Wackyfish

I love Post Office. It's one of the best books i've ever gotten my hands on.

Was there a copy of it in the office?
I have yet to read Post office.

I can not say I would agree that Henry Bukowski is a member of the beat generation. He is much more contemporary. His real fame came just prior and after his death in the mid 90's.

Interesting that you find his comments on women rude and cranky. He adored women. He loved women. His relationship with Linda lasted for many years and was a prety damn hot one. I found his book "Women" the story of a man who enjoyed being with females, and enjoyed sex. The book was honest, the situations were incredibly candid. He had no macho attitude; the attitude he had was his alcoholism. It drove him to be what he was. Hank didn't hang around with other guys; he hung around in bars. He was a loner, an isolated man, like a true alchy must be.

I met Henry at the track once.

"Mr. Chinaski," I said to him "I have read every bit of prose I can find of yours. Its an honor to meet you."

He looked at me funny and said "Oh yeah, that's nice. How about the poetry?"

"The poetry?" I said. "Man I can't hack the poetry. But I like the prose."

"Well," said Hank. "No desks here you know, turn around and I use your back. It may not be much as I'm using your back you know. I don't usually do this on a guys back."

I turned around and he signed my race form.

"Bit messy. Sorry about that," he said.

"Its great, really great. I really appreciate it. Sorry to bother you, but I really like your stuff a lot."

"The prose, not the poetry, I write all that poetry and you don't like it. Hows that? You don't like the poetry?"

"Tried, just don't dig it. But I have all your prose."

I thanked him again, he thanked me.

"Well, the betting windows closing soon he said."

"Thanks again" I said

"No problems, my pleasure," he said as he walked away.

He and I lived in the same town for a while, we'd have coffee at the same dive. I'd say good morning, he'd nod back. I already had his autograph, no sence in bothering him more than once.

Hummm while his writing did not get any notoriety during the beat generation it is definitely “beat” in style. He was concurrent with the Beats, moved in totally different circles and got published by totally different people. To many his, works were almost more beat than beat - and just because he rejected the title didn't mean that his works weren't quintessential beat. Ferlinghetti HATED the word beat.. just despised being called one.. but he's second only to uncle Allen in his beat-ness.

As far as women go… I believe that he LOVED the female form and many other things female. And I’m sure that Linda was a very very special woman (she would have to be to put up with him for so long, that or just real dumb and that doesn’t seem like Hank’s type.) But primarily what I get out of his writing of women is “sex object”. I don’t know, maybe I am too much of a feminist to really see that as Love.

That being said… I still love the guy! He was candid and did lack macho in his writing. He had that same… “I yam what I yam” take it or leave it (and sometimes he added a little desperate “please please take it, pretty please.” See “HOT” http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poem=0&poet=6832&num=42 as an example. ) consistent through out. It is raw and brave in many ways. He may have turned me off as a feminist, but he defiantly turns me on for his raw, grimy, dirty… alchy truth.

Not sure I understand what you are getting at. Hot, is just one of those moments that happens to most guys, you get screwed at work and then you don't get screwed at home....I don't see any whimpering in it. Just frustration with the way things are going down..he wrote the poetry when he was to drunk to write the prose. It was a lark for him in my opinion.

concurrent with the beats? In what way? Age perhaps but in most other things he is far more current than they. Even his writings were generally of later decades.

He never had much time for them. Somewhere he says so in one of those funny paragraphs he could write. He follows in the genera of Henry Miller perhaps, B. Traven in some ways. Miller for his earthy writing, and Traven for his rant on the plight of the common man.

Don't confuse Charles Buckowski with Henry Chinaski. The author was a soft spoken gentle kind of fellow. (perhaps thats the pleading you occasionally percieve in the writing.) Chinaski was his alter ego. Buckowski wrote fiction, his poems were fiction....based on a lot of fact, but the work of a writer never the less.

I havn't read a lot of him in recent years. When he got hot in LA is seemed every one was a fan. They turned him into something he wasn't.

I liked the guy best when he talked about the insanity of life, and the humility it often requires to push through it. And for a long while, particularly in Samoa, I developed a very good perspective on his writings about his drinking.

Thanks for the url. I read a few more of em.

soifua

I apologize for the late response… I have been busy dying. (Places hand on forehead dramatically)

Hummm, everyone is open to interpret poetry in their own way of course. I found desperation in the following lines
“I didn't want anybody else to have her,
and if I didn't get home on time
she'd be gone, and I couldn't bear that-
I'd go mad. . .
it was foolish I know, childish,
but I was caught in it, I was caught.”

He did get screwed with his truck and then with his woman and he is also pretty desperate when it comes to her. “I’d go mad” speaks to me of desperation. He tells you that he needs to possess her. And he also tells you he knows it’s foolish (and desperate in my interpretation) but he can’t help it. I don’t agree that it was a lark. He can get pretty pathetic about women sometimes. It just adds to his charm.

By concurrent I mean that he wrote at the same time as many other beats. Bukowski was born in 1920 and started writing poetry when he was 35. Which would be about 1955. Good old Uncle Allen Ginsburg got “Howl and Other Poems” (often considered the kick off of beat poetry) published in 1956. Which be just about the same time. Hence, that is what I mean by concurrent. While Bukowski didn’t become really popular until the early 90’s he started out right along with the beats and I think it shows in the style of his poetry. He did however continue to publish longer and later into his life than most others considered “Beats”, so I can see why you would consider him more modern. Anyway I haven’t read much of his fiction (I JUST finished Factotum, it was in the office and picked it up to read while I was sick.), just his poetry and some of the postmortum stuff his ex wife published. (I am particularly fond of “The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship”).
I was not really into poetry much less beat poetry when he became popular in LA so I don’t remember any of that. But with an Alter Ego like Henry I can see why people made him in to something he wasn’t. He seemed like, part villain, part hero and part loser all in one.
I like the guy best when he talks about the reality of life. He seems to accept that he is what he is, and he faces the world with humility and without expectations. In Samoa I can appreciate this because you are only, who you are and you can only do what you can do. And no matter what ideas of grandeur you had when you got here, and how badly they have since been bashed, the sun still shines and the Villima is still cold (or warm if you prefer it that way {wink})