On Writing (1 Viewer)

It's a book guys, it'll be in stores that sell books. Everyone calm down. Get a taco and take it easy.
I like tacos... and blades of grass that were once healthy before being urinated on by dogs and homeless people... I don't like tacos anymore...
 
I received my copy of On Writing today. I like the facts that it's a hardcover book and I´m looking forward to reading the letters. After having flipped through it, i do have a couple of minor complaints. It would have been nice if the reader were told who the people Buk wrote to were. There's info on some of the names, but far from all of them. Who's is people like Gerard Belart, Norman Moser and Jack Conroy, for instance, just to name a few? For the newbie it would also be nice to know who important people in Buk's life, like say, Webb and Corrington are. An index would have been nice to have too. Still. it's just minor complaints, but i think they're worth mentioning anyway although one should´nt look a gift horse in the mouth.
 
Bukfan,

I hear you. A "who's who" might be included in the paperback edition. I don't think it will feature an Index of Names, though.
 
A "who's who" might be included in the paperback edition.
That would be a nice addition. Of course it would be a nice addition to this thread too. Just saying.

I set The Bell Tolls for No One aside to read this one first. It's really good.
 
Of course it would be a nice addition to this thread too.

Do you mean posting the "who's who" here? Well, for starters, it's not even done, and I have no idea when and if I'll do it. If I do it, and I'm allowed to post it here, I'll gladly do it.
 
Nope. Wish I had it, though. I'm discussing it with the Ecco editors for possible inclusion in the paperback edition.
 
I think I remember a Dylan (Bob) site that had a who's who that was insanely extensive. One of those for
here, independent of a search feature would be very cool. Probably too much of a pain in the ass to realize,
at this point, but I like those kinds of things.
 
A "who's who" might be included in the paperback edition. I don't think it will feature an Index of Names, though.
A Who's who would be real nice and more important than an index.

Btw, I bought my copy of the book from English Amazon and was a bit surprised to find out it was´nt an Ecco book, but a book from English Canongate. I guess Canongate prints the English edition on behalf of Ecco, but I´m now wondering if there's any difference between the two editions. The dust jacket seems to be the same though. The Canongate book is black with golden letters on the spine and the paper quality seems to be a bit cheap. So, can anyone tell me if the Ecco edition look the same way?
 
It would seem that it's Canongate in the UK, yes. I'm talking to them about something to do with the book (more tomorrow). I don't know anything about the relationship between the companies, if one is a subsidiary or whether it's just a typically confounding international arrangement.
 
a book from English Canongate
that's right. I also ordered my amount of books for the bukowski-shop directly from Canongate (scottish btw) to avoid the insanely high shipping-cost from the US.
(still it's over 30 British Pounds shipping for 30 copies)

will you have some books in your luggage ?
hopefully, Canongate will deliver my order in time, so I'll be able to bring a stack of the title with me.
Abel already agreed to sign them in Hamburg.
I also hope, that I'll be able to offer 'The Bell Tolls' at the Hamburg-event, but at the moment, it doesn't look like it'll happen to have them in time.
 
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It would seem that it's Canongate in the UK, yes. I'm talking to them about something to do with the book (more tomorrow). I don't know anything about the relationship between the companies, if one is a subsidiary or whether it's just a typically confounding international arrangement.

You're talking with Canongate about the book? That sounds interesting. Maybe you could ask them if the look their version of the book is exactly the same as the one from Ecco, if you can sneak it into the conversation (the one from Canongate is black with golden letters on the spine). Not that it's that important, but we´ve often seen the British editions looking differently.

hat's right. I also ordered my amount of books for the bukowski-shop directly from Canongate (scottish btw) to avoid the insanely high shipping-cost from the US.
(still it's over 30 British Pounds shipping for 30 copies)

Good idea, even if you had to pay £1 per book in shipping because it will cost much more in shipping for a person to order a copy from Amazon UK. I paid £10.49 for the book, plus £4.66 for shipping. That's £15.15 in all. On top of that I had to pay 25% in VAT (value added tax) of both the book price and the shipping price, which came to £3.78. So, all in all i had to pay £18.93.
 
You're talking with Canongate about the book? That sounds interesting. Maybe you could ask them if the look their version of the book is exactly the same as the one from Ecco
I'm talking to them about giving away some copies of the book (to UK forum members).

The Ecco version is black letting on a black cover/spine. Black on black, with just a shade more black.
 
Black on black, with just a shade more black.
that's elegant.

Black on Black is the new Black.

Lou Reed knew:
Lou-Reed-Songs-For-Drella-594988.jpg
 
Free copies for UK forum members? What a great idea! I hope you can convince them to do it.

Black with black letters on the spine? Thanks! The black Canongate one has golden letters on the spine. Not much of a difference, but it's somewhat interesting Canongate chose a different color for the letters on the spine. Of course, black on black seems a bit weird, although I have´nt seen the Ecco edition.
 
The flash makes the lettering look gold. The Word "On" is the best reproduction of what it really looks like. Classy. I've never been a fan of dust jackets. They don't even cover the part of a book that might get dusty. :eek:

On_Writing.JPG


And yes mjp, I found this at a bookstore. :rolleyes:
 
At first I thought black on black sounded a bit weird, but now that I can see it for myself I have to say it looks better than the Canongate spine. Golden letters are fine, although ordinary, but Canongate should´nt have made them so very shiny.
 
Canongate also published Sounes Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life - in case you're on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and that comes up...
 
A couple of new pieces ..

these are pretty nice man. you just lost me at the end of the 'lets not get too holy' piece, where it seemes like you did in fact try to get too holy, putting a shiny bow of platitudes around everything. your journey spoke for itself, the anecdotes and so on. the triple gainer conclusion was a little much.

such an unplanned stop did justify all the trials and tribulations, and that reaching the finish line was no longer necessary. What mattered most was capturing the magic of the moment.

putting the period after 'tribulations' would have been fine, that was already kindof a sappy 'writerly' wind up. but then you dug the hole deeper with 'reaching the finish line was no libger necessary' - huh? the book is out, that line is cheesy and doesnt even make sense.

then you go even deeper still with 'what mattered most was the moistness of the panties' or whatever and i almost forgot how good the piece was for how cliche it ended.

love your work though in general, really do. reading Bukowski and simultaneously navigating all those hallowed halls cant be easy, so .. much respect for your work done as a researcher, and sorry in advance if my critique of the writing part is out of line, i will take it down.
 
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That's ok, no need to take it down --plus, I think you couldn't take it down anyway after 30 minutes or so.

Yes, the last paragraph has a few deliberate clichés and platitudes. Glad you liked the piece anyway.

Here's the actual last paragraph, which was left out by LitHub, along with another 3-4 paragraphs --maybe they thought those paragraphs were way too cheesy, too:

I asked Linda about The Outsider of the Year award, which The Outsider magazine editors had given Bukowski in 1963. Linda said that Bukowski was extremely proud of that award. It was still hanging on a wall next to the kitchen. It’s still there. That night, while I was putting the finishing touches to On Writing and Linda was sitting on the couch watching Downton Abbey, I looked up and I saw the award. I recalled what Bukowski said to The Outsider editors upon accepting it: “I am still in a fog on this Award business and walk around tasting it on the end of my tongue. There is a lot of child in me. [...] This is an odd day. I almost feel good.” Although Bukowski never wrote a book on writing, I hoped the child in him would feel good about On Writing coming into life some two decades after his death. I did feel good. On Writing would soon be published for readers to enjoy, which is all that really matters when it comes down to writing. Writing can be entertaining, Bukowski said over and over again, let’s not get too holy about it. I couldn’t agree more.
 
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good stuff but again i could have stopped one sentence earlier :agb: noone cares whether you could or couldnt agree more haha. just kidding around, its a good piece, a good corrective to all that 'gutter poet' rigamarole people see too often.
 
I'm glad you posted the last paragraph here, they should have left it in.

I will always and forever prefer someone putting their feelings on the line to someone just spouting some cold, analytical bullshit. Good for you. It's courageous to show your passion, because people don't always react to it the way you'd expect or the way you'd like.

Obviously.
 
im not anti feelings, but to me a feeling is whats laced through the text. it gets dry when exposed to the air with blunt statements of 'i feel xyz' ... the feeling of the piece came through nicely in the choice of anecdotes and general style of storytelling
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/b...llection-of-rants-and-musings-in-letters.html
a writer whose best prose and poetry is enlivened by deft jump cuts, register shifts and juxtapositions both ridiculous and beautiful

She threw him a couple of meaty bones at least, in between trips to the hair salon and sips of a frappe with her pinky raised high and nose raised higher. the fact is she almost certainly learned a few things from the collection, but was too academic to admit it. anyway, congrats to Ciretria for making the nyt, and keeping the bukster in the conversation.

:rolleyes:

thanks for the gut check i needed it
 
[...] if the look their version of the book is exactly the same as the one from Ecco [...]
this weekend, when Abel (aka cirerita) was in Germany, I had the chance to compare the two versions directly and the US got it more beautiful BY FAR.

Beside the unneccessarily Golden writing on the spine of the UK-edition, that's already been mentioned:

The US-version's slightly larger. (just slightly but remarkable)
The US-version has a photograph of Bukowski on the back while the UK-version has plain text.
The US-version has the name of the editor on the front-cover, while the UK-edition has - placed on the same part of the cover - the super-original quotation: "A laureate of American low life (Time)", which I've never heared anywhere before.

of course, all of these are merely cosmetics and surface.
But if you happen to be an aestetic (sp?) person - go for the US-edition!


having said that:
people living in Germany may consider buying their copy at my sh
op anyway. Be it only to screw amazon in the ass, but mainly to support my attempts to buy me a castle in the Black-forest.
 
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