As The World Turns
Most of the libraries I know of Keep Buk books behind the counter, because derelicts tend to boost them.
Yes... and there seems to be something in Bukowski's writings where certain fans feel they can "help" themselves to one of his books, whether it was on a visit to his digs, a trip to rip-off the neighborhood bookstore, or to "lift" a library copy they happen not to have. When I was younger I must confess that I used to steal girlie magazines from newsstands and markets; I was too young and embarrassed to buy them; I couldn't help it. But if I'd been caught it would have been the humiliation of a lifetime. Sometimes humans just crave things and it's rather easy to help ourselves until we go one step too far, make an error in plain sight, and it's all over. Fortunately, I grew out of that period just in time, but not without accumulating a pile of mags that I have to admit I enjoyed the hell out of. I actually enjoyed some of the short stories"”what looked like the better ones"”and they were different than what I was reading in high school and college, that's for damn sure. I liked them. Even now my mind searches back to remember if this was where I first encountered Bukowski's writings; probably not, because I preferred
Playboy to
Hustler, which I felt demeaned women physically and sexually, and stripped them entirely of their magical allure and even I wouldn't stoop to steal. What a rag...and I've read somewhere in Buk's poems, where I believe he had similar feelings"”all those shaved, split-beaver shots, like the women were just a piece of raw meat dangling on the end of a man's penis. So even in this strange and compulsive period of life, I at least had some standards of respect for the fairer sex. I still do. Even with Buk's writings, I do not care for his penchant of calling certain women "whores." They were more than whores, and they just happened to be keeping this son of a bitch company, and they had names... So as it turns out, I "stole" my way into a new way of seeing the world and satisfied some of the inner demons about those mysteries of existence I wasn't finding out about in the family, the schools, the news, you name it. I was just lucky enough not to get caught. Beyond the act of stealing itself, I believe there's something within all of us that tells us what to take from someone's writings, and what I learned led me to some wonderful affairs with women who "stole" my life, but then returned it to me renewed.
"”Poptop.