B
BicycleTragedy
A friend gave me The Prettiest Woman In Town a few years ago, I read a few of the stories but I thought it was crass and cheap, I wasn't ready for it yet. I had a preformed view of him, I think, from things my friend had told me and it biased my introduction to his work. I liked Kerouac, Salinger, Housman...
But a few months ago I was alone at home on a Saturday and browsing Netflix, where you can stream movies instantly, and they had Factotum so I thought, what the hell, Dillon's cool. How bad can it be.
Anyway, I don't know what changed in me or my life between geting that book from my friend and watching Factotum, but I fell in love with the movie from the first frame and when it was over I was speechless. I immediately went and read Women at Borders; I thought it was hilarious and moving and brilliant as hell, and tracked down internet copies of the Bulowski Tapes as well as a lot of the audio recordings of readings and interviews, and saw Barfly and Born Into This As Well. I was enthralled, I could not get enough.
Then I read Pleasures of the Damned and literally would have to stop reading after every few pages, it was so incredibly beautiful that everything I thought I liked about poetry and literature was being thrown on its ear. Then I read the novel of Factotum, and was surprised at how faithful the movie adaptation was, yet was thrilled to find the few but notable differences in the book. It was like rediscovering the story all over again.
My point is, for those of who who didn't like the film, I am proof that someone who might be too narrow-minded at first to take in Bukowski, in a literary sense, can nonetheless be converted via different avenues of introduction to Bukowski's work, and then be receptive to the prose and poems.
But a few months ago I was alone at home on a Saturday and browsing Netflix, where you can stream movies instantly, and they had Factotum so I thought, what the hell, Dillon's cool. How bad can it be.
Anyway, I don't know what changed in me or my life between geting that book from my friend and watching Factotum, but I fell in love with the movie from the first frame and when it was over I was speechless. I immediately went and read Women at Borders; I thought it was hilarious and moving and brilliant as hell, and tracked down internet copies of the Bulowski Tapes as well as a lot of the audio recordings of readings and interviews, and saw Barfly and Born Into This As Well. I was enthralled, I could not get enough.
Then I read Pleasures of the Damned and literally would have to stop reading after every few pages, it was so incredibly beautiful that everything I thought I liked about poetry and literature was being thrown on its ear. Then I read the novel of Factotum, and was surprised at how faithful the movie adaptation was, yet was thrilled to find the few but notable differences in the book. It was like rediscovering the story all over again.
My point is, for those of who who didn't like the film, I am proof that someone who might be too narrow-minded at first to take in Bukowski, in a literary sense, can nonetheless be converted via different avenues of introduction to Bukowski's work, and then be receptive to the prose and poems.