Apparently Douglas Adams found it very difficult to write. According to the biography by Neil Gaiman it was almost painful for him, every book or manuscript a chore. I'm happy he didn't follow the advice from Bukowski to just give up!
Bukowskis poem seem to represent the romantic idea that art is divinely inspired and the artist is just a vessel. Maybe it really felt like that for Bokowski, while for others writing is just hard work.
It is funny that Adams who have such a playful style of prose found writing torture, while the much more self-important and edgy Bukowski find it easy. (Assuming the poem represent his own experience.)
Bukoski goes well with Philip K Dick. The portrait they paint of 1950s and 1960s America (even if accidentally) is truly dystopian, a world of wild-eyed amphetamine addicts and self-destructive alcoholics wrapped up in the social norms of their day. It's really some of the most depressing literature out there, and almost none of the characters in their works are even vaguely likable or admirable. It's probably 'good writing' in the sense of being an honest appraisal, but yikes, I wouldn't want to live in their worlds.
For a more mainstream yet unapologetically artistic intro to Bukowski, check out “Factotum” starring Matt Dillon. It’s not perfect and still rather polished, but the tone and darkness and context of his life and writings basically both being the dregs of humanity, well, that’s art being able to share it like he did. Definitely not my taste - give me surrealist James Tate any day…
Also, handy tip for those who want to write: get a 3x5” or smaller spiral notebook and a pen with a clip that can fit in the spiral. Put it in your pocket and take it everywhere. See something funny or unique standing in line? Scribble it down.
Eventually you’ll get better and better at picking your words on the spot, of translating from your head to the page and then to a reader. It’s harmless practice and sometimes you can surprise yourself. Writers write.
Then people accuse us of being lazy because when we’re working the hardest the most anybody sees is somebody glaring at a screen or piece of paper in a typewriter.
Woke up this morning, and it seemed to me
That every night turns out to be
A little bit more like Bukowski
And yeah, I know he's a pretty good read
But God, who'd wanna be
God, who'd wanna be such an asshole
God, who'd wanna be
God, who'd wanna be such an asshole
- Modest MouseFun fact. Did you know that his posthumous work has been seriously altered by his editior?
https://mjpbooks.com/blog/the-senseless-tragic-rape-of-charl...
from the article: In the posthumous collections, Black Sparrow publisher John Martin has made changes to the majority of Bukowski’s poems. Damaging changes that run counter to just about everything Bukowski represented. Wholesale removal of references to drinking, drugs, sex and madness. Changes that completely alter the meaning of the manuscripts. Changes that don’t even begin to make sense. It feels like nothing short of gleeful, unrepentant vandalism and destruction.
> if you have to sit for hours
> staring at your computer screen
> or hunched over your
> typewriter
> searching for words,
> don't do it.
I don't claim to BE a writer, but I think I had moments of good writing in my life, and I like writing a lot (I wrote two - largely unsuccessful, of course - novels, two technical books, and tons of other stuff), and I completely disagree with this. And for most of the rest of the poem.
honestly this is such a bad take and it really annoys me. it's okay if it doesn't come easily! some of the best works of art took ages to conceptualize and realize, and the fact bukowski thinks that's antithesis to art shows in his sloppy and unconsidered writing.
Charles Bukowski is shit. There, I wrote it.
I've read a more terse version of this:
If you want to be a writer write. If you aren't writing irrespective of any external concern, you aren't a writerThis is directly relevant to post that's on the front page right now about getting into ycombinator. You could equally change the poem to be "so you want to be a founder"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32771235
don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.I don't know about poetry, but prose? After the first draft, where there is some of this romantic instinct of writing by inspiration, the rest is hard work for months or years, more similar to finding bugs in a program than a divine muse driving you to write a masterpiece. Related in my blog: http://antirez.com/news/136
> if you have to sit there and > rewrite it again and again > don't do it.
I've heard of many writers - fiction, non-fiction, poets, all types - who do rewrite things again and again. I don't see why that wouldn't make them a writer.
If anything, it seems the desire to improve a piece is a desirable trait.
Would love to replace writer with programmer and get back to that point in my life.
Don't take advice from anyone. Including me.
This poem romanticizes work, but I believe this notion is false from this video on turning pro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lTcgSzf0AQ The poem is the first thing referenced in the video.
> if you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again, don't do it.
I /strongly/ disagree with this. If you cannot revise, and have no stomach for it, then don't do it.
First drafts are garbage; always.
I haven't read anything by Bukowski, out of fear that his outlook might be infectious.
I feel the same way about programmers.
Bukowski was an eccentric guy and often he used to contradict himself. This poem seems to encompass his life philosophy and which also happens to be written on his tombstone in just two words: "Don't try"
However, in his another poem, Roll the Dice, he presents something entirely different outlook on the subject of trying. And this is a poem I really admire.