.

Hell, I even heard them namedrop Bukowski on The Simpsons the other day. Madness. Is this a recent phenomenon or did I simply underestimate his mainstream appeal?
 
There's an older Simpsons episode where you see Homer and Marge coming out of a theater showing 'Barfly'.

I don't think HMV selling a Buk book signifies Buk having been accepted into the mainstream. It has more to do with business. That said, he is more known now than he used to be, thanks to the B.I.T. documentary and the Factotum movie etc.
 
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Bukfan said:
There's an older Simpsons episode where you see Homer and Marge coming out of a theater showing 'Barfly'.

I don't think HMV selling a Buk book signifies Buk having been accepted into the mainstream. It has more to do with business. That said, he is more known now than he used to be, thanks to the B.I.T. documentary and the Factotum movie etc.
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Oh I agree that HMV isn't the greatest indicator. Its just that I very rarely see any literature in there that isn't either a film tie in or along the lines of Catcher etc so it startled me a wee bit.

Now you mention it I remember that scene quite clearly I just don't think my head had ever put it together. There is one where Moe becomes a poet of sorts and they ask him if he was inspired by Bukowski. I guess someone over there likes him.

I was at Camden Market a few months ago and found a giant poster of Buks head amongst all the Bob Marleys and so on. I was almost tempted to get it but it would scare the shit out of me in the morning and it cost a fuckload.
 
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Yeah, I suppose Matt Groening simply likes Bukowski, that's why. Why else?

And for the mainstream thingy; everything's and everybody's sold if it makes money. That's it, cynical and greedy.

You think the companies are all Bob Marley fans?, Che Guevara fans?, Crass fans?, Bukowski fans?

Fans at all?

No.
 
You will know that Buk is mainstream when you see him books being sold at the airport bookstores and in the supermarket.

That won't happen, at least in America, where we like our literature more dumbed down.

And Buk has his share of high profile TV/Movie people. Matt Groening has mentioned him a couple times (Including that Episode where Homer and Marge came out of Barfly drunk). The Pixar guys have used the character name of BUKOWSKI a couple times including a character in CARS. I think that there was another Pixar movie that used the name for a kid or something...

Bill
 
bospress.net said:
You will know that Buk is mainstream when you see him books being sold at the airport bookstores and in the supermarket.l
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It's not likely but it is possible at least one book could end up in such places. A film based on one of his works could become hugely successful and movie tie-in editions could surface in the most common of places. Though it would be the equivalent of a toe dipped in cold water. Doubt James Patterson would have to worry over shelf space in the supermarket for subsequent Bukowski titles.
 
bospress.net said:
And Buk has his share of high profile TV/Movie people. Matt Groening has mentioned him a couple times (Including that Episode where Homer and Marge came out of Barfly drunk). The Pixar guys have used the character name of BUKOWSKI a couple times including a character in CARS. I think that there was another Pixar movie that used the name for a kid or something...
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There's also the young couple in Alexandre Aja's remake of The hills have eyes which is named Bukowski, whereas it wasn't the case in Wes Craven's initial movie.
 
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And don't forget the incomparable Giovanni Radice as Charlie Bukowski in the Italian schlocker, Cannibal Apocalypse. Heh, this one shows up occasionally in ebay listings for Bukowski.
 
In the last two months, I've seen two different off-Broadway plays that mention Bukowski. In both cases, a character is said to be a fan of Bukowski's work. The playwrights used Bukowski's name to establish the bona fides and "street credibility" of a character. In that regard, it appears that Bukowski is now being used as a cultural shorthand for a personality type.
 
By "mainstream culture", do you mean "mainstream non-culture"? What is "American culture" exactly?
By the way, Matt Groening apparently attended the exhibit of Sam Cherry's Bukowski photographs and William Burroughs materials in LA a while ago...
 
bospress.net said:
You will know that Buk is mainstream when you see him books being sold at the airport bookstores and in the supermarket.
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I actually bought "betting on the muse" a few years ago at an airport. I can't remember exactly where, but Phoenix seems right. and Black Sparrow no less.....
 
What is "American culture" exactly?
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Good question! Ask the Ministry For Culture. I always think of baseball, football, Hollywood, Levi's, Coca Cola, Seven-Elleven, Wallmart, big cars, junk food, obesity, the death penalty, and guns, of course. :D
 
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Bukfan said:
baseball, football, Hollywood, Levi's, Coca Cola, Seven-Elleven, [STRIKE]Wallmart[/STRIKE], big cars, junk food, obesity, the death penalty, and guns, of course.
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Fuck yeah. That's why we rule, bitches!

Don't forget, our girls are prettier and our booze and food is superior to everyplace else, too.

FTW!
 
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David said:
What is "American culture" exactly?
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sa-c-le-pere-homer-il-adore-les-donut-s.gif



drooling-homer.gif



1546467780.jpg
 
Gin Soaked Boy said:
American girls are the worst dressers...ever...period. Girls during the communist supression in the USSR spelled e-y-e-c-a-n-d-y in comparison. (No offence to the ladies and potential crossdressers in here)
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Now, GSB, don't disparage our lovelies by the likes of these. It's what's underneath that really matters. Pay no mind to the I got laid in Cancun and Bong for Jesus tats.
 
Ambreen said:
sa-c-le-pere-homer-il-adore-les-donut-s.gif
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I'm surprised the French government allows you to see pictures that are so déclassé. The censor must have been asleep, or smoking a couple packs of cigarettes at a three hour lunch somewhere, or buying shoes and silk ascots, or, I don't know, picking his teeth with his disturbingly long little fingernail, or on one of his triannual three month vacations. Something like that. I can see how things might slip by. As a Frenchman, I'm sure he has his priorities straight.

- - -

Here's one for the kids:

Why don't they have fireworks at Euro Disney?

Because every time they shoot them off, the French try to surrender.
 
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have just read Bukowski's short essay on p61 of 'Portions'.
Nice.

After that I've read the paragraph of his Artaud-essay in the same book (p49ff) that starts with: "The Artistic public is always indecent."

So much for mainstream.
 
No problem, as long as they're over the right head. :rolleyes:
 
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mjp said:
Do you have Ambreen's permission to use that picture of her?
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Well..er..not really, but I'm sure she does'nt mind. You know how French girls loves to show off every time they get a new fancy dress.
I remember her telling me how handy and practical she thinks that dress is. It used to cover her belly too, but that was before she started dating in it.

That looks like Ambreen....with Marilyn Manson.
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Come on! Ambreen is'nt a red head...
 
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