City Lights Strikes Again: New Buk Collection for 2010 - Absence of the Hero (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Garrett
- Start date
Amen. I'm in for that.
HenryChinaski
Founding member
this thread has made my day! Portions was such a great collection and the fact that we are even seeing another one is a great thing in itself. hopefully it will be just as good. hell, city lights could release a Buk collection with the title "All the shitty stuff that got returned" and i'm damn sure everybody here would buy a copy.
ROC
It is what it is
Great news.
Put me down for a limited hardback with edgy art and a fuck-you title.
Actually, the title is fine... not great, but understandably understated given the current cultural climate and commercial considerations (now there's a crappy title).
I've been absent due to a house move (I missed you guys).
This new book can be my house warming present.
Put me down for a limited hardback with edgy art and a fuck-you title.
Actually, the title is fine... not great, but understandably understated given the current cultural climate and commercial considerations (now there's a crappy title).
I've been absent due to a house move (I missed you guys).
This new book can be my house warming present.
ROC; yes indeed you've been missed (although, until now, I hadn't really noticed - how's that for heart-warming?).
Hey guys!
Well, I'm glad you're not too put off by the title. And no worries, David--I appreciate the spirit in which the comments are made.
Still working on the hardcover issue in terms of reservations, if it's possible; boss has been out of town but I'll be able to discuss it with her soon.
In terms of the hardcover title, I'm afraid it too is a done deal for a couple of reasons--#1 being that all of the info is in same as the softcover; once the isbn # is attached, there's really no way to alter it. #2, even so, it'd probably be cost prohibitive--many factors involved including design and so forth. Publishing is in a tightening the belt stage right now due to the economy, so we need to be as cost effective as possible.
Again, I very much appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and feedback, even if I can't always act on it (but hey, if it wasn't for you guys, we wouldn't have thought to do the hardcovers of portions and this one in the first place--we do so few hardcovers--so believe me, your comments are taken into consideration). It's a pleasure to talk to his hardcore audience.
Best, g
Well, I'm glad you're not too put off by the title. And no worries, David--I appreciate the spirit in which the comments are made.
Still working on the hardcover issue in terms of reservations, if it's possible; boss has been out of town but I'll be able to discuss it with her soon.
In terms of the hardcover title, I'm afraid it too is a done deal for a couple of reasons--#1 being that all of the info is in same as the softcover; once the isbn # is attached, there's really no way to alter it. #2, even so, it'd probably be cost prohibitive--many factors involved including design and so forth. Publishing is in a tightening the belt stage right now due to the economy, so we need to be as cost effective as possible.
Again, I very much appreciate everyone's enthusiasm and feedback, even if I can't always act on it (but hey, if it wasn't for you guys, we wouldn't have thought to do the hardcovers of portions and this one in the first place--we do so few hardcovers--so believe me, your comments are taken into consideration). It's a pleasure to talk to his hardcore audience.
Best, g
so, is it too late to vote for BBQ'd Jesus and the Charcoaled Marys?
wait, that's my next bands name. hands off, it's taken.
wait, that's my next bands name. hands off, it's taken.
Okay, the plan is just to buy the hardcover and then ask Bill to make a clamshell for it with whatever title we want. ;)
Well, that works, doesn't it?
Clammy for a hardcover. That would fall into the unprecidented category, but who gives a crap?
Clammy for a hardcover. That would fall into the unprecidented category, but who gives a crap?
Ah! I get the idea! It's 'Christ with BBQ-sauce' being on the plate as a meal!
okay.
Haven't thought of this before! Has any of the non-native-speakers here?
(I thought 'with' would simply mean 'Christ AND bbq-sauce' and I didn't see the fun in the connection. Would you translate that word-per-word into German [Christus mit Barbeque-Soße] one wouldn't think of Christ being the food. You might imagine him, holding a bbq-sauce in his hand - even the MOST 'sacrelegig' [sp?] thought you'd have, would be 'Christ being showered with bbq-sauce'. [But that's not really funny, even though it reminds me of the 'Nickelodeon Kid's-choice-awards'] I don't think, ANY German would imagine him as a food on the plate.)
and still, I don't find it that funny.
To me, 'ABSENCE OF THE HERO' captures Hanks mentality and view of life much better.
okay.
Haven't thought of this before! Has any of the non-native-speakers here?
(I thought 'with' would simply mean 'Christ AND bbq-sauce' and I didn't see the fun in the connection. Would you translate that word-per-word into German [Christus mit Barbeque-Soße] one wouldn't think of Christ being the food. You might imagine him, holding a bbq-sauce in his hand - even the MOST 'sacrelegig' [sp?] thought you'd have, would be 'Christ being showered with bbq-sauce'. [But that's not really funny, even though it reminds me of the 'Nickelodeon Kid's-choice-awards'] I don't think, ANY German would imagine him as a food on the plate.)
and still, I don't find it that funny.
To me, 'ABSENCE OF THE HERO' captures Hanks mentality and view of life much better.
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
Roni: in America, if someone says something that's so shocking it borders on being rude (in poilte society), it takes the listener's breath away, they get confused, then outraged that the rules of society have been violated, then embarassed (mostly at themselves for being so stodgy) and then they laugh nervously. All this would happen in a split second if you said "Jesus Christ with Barbeque Sauce" at some stuffy tea party. People who wouldn't be shocked by this sort of statement (your typical Bukowski reader) would then laugh at the shocked ones who are laughing nervously at their own uneasiness. That's why it's funny.
Millions of Catholics do every Sunday.
OK, Rekrab, agreed, but tell me this: is shock value the most important aspect of Buk's writing, in the long run?
Sure, Buk has plenty of shocking, outragious hilarious lines. He doesn't shy away from them. But standing alone they're just cheap thrills compared to his ability to see and sense all the different aspects of life.
Shock value was a good thing to use when he was trying break into the field, to make it as a writer in the 60s. It makes good PR and gets you noticed, but Absence of the Hero is closer to the essence of his writing. I'm with Roni on that.
Then again, I understand your instincts, there's something bookish about the title as well. "Absence" is not vernacular, it has a dry ring to it. Reminds me of the episode in Hollywood when Chinaski replaces the word "masturbate" with "jack off" in the script of Barfly. Jack off has more "bbq sauce".
On the other hand, again, Absence of the Hero is actually a variant of "Don't try". Isn't it?
Works for me.
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
But "Don't Try" would be a catchier title. "Absence of A Hero" (not to further beat the dead horse) sounds like a dissertation title. I think the humor in "Christ with BBQ Sauce" comes from the expectation that conventional minded people will be shocked, and laughing along with Bukowski at the fools so easily shocked. In and of itself, it's not really funny, just bizarre.
But at the end he was just so gaunt and all. The BBQ sauce would be dripping aimlessly and worthlessly from those emaciated limbs and oh, the humanity! That's just so bloody disarming. Give me some frogs legs - now there's a savior in pickle sauce. Cajun spices on the side, please.
mjp
Founding member
You guys wouldn't hate the title so much if you knew what they wanted to call it originally; Jesus Fucks Dead Children Then Swallows Their Corpses Whole, Like Some Sort Of Jet Powered Post-Apocalyptic Jew-Wolf.
Even I was disturbed by that when I saw it on the City Lights site, and I'm an atheist.
So simmer down, things could be a lot worse.
Even I was disturbed by that when I saw it on the City Lights site, and I'm an atheist.
So simmer down, things could be a lot worse.
I've got it!
What about calling it
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
I never answered your question re: shock value. No, that's not the most important thing. It's not even a major factor. It's an extra. Spices things up. Like BBQ sauce. But it is, I think, the source of some of the humour he uses. Buk may have been more shocking in the 60s than he seems now, much as Henry Miller was more shocking in the 30s thru 50s than he is now. WIth cable and the Internet, nothing is very shocking today.
that's a different thing - somehow.
but ... isn't that a cheap laugh?
And do we really want Only Bukowski-already-knowers as readers?
that's what I saw in the title at first sight:
The 'heroes' are GONE, be they "absent" or dead or "no more".
It shows something about Hanks attitude AND about modern literature (it wasn't before the 20th century, that 'anti-heroes' were the established 'heroes' in literature. okay, there was 'Woyzeck' or 'Werther', but these were Exceptions).
Maybe a "serious" title for a Bukowski-book is as shocking as it gets nowadays... :D
Personally I'm quite tired of Buk's widespread "wild man" image, mainly because its misleading. You know, ppl like Henry Rollins never get past it.
I think Buk is extremely lucky to have City Lights doing such dedicated and insightful work on his posthumous stuff. I mean. just how lucky can you get? After John Martin quits, City Lights carries on the tradition!
Lucky Bastard.
And lucky us...;)
Rekrab
Usually wrong.
A serious sounding title may be appropriate if City Lights is aiming to steer the public away from that cardboard "Bukowski the Madman" image. "Absense of A Hero" is plenty serious.
I don't think that City Lights is trying to steer anything anywhere. They just want to sell books, and one cannot blame them for that. A mainstream title fits with the times, even if we have not so mainstream attitudes about Buk or anything else. I don't blame them, even if I would wish for a more controversial title.
'Absinthe' of the Hero might have been closer to the mark. ;)
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