The Parental Figures! (1 Viewer)

[Olaf]

Not that any writer's parents feature predominantly in their literary life but I am totally wondering what happened to bukowkis parents...they seem the vaguest myth of all...

They seem to have had little or no interest in his life what so ever.

Did they ever stay in touch? Did they know of his writing career, his starting success? Why nothing - was he cut off at the root of their love? Did they ever get invovled or recognise him as a Creative?

I'm curious - after he left the house they seem to disappear from his life - as though they were total strangers...vague...searched for like mice...made of smoke...:confused: :confused:

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[reasonknot]

the mom agreed with the dad
the dad always had a job or pretended to have a job
the mom reminded the son that the dad was always right
the dad took his frustrations out on the son via
lawn maintenance guidelines
and the older the kid got,the less liable the parents
were required to be.

 

[Olaf]

the mom agreed with the dad
the dad always had a job or pretended to have a job
the mom reminded the son that the dad was always right
the dad took his frustrations out on the son via
lawn maintenance guidelines
and the older the kid got,the less liable the parents
were required to be.

Sure - that is as much as Bukowski tells us - I am looking for anything more - i.e. did they know of his growing success as a writer...did he keep in touch with them in later life? They seem to disappear...or at least...his relationship with them never seemed to develop (at least in his books) after his teenager years...

Did they ever comment on him as a writer/poet? Where they ever interviewed (I am pretty confident they never where)?

 

[hank solo]

Bear in mind that his mother died in 1956 and his dad died in 1958. Upto this point, Bukowski's published material was minimal - really nothing more than his really early pre-10-years-off-drinking short stories, Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip and 20 Tanks From Kasseldown. (Would it be one of these that his dad would claim to have written?)

Okay, so maybe he didn't exactly take 10 years off as he claimed, but apart from a few poems in Matrix in 1946, 47, 48 and 51, his success at least in terms of being published didn't really get started until the later half of the 50s. His brush with death in 1955 seems to mark the change in his output and almost by sheer will and determination he began to make headwy with the small mags.

Perhaps he wouldn't write home with news of a poem appearing in a little mag.

So while its perhaps unclear how his relationship with his folks worked or didn't between his leaving home when about 24 to the time his father died, I think it is very unlikely that they had any idea of the success he was about to experience.

We get little snap shots, like the return home in Factotum that tell us that even as a grown man he still conflicted with his father. Although this seems to go against the nice family scene we see in the posed photo published in the Sounes Bio.

 

[Bukfan]

According to Miles Buk bio his mother did love him and always helped him. When he was in trouble in school she would go there to sort things out. when he moved out of his parents house to live in Ma Norman's rooming house, his mother would visit and see if he had clean clothes. She also helped him with money and work:

"When Hank ran out of money, his mother came to his aid, as usual, and through a freind of hers she got him a job working in the Southern Pacific Railroad yards..."

So it seems like Buk's description of a mother who did'nt love him is not quite true, although he may have thought so. His relationship with his father, well, that's a different matter...

 

[bongobill]

Not that any writer's parents feature predominantly in their literary life but I am totally wondering what happened to bukowkis parents...they seem the vaguest myth of all...

They seem to have had little or no interest in his life what so ever.

Did they ever stay in touch? Did they know of his writing career, his starting success? Why nothing - was he cut off at the root of their love? Did they ever get invovled or recognise him as a Creative?

I'm curious - after he left the house they seem to disappear from his life - as though they were total strangers...vague...searched for like mice...made of smoke...:confused: :confused:

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

this post coming from the same person
that made this post....

Read all of the biograpies and memiors?

JESUS..you people should be canonised...such dedication to one mans life...

I suggest you go ride a bike
climb a mountain
paint the house
or prepare some salom

don't waste your life
buring over the details
of someones else life

seems a bit ironic/contradictory
:D
lol

 

[Olaf]

It may seem contradictory but I don't think it is really.

The post regarding canonisation was specifically about reading ALL and EVERY bio on Bukowski.

The random trivia questions I asked about Bukowskis parents simply that - random little questions I think of while reading or while walking home and figure this is the best place to ask them.

:p

 

[cirerita]

Olaf,

it's ok to be contradictory. we all are.

 

[Olaf]

Of course I am contradictory.

But in the specific case bongobill highlighted I thought I would say that there wasn't really a contradiction because those two posts where dealing with two different things.

I'm not just contradictory - I'm absurd. :)

 

[SamDusky]

Olaf,

it's ok to be contradictory. we all are.

He/She who is not contradictory is either lying, insane or dead.

SD

 

[Ninjerk]

Mark Twain was contradictory in "death."

 

[SamDusky]

Other than Mark Twain.

SD

 

[ClassIntellectual]

it's ok to be contradictory. we all are.

I'm always contradictory.

 

[bongobill]

i enjoy pointing them out

;)