do you like reading his shit?
Friars Club Roast of Jerry Stiller, October 1999
Following Sandra Bernhard's odd performance of Heart's song "Magic Man" for Mr. Stiller, Mr. Ross got up and said: "I wouldn't fuck Sandra Bernhard with Bea Arthur's dick."
Many critics and writers have dismissed the importance of Bukowski. Many of them said his material is lowbrow and doesn't warrant serious attention. How do you feel about his work? Is it more than just a few laughs? Is there something that Bukowski brings to the table that no other author does?
What about the Wu-Tang Clan?Eminem is great, very funny, and humor was in short supply in that tired genre when he came along (with the exception of Snoop Dog who has always played an underlying humor very, very well). But in hip hop, the only "genius" in the last 20 years is Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre. Turned the genre on its ear, and everyone else followed.
Many critics and writers have dismissed the importance of Bukowski. Many of them said his material is lowbrow and doesn't warrant serious attention. How do you feel about his work? Is it more than just a few laughs? Is there something that Bukowski brings to the table that no other author does?
I think he was an excellent entertainer, but didnt achieve the genious level. He talks about personal anecdotes, feeds a few jokes here and there, everything soaked in booze. You feel his "what the hell" attitude, like if life was just a grotesque joke, and that's why the average reader connects with him, because life really is grotesque joke.
But then you got real literary genious like Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Borges, Hemingway, and many others; Those were authentic heavy weights.
It's difficult to argue with literary criticism that is so creatively spelled....genious...genious...
when he ended up in jail over a sexual scandal, it destroyed him; so he didn't have Bukowski's genius of resilience.
There were trailblazers who were definitely not geniuses (hello Runaways, Ramones, Elvis Presley, etc.), but the geniuses did both, create great music and change the course of popular music.
You could argue that a lot of it
Mods, feel free to merge this with my previous post, but I went back and read the whole thread, and this speaks volumes.I'll take art over an IQ score any day.
Bill
So then you're agreeing with what I said, the part you quoted, where I called them trailblazers. Good. It's important to me that we are on the same page.mjp, who's trail did the ramones jump on? I always felt they did something no one else(NY Dolls, Velvet Underground, etc.) was doing at the time.There were trailblazers who were definitely not geniuses (hello Runaways, Ramones, Elvis Presley, etc.), but the geniuses did both, create great music and change the course of popular music.
I'm trying to read everything Bukowski wrote first.;)Keep reading everything I type and one day you'll be a genius.