Buk Influences (1 Viewer)

[rlittler]

Only recently I've heard/read that Bukowski liked Antonin Artaud and Blaise Cendrars.

Can anyone recommend good introductory works by either of them?

thanks,

R

 

[slimedog]

Who is Cendars?

 

[rlittler]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Cendrars

 

[David]

Bukowski liked Artaud--I'd recommend the Artaud Anthology, edited by Jack Hirschmann (which Bukowski actually reviwed) to start with. But not Cendrars--don't think he ever read him. Henry Miller adored Cendrars. You may be thinking of CELINE. Voyage to the End of the Night was Bukowski's favorite book of his.

 

[rlittler]

It was definitely Cendrars - Buk discusses him briefly on the Run with the Hunted sessions cd.

 

[David]

Is that on the second CD? Do you remember which part? Could you let me know? This would be very interesting to me since it would add examples of the fact that Buk was much more influenced by the French than German writers. I can't find a single mention of a German writer he admired.

 

[Ambreen]

Sorry not to be able to help you though being French. I've never read Artaud and know Cendrars very little. When young, I've read a book called L'or (Gold) and don't even remember what it was talking about ! Then in highschool, I studied some of his poems about the theme of the city. All I can say to you is that he was an adventurer who traveled a lot and whose work is very marked by all his journeys.

 

[rlittler]

@david

I've been trying to find buk talking about cendrars, but haven't found it yet, but I will. It's definitely on the Uncensored CD somewhere....

 

[Ponder]

On this forum is bukfan one of the Bukowski CD's specialists.
He'll gladly help you out!

 

[Pessimist]

Trivia: Remember the older, white haired guy to Buk's left in the Apostrophes video? The one he touches on the head on his way out, half trying to keep his balance, half giving some kind of benediction? That was Gaston Ferdiére, one of Artaud's shrinks.

Artaud was .

I read Cendrar's Moravagine a long, long time ago (title meaning "death to the vagina"). That and Sutter's Gold are his two major novels, I think.

 

[Bukfan]

On this forum is bukfan one of the Bukowski CD's specialists.
He'll gladly help you out!

Yes, Buk talks about Cendrars on the Run With The Hunted Uncensored CD's! It's the interviewer who mentions Cendrars (he really likes him) to Buk asking him if he has ever read Cendrars. Buk says he has and that he like his work. Then the interviewer offers Buk to send him a Cendrars biography he has and Buk says thanks.
I'm not home at the moment so I can't check out on which of the two CD's it is, or which track it's on, but it's there for sure. I know it's on one of the long tracks where Buk talks about various stuff, such as his trip to France and the Apostrophe episode, Pulp etc.

 

[Mather]

I remember Bukowski saying somewhere that some fan brought over a copy of Cendrars and Buk didn't like it. Henry Miller was the big Cendrars supporter. Cendrars is very difficult (boring) to read.

 

[Ambreen]

I read Cendrar's Moravagine a long, long time ago (title meaning "death to the vagina"). That and Sutter's Gold are his two major novels, I think.

More precisely, the title is the name of one character. It doesn't directly mean "death to vagina" ("mort au vagin") but has been interpreted as having been given that meaning by Cendrars ; that's what I've read when getting some information about Cendrars' work ;)

 

[CalbertAmu]

Seems like Hemingway is missing from among the influences. Are any more writers missing?

 

[Otto jr]

Buk liked Cendrars' mangled face, not so much the writing. Buk said if Cendrars wrote like his face it would be better. There's an excellent poem about Cendrars where Buk says this.

https://bukowskiforum.com/threads/s...e-cendrars-love-is-a-midget.7224/#post-122852