h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice to see this in the guide, but it's way too brief. You need to explain why Bukowski is important. He's the great poet of the American working class, writing about living in shitty rooming houses and working 12 hour shifts because you can't get anything else. He was also extremely funny- "Post Office" was every soul destroying job I've ever done, but I laughed like a drain all the way through. as for poetry, check out "Burning in water Drowning in flame" and "The Days Run Away like Wild Horses Over the Hills."

Your comments are most edifying - and I wish I'd had them when I was subbing the entry! - but sadly the article cannot be easily altered: it's was accepted by Peer Review and is now in the Edited Guide. Also your comment 'it's way too brief' - this was *intended*, it seems, as a brief article about Bukowski - greater depth and analysis of his intentions would cerainly be valuable and interesting, but perhaps belongs to another article about the specifics of his themes. The article was picked by the Scouts in Peer Review, however - if it was deemed insufficiently complete it would not have been chosen.

If you feel very strongly that the article is 'way too brief', it is possible for further articles or information on a particular topic to be integrated into the original edited article. If you like, you could write some material on these points and post them for addition!

Dunno if this cheers you up - but your article has whetted my appetite. Post Office is on its way from Amazon

DG

Was that intended for me?! Thanks if it was, but it isn't mine - sadly the real author, Portable Chaos, doesn't seem to be on h2g2 at the moment.

One of my main intentions for this article was to make people curious about Bukowski and hopefully inspire people to read his work, which I feel is the only true way to learn about the aurthor because most of his work is self biographical. It would have required an almost super human effort to cover all of his work in any great detail, so I settled for just arousing people curiosity.

Well, it worked. At least once

DG

I thought your article was ok. I'm a big Bukowski fan. I have been writing myself for some years now but after reading his work I thought- 'God...I'm rubbish!! How can I write like him?' The usual mere-mortal-gimp stuff that pops into one's head when coming across a guy like Bukowski.
Not sure I would like to get as drunk as he did though, or live his lifestyle.
Nice one...

One of Dr Johnson's more memorable quotations is

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man "

I think this nicely covers Bukowki's approach to life, and may provide a reason why he drank so much.....and so often.

PC

Hi Portabel Chaos,

I liked your article, and agree it works well as an introduction. Do you plan to follow it up? The article, though well -written, presents Bukowski one dimensionally, barely skimming the surface of the underlying forces that drove and inspired his work, and which omits to mention his importance as one of American's leading 20th century writers. Bukowski's work was driven by the angst that resulted from his struggles to live and the banality of his blue-collar jobs, and his struggles to form lasting relationships, for the greatest was that with the bottle. He was the ultimate self-confessed 'Dirty Old Man' and 'Barfly', and his life is reflected in all his writings. It would also be interesting to note that he makes a token appearance as a 'barfly' in the movie of his book, sitting quietly, drinking in the backround amidst the main action.

Incidentally, I think that Mickey Rourke played him to perfection in that movie. What did you think?

GGG

Mickey Rourke played him remarkably well, particulary considering he doesn't drink!
St Emily- I'll take your point on board. I've been meaning to write something on Bukowski for a long time, I'll see if i can get something together. For those of you who want the full 300 page story, check out "Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life" by Howard Sounes- the definitive Bukowski biography.

I indeed plan to follow it up, i thought by doing this brief introduction i could see how much interest there was about bukowski first. I had been my intention to write about each of his novels, and also about the relationships he had with women throughout his life. [ incindently although it has always been thought that his father was one of the main hate fiqures in his lfe, Bukowski also had little time for his mother who did little to stop the beatings that he so freqently recievied from this father]

Another point of interest Sean Penn was orginally approached Bukowski to take the starring role in the film Barfly he was so impressed with the screenplay he offered to do the film for a nominal fee of one dollar, Dennnis Hopper was also to direct the film. Bukowski did not get on with Hopper but became firm friends with Penn.

As was my first attempt at writing ANYTHING for public consumption I was a little unsure about how much detail to go into. Because Bukowski is such a cult fiqure it is understandable that people who know of him will know more about him that the facts i have so thinly furnised in this article, but for those who already know abut him this article was not intented. It was for those who knew little if nothing about him.

I feel he is an important writer and as many people as possible should read his work.

P.C.

Well then, you've accomplished what you set out to do!

Why, you've even whetted my appetite to re-read his books again...I hadn't thought about Bukowski for several years.

What happened with Sean Penn? You say they became firm friends, yet he did not appear in the film after all. Was it because of Hopper?

Not that it was a shame, as I did think it was the best bit of acting by Rourke ever.

GGG

The main reason Penn did not star was Hopper stipulated that he directed the film, something Bukowski was dead against. As he had promised a freind that he would direct it, so both Penn and Hopper
left.
But Penn got on so well with Bukowski that he even took is newly
married wife Maddona to meet him. This did a lot to alter his reputation as the local drunk in this eyes of the local children.