Notes of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski

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but I’ve got an old saying (I make up old sayings as I walk around in rags) that knowledge without follow-through is worse than no knowledge at all. because if you’re guessing and it doesn’t work you can just say, shit, the gods are against me. but if you know and don’t do, you’ve got attics and dark halls in your mind to walk up and down in and wonder about.” Most of this book is lively and entertaining. There is an uncharacteristically mean story with a character named Harry Benson. But Bukowski makes up for it with an account of life with an old couple - Crotty's which is very touching. And then there is a somewhat long short story which eventually became Hollywood. Decline And Fall - https://bukowski.net/database/displayContents.php?mag=856&Title=los-angeles-weekly-news

Born from Bukowski's columns, the LA underground press of the 1960s, Bukowski defined his early alter ego, Hank Chinaski, as a self-described dirty old man who eyes his defeatist attitude about himself with his clarity to see humor and holiness in others. Addictive and instructive listening, Bukowski delivers the humanity and intelligence of all the unseen. Filled with his usual obsessions - sex, booze, gambling - Notes features Bukowski's offbeat insights into politics and literature, and his tortured, violent relationships. It's raw stuff, with little to no care put in for structural cohesion. At one point, Bukowski states that he is aware that his narration is switching between tenses, and tells the reader that, if they care, they can "shove a nipple up their scrotum." This doesn't even make anatomical sense. urn:lcp:notesofdirtyoldm00buko:lcpdf:9411d777-b2d6-4048-8e0e-36a5a9f261c9 Extramarc Columbia University Libraries Foldoutcount 0 Identifier notesofdirtyoldm00buko Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t9z05rm5f Invoice 11 Isbn 0872860744 OBIE winner Will Patton ( Remember the Titans, The Good Wife, Armageddon) recreates Bukowski in his visceral prime, along with every eye-popping character in his life, each adversary, lover, and stranger in a lost city. Not Quite Bernadette - https://bukowski.net/database/detail.php?w=5656&Title=notes-of-a-dirty-old-man

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I hadn't read any Bukowski in over a year so I thought it was about time that I carried on with my challenge which is to read everything that he's ever released.

The Death Of The Father I - https://bukowski.net/database/detail.php?w=5709&Title=notes-of-a-dirty-old-man what they won’t tell us is that our madmen, our assassins do spring from our present mode of life, our good old All-American way of living and dying. Christ, that we are all not outwardly raving, that’s the miracle!” I sit here playing writer each day and my typer faces the street. I live in a front court, and I don’t consciously work. Wait, that’s a mistake—I do consciously work—but I don’t consciously watch, but toward evening I see them coming in—walking and driving—most of them are young ladies who live alone in all these high rise apartments which surround me. Some of them are fairly attractive and most of them are well-dressed, but something has been beaten out of them. That 8-hour job of doing an obnoxious thing for their own survival and for somebody else’s profit had worked them over well. I don’t have any issue separating the man from the character... what I’m saying is only that the character of Bukowski, as written, felt just the slightest bit less honest this time around. In conclusion, this book would be exceptionally good if it didn't contain those few really disturbing stories. I know some Buk fans will disagree but hell that's how I roll. Definitely worth the price of admission though.I broke programming, (honestly it never worked too well on me), but I forgot to amend my overlooking of Bukowski. I found a copy of this book in the English language section of my local book shop so I thought I’d give it a try. Long Distance Drunk - https://bukowski.net/database/detail.php?w=5706&Title=notes-of-a-dirty-old-man There is a sequence in "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" where a painting instructor gives a young Bukowski brushes and paints (he didn't bring his own), and instructs him to paint a vase, just like his classmates. While they take hours, he is finished in five minutes. His color is sparse and basic, and the vase resembles shit more than slightly in its coloring. But his classmates are amazed and refuse to believe Bukowski has never painted before. Notes of a Dirty Old Man" was also syndicated (starting with its move to NOLA Express in, 1969) though United Press Syndicate, which meant that any underground paper that was a UPS member could print the columns. Those syndicated appearances are not listed here, as they are duplicates of the columns as they appeared in the "home" papers. Thrown into these situations, via all you know of the man prior, you cannot believe him when he tells you what he does. So either all he said before was a lie, or this is a new resignation of the spirit to drink. How terrible.

Strokes To Nowhere - https://bukowski.net/database/detail.php?w=5668&Title=notes-of-a-dirty-old-manThe inclusion of this story may sound pretentious, and that is probably because it is, but it is a good encapsulation of the Bukowski appeal. Even if it is all an act, all of the autobiographical shit, Bukowski still has the narrative perspective of a person who refused to be groomed by his parents, teachers, or lovers. An alcoholic, violent, reflective, melancholy, predatory, imaginative, brutal narrator. And "NOADOM" reads like a tour through his boundary-less mind. Bukowski published his first story when he was twenty-four and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. His first book of poetry was published in 1959; he went on to publish more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including Pulp (1994), Screams from the Balcony (1993), and The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992). This one stepped over the line a few times for me. It was very sexually aggressive and that really affected me on this read. You lose what little respect remains for the character of Bukowski and realise him finally as ineffectual and impotent in the face of the world. Obviously that has literary and educational merit... but what was gained felt a little hollow, because I didn’t believe it.