the absolute LAST buk book (1 Viewer)

My mistake. I based that guru comment on something I saw in a film or read, maybe something Linda Lee said, about how he was cozying up to the Buddha towards the end, or was it Meher Baba? But maybe that was just her wishful thinking, and he really wasn't into it any more than he'd ever been? The short home movie video on his last birthday or whatever it was comes to mind. I'm going off half cocked here, as usual.
 
Well, he did a lot of things to make her feel better and to ease her considerable psychic pain. So I wouldn't read too much into swallowing a few vitamins or sitting quietly in a chair for 30 minutes a day. He wanted her to feel good and be happy.
 
... I saw in a film or read, maybe something Linda Lee said, about how he was cozying up to the Buddha towards the end, or was it Meher Baba? But maybe that was just her wishful thinking, and he really wasn't into it any more than he'd ever been?

Haven't you ever agreed with your wife on something just so she would shut her yap? You've been married long enough that that something may be everything. Heh.
 
Stavrogin: Right. Haven't we all done that?

mjp: refresh my memory: why would Linda have "considerable psychic pain"? Just the wear and tear of living with him? Or was there something else causing her grief?
 
why would Linda have "considerable psychic pain"?
I don't know the cause of her pain. But it seems that, despite how she may have looked to the outside world in comparison to someone whose madness was right on the surface for all to see, like Linda King, you can say with some confidence that Bukowski was always attracted to damaged women and a steady stream of relationship drama.

I would say that you might hear more about it after a certain Widow® shuffles off this mortal coil, but I don't know. The way things go these days they'll probably nominate her for sainthood, or whatever the Buddhists have, when she dies. Since dying seems to negate everything negative that ever happened in your life."Richard Nixon? Sure, great guy! Let's put him on a postage stamp!"
 
Reagan! We all love Ronnie, right? So, you're saying, there's more to the story than the official story. Interesting.

The postage stamp idea is pretty good except it invites lewd comments about licking backsides. Or would those be self-adhesive?
 
I don't understand why people dislike Pulp so much. I've read it countless times and its one book that I will continue to enjoy every time I read it. I think most of its appeal comes from the imagination used in creating such a wonderful story, even if it is pure fiction. It represents the end of a life spent in tiny rooms and an even bigger mind. It only seems plausible. Its dream-like qualities touched on how Hank actually felt in his old age, a seasoned veteran trying to tie it all together. If it seems completely absurd, then so does life, and I think that if any of Buk's work should be adapted for the screen, it should be Pulp. It reads like a bad movie and that's what makes it amazing and I believe, completely what he was aiming at.
 
I like it. I think there's some pretty funny bits here and there in Pulp.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I get the impression that he started it, and maybe if it had been a decade earlier he wouldn't have finished it, but by the end of his life there he must have known that it would be his last long work, so he was reluctant to kill it himself.
Wasn't part of his choice simply that he had novelised every stage of his life already and that if he was going to write another novel it simply couldn't be biographical? He had to write about someone/something else and the easiest way to get out of routine is to adopt a genre.
 
It took me round about six hours to read Pulp and while reading it I kept thinking what a bunch of crap. But shortly after finishing the novel and leaving it at a bus station for someone to discover I realized how much I enjoyed all it's ridiculousness. It might have been a bit frustrating to read, being a fan of Bukowski and not expecting such an absurb plot, but it is pure Bukowski at the core. I can imagine a great cult movie being made based on this novel. We'll miss you Buk.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top