Sourcing a Bukowski interview quote (1 Viewer)

G

goddessmartha

Hi, guys,

This might be really irritating, but hopefully someone will recognise this...

I'm working on a thesis about constructs of masculinity in Post Office, Factotum, Women, and Ham on Rye and I'm going out of my mind trying to source a quote that I want to use. I've found it in a few places, but each of them is just quoting an original that they don't cite (grrr...). I'm thinking it's from an interview with Bukowski or maybe one of his letters, but I have no idea which one. I've read through tons of both, but I know there are thousands more than I have time to go through (my advisor has already told me we're fighting if I surpass 120 pages on this thing--I'm in the process of pricing boxing gloves...). A lot of you guys are so well-read in Buk stuff I'm hoping one of you will recognise this and be able to point me to the original source.

Adam Kirsch's "Smashed" in The New Yorker (March 14, 2005) quotes Buk as saying:

"The poisoned life had finally exploded out of me. There they were--all the withheld screams--spouting out in another form."

He's talking about his acne and I really want to use this and read the full original, but I can't find it. I traced the quote back to Howard Sounes' Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, but his source notes are completely irritating. He doesn't specifically source a lot of the quotes he uses, he just puts these notes at the end that say, "I got this info from a bunch of interviews I read" and leaves it at that.

I Googled the quote but it only spat back the two sources I already have, so I thought I'd check and see if any of you recognised it (is trolling for info on buk.net called Boogle?;)). I'd really appreciate any ideas you guys might have.

Thanks!
Martha
 
When I wrote my master's thesis a few years ago, I did use that quote (only the "withheld screams" part) but I didn't bother to track it down. I simply said: "Bukowski quoted in Sounes, p. XXX" (can't recall the page now).
 
Deciding what to include and what to exclude was pretty painful--I had initially planned to use poetry as well, but ended up having to scrap it. I don't want to do a study that breezes over a bunch of different things; I want to be able to look in detail at the works I discuss so in order to even attempt to stay anywhere near my length limits (60-120 pages), I had to be choosy.

The main reason for choosing the four I did, though, is that I'm talking about a rigid form of working-class masculinity that gets examined, parodied and deconstructed in the four works. The setting of Hollywood is too far outside of the working-class world I'm talking about. Arguably Women is, too, since the novel starts just after Chinaski quits his job at the postal service and becomes a writer full time, but I'm connecting sex and work and arguing that that novel is largely where masculinity gets deconstructed and redefined. I'm hoping it will work out...
 
cirerita said:
When I wrote my master's thesis a few years ago, I did use that quote (only the "withheld screams" part) but I didn't bother to track it down. I simply said: "Bukowski quoted in Sounes, p. XXX" (can't recall the page now).
Click to expand...

I may end up having to do that also. I'd really like to track down the original, though. What was your thesis on?
 
It was titled, "Charles Bukowski's Early Poetry: The Forging of the Ultimate Literary Loner". That should give you an idea.
 
"Charles Bukowski's Early Poetry: The Forging of the Ultimate Literary Loner"
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Sounds interesting--is it available anywhere? I've paged through most of the theses and dissertations I found on ProQuest, but I don't recall seeing that one there. I'm always interested to see what other people are doing...
 
goddessmartha said:
"The poisoned life had finally exploded out of me. There they were--all the withheld screams--spouting out in another form."
Click to expand...

It definitely sounds to me like a LATE recapitulation.
Not at all like 'Ham'. (Sure it was written, after he passed his 60s, but it's written in the style of the boy who just had those experiences. Like a 20-yo looks back on his childhood - so, I don't think this reference about his inner pain coming out through his skin would be in 'Ham'. - e.g.: I wouldn't expect a phrase like "the poisoned life" to occure in 'Ham'.)

So, I'd go with you, looking for interviews or letters or the 'Buk-Tapes'.
(Too bad, there isn't a full-text source for scholarly reasons! - a thing I have often complained about and this again is a reason to do so!)

I see your efforts to track down the Original.

But let me asure you: since you have so many different second sources - just quote like you got it AND: in the footnotes give ALL these sources.
So neither your professor nor later readers can fuck you, since you seem to have a great lot of these second-sources and name them.

Another possi (maybe the EASIEST one - but then maybe the HARDEST):
CONTACT the authors who used this quote and ask them for the source. Couldbe one recalls it. If not - at least you got their answers, which you also could add to your footnotes to 'proof' the quote.


Good Luck!

and tell us what happened!!!
 
(Too bad, there isn't a full-text source for scholarly reasons! - a thing I have often complained about and this again is a reason to do so!)
Click to expand...

Good God, wouldn't that be amazing?

I may end up having to just source it out of Sounes if I can't get further than that, but I'd really rather not, if only for the sake of the next me who goes searching and gets all mad that someone didn't cover their tracks well enough. I'm trying to be extremely careful to source absolutely everything; I think that's so important.

That said, anyone have an email address for Howard Sounes? (giggle)

Thanks for all your input,
Martha
 
Okay, so I found Sounes' site and email and figured that before I email him and look like a moron because I haven't checked things carefully enough, I re-read the notes to that chapter to make sure I hadn't missed anything. In them he writes, "Bukowski's quotes about being beaten are from the autobiographical essay he wrote for Adam magazine in 1971." I'm thinking that could possibly be it, since the "withheld screams" could be specifically from being beaten. Then I checked into that on the very handy buk.net online index and found what other sources call a short story or something called Sound and Passion. Has anyone read this? Does anyone have any idea where I can find this in full-text, short of shelling out $35 for the back issue online?

Thanks again,
Martha
 
I have xerox copies of a few Adam stories. Gimme a couple of days to look into that. However, I guess the autobiographical story Sounes mentions is probably titled "Dirty Old Man Confesses", also published in Adam.
 
roni said:
(Too bad, there isn't a full-text source for scholarly reasons! - a thing I have often complained about and this again is a reason to do so!)
Click to expand...

goddessmartha said:
Good God, wouldn't that be amazing?
Click to expand...
A full text search is certainly do-able. But you could only display an excerpt of the work in the results, and point to where it could be found (as the database here does now).

I have often toyed with the idea of a full text search of Bukowski's poems, but then I start looking at the numbers and calculating how much time it would take, and quickly forget about it.
 
cirerita said:
I have xerox copies of a few Adam stories. Gimme a couple of days to look into that. However, I guess the autobiographical story Sounes mentions is probably titled "Dirty Old Man Confesses", also published in Adam.
Click to expand...

Oh, awesome. If I could prevail upon you to mail photocopies (or scan and email, whichever's easier) of the essay in question (if you find it, that is...) that would be fantastic.

Thanks!

mjp said:
A full text search is certainly do-able... I have often toyed with the idea of a full text search of Bukowski's poems, but then I start looking at the numbers and calculating how much time it would take, and quickly forget about it.
Click to expand...

No kidding, that would take forever! Perhaps one day... but not likely, I guess.
 
found it! the complete story runs for 11 pages, so I guess these two will have to do.

adam 1.jpg adam2.jpg
 

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