Bukowski

[rowens]

Bukowski is the Chaser, that was one of the chapters in one of my unfinished books. All of high art is in his writings, though he's not trying to emulate them. No need for Negative Capability or traditional skill. One of the Bumblers. Someone who read the classics inside and out, ignored his contemporaries with appropriate contempt, didn't bother if he understood the classics, took from them all he needed to write about himself. Had what you need for the philosophical type: Themes and Concepts; the poetic types: thoughts, feelings and line breaks; the fiction type: stories. Joe [sic] Fante, Knut Hamsun, Ernest Hemingway, Dostoevsky, Celine, Lawrence, Artaud and Kafka. Those were always there to inspire and come back to. Everyone else was target practice. Poems about the romantic suffering artist, really suffer, make yourself suffer and others, learn how to turn a phrase. Tell the truth, make it more interesting if need be, be able to turn a phrase that sticks though nothing else does. Never compromise. Compromise means death.
  The thing that makes Charles Bukowski stories lasting is that they are fun while reading and forgettable, so the next time you read them, it's as though for the first time. All books and movies that aestheticize places and scenes are worthwhile. You can imagine yourself in a Bukowski dreamworld while stranded at a strip mall across from an abandoned Kmart and use your last few dollars to get a beer at the rundown Ruby Tuesday where all the waitresses are over 30 and enjoy yourself and your aches and regrets.