Martinized "Notes of A Dirty Old Man"

[David]

I don't know if you guys even want to open up this can of very lively worms, but in addition to the poetry and the novels, we also have a little issue with the Dirty Old Man columns:
Here is original NOLA Express, #91, 1971, thanks to Digney's recent posting:
If you look at Hot Water Music, "Scream When You Burn," pp. 17-23, "He" is changed to "Henry"; "He'd made a mistake" is changed to "He'd made a dumb mistake"; "either physically or spiritually" changed to "physically or spiritually"; "that was the mathematic" changed to "just mathematics" [this is a real howler, since Bukowski ALWAYS used this idiosyncratic term "mathematic" intentionally, the same way he often says "upon" instead of "on"--a slight stylistic difference which he INTENDS. That's just the first paragraph.

 

[mjp]

The prose is another can of worms, do doubt.

I think an editor could make more of a case for editing prose though than they could for editing poetry. Especially in Bukowski/Martin's case since the additions that were made to the poetry post-mortem are so unnecessary and senseless.

 

[LickTheStar]

But see... now we know exactly what kind of mistake was made! Think of the intellectual and philosophical ramifications!