Do you think Ch. Bukowski was a great writer or just a drunkard?

Question

I can't decide. He was never a very wise man. And his novels are quite odd. For example, "Pulp" seemed for me just a pulp, not the parody of pulp...

Answer 1

You need to read the poetry. And you need to read Women and the Post Office. It would also be good to watch the documentary about his life. Of course art is personal and if you don't like it you are more than entitled but regardless, he is a poetic genius and was a severe alcoholic too, not just one or the other. He was beaten by his father and had a terrible childhood, his life story is revealing. He was a drinker who wrote about waht was going on in his life and often this was about drinking and women. Some people hate his work because it is offensive but he also wrote beautiful simple things like this:



Bluebird by Charles Bukowski:

there's a bluebird in my heart that

wants to get out

but i'm too tough for him,

i say, stay in there, i'm not going

to let anybody see

you.



there's a bluebird in my heart that

wants to get out

but i pour whiskey on him and inhale

cigarette smoke

and the whores and the bartenders

and the grocery clerks

never know that

he's

in there.



there's a bluebird in my heart that

wants to get out

but i'm too tough for him,

i say,

stay down, do you want to mess

me up?

you want to screw up the

works?

you want to blow my book sales in

europe?



there's a bluebird in my heart that

wants to get out

but i'm too clever, i only let him out

at night sometimes

when everybody's asleep.

i say, i know that you're there,

so don't be

sad.



then i put him back,

but he's singing a little

in there, i haven't quite let him

die

and we sleep together like

that

with our

secret pact

and it's nice enough to

make a man

weep, but i don't

weep, do

you?

Answer 2

C. Bukowski was obviously a genius as a writer and a drunkard as a person but his ability to write a story about dropping his last dollar into his poop, taking it out of the toilet and then using it to bet on a horse race illustrates his genius when you realize that so many different people can relate to a seemingly absurd story. His ability to make literature out of the everydayness of his life is beautiful.

Answer 3

He's both a drunkard AND a great author. The man knows (how to write about) alcohol, horse races, women, and dead end jobs like no other.

Answer 4

You could ask the same question about Hemingway. Or Fitzgerald. Or Faulkner.

A better question might be, "Despite his personal demons, does Bukowski's work matter?"

The answer would appear to be... Yes.

Answer 5

Both. His interesting if odd angle on topics like the above mentioned gives us a whole different view of the world..but he's really strange..stranger that me! XD

Answer 6

Great writer. lifedance:
the area dividing the brain and the soul
is affected in many ways by
experience --
some lose all mind and become soul:
insane.
some lose all soul and become mind:
intellectual.
some lose both and become:
accepted.

Answer 7

That´s a tough one, I just find him so harsh. I am leaning to drunkard though.