Monday, December 18, 2006

THE LATE GREAT CHARLES BUKOWSKI



The above interview is from a (supposedly) soon to be released DVD of interviews with the great "poet laureate of skid row", Charles "Hank" Bukowski. There has been a much deserved Buk revival of sorts lately, with the release of the wonderful documentary "Born Into This". Hopefully someday when the world can get beyond the "legend" of Charles Bukowski (drunk, womanizer, beast) there will finally be a true appreciation of his work as a poet & writer who tried to rip down the stuffy walls of academic formalism in the world of poetry and prose.

"As the spirit wanes, the form appears."--C. Bukowski
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was awesome. I loved it when the interviewer asks, "You lived in flophouses... what does that do to a man's soul?"

Or when Hank says, "How I suffered under those sweet litle dolls."

Makes me remember my own misspent youth. Minus the flophouses, of course.

2:02 PM
jay said...

Buk's one of my heroes. Along with Bob Dylan, Hunter Thompson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Cassavetes and Arthur Rimbaud. With a list of influences like that, it's amazing I'm not dead yet...

I just love the contrast between the smug pretty boy interviewer and Hank in the t-shirt and beer gut and hamburger face.

I'd like to say I could identify with Bukowski, but besides the heavy drinking and isolationism, I probably have more in common with the interviewer.

Of course, that's always what is so appealing about "idols" or "heroes"--they're always 1 part a mirror of yourself, and 1 part exactly what you find lacking in yourself.

3:57 PM
Tanner M. said...

well put - cool interview too.

10:05 AM

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