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"Glamorous" was maybe a poor word choice by the author/editor, but his writing certainly romanticizes his behavior just as drug abuse has been romanticized else

"Glamorous" was maybe a poor word choice by the author/editor, but his writing certainly romanticizes his behavior just as drug abuse has been romanticized elsewhere across the arts. For example, reading about a legendary musician's struggle with heroin addiction while they were writing the most profound music of their career does not evoke the same aesthetic as seeing a homeless addict shoot up on the sidewalk. One is mythology, the other reality.

enobrev 8y ago
From my own history, I know there is plenty of romance to be found within the more sordid sides of life. Not for everyone, to be sure. I've always related to Buk's writing for his ability to find beauty (and humanity) in the uglier sides of humanity. The author of this article is being incredibly unfair at the least in his attempt to moralize a poet who died of old age a quarter century ago.
- failrate 8y ago
  Bukowski's poetry is particularly sublime on the toilet.
tchaffee 8y ago
How does his writing romanticize his behavior? I've read a lot of his stuff. He's often miserable. I admire his writing style and his brutal honesty about how he perceived the world. I don't think I'm alone in saying that a hungover alcoholic picking broken glass from the night before from his feet and having to go to a doctor to finish the job is not something I'm looking to emulate.
- longerthoughts 8y ago
  It's along the same lines as the type of romanticizing you might see when certain addicts (recovering or otherwise) discuss their experiences with one another. It occasionally becomes a game of one-upmanship where each is discussing miserable experiences with a subtext of pride as if to strengthen their appearance as hardcore or interesting or who knows. The behavior is by no means limited to or universally true of addicts, but there's certainly a type and it comes through in Bukowski's writing. This flavor of romanticizing isn't necessarily intended to inspire envy, but awe.
  - tchaffee 8y ago
    That's not the kind of romanticizing the parent comment described with "reading about a legendary musician's struggle with heroin addiction while they were writing the most profound music of their career does not evoke the same aesthetic as seeing a homeless addict shoot up on the sidewalk". Bukowski is the guy who would more often write about the misery of his life as the latter. I agree your example is a lot better. One-upmanship of degeneracy was there at times no doubt and I'm sure he exaggerated some events. But I think the reason he will stand the test of time is that he had many authentic sides to show in his writing. Some of them quite vulnerable. And if memory serves me right, the theme of the dullness of life came up more than once too. If it were mostly or even too much one-upmanship, that would wear thin very quickly. There's clearly a lot more to his writing than that. Really though it comes down to how much his lifestyle appealed to me the reader. Almost not at all. I can think of other authors who have been far better at romanticizing a degenerate lifestyle and made me feel like I wanted a part of it.
- dvtrn 8y ago
  How does his writing romanticize his behavior? Cynical me says you answered your own question right here: I admire his writing style and his brutal honesty about how he perceived the world. There's something romantic and intoxicating about frank, brutal honesty w/rt the inner id, the fortitude to look deep into the heart of one's own darkness without blinking that gets frequently conflated with 'romanticizing' or 'normalizing' that darkness.
  - tchaffee 8y ago
    I don't admire his behavior though and I don't want to emulate that behavior. He makes his alcoholism and everything that goes with it less appealing to me, unlike other authors who do romanticize a sort of rock and roll lifestyle. Unless the behavior we are talking about is his writing style and his honesty and his ability to talk about some of our darker states of mind in a way that feels authentic to the reader. > There's something romantic and intoxicating about frank, brutal honesty w/rt the inner id, the fortitude to look deep into the heart of one's own darkness without blinking that gets frequently conflated with 'romanticizing' or 'normalizing' that darkness. Well yes. My point was that the parent comment got it wrong with the 'romanticizing'. Sounds like you agree.
    - dvtrn 8y ago
      Unless the behavior we are talking about is his writing style and his honesty and his ability to talk about some of our darker states of mind in a way that feels authentic to the reader. Precisely this.
coldtea 8y ago
>One is mythology, the other reality. Well, if the musician did write the "most profound music of their career" while on heroin, then that's also reality.
- longerthoughts 8y ago
  The events themselves may be reality but the subsequent written account, as with Bukowski, is a fragmented, curated snapshot with an intended purpose.

enobrev 8y ago

From my own history, I know there is plenty of romance to be found within the more sordid sides of life. Not for everyone, to be sure. I've always related to Buk's writing for his ability to find beauty (and humanity) in the uglier sides of humanity. The author of this article is being incredibly unfair at the least in his attempt to moralize a poet who died of old age a quarter century ago.

failrate 8y ago
Bukowski's poetry is particularly sublime on the toilet.

tchaffee 8y ago

How does his writing romanticize his behavior? I've read a lot of his stuff. He's often miserable. I admire his writing style and his brutal honesty about how he perceived the world. I don't think I'm alone in saying that a hungover alcoholic picking broken glass from the night before from his feet and having to go to a doctor to finish the job is not something I'm looking to emulate.

longerthoughts 8y ago
It's along the same lines as the type of romanticizing you might see when certain addicts (recovering or otherwise) discuss their experiences with one another. It occasionally becomes a game of one-upmanship where each is discussing miserable experiences with a subtext of pride as if to strengthen their appearance as hardcore or interesting or who knows. The behavior is by no means limited to or universally true of addicts, but there's certainly a type and it comes through in Bukowski's writing. This flavor of romanticizing isn't necessarily intended to inspire envy, but awe.
- tchaffee 8y ago
  That's not the kind of romanticizing the parent comment described with "reading about a legendary musician's struggle with heroin addiction while they were writing the most profound music of their career does not evoke the same aesthetic as seeing a homeless addict shoot up on the sidewalk". Bukowski is the guy who would more often write about the misery of his life as the latter. I agree your example is a lot better. One-upmanship of degeneracy was there at times no doubt and I'm sure he exaggerated some events. But I think the reason he will stand the test of time is that he had many authentic sides to show in his writing. Some of them quite vulnerable. And if memory serves me right, the theme of the dullness of life came up more than once too. If it were mostly or even too much one-upmanship, that would wear thin very quickly. There's clearly a lot more to his writing than that. Really though it comes down to how much his lifestyle appealed to me the reader. Almost not at all. I can think of other authors who have been far better at romanticizing a degenerate lifestyle and made me feel like I wanted a part of it.
dvtrn 8y ago
How does his writing romanticize his behavior? Cynical me says you answered your own question right here: I admire his writing style and his brutal honesty about how he perceived the world. There's something romantic and intoxicating about frank, brutal honesty w/rt the inner id, the fortitude to look deep into the heart of one's own darkness without blinking that gets frequently conflated with 'romanticizing' or 'normalizing' that darkness.
- tchaffee 8y ago
  I don't admire his behavior though and I don't want to emulate that behavior. He makes his alcoholism and everything that goes with it less appealing to me, unlike other authors who do romanticize a sort of rock and roll lifestyle. Unless the behavior we are talking about is his writing style and his honesty and his ability to talk about some of our darker states of mind in a way that feels authentic to the reader. > There's something romantic and intoxicating about frank, brutal honesty w/rt the inner id, the fortitude to look deep into the heart of one's own darkness without blinking that gets frequently conflated with 'romanticizing' or 'normalizing' that darkness. Well yes. My point was that the parent comment got it wrong with the 'romanticizing'. Sounds like you agree.
  - dvtrn 8y ago
    Unless the behavior we are talking about is his writing style and his honesty and his ability to talk about some of our darker states of mind in a way that feels authentic to the reader. Precisely this.

coldtea 8y ago

>One is mythology, the other reality. Well, if the musician did write the "most profound music of their career" while on heroin, then that's also reality.

longerthoughts 8y ago
The events themselves may be reality but the subsequent written account, as with Bukowski, is a fragmented, curated snapshot with an intended purpose.