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Galley copy of Absence of the Hero (1 Viewer)

PaulMaherJr

PaulMaherJr

comes with tucked in flyer from City Lights . . . I will take a few Bukowski trade edition books, make sure they are solid reading copies, not necessarily perfect or newish, but stuff I can read without pages falling out etc.

I don't have any poetry or any of his novels, only the last two City Lights collections.

Who ever offers the best trade off gets this collectible book . . . : )

I tend to check email more often than Bukowski.net . . . so try me there.

[email protected]

I mail out of Massachusetts . . .
 
Its on the back burner, if it gets done at all. I sometimes wonder if another bio of Buk is necessary. Unless I get a blessing from his estate,I may not do it at all.

Also, this great recession of ours has made me have to focus on survival strategies to pay my bills and feed my children. I am in need of all of his books, so that is also a barrier.
 
PaulMaherJr said:
I sometimes wonder if another bio of Buk is necessary.
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Wonder no longer; another bio is unnecessary.

That doesn't apply to people who were close to him, of course. A book by Linda (either one) or John Martin would be welcome. But another third person retelling of all the usual shit? No.

Nothing personal there. If you wrote it, people would buy it, you can be pretty sure of that. But it would be redundant.

But what do I know. People still write biographies on Mozart for christ's sake, so if you write it, they will come.
 
Exactly, I would love to write a 400-500 page bio on Buk covering all of his poetry and prose, making it more critical of his work than a rehash of his drunken episodes etc., but publishers aren't keen on it, they LOVE rehash, they LOVE little thin overpriced books with the most drunken pic of Buk you could ever find. I wont do that ever, so I probably will never get to write it, as much as I'd like to.

Another example; I have reams and reams of unpublished Kerouac for a new book i want to write based on his notebooks and journals, nobody wants it, they want On the Road Part 2 . . . but then again Simon and Schuster just put out another boring book on the History of the Beats, a path that has been beaten down to dirt . . and it makes no fucking sense, but it is what it is.

They will publish new autobios by porn stars that are remaindered in a year, but they won't touch books of substance because Barnes and Noble's marketing people will tell them not to . . .

They do, however, seem to carry all of Buk's books, so be thankful for that. He is a rare exception.
 
PaulMaherJr said:
They will publish new autobios by porn stars that are remaindered in a year, but they won't touch books of substance because Barnes and Noble's marketing people will tell them not to . . .
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In this case, I think that we need to blame the culture, but the buyers at B&N. They carry Buk because he sells very well. They coulkd care less about the art. A book by a pornstar would also sell well, but a book of literary criticism has very limited mass appeal.

Bill
 
bospress.net said:
In this case, I think that we need to blame the culture, but the buyers at B&N. They carry Buk because he sells very well. They coulkd care less about the art. A book by a pornstar would also sell well, but a book of literary criticism has very limited mass appeal.
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Indie bookstores eschew that logic, so you are partly right. I for one am sick of a disposable book-of-the-week culture.
 
Indie bookstores still carry what they can sell. In college towns, that may be more eclectic than a beach bookstore, but they still carry what they can sell. The only cure for this is the internet and the small press. We put out what we want and sometimes make a few dollars. It costs very little to run our bookstores. Imagine the state of literature if you were only able to read what they sold in brick-and-mortar bookstores. You want to buy the something from the Twilight series or a Harry Potter book? Those would be your two choices...

Bill
 
Purple Stickpin;101044][QUOTE=bospress.net said:
In this case, I think that we need to blame the culture...
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I believe that is always the case.[/QUOTE]I don't know man. It's easy to blame the culture and the masses, but as long as people still read there is still hope. I'm bothered much less by Harry Potter and Danielle Steele readers than I am by people who proudly say they haven't read a book since high school.

Book selling is a business, and there are very, very few Bottle of Smoke and Chance Presses out there. Because you have to love books and writing and making books to do what they do. I wouldn't expect Jane or Chauncey sitting in a cubicle at HarperCollins to give a shit about Bukowski (or any other writer) except as far as sales are concerned. They are just trying to keep their jobs.
 
Maybe PaulMaherJr can help me out here but I'm not sure I understand. He posted his interest in writing a bio on Bukowski originally but has only read a couple of books by him? Am I reading that right?/ Culturally speaking, who really gives a fuck. While the vast majority was reading Deadwood Dick, the few that lamented the state of affairs were reading Gustave Flaubert (from an American standpoint). Who reads Deadwood Dick anymore? I read Madame Bovary recently and thought it a delight. What's worth a damn will always find an audience - if you're ashamed of how small your audience is, then you are perhaps in it for all the wrong reasons. The culture will always abide by the tide.
 
I'm bothered much less by Harry Potter...
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If Harry Potter can get young people interested in reading books, then that's a positive thing. You can't expect them to start with Dostoyevsky.
 
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YES! True, but most of them go no farther. They wait for the next Harry Potter or Twilight to come out and that is it.

Still, a book reader is better than a non-book reader, so there is that.

Bill
 
Yes, but as they grow older there's a chance they'll start to read other books.
And maybe Harry Potter will lead to say, 'The Lord Of The Rings', and from there to other novels, at least for some of them.

Reading habits are often formed in childhood. If you come from a book reading family chances are you'll read books too when you grow up, and vice versa.
 
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Stavrogin said:
Maybe PaulMaherJr can help me out here but I'm not sure I understand. He posted his interest in writing a bio on Bukowski originally but has only read a couple of books by him? Am I reading that right?/ Culturally speaking, who really gives a fuck. While the vast majority was reading Deadwood Dick, the few that lamented the state of affairs were reading Gustave Flaubert (from an American standpoint). Who reads Deadwood Dick anymore? I read Madame Bovary recently and thought it a delight. What's worth a damn will always find an audience - if you're ashamed of how small your audience is, then you are perhaps in it for all the wrong reasons. The culture will always abide by the tide.
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No,I have read many books, I dont own them at the moment, I want to acquire some again which is the original reason for this post. I want to trade my galley of Absence for some reading copies of books.

If it's been done, then I won't bother. However, I haven't seen any biographies of Buk that I think stand out there, at all, unless they exist in some other language.
 
PaulMaherJr said:
If it's been done, then I won't bother. However, I haven't seen any biographies of Buk that I think stand out there, at all, unless they exist in some other language.
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I think Jules Smith's "Art, Survival and So Forth: The Poetry of Charles Bukowski" is very good. Informative and easy to read. Check it out!
 
Paul,
I'll trade some reading copies for that galley. Is it a comb bound galley?

I have 5 or 6 paperback reading copies here that I can send in trade. Are there any that you want more than others or do not need?

Bill
 
bospress.net said:
Is it a comb bound galley?
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It's probably the same as this one, which is perfect bound.

I know as a printer you are probably thinking that galleys are not perfect bound, but the term seems to have fallen into a gray area out there in the world at large.

Or I could be completely wrong and it could be a real galley copy. But "comes with tucked in flyer from City Lights" makes me suspect it's an ARC rather than an actual galley.
 
mjp said:
But yours, written by someone who really has very little interest in him, would stand out. I see.
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Who are you to say I have no interest in him?

When did I say it would ever stand out? I write my books for me, not for smug, bitter pessimistic naysayers like you.

I ought to write it now just on principal you jackass.

bospress.net said:
I'll trade some reading copies for that galley. Is it a comb bound galley?

I have 5 or 6 paperback reading copies here that I can send in trade. Are there any that you want more than others or do not need?
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I'll take anything you want to trade me.

email me at [email protected]

Thanks!
 
I want someone to piss me off so I can write a book.

seriously, someone piss me off. I've been "researching" for 2 years now.

I'll help you get started. possible sore points:

1. I'm short.
2. I don't like flying.
3. I don't know how to swim.

please don't feel confined to these only.

if you piss me off enough, I'll dedicate the book to you.
 
You could write a book about a sea plane with dodgy controls and only lands in deep water. You....you....short, fear-filled fucker. I'll PM my real name.
 
PaulMaherJr said:
I write my books for me, not for smug, bitter pessimistic naysayers like you.

I ought to write it now just on principal you jackass.
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Sir! If I didn't know better, I might think you were trying to insult me!

You should write an entire series of books full of cool, ultra-defensive shit like calling anyone who questions your intentions or abilities a "smug, bitter, pessimistic naysayer." That's so spot-on and devastating. You should have been an assassin. You could kill a man with nothing but lethal groups of words. I would like to shake the hands of the professors who molded you so brilliantly, you clever bastard!

My only question - and this is serious so please answer seriously - is how could you possibly fit a Bukowski book into your busy schedule?

Don't you have another reprint of Thoreau or Emerson or a collection of someone else's interviews with someone kind of famous to work on? Or (fingers crossed) a fifteenth book about Jack Kerouac?

The world needs you to produce more of that important literature. Don't let us down, Paul. For Christ's sake, man! We need you! Now more than ever!

I'm glad we are friends now.
 
Yeah, see, it confused me at first. But we're cool now. Paul is coming over for a wine tasting on Sunday, and we're going to do our nails. Don't be jealous, haters!
 
How many Paul Maher, Jr's are there that would be in to Miles Davis, Thoreau and Kerouac. Is this the same fellow as this? Biographer extraordinaire to fashion photographer-indie filmmaker?! What ambition! Networking nirvana!! And all I want to do with my life is grill the perfect steak.
 
Stavrogin said:
Is this the same fellow as this?
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Those photographs are dull, lifeless and utterly unoriginal, so I can see why you would think they are the same person.

But seeing as Junior and I are now such close friends, I'm going to have to ask you stop insinuating that he is a dull, unimaginative hack, desperately sucking at the dry bones of dead men for a few pennies. I simply won't stand for it.
 

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