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"Against the ruin of the world, there is only one defense -- the creative act."
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16 comments:
I just started reading The Captain the past two days, and although I haven't finished yet I want to say something right now: this is my first time reading Bukowski, and I'm not being a brown noser when I say I love him. He says much of what I think but would never voice. One of my BIGGEST pet peeves is when people feel they have to overzealous and overcompensate to prove they're talented, or prove that they've been through more than the next person. I notice a lot of it among my friends and classmates. As Bukowski writes, "Let them get on the cross, I'll congratulate them. But pain doesn't create writing, a writer does."
Another thing that struck me was this: "About writing, I write basically the same way now as I did 50 years ago, maybe a little better but not much." I'm learning to stop being so insecure about my writing and let it be; if it sucks, it sucks, and to know that someone like Bukowski still grappled with his writing at age 50is comforting. This is getting ridiculously long and I've only just started reading, so I'll end with this: "Something is in me that I can't control." Finally someone gets how I feel about this writing shit.
FIrst off, I could NOT put this book down. The only time I did was in a bleary eyed state at 3 am only to pick it up again, still in a bleary eyed state, but at noon today.
I'm currently reading Ham on Rye by Bukowski, and before picking up the Captain is Out to Lunch, I was having a hard time relating to Bukowski. Now, all I can think about (which Tiffany has already mentioned) is how it seems Bukowski has taken the words right out of my mouth. I found myself agreeing with pretty much every point he made, realizing that he was saying everything I was feeling but couldn't put into words.
The one point that resonated the most with me, and it seems Tiffany as well, is the concept that people tend to overwrite to prove themselves. I've realized, especially recently, you'll never be as good of a writer as when you finally let yourself go and just write. You can't write for someone else, or for another purpose than for yourself.
Even for me, someone who doesn't really consider themselves a writer, I have seen my writing improve when I'm not thinking about trying to write a masterpiece. This has been a big theme in both this class and last semester's Literature of Journalism, and I think Bukowski really ties everything together. After reading The Captain, I just want to write for hours and hours on end. I don't want to be Hunter Thompson or H.L Menchkin or Charles Bukowsk, I just want to be myself in my writing, and as Bukowski expresses throughout the book, that is the only way you can be a good writer.
The other thing that really struck a chord with me was his acceptance of being out of the ordinary. That it is ok to be a loner, you don't always have to be around people. Sometimes it is better to sit and observe in a corner than it is to engage yourself in conversation. Being the terribly shy person I am, I completely agree with this. It doesn't make me or you or anyone else weird, it just makes you you.
Alright, I'll stop my rambling/epiphany with this quote, which is what kind of triggered this whole rant:
"There's nothing to stop a man from writing unless that man stops himself."
First off, I have to began by saying that I started reading this book [about a week ago] while I was sick and had waken in the early morning about 5:30. The book was so powerful to me, I didn’t stop reading it that morning till about 7:00ish, and from then on, I would set my alarm for around 5:00 in the morning, right when the sun would begin to peek from behind the sky to began this “journey” into this strangers life, or at least that’s what it felt like to me.
I’m saying this so you can see how powerful this was to me. I’ve read things very similar to this, and I have often found that when people just write down what they feel or what occurs in their lives, it can often times be very boring. Not Bukowski! The thing that I can’t grasp is it seem like he’s rambling on and on about shit in his life, meaningless shit, but yet he structures it so neatly, it makes you want to continue reading!
What has resonated with me the most about what he had to say about writers was the fact that he was able to say many things about writers! Some of the things I found especially believable and thought they pertained to me.
So I’ll just state everything that resonated with me.
“A writer owes nothing except to his writing. He owes nothing to the reader except the availability of the printed page.” This I believe is true because when we take the focus away from the writing and focus more on what will the reader think, then somehow, the work will lack. “Pain doesn’t create writing, writers do!” Personally, I know this is true because even though I tell myself, that my next piece that I will write about will come from “a happy place” they always seem to be about pain! I never understood that. “Writers are the most difficult to take, on the page or in person. And they are worse in person than on the page and that’s pretty bad.” Again, I can relate to this and my friends can even say, from my writing, I come off as a person with a heart, in person; I’m (in their words) a bitch! I don’t know why, I just am; funny, cause that’s the first time I’ve actually admitted to that. And lastly, “Writer I know is phoning people telling them that he types 5 hours a night. I imagine that we are supposed to marvel at this. Of course, do I have to tell you? What matters is what he is typing.” This is the point I believe professor Good has been trying to get across to us through our work, the past two semesters. It’s not about dressing it up with fancy words are making the work so lengthy, it’s how and what your writing that will matter in the end, and will it make an impact. Ok. That’s it, I’ll stop now cause if I don’t ill just keep writing.
The passage that resonated with me the most goes like this:
"There's nothing to stop a man from writing unless that man stops himself. If a man truly desires to write, then he will. Rejection and ridicule will only stregthen him. And the longer he is held back the stronger he will become, like a mass of rising water against a dam. There is no losing in writing; it will make your toes laugh as you sleep; it will make you stride like a tiger; it will fire the eye and put you face to face with Death. You will die a fighter, you will be honored in hell."
Not only is this paragraph beautifully written but I agree with it whole heartedly. If a person truly desires to write and writing is really what makes a person feel alive, than they're going to do it regardless of their circumstances. I do believe that writing can fulfill all of a person's basic needs, at least the psychological ones. It doesn't work the same way for everyone I suppose but it's a type of therapy and can make me feel like the most confident person in the world or when I read back what I've written it can bring the brightest smile to my face. Writing can give a person whatever they need to feel whole (or at least that's how I feel) and nobody in their right mind would give that up.
I read a majority of this book on my couch in the living room of my parent’s house. My dad asked me what I was reading and if it was any good. I told him what it was and it was very inspirational, but ended my description with, “but I don’t think you’d like it.” And I really don’t know if people who aren’t writers (unless they already know and like Bukowski) would like this book (or understand it).
The book was about his solely about his writing process, including (especially) the scenes at the racetrack. We have been taught in this class that we write what we are. Well, Bukowski lives at the track. And it is not to win money, but because, like writing, it is an addiction. He needs the track for inspiration. Pages 100-103 are some of my favorite pages in the book. In one paragraph he states:
“I can always write about the racetrack, that great empty hole of nowhere. I go there to sacrifice myself, to mutilate the hours, to murder them. The hours must be killed. While you are waiting. The perfect hours are the ones at this machie.*But you must have imperfect hours to get perfect hours.* You must kill ten hours to make two hours live. What you must be careful of is not to kill ALL te hours, ALL the years.”
He needs the track to “feed his words.”
“But right now, it’s the faces of the horseplayers, cardboard faces, horrible, evil, blank, greedy, dying faces, day after day…We are sick, the suckerfish of hope. Our poor clothing, our old cars. We move toward the mirage, our lives wasted like everybody else’s”----that’s good food.
So, the reason I am so drawn to Bukowski’s obsession with the track is because the struggle for inspiration is a reality that we all have to deal with. Bukowski himself complained about how hard it is to find great works of art anymore (in books, movies and music). Luckily for him, he found his greatest source of inspiration—one that he keeps working with day after day after day etc. To directly relate this to the writing process I’ll use (and end with) two more quotes:
“I’ve tried staying away from the track but then I get very nervous and depressed and that night there are absolutely no juices to lend the computer. I guess getting my ass out of here forces me to look at Humanity and when you look at Humanity you’ve GOT to react.”
and
“I’m always trying to fit numbers around actuality, trying to code the madness into a simple number or group of numbers. I want to understand life, happenings in life”
-is he writing about the racetrack or writing in these?
Bukowski is utterly eloquent and completely vulgar at the same time. He's a fine wine served with hot pockets and pizza rolls. His writing style is conversational, attractive, yet shocking and able to knock you on your ass. He's hypocritical, but we forgive him because after all, we're all hypocrites. He cites that pain doesn't make the writer but then says "Classical music, cigars, the computer make the writing dance, holler, laugh. The nightmare life helps too."
And especially as writers, I think we think the same hypocritical thoughts he does.
As far as words of wisdom, apart from some of the other passages mentioned, I particularly dug "For my own writing, I like to watch the boxing matches, watch how the left jab is used, the overhand right, the left hook, the uppercut, the counter punch. I like to watch them dig in, come off the canvas. There is something to be learned, something to be applied to the art of writing, the way of writing. You have just one chance and then it's gone. There are only pages left, you might as well make them smoke."
I mean, honestly, it speaks for itself.
All we have are the blank pages before us, the words we know and love and the story to share. In Bukowski's eyes, all we can do is just write that damn story, fight that fight and do it in the only ways we know how. We have any number of weapons and tactics in our arsenal just like the boxer has the uppercut and the left jab, and we should employ them all until we know that we put up the best we could, exhausted our resources and are satisfied with the effort. If we have done all of that, the reader will feel every punch or every word, as if it was landing on their jaw, or being taken from their own mind.
It is hard for me to pick where I should even start with Bukowski’s book, because there was a great deal that I enjoyed. I’ll attempt to condense it. Although, after glancing at the length of some posts, I don’t feel too bad if it isn’t overly condensed. Damn, now I am hungry and thinking about Campbell’s condensed soup.
The first lines that caught my attention where on page 8: “A writer owes nothing except to his writing. He owes nothing to the reader except the availability of the printed page.” This seems like a slightly different outlook than I have heard before by teachers and professors. It seems like you have to fine tune everything to the last dot, or insert a better transition to help to the reader, etc. In reality, though, it seems you are doing it for the writing. Not really the reader, but the actual writing. I guess it is just a different way to look at it. I think most readers feel like you owe them more. Who knows, maybe you do? In the end, it is the writing that makes you a writer, so that does seem to be all you would owe the reader.
Something I really related to was (p. 31), “Once you get a title, it locks everything in, the poems find their order.” I know he is talking about the title of a book of poetry, but I feel like this applies to the title of anything I write. Honestly, I feel lost until I grab onto a title. I need something to say exactly what it is I am doing. Sort of how when you see a rock you can sum it up by calling it a “rock.” The title binds and adheres all of my thoughts on a piece of writing together. It just simply makes it make sense to me. Sure, sometimes the title changes as I go through the writing process, but I need that initial glue to keep me adhered.
“Never push, never force the word,” wrote Bukowski (p. 48) and, shit, that was some truthfulness right there. I often find myself not able to push the words out of myself. There are things you can do to try to coerce them out, but you can’t force them. Developing a routine, yes, as Professor Good preaches, does seem to be one method of this coercion. “Even at my lowest times I can feel the words bubbling inside of me, getting ready.” This quote (p. 101) also supports my feeling that “the words” are always there. They are just preparing themselves to be consumed. Your thoughts are constantly brewing, even if you never catch them with a keystroke.
Now I am just going to type out some separate lines from page 91, because they honestly sum up my feelings. “I have no idea what causes it. It’s just there: a certain feeling for writers of the past. (…) Whoever the writers were, they were magic to me. (…) My ideas of them supported me in my nowhere land.”
Bukowski’s feelings on recognition and acceptance people have about writers are just too similar to mine. I would have to say our feelings might even be exactly the same. “And worse, some time after I’m dead, I’m going to truly be discovered. All those who were afraid of me or hated me when I was alive will suddenly embrace me. My words will be everywhere.” These three sentences, from page 107, just all too clearly some up why I started a blog called “You’re Famous When You’re Dead.” Almost all great writers don’t get any recognition till they are dead. Maybe that is why so many writers commit suicide? They might have wanted to speed up the process.
The final statement for me has to be (p. 114): “I was still writing to keep from going crazy, I was still writing, trying to explain this god-damned life to myself.” Isn’t that why we all write? Well, not the fakes, as Bukowski would say. Okay, I am going to go eat some soup now, goodnight.
To begin with, I felt this was one of the most enjoyable and fast reads I have ever read. From the moment I started reading this book I found it funny, entertaining I found it hard to put down before I finished it in its entirety. Bukowski writing style, featuring a very simple approach without the attempt to overwrite anything, allows from him as a writer to keeps the story flowing. The observation Bukowski made about writers that seemed most meaningful to me was when he said, “In writing you must slide along. The words can be crippled and choppy but if they slide along then a certain delight lights up everything…I think Sherwood Anderson was one of the best at playing with words as if they were rocks, or bits of food to be eaten. He painted his words on paper. And they were so simple that you felt rushes of light, doors opening, walls glistening…Hemingway tried to hard. You could feel the hard work. They were hard blocks stuck together.” (pg 78) This quote to me explains the approach that Bukowski clearly took when writing this book, and gave me some insight on how I should approach my writing. You need to just tell things as they are, or as you see them and not try to overwrite. For me, this has been a problem I have constantly been trying to overcome with my narrative for class. In my last two drafts I clearly have been trying to hard and overwriting, which has hindered the flow of my story and has made it hard to read. I feel this book was enlightening, and studying Bukowski’s style will help me in my own writing.
The opening scene of Bukowski's book is hysterical. Picturing him sitting in his robe with his wife and being interrupted is priceless. The way he describes the guests who want his autograph is condescending and sarcastic. He is right in the way he responds to them; how do they expect to get his autograph if they do not have a pen or paper. They are unprepared and there is no reason he should have to go out of his way to accommodate them. After all he states: "A writer owes nothing except to his writing." I like this quote. It shows that he is true to his work and to himself. He doesn't need man's approval of his personality, which is admirable because he immediately proves that he doesn't let anything stand in the way of his writing. He closes the entry by saying "The best reader and the best human is the one who rewards me with his or her absence." Such a line sums up his attitude from the very beginning of the book.
Throughout the book, Bukowski points out how people are boring. He explains how he doesn't like going out and speaking to people because they have nothing to offer him. I can relate to this on some extent because there are times I wonder how people manage to get by. He is clearly a very educated man with many moving thoughts. He is clearly a writer and fulfills the description Professor Good has described to us many times; writers are zany. If they weren't they wouldn't be writers. I find it interesting that readers are given the chance to practically be in the mind of Bukowski in this book. He himself states that he'd rather think about death than think about writers. He seems to think it is less complicated.
My favorite passage is on the top of page 39. Bukowski describes the mind of a reader as best as he can. He compares him to the avergae man by saying "he doesnt know what it is when words bite into space, flash into light." This is a feeling I can often relate to because there are many things that come into my mind that need to be jot down immediately. Normal people don't do this, yet all of my notebooks are filled of pages with fragmented sentences. Bukowski goes on to say "when the thoughts that come into the head can be followed at once by words, which encourages more thoughts and more words to follow." This is admirable and I hope to be able to attain this gift to its fullest ability one day. Getting such feelings and such thoughts down is difficult. He seems to have mastered it, but describes his process of writing and re-writing, which puts him on the same level as everyone else. Bukowski's words are encouraging and I strive write like him. His cut and dry personality shines through his writing which is very simple and sarcastic. I hope that my voice shines through my writing as his does.
I think I related to this book, or at least the author, because Bukowski's attitude towards life and writing seems very similar to my own. He seems to have a sophisticated yet pessimistic or satirical outlook on life and he lets this come out in his writing.
Like a few others have mentioned on here, one of the things that struck me most was when he suggests people try to overwrite and overcompensate for their writing, that they try to mold their writing for a certain audience instead of listening to their own voice and letting it flow. I've matured as a writer and lately I have been much more comfortable in my own style, which can be altered to fit the situation, and I know that overwriting does not equal good writing. I've learned that if you're a true writer who really cares about writing and the subjects, etc. then you shouldn't be writing for anybody but yourself. I've learned that some people will think my writing is amazing, others will think it sucks and still others won't understand it or be able to fully relate to my style and opinions. That's life, I think it's more important to have personal value for your writing and the message you're trying to get across.
Bukowski also mentions rejection and ridicule always being a part of a writer's life...this resonated pretty strongly in me, not only because Prof. Good talks about this and shares his own experiences, but because I too have encountered it and can relate. To have Bukowski reaffirm the concept that there will always be the possibility of rejection or criticism no matter how "good" or successful a writer is, makes me feel so much better.
I really enjoyed reading Bukowski's book not only because it was an easy read but because it was entertaining. I noticed he uses the technique of simple, short sentences to get his point across, which is something I need to do more often.
Anyway, moving on to the point of this post ...
What resonated with me the most is my connection between several quotes from Bukowski. It's on page 25, where he writes "As we live we all get caught and torn by various traps. Nobody escapes them ... "Writing can trap you ... There is only one final judge of writing and that is the writer. When he is swayed by critiques, the editors, the publishers, the readers, then he's finished."
These quotes relate to me because writing has become my trap. Since I was a child writing has been what I wanted to do most. When it was time to attend college I knew that I wanted to study journalism. But I have come to realize that this isn’t something I am passionate about. I thought I was but I’ve never really felt like a writer. I don’t want to remain in the journalism field after graduating, but as a broadcast journalist. When Bukowski writes that the writer is the final judge of writing, I agree and when it comes to my writing I think that because I am not that confident about it, I am easily influenced by what others have to say and quickly change my writing. And according to Bukowski that means I’m finished.
I didn’t post to be a downer just typing …now
I think that the thing Bukowski brings to the table with his writing that writer or otherwise can take away is his brutal, unabashed honesty. There were quite a few lines here that resonated with me. On page 54, Bukowski writes, "Any time you pay somebody to tell you what to do you are going to be a loser. And this includes your psychiatrist, your psychologist, your broker, your workshop teacher and your etc." Here, Bukowski is bascially saying that you need to have the drive to do what you want on your own, and paying for motivation is a poor substitute for that actual drive and determination. Later, on page 102, he says simply "But I am now into nuances and shadows...The words have gotten simpler yet warmer, darker." He then says how he's gone from "the power of youth to the power of age." This relates to what we have been trying to invoke all semester, about the role of simplicity in writing. He also talks about the transition from young writing to older writing, reminding me of that conversation we had a few weeks back about the romaticism of young artists who die young. Bukowski's writing as a man in his 70's resonate clearly and obviously have found themselves a youthful, receptive, audience. More insight that sticked with me was on page 78, in which he talks about the writing of Sherwood Anderson, and how his style was so simple, yet "were like bullets too." He again talks about the role of simplicity, and how Hemmingway "tried to hard."
- “A writer owes nothing except to his writing. He owes nothing to the reader except the availability of the printed page.”
This line was a relief to me, and I think is supposed to be. The role of a writer is not to appease the masses or the lowest common denominator. Your job is to write with honesty and clarity, insight and empathy, ruthlessness and a sabers edge. If you also had to concentrate on appeasing everyone, not only would your writing suck, but it would be to damn boring and hard to do anyhow.
My original intention was to read this book with liquors of a wide variety on my desk for consumption. You know, really throw myself into the environment of a 72 year old that has a liver that looks like one of the singing California Raisins. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I was too busy to properly secure the alcohol, so I had to read it dry.
This is my first experience with Bukowski, even though the majority of my friends have been boasting about him ever since junior year of high school (I'm a bit late to the party, it seems). I can see why a lot of my peers try to write just like him. Just like Thompson, there is an honesty in his tone and the way he writes. A big line that stood out was "Writer I know is phoning people telling them that he types 5 hours a night. I imagine that we are supposed to marvel at this. Of course, do I have to tell you? What matters is WHAT he is typing. I wonder if he counts his telephone time as part of his 5 hours of typing." (53) I, like Bukowski, highly believe in quality over quantity; sure, it's one thing to work on something for X amount of hours, but what comes out of it? That is the important part.
I'm glad I read this sober.
Well first of all, I have to disagree with a lot of people in a sense. As much as I enjoyed some of what Bukowski had to say, I really didn't like his writing style. I'm not one of those people who likes reading things that are just all over the place and basically just spit out that the world is a shitty place over and over again, which I thought got repeated so much in this book. So now that I have my short rant out of the way, I'll answer the actual question.
As crazy and random as it may sound, I really liked his description of the difference between writing on a computer and a typewriter. He said, "He's not a writer. He doesn't know what it is when words bite into space, flash into light, when the thoughts that come into the head can be followed at once by words, which encourages more thoughts and more words to follow." It just really seemed to fit my style of writing. I sit down at a computer and just go. I write until I run out of things to say, and seeing them appear in front of me so fast, allowing my thoughts to flow, is really comforting. I can write and let everything out and just go back and fix it later. I feel that Bukowski was the same way. He had the same writing style and the same mentality: get it out and fix it later. So, I think that's what really drew me to this passage, that we had the same thoughts and mentality about the writing process itself, and how the computer is really a gift from God for some writers like myself.
So there's the big question that Bukowski leaves me with. It's actually a question that the whole semester and most of the major has left me with. Is it actually possible to be a committed writer without being tortured and pained by your life? Bukowski, even though he claims he's writing more at 71 then he has during most of the years of his life, still chases down booze and gambling and escapes. He's still angry and tortured and getting the words out seems to be a labor. Is that seriously the best we can look forward to as writers? Howard Good has said over and over that writing at its best is life affirming. I agree, writing is a brilliant act of creation that touches you in ways few other things ever can. But what sort of life does that affirm? It seems like most of the writers who are at the top of their game are also suffering because of it. So are writing really the same things as Bukowski's need to hit the track? Is it just a drug habit that none of us want to kick? Maybe I've seen the wrong sampling of writers. Maybe there are those out there who have really found their lives filled with joy and wonder and not just a bittersweet success, but they don't really seem to show up very often.
Bukowski's also the first notable and established writer I've ever heard that actually speaks well of computers. Most writers you hear from want to get as far as possible from the things. Neil Gaiman has even said that he has to write in a Gazebo a half mile away from his house because he can't work unless he is that far away from one. Maybe it's the generation I grew up in but I agree with Bukowski's take on it. I can't deal with the constant rewriting and hacking and slashing that's involved with writing on paper.
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