What's "style"? (1 Viewer)

Not the poem, necessarily. Buk always brings up "style", and I was just wondering what's your take on what he meant. Or better, what's style to you?

My take, and a hazy one, is style's the right proportion of grace and, -- another buk "term" .. -- class.

I don't know if you were into that, but I was watching the Wrestler the other day. Rourke entire grocery scene was style.

Anyway ... I can get caught up on words, I've got healthy enough helpings of both art and (obsessive) logic. What's your interpretation on

style.
 
I suppose "class" would fit in with Buk's definition of style. It seems to me he may not have appreciated poets who weren't honest with the reader. To me, writing is honesty. And I like to think Buk would have thought that way, too. Why write something if you don't believe it? And why would a reader believe it if the writer does not?

Buk sounded like a very direct man. If you had to pussyfoot around him, he probably wouldn't want anything to do with you. So I may be wrong, but perhaps "style" in his eyes is writing that impresses him. Not just a damn copy of him or somebody else. And perhaps in that arena, "class" is the ability to be honest no matter what the world throws at you.
 
Style is everything: the honest, the dishonest, and the cruel and the compassionate aspects of a man's character that make up everything that he is and everything he ever could be.

I don't know. It's a hard question.
 
a friend of mine, Pete, died last week (not an extremely close friend, but a friend nonetheless. he was 63). we drank together quite a few times. one of those times I asked him why he always took the bus to work and didn't own a car. he said when he was around 20, he and a bunch of his buddies were out drinking and they all piled into his car to drive home. they got into a minor accident. no one was hurt, no other car was involved, but there was an accident. then and there Pete decided he would either never drink again or never drive. he never got behind the wheel of a car again.

that seemed like style to me.
 
can't say what it is but this big yellow has plenty of style.
He is a huge cat who lives in a bar in Paris. I called him to take a picture, he walked slowly towards me and when I was ready to take the shot, he turned around, and walked away.

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can't say what it is but this big yellow has plenty of style.

"..fine cats
with great style
lounge about
in the alleys of
the universe.."

- From "In Other Words" (Pleasures..)
 
Cats don't give a fuck - they got style. Dogs do give a fuck - they got style. Ask the cat why it has style and the dog does too, and conversely. The cat won't give a fuck, the dog will a give a fuck. I'm talking out of my ass - but that's my style. :o
 
i love bukowski as much as anyone here, but i have to say that i can't stand it when he starts going on about "style." it's a catch-all word that's about as useful as "groovy" or calling a person a "cat."
 
style is the audacity to live in a way that suits you and to shill and sell this lifestyle to the world while cursing it
style is a parasite in the colon of the world which causes diaherreal torrents of prose
style is the dude who wrote leaving las vegas
style is confidence in your vision, no matter how twisted
style is putting work in its proper place in your life
 
i love bukowski as much as anyone here, but i have to say that i can't stand it when he starts going on about "style." it's a catch-all word that's about as useful as "groovy" or calling a person a "cat."

Style is the freedom to live proactively.

It's the ability to synergize energies encompassing all vibrational aspects.

Style is FREEDOM - it is the American way.

You clearly have no style Jordan - you are not a groovy cat.
 

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