Random Thoughts that relate to Bukowski in some way (1 Viewer)

When I mow, I always leave a few blades of grass sticking up, in honor of Bukowski.
This is an awesome idea. Really great. I am going to start to do this too.

Finally started reading Women. I can't help but wonder if the library's missing Bukowski titles have been given counterfeit signatures and are now listed on ebay for $400.
I saw some copies of Crucifix in a Death Hand for $400 and more on Amazon. It does make you paranoid when you have to pay that much for something you can't see first before you buy it. I have bought some good stuff, even used first editions of things for 20 to 30 dollars on Amazon and they were in very good condition just as advertised. So it's not all bad. Once I get a full time job again I plan on buying some of the "FANCY Stuff."
 
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I have two great lines from "Absence of the Hero" I've got to share. From "Bukowski on Bukowski," 'Until then, read your nuts off and gobble and grow what you can.' Another great line from "Untitled Essay on DA Levy," 'My heart heaves out the belly of itself.'
 
Chinaski became emotional a few times in Women. It didn't seem to fit his character or the overall story.

Don't you think that's what redeems him, stops him being a callous womaniser? Thanksgiving Day - he's got himself in a mess, with plans to see three of them (Debra,Iris ans Sara) he starts crying as his conscience comes to the fore, you need that balance, along with the more comic episodes. It's when he shows guilt and remorse that saves it, although it is very funny when he manages to do both; the part where he offers up: "I am innocent in my fashion,Lydia, I thought. I am faithful to thee in my fashion." It's a very funny line because he knows and we know he's about to be unfaithful to her (imminently) and to all of them until finally he starts a relationship with Sara (for which I am strangely relieved and happy)
 
... "I am innocent in my fashion,Lydia, I thought. I am faithful to thee in my fashion." It's a very funny line because he knows and we know he's about to be unfaithful to her ...

I'm not sure you've quite picked up on the meaning of the words 'innocent' and 'faithful' as Bukowski uses them. Words mean different, deeper things to him than to the average joe (or jane). Could be that hee is always innocent and faithful because he is sincerely compassionate, sincerely caring. There are passages about it in some of his interviews. For most people being 'faithful' means basically being a dog - no matter what the other person does, you will follow them around and enable them to be an idiot. For Bukowski it seems to be more about compassion (which can actually be tough love, too, or distance). No sense tying yourself to a sinking ship - if Bukowski had done that with previous women, he never would have gotten to know Linda Lee, possibly never would have had the creative spark left for the 80s. Instead he went on to make three or four more awesome books of poetry, despite living a shacked up and almost bourgeois life in the hills - not an easy thing to do, and he did it, in part, by not misplacing his loyalty.
 
Words mean different, deeper things to him than to the average joe (or jane).
My ass they do. On delivering that line, he is in bed with Nicole having arrived the night before, very drunk .The meaning of it is very clear and comical.But perhaps I'm too pragmatic and not seeing the more, er, metaphysical aspects.
 
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I could totally be mistaken there. No, I haven't been to southern california at all since beginning to read Bukowski. My memory could be failing me. I felt that I recalled him referring to 'living in the hills.' Now that you called me out on it, maybe I'm confusing different stories - maybe that reference to 'the hills' was from his run-in with a wealthy lady in Barfly? What is San Pedro like? As for the almost bourgeois part, he did start driving the bmw and eating quality food...

... perhaps I'm too pragmatic ...

The word I would use is superficial, but not in general, just on this topic (and the one about how much you love the creature comfort spoils of WWII :rollfool:). Behind the surface of being drunk and/or passing out and/or sex-romping, we ARE still talking about a guy who obviously CARED about people - the fact that they wore him out notwithstanding.
 
Having lived there for the better part of a decade, I can only laugh when people talk about Bukowski selling out for the plush, glamorous life in San Pedro. The Hollywood Hills it ain't. Especially near the Port of Los Angeles, where he lived.

As for Women, I think both of you just may be over analyzing it. Like professors dissecting a joke over lemonade and toast points until it isn't funny anymore.
 
I can't mow my lawn without thinking of Hank Sr. kneeling down to look for stray blades of unmowed grass.
I've been landscaping my yard the last few weeks and I too think of Ham On Rye references when I'm out there working and or mowing that damn yard! I'd be getting an ass whooping every time! Funny!
 
. Instead he went on to make three or four more awesome books of poetry, despite living a shacked up and almost bourgeois life in the hills - not an easy thing to do, and he did it, in part, by not misplacing his loyalty.
gb: I'm sorry to always burst your dreamy world view, honestly, I'll stop. Before I do, don't you think that it was because of rather than despite "going off to lead a bourgeois life" with Linda Lee that enabled him to produce more work, if he'd stayed on the course he was on he would have died of alcoholic liver disease, he may not have wanted to settle down and commit, but it was the right decision. I know you seem to have him up on a pedestal, but he was a man first and a poet second. Again, sorry if I hurt you.
 
I just went digging thru my small stack of Buk books over here but I couldn't find the poem I was looking for. I just saw it a few weeks ago from the Redondo Beach reading. I think it is called the 'Poetry Reading' but I could be wrong. It is the poem where he talks about how he has a big house that is half paid off, has a big back yard, with friut trees, a big vegetable garden, 6 cats, a beautiful woman, etc. You can tell that Buk is a happy guy. So although San Pedro might not be that much of a beautiful place, he himself has a really nice house and yard. If you also take into consideration that he lived parts of his life on Skid Row or on the outskirts of Skid Row, this house he has now is like a paradise to him.
 
Honestly, my random is I just like to be alone and at the same time want and need a female mate. I am as confused about it as Bukowsi was till the day he died, but at the end of the day I feel better alone. This is coming up because my girlfriend is in Montana. And even though I am watching her dog, there is so much more oxegen in the room - despite the fact that my girlfriend barely talks...
 
Had some down time yesterday and re-read Dangling for the first time in years. I don't know, but it might be his most
cohesive and satisfying book. Nearly every poem worked for me. Then watched a netflix with the wife and slept through
the night. One of those good days.
 
Dangling is also my favorite. Probably not high in the ranking...
Couldn't resist to check it out: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://bukowski.net/bookranking/

Oh- Gerry Locklin's review --->http://americanbookreview.org/issueContent.asp?id=149

I think it is called the 'Poetry Reading' but I could be wrong. It is the poem where he talks about how he has a big house that is half paid off, has a big back yard, with friut trees, a big vegetable garden, 6 cats, a beautiful woman, etc. .

And a young boy who writes my stuff now...
 
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I find it slightly ironic that every time I sell a Bukowski item, I am inadvertently supporting the Post Office… Not to mention going through the pain of going to the Post Office…
 
although San Pedro might not be that much of a beautiful place, he himself has a really nice house and yard. If you also take into consideration that he lived parts of his life on Skid Row or on the outskirts of Skid Row, this house he has now is like a paradise to him.
I remember going to the house to interview Linda in conjunction with the CSULB Fante conference in 1995 (that's a long story that I'll save for another post). I could easily see why Buk loved his new life there, particularly since I, too, had lived in East Hollywood at the same time as he did. There is simply no comparison. Carlton Way...de Longpre Avenue...nothing remotely pastoral about those places. His place in San Pedro was (and probably still is) rich with foliage and felt very private. A well-deserved coda for a man who suffered so much during his life.
 
As for Women, I think both of you just may be over analyzing it. Like professors dissecting a joke over lemonade and toast points until it isn't funny anymore.

Lemonade and Toast? What kind of crazed anarchy is that? it's got to be a nice cup of tea, damn Yankees.

Read somewhere but can't be more specific, that their home was comfortable but not fancy and that his study overlooked the back, with a view of the working bay areas?

Honestly, my random is I just like to be alone and at the same time want and need a female mate. I am as confused about it as Bukowsi was till the day he died, but at the end of the day I feel better alone. This is coming up because my girlfriend is in Montana. And even though I am watching her dog, there is so much more oxegen in the room - despite the fact that my girlfriend barely talks...

You only think you prefer to be alone, give it a couple of days and you'll be crying, the wee things like; hair clips, shoe under the bed, make- up everywhere, no space in the bathroom etc. will get to you, just like it did CB.
 
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A view of the port, yes (if you say "bay" in Los Angeles people think you're talking about Santa Monica, not San Pedro). That view would be; container ships, a million trucks, a suspension bridge, 25,000 poor Mexicans, and at night, enough lights from the port to erase every star from the sky.

When people talk about the "nice" part of San Pedro they are talking about Point Fermin, which is at the southern tip, and sits on steep rock bluffs with views of Catalina island and dozens of sea lions lying in the sun on the rocks every day. Bukowski lived on the opposite end of town, as far north as you can go in San Pedro, near the freeway and housing projects. It was not a grand house or a grand neighborhood. It was a pretty standard suburban house, the only thing that was a little atypical about it - for Los Angeles - is it had a second floor. But that is not as uncommon in San Pedro as it is in the rest of of Los Angeles.

Compared to court apartment living, I suppose any house could seem palatial and bourgeois. But the idea that Bukowski "retired" to some idyllic, quiet seaside spot to eat health foods, meditate and write mellow, old man poems is incorrect. If anything made him more reflective near the end, it was age, not location. I think it's safe to assume that would have happened to him wherever he was living.

palatial.jpg
 
Yes, sorry that's what I meant - a port - wasn't sure you used that word. I think Linda Lee describes his study as looking out over the working yards of the port area, and that's what he liked. I think they were left alone there and he enjoyed that. Is that his house, did she not consider turning it into a museum? would like to see outside of it, but wouldn't go inside I don't think - too intrusive for me.Nothing wrong with him living in "comfort" at all, given his life up to then.
 
Cool graphic! That's a pretty decent haven right there.
...the idea that Bukowski "retired" to ... eat health foods, (and) meditate ... is incorrect ...
Funny that you select those two practices to undergird your rhetorical flourish, because he did eat healthier with Linda than he had before (references to drinking the higher quality German Reisling as per her counsel, for example) and he did meditate on a daily basis!

Going to the track was a meditation for him whether he used that word or not - much more so than anything most people do nowadays and call meditative (cooking, art, puttering with technology, working out, reading, tv, yoga, gardening, hiking, sitting on cushions, etc). the track had gamble, raw naturalness, and just the right amount of passivity. I'm not saying that anybody can start hanging at the track and become Bukowski, but it was a key ingredient in his recipe. without the track poems, the late stuff is an older man musing. with the track poems, we see that he is still in the mix. And that is why in my original post I said "almost bourgeois." a key characteristic of bourgeois existence is irrelevance (in other words, alienation from the ways of nature), and that never happened to bukowski. Location may not have made the difference (although LA does have good feng shui), but his meditative time at the track and his woman's health-consciousness did, imo.
 
Christ, I love being alone. Thanks for reminding me how much Skygaser. It's 1:17 PM ET and I'm already loaded with no one to argue with but myself.
 
he did eat healthier with Linda than he had before
Not really. Being able to afford more expensive wine is hardly proof of "eating better."
he did meditate on a daily basis!
For a few weeks. If that.

Don't confuse The Widow's©®™ revisionist history, wishful thinking and farcical Buddhist funeral with the reality of Bukowski's life. To take what happened during the the last few months of his life as proof that he "changed" is foolish. Most people who know that they are dying "change" in the days before their deaths. It's human nature.

A lifelong atheist who says, "Okay, I'm terrified and it's time to hedge my bets -- I LOVE YOU JESUS!" five minutes before they drop dead was not a Christian.
 
Christ, I love being alone. Thanks for reminding me how much Skygaser. It's 1:17 PM ET and I'm already loaded with no one to argue with but myself.
Whaddya mean? the clutter in the bathroom is one of our more endearing traits, give it 8hrs you'll be bored out of your face and putting on country songs about your woman running off and your dog dying.PS tidy the place up before she gets back, win you points.
 
Holy Crap Mr. Gary Eisenberg Sir, You got to go to Linda and Buk's house to interview her? What the what! I am totally jealous. I just recently wrote her a letter to tell her how much I loved her late husband and I'm on another Buk binge, and how I found this here awesome web site and I didn't get crap back from her. Oh well. I guess it's possible she still gets a lot of fan mail from people all over the world and she can't answer it all.

So here I am with my dumb little letter and you got to go talk to her and go inside the legend's house! Did I mention that I'm jealous.

I have since discovered that the poem isn't called, 'The Poetry Reading.' It does end with the boy in the box that he feeds, "raw whores and whiskey." I'll get the title eventually. Dag namit.

I just watched "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" because Hank said it was one of the few movies he liked. I think one of the reasons he liked it was because the 4 main characters were drinking booze through the whole movie. Elizabeth Taylor was really good in that movie. She won an Academy Award for that one. The damn movie was raising my blood pressure and I don't have a blood pressure problem. Her and her husband talk at each other at 150 miles per hour the whole movie. There is also a lot of screaming involved. The other female character pukes easily and she pukes more then once so you know Buk was loving that and probably laughing.

There is a very intense plot to the movie with a whole bunch of heavy dark psychological blackmail and Hank probably enjoyed that part of the movie because he is so hyper sensitive to the inner workings of the dark and light parts of human interaction. So after watching one of Hank's favorites I can see why he liked it based upon all of the stuff I know of the man from reading his writings.

She was married to her co-star twice. I'm pretty sure it's Timothy Burton. I just saw the movie 3 days ago and I already can't be certain if I have to the first name right. He was also really good in the movie. The amount of dialog in this movie was mind boggeling.
 
When I was in college we'd pick up a fifth of Jack each and watch Who's Afraid and Barfly back to back once a month. Barfly was always second to take the edge off. Who's Afraid... is my favorite film of all time.
 
I have since discovered that the poem isn't called, 'The Poetry Reading.' It does end with the boy in the box that he feeds, "raw whores and whiskey." I'll get the title eventually. Dag namit.

the secret of my endurance

I just watched "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" ... Elizabeth Taylor was really good in that movie. ...

She was married to her co-star twice. I'm pretty sure it's Timothy Burton. I just saw the movie 3 days ago and I already can't be certain if I have to the first name right. He was also really good in the movie.

Richard Burton.
 
I just saw the movie 3 days ago and I already can't be certain if I have to the first name right. He was also really good in the movie. The amount of dialog in this movie was mind boggeling.
Danny Mac, you'll probably watch the film many more times, it's one of those films, you keep.It's brilliant isn't it? Easy to see why CB liked it and I think he and Burton, (being a hard drinking Welshman) would have got on famously. He certainly would have identified with all the brawling, even out with the film Burton and Taylor were legendary serial brawlers, ahh, the spice of life.
 
I have a Film Threat issue that has an interview with him about the film industry. It came out right before Barfly. The other films he likes are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Eraser Head and Elephant Man. But it's funny because his first answer was none. The whole interview is on my eBay listing if anyone wants to read it (may not be incorrect order).
 
As a boy and a teenager growing up in the thirties, would he not have enjoyed the movies as much as his peers? I can't remember if it was in Woman or somewhere else, but I'm sure he lists some of his "real" heroes as opposed to the literary types, as being; Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart Etc.I like his film choices above.
 
I can't remember if it was in Woman or somewhere else, but I'm sure he lists some of his "real" heroes as opposed to the literary types, as being; Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart Etc.I like his film choices above.
They folded up their notebooks and vanished. Too bad. I had meant to tell them that my real influences were Gable, Cagney, Bogart and Errol Flynn.
(WOMEN, page 201)
 

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