Dear Bukowski students and fans...
Just wanted to clarify for the record that the Bukowski comment I quote at Amazon in connection with my book is a compilation of snippets from two letters he sent me pertaining to my views and my book. It might be worthwhile to quote his last letter to me in context and in its entirety. It was not included in Reach for the Sun, edited by Seamus Cooney, which was volume 3 of Bukowski's selected letters. Curiously, it helps illuminate America's current situation on the world's stage, and it shows that Bukowski was quite attuned to history and world affairs. I refer to it in Chapter IX ("Charles Bukowski, The Last Word") of my book, The Unauthorized World Situation Report. I had sent Bukowski a photo I had taken of Steffi Graf in the locker room at the Key Biscayne tournament after she had lost in a difficult match to Gabriel Sabatini in March of 1991. Also, enclosed was a poem I had written about a trip to Mykonos. Here is Bukowski's response:
4/15/91 8:34 PM
Hello Patrick:
Thanks for poem and photo, both good. No, I'm not a tennis freak but am a student of defeat. Have had a few lessons there.
Have meant to tell you about the good reads you've sent along. Your fight against the inbred stupidity of the history of this century is a noble and a lonely one. I marvel at how you persist against the odds. I believe that your views are on the mark. But the past propaganda has sunk almost all minds into an oblivious acceptance of the deathly lie. They are unable to go back and undo the massive errors because then our vaunted leaders, our historical heroes would be uncovered as frauds and fakes. And think of the millions of lives lost for so-called great causes. All these lives, then, would have to be admitted as totally wasted, not for the right reasons but for all the wrong ones. This monstrous game is too far gone to be righted; it would drive men and mothers, almost everybody, to rage and madness. But what is the most horrifying thing of all is that the game continues, not only in the same fashion but in a more soulless way through the same greed and fear, and through a practice learned and honed so well that the bigger the liars, the more they will be believed in.
All those few of us who are aware can do is to protect our own minds against this onslaught which has erased the sensibilities of almost all humans.
yes,
Charles Bukowski
