"Find what you love and let it kill you"

Literature? That sounds like Bukowski saying "Sexual Intercourse" instead of screwing or fucking. I smell Martin all over the sheets...

 

I'm skeptical. I'd love to see the manuscript.

 

We don't have a manuscript, but as hank solo pointed out, the line is a quotation:

there is a French expression,"without
literature
life is hell."​

And it's from Slouching Toward Nirvana, so you can simply assume that Martin has changed it, and the odds are you will be correct.

The poem did appear in Bombay Gin in 1991, so that could be checked for changes. You know, if you have that issue.

 

or M would say "without literature, life is not my cup of tea!"

 

Thanks, hank solo! Finally a correct Buk quote on Facebook even though it's just a quotation Buk used in a poem.

 

Here is the Bombay Gin version:

 

And, unfortunately, the Slouching Toward Nirvana version.

 

frigging???

it's too bad "the editor" never suffered writer's block...

 

audible is suspicious

 

Misquoted again...

But then quoted correctly...

 

Jesus Christ....I am sickened to my core. That stinkin Martin slobbering his 'correct english' all over Buk's street wise tongue. It's a horror. How the hell can we get back at that bastard?

I know.

Let's have a US postage stamp made up of Martin's image! That'll teach em. ha ha..hahaha.

 

Indeed! I don't recall Buk ever using that word.

 

Misquoted, yes, but all they are saying is that the dictum is attributed to Bukowski, not that it is written by him. These days you have to be grateful for whatever little piece of comfort you can get.

 

"sit back down" and "sit back" mean two different things. Arggg! The shitty "editing" is endless.

 

The worst one I've seen was this:
the Buk version, "I am a competent being..."
the Martinized version: "I am a competent and satisfied human being..."

A hawk swooping in on its helpless prey is a "competent being."
A lizard perched on a cactus is a "competent being."
John Wayne Gacey is a "competent being."

Mr. Rodgers is a "competent and satisfied human being."

 

Oops.

 

Hahaha...maybe some skin colored ink can correct the error.

 

you really have to look twice. I thought that this was a thigh in white underwear with the tattoo right below the hip bone. I need glasses.

 

me too! but what the hell is it?

it's not really upside down, is it?

 

It's under her right arm below her right boob.

 

I think that it's a boob on the upper right. Yep!

 

I think the woman (or man) who got the tatt is a boob!

 

wow, i must be hallucinating. i thought it was upside down and the boob was an ass!

 

I agree. I thought that the boob was an ass and one that Crumb would have LOVED.....

 

The boob is an ass, but the tattoo is on the ribcage.

 

I was also certain that it was a thigh tatoo. That sure is one fine obtical illusion. That is one dedicated Bukowski Fan. Oh My Lord, that takes commitment.

 

For me commitment would mean making sure the quote was authentic. I'm afraid this may be one of those people who thought it might be awesome to have a tattoo quote by that Bukowski guy who represents all that cool shit, you know, like alcohol and puking.
If I had been at the stage in my life where I had only read about half of Buk's work, and decided I needed a quote tattoo'd (and found this one), I believe I'd choose one that I had read in one of his books that meant something to me instead; if this one meant enough to me that I wanted a tattoo of it, I believe I'd try to find it in one of his books first. Just to put it into some kind of context before inking it on in there.

 

Context?

Poppycock, sir! A tattoo is meant to be a dionysian expression of one's own idiocy. As for finding ideas in book... who the hell reads those things anyway? Far better to wait for the movie to be released on netflix.

 

I think the way Kari and Helena were treated is smug, disrespectful and rude. There are polite and respectful ways of making a point, but they seem to have eluded you.

 

Thanks for popping in and setting everyone straight, sugar. Y'all have a good evening now.