Bukowski and work (1 Viewer)
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It would be more of an achievement if it weren't the way Bukowski thought about everything. He also rejects the ideas of love, morals, heroism, and compassion.
brah, if i had a horse like that, a horse that wore a top hat and a smoked and shit i think i would ride it everywhere! lol! thats the coolest thing i've seen in like a month and a half!! HAMMER IT DOWN HORSE!! give that horse a brew yo!! lol!
Skygazer
And in the end...
No, he doesn't.
There's several different Bukowskis: There's the writer and the character in his stories, and for each of those, there's the mask (the way he presents himself), the way he thinks he really is, and the way he really is.
The mask of the character in the stories has no compassion for the women he screws unless they're exceptionally pretty, and pretends not to have compassion for men (when his editor threatens suicide, Bukowski says only that would make it hard to get his stories published). He ridicules soldiers for being suckers. The writer shows a world without compassion, and there may be co-dependency but there's no love. People use each other and that's all there is. If Bukowski has morals, what are they?
The puzzling thing is that if Bukowski the writer really rejected love and compassion, then how could he write stories that moved me?
So which Bukowski do you think doesn't reject those things, and why do you think it?
The mask of the character in the stories has no compassion for the women he screws unless they're exceptionally pretty, and pretends not to have compassion for men (when his editor threatens suicide, Bukowski says only that would make it hard to get his stories published). He ridicules soldiers for being suckers. The writer shows a world without compassion, and there may be co-dependency but there's no love. People use each other and that's all there is. If Bukowski has morals, what are they?
The puzzling thing is that if Bukowski the writer really rejected love and compassion, then how could he write stories that moved me?
So which Bukowski do you think doesn't reject those things, and why do you think it?
Skygazer
And in the end...
Hi there Bad Horse
Yes he could be sexist and comes across hostile (and a bit strutting and preening: the novel Women) but a lot of it was tongue in cheek. Yes he does portray some women as predatory and selfish, that’s because they do exist, equally he describes women who are independent and strong willed.
Nor do I get from his writing that he thought a woman’s place was in the home. He actively supported female writers, he offered to marry Frances Smith when she was pregnant, accepted her refusal, but acted as a responsible " co-parent ".
I’ll argue that he did love and admire women ( not just as sex objects).
I’ll take his crude honesty, over mealy mouthed closet misogynists any day of the week.
As for the rest of humanity; he wrote, how we all feel about it at times; so there is disillusion, despair and cynicism, but there is also pain, love and compassion, read more of his poetry and you will discover this.
Far more concerning to me is the prevailing misogyny displayed in contemporary music and culture, where women and young girls are being objectified. Bukowski is the least of it.
Here's a provocative article on work that is nice to read while your on the job:
http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/
http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/
read his two posts again and think it over.
