"Find what you love and let it kill you"

[mjp]

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.

 

[Black Swan]

or M would say "without literature, life is not my cup of tea!"o_0o

 

[Bukfan]

That phrase appears as a quotation in the poem Writer's Block.

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

 

[nado]

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

Here is the Bombay Gin version:

 

[mjp]

And, unfortunately, the Slouching Toward Nirvana version.

 

[d gray]

frigging???

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

 

[Black Swan]

audible is suspicious

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Rock and Roll Dreams is full of uncertainty, but it's ultimately an album of conviction. Only one member of Temperance League has yet to turn 30. Their second-youngest member recently became a father. The pressures of life continually threaten their musical dreams. But Hazel pledges allegiance to a dictum attributed to Charles Bukowski: "Find what you love and let it kill you."

"After we made the record and listened back to it, that quote kept popping up in my mind," Hazel recalls. "That was the best way I could describe it. Something's going to kill you eventually, so it might as well be a love. That's what Rock and Roll Dreams is to me."

Misquoted again...

But then quoted correctly...

 

[Danny Mac]

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.

 

[Bukfan]

audible is suspicious

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

 

[GDPR 4124]

Misquoted again...

But then quoted correctly...

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.

 

[PhillyDave]

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

 

[Otto jr]

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."

 

[mjp]

Oops.

 

[Bukfan]

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

 

[Black Swan]

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.

 

[d gray]

me too! but what the hell is it?

it's not really upside down, is it?

 

[PhillyDave]

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

 

[Black Swan]

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

 

[PhillyDave]

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

 

[d gray]

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

 

[bospress.net]

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

 

[mjp]

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

 

[Danny Mac]

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.

 

[Otto jr]

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.

 

[5:28am]

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.

 

[Quadraphone]

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.

 

[mjp]

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

 

[hoochmonkey9]

great. we pissed off dad. now he's going to start measuring the liquor bottles again.

well done, assholes. next time you're thirsty and can't settle your jonesing? blame yourselves.

pricks.

 

[mjp]

Excuse my previous post, I must have been channeling my inner southern belle.

Yes, now dad has weighed in. But isn't it funny that the earlier complainers made a point of saying that "young women" and "ladies" were being mistreated. That's such a sexist characterization, not to mention a sexist "defense" of the poor young ladies who surely can't defend themselves. I guess that's where dad comes in to save the day.

You'd think that dozens of icky men had pounced on poor little Kari and said, "SHUT UP AND SHOW US YOUR TITS!" when in fact the "young women's" words and foolish "I Googled it, so it's a fact" statements were being challenged. Yet somehow an accusation of "mistreating young women" is made, inferring misogyny and some sort of sex-based bias.

Funny, yeah.