r crumb on bukowski (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter d gray
- Start date
from the r crumb website - "crumb on others"
http://www.crumbproducts.com/aboutcrumb_others_3.html
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
Robert: "Love 'im, love his writing. He was a very difficult guy to hang out with in person, but on paper he was great. One of the great American writers of the late 20th Century."
Alex: "You spent a little bit of time with him?"
Robert: "A little bit, not much. Yeah, when he was in social situations, he desperately wanted to numb himself with alcohol. He was very uncomfortable around people; a very solitary guy basically. He wanted to get laid and all that but... [starts laughing] The last time I saw Bukowski, he came to this party in San Francisco, it was a poetry reading. And these two women that I knew (Susan and Jane, I actually did a comic strip about them,) they just kind of closed in on Bukowski. One was talking to him in one ear and the other was talking to him in his other ear. He was standing there with a beer bottle in each hand and getting drunk as fast as he could. And the last moment I saw him, they were leading him off to the bedroom. That's the last time I ever saw Bukowski."
http://www.crumbproducts.com/aboutcrumb_others_3.html
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
Robert: "Love 'im, love his writing. He was a very difficult guy to hang out with in person, but on paper he was great. One of the great American writers of the late 20th Century."
Alex: "You spent a little bit of time with him?"
Robert: "A little bit, not much. Yeah, when he was in social situations, he desperately wanted to numb himself with alcohol. He was very uncomfortable around people; a very solitary guy basically. He wanted to get laid and all that but... [starts laughing] The last time I saw Bukowski, he came to this party in San Francisco, it was a poetry reading. And these two women that I knew (Susan and Jane, I actually did a comic strip about them,) they just kind of closed in on Bukowski. One was talking to him in one ear and the other was talking to him in his other ear. He was standing there with a beer bottle in each hand and getting drunk as fast as he could. And the last moment I saw him, they were leading him off to the bedroom. That's the last time I ever saw Bukowski."
Last edited by a moderator:
from the same as above. reminded me of bukowski's wariness of his own success doing the same to him.
JOHN STEINBECK
Robert: I liked Grapes of Wrath, thought it was really good. Then I tried to read Travels with Charlie that he wrote, I think in the '60s, and found it rather dull and uninteresting. I thought his life had become so comfortable and middle class that he lost touch with whatever was his original force of inspiration back in the '30s. He must have really hung out with those people. I also read that book he wrote about the west coast, I think it's called Cannery Row. It was good; not as good as Grapes of Wrath, but it was good. And I've also read interviews with him later when he was old and retired and he didn't have much of interest to say, I don't know. Lost it. It can happen when you experience success. It happened to me (laughs).
Alex: What happened to you?
Robert: You get successful, you give a lot of interviews, you're constantly dealing with business and money and all that stuff I talked with you about when we were in Chicago. You just slowly lose touch with your original source of inspiration. It has something to do with being involved with real, common life; that's what makes any kind of story writing interesting to me. And then you get successful and you get separated from real life. It just happens. When I say real life, I'm talking about the common, everyday life of most people. Then you start getting treated like royalty "” like you're something special "” and it's not the same. And you're no longer the observer, you are the observed. That puts you in a whole different position in society; a whole different perspective. Now you're hunted, you're looked at, you're watched, you're admired, you're vilified, whatever. But you can't just go out and be part of the world as an observer anymore. It's hard. It's hard for me anyway. So for someone like Steinbeck, when he wrote Grapes of Wrath, he obviously had some involvement in that world, with common people, their struggle, the terribleness of their situation. He understood it. He must have lived in it somehow or other. And then he got so successful, so recognized that by the time he wrote Travels With Charlie he was like this self-conscious, successful person that travels across America with his dog. And it's just not very interesting. He just travels the highway with this dog and he's not involved in real life or the lives of real people. The book starkly reveals this.
JOHN STEINBECK
Robert: I liked Grapes of Wrath, thought it was really good. Then I tried to read Travels with Charlie that he wrote, I think in the '60s, and found it rather dull and uninteresting. I thought his life had become so comfortable and middle class that he lost touch with whatever was his original force of inspiration back in the '30s. He must have really hung out with those people. I also read that book he wrote about the west coast, I think it's called Cannery Row. It was good; not as good as Grapes of Wrath, but it was good. And I've also read interviews with him later when he was old and retired and he didn't have much of interest to say, I don't know. Lost it. It can happen when you experience success. It happened to me (laughs).
Alex: What happened to you?
Robert: You get successful, you give a lot of interviews, you're constantly dealing with business and money and all that stuff I talked with you about when we were in Chicago. You just slowly lose touch with your original source of inspiration. It has something to do with being involved with real, common life; that's what makes any kind of story writing interesting to me. And then you get successful and you get separated from real life. It just happens. When I say real life, I'm talking about the common, everyday life of most people. Then you start getting treated like royalty "” like you're something special "” and it's not the same. And you're no longer the observer, you are the observed. That puts you in a whole different position in society; a whole different perspective. Now you're hunted, you're looked at, you're watched, you're admired, you're vilified, whatever. But you can't just go out and be part of the world as an observer anymore. It's hard. It's hard for me anyway. So for someone like Steinbeck, when he wrote Grapes of Wrath, he obviously had some involvement in that world, with common people, their struggle, the terribleness of their situation. He understood it. He must have lived in it somehow or other. And then he got so successful, so recognized that by the time he wrote Travels With Charlie he was like this self-conscious, successful person that travels across America with his dog. And it's just not very interesting. He just travels the highway with this dog and he's not involved in real life or the lives of real people. The book starkly reveals this.
Last edited by a moderator:
Similar threads
