One of the Hottest (Dog from Hell) (1 Viewer)

Lolita Twist

Rose-hustler
Hey... reading through Love is a Dog From Hell, came across the poem One of the Hottest... came across one of the first Bukowski analogies I can't even begin to decipher...

...like eating cold olives at 3 a.m.
with half the town on fire...


This came after, and in comparison to, him fucking an older lady, or, as he puts it, "bringing the dead back to life". I just can't wrap my head around how fucking an old lady and giving her some meaning is like eating cold olives in the wee hours of the morning during the LA riots.

Help? It bothers me when I can't understand an analogy.
 
I was simply paraphrasing, didn't see the need to quote it twice. LA riots flew into my head, I was thinking the '92 riots. I know that's not what Buk is talking about, but it's the first thing that came to mind. LA + "town on fire" = riots.
 
Maybe inspired by one of these,

1965 - Watts Riot, Aug. 1965, (Los Angeles, California, USA)

The term Watts Riots of 1965 refers to a large-scale race riot which lasted 6 days in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in August 1965. By the time the riot subsided, 34 people had been killed, 1,032 injured, and 3,952 arrested. It would stand as the worst riot in Los Angeles history until eclipsed by the Los Angeles riots of 1992.


1966 - Sunset Strip curfew riots (Los Angeles, California, USA)

The Sunset Strip curfew riots, also known as the "hippie riots," were a series of clashes that took place between police and young people on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California, beginning in the mid-1960s and continuing through the early 1970s.
 
From the poem:

(I'm fucking the grave, I thought, I'm
bringing the dead back to life, marvelous
so marvelous
like eating cold olives at 3 a.m.
with half the town on fire)

I dunno, is eating cold olives, etc., as marvelous as fucking the grave, etc.?

Or just one of those weird thoughts that come into your mind while fucking? Or while writing about fucking?
 
I read it as irony. He does'nt like fucking an old lady, just as he does'nt like cold olives at 3 a.m. with half the town on fire (for whatever reason)...
 
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I disagree Bukfan. I think the poem is about really enjoying the sex, feeling extravagant and spoilt.

you boys can keep your virgins
give me hot old women in high heels
with asses that forgot to get old.

Time for some more lovely olives :D
 
I disagree Bukfan. I think the poem is about really enjoying the sex, feeling extravagant and spoilt.

Right! I couldn't remember the whole poem but seeing that quote from you, I'm obviously wrong. Never offer an opinion about a poem if you only have one stanza to work from...:p
 
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Since those lines are in parentheses, I don't think he's referring to any actual event (fire). Otherwise he'd just write "half the town was on fire."

So my take is similar to Hank Solo's...he's very satisfied, feeling great and the olives are wonderful and the town or the whole world could be burning down but at that moment he doesn't give a crap.
 
My take is closer to Bukfan's in that I perceive the consumption of cold olives at 3 am with half the town on fire to be akin to carrying on while oblivious of what's going on around you.

So the sex with the older woman was happening, but he wasn't really terribly aware of it or fixated with it.

Or, I could be totally wrong and the consumption of olives with the town on fire is an extravagance with no regard to reality. I think I just talked myself out of my initial argument.
 
The, "I'm fucking the grave.." bit, seems to contradict, "Give me the hot old women.." bit, I think.
 
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Gerard,
Believe the "fuck hate" comment was Steve Richmond's. A photo of the SteveRichmond publication, Earth Rose, with Richmond holding it, on the back cover of BukScene1. Great story about Steve Richmond in bukscene by Mike Daily.

(Now, back to the thread, the poem, the title: One of the Hottest. Kind of gives it all away, doesn't it?)
 
With the risk of sounding French, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it strikes me as a very existential poem.

Why is he fucking an old lady? No one else to fuck. Why is he eating olives at 3am? Nothing else in the fridge. Why mention the town on fire? Why not? A town on fire is just as meaningless as olives and the walking dead; a nice juxtaposition visually, but ultimately, just as pointless and as hard to get worked up about. (from an existential point of view)
 
The fire needn't be a specific one (riot).
It might be the same 'fire' of which it matters most HOW WELL you walk through - or refuse to do so in order to stay home and eat something cold. Which is a refreshing and easy-going thing to do while the city's burning down.
 

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