Can somebody explain to me why Bukowski is so praised? Is it just because he is cool and edgy?

>Dating a lame-o
You are shit

youtube.com/watch?v=v4t53F3CqXc
This episode. I don't know what poem he meant.

What?

his books aren't great, but his poetry is very good imo.

he's relatable. that's why people like him. it's art, but art for misfits and people who realize that life isn't perfect. people with anxiety, who are ugly, who don't fit in, etc. Sometimes high art can seem a disservice to reality because of that.

I enjoy him because I relate to him so much before he was successful(drunk loser writer in Factotum) and enjoy his humor.

i like bukowski. he's solid working class writer, entertaining to read and sometimes funny. his poetry is good too. my roomate in college always used to keep his poetry books in the bathroom so you could read them while taking a shit (seemed appropriate).

>Honestly I bet that most of people who enjoy putting his retarded quotes on fb and Twitter actually never read anything of him.
This is probably true.

Are you saying this is all his work amounts to or are you simply characterizing his typical fan?

this desu.

He embodies only in his work the spirit of perseverance which people can relate too - especially the working class.

i'm not a tremendous fan of his work, but the man just seems to live and breath writing so much that i can't help but respect it.

I agree with what sammy hyde had to say about him. He's the quintessential dumb wisdom author, and his type of attitude inspires some of the worst behavior in members of the current generation. As a person he was a total shit. At least this is my impression from some interviews and a documentary film.

I love Bukowski because he's a sad broken drunk cunt like me.

Really relatable lad desu.

I don't mind people who don't like Bukowski because I can see why he would rub someone the wrong way, but the cunts that flat out dismiss him have never lived a hard day in their lives. He may not be a good writer but he's the real deal when it comes to drunken despair.

Sam admitted in that video that he had never read any Bukowski nor any of the other authors he was criticizing. I understand that people are frustrated by pseuds on social media appropriating quotes from authors out of context to promote some sort of "live laugh love" half-assed outlook on life, but that really shouldn't influence your opinion of the writer. Bukowski had brutal upbringing and he was at least in part a product of that. Him being a shitty person has no bearing on whether or not his literature/poetry is worth reading. You can quote pretty much anyone to make them seem like a "dumb wisdom" author, as you put it. I frequently see quotes from 'Socrates' (really the character Socrates in Plato's dialogues) presenting him this way, but of course you never see any Plato quotes about banning music and poetry (lol). It just seems like your impression is based on many things other than what he actually wrote.

I worked in manual labor for 7 year, have been to rehab 3 times and spent a few weeks homeless and I think Bukowski is pure shit.

There are plenty of artists who've been through hell and back and still managed to put out masterpieces. I like Bukowski for what he is but let's not go making excuses for the areas that his writing lacks in.

Good post

Stop saying cooze, first of all

Sam Hyde is a turd

they'll grow out of it...it happens to the best of us
women can think that too, plus there's some added appeal to liking something that's "for the boys"
Bukowski also makes a cult around himself, half his poems are about how everyone says he's no good but you the reader know he is, ;) ;) ;) Buks and yours little secret against all the snobs elites and squares...something like that.

He pretty much answered your question himself in one of his books, I believe it was Women. In that book he was with a girl who told him it was a relief meeting a man who had a dirty toilet. Women liked Bukowski because he was a man, unapologetically. That's a foreign concept to many modern males.

I'm not going to try to explain why or my thoughts on what "being a man" means in this post, but that's a common theme you'll see in Bukowski's books.

Elaborate?

the fact that even his "poetry" are given more shelf space than living poets is sad

Will offer an insight as someone who is not american.

Picked up Bukowski from a foreign language bookstore randomly because I had heard the name somewhere. Book was factotum. Read it sporadically within a period of a few days.

It is certainly interesting that the book seemed to have no higher purpose at all. Just sex&drinking exploits of the author or author figure. I kind of enjoyed it as a view to the U.S. of the times but I found the whole thing quite forgettable.

Now, I could imagine myself reading more Bukowski since it was easy reading, but do not feel particularly compelled to go out of my way to buy more books. Perhaps from a second-hand store someday.

Am I missing something?

Dostoevsky spent 9 years in the frozen asshole of Siberia and could shit a better piece of writing than Bukowski could ever achieve in his entire lifetime. What could the pathetic, milquetoast bourgeois problems of the latter ever compare?

He hits women. He can rot in hell.

Nice bait faggot
Made me reply :^)

See, this is how I know you're full of shit, you're calling Bukowsk -- a man who spent his entire life before his success as a drunken proble -- bourgeoise. Then you think fucking Dosto isn't Bourgioesie in comparison?

I always had the impression that Bukowski was generally not accepted here on Veeky Forums but I stand corrected. It appears he is not only acceptable, but loved by many. Fuck me.

I don't care about pseuds quoting him, Bukowskis upbringing, or the authenticity of his struggle, and my opinion is entirely formed from on things other than his writings because I am yet to read a word he wrote. I was just commenting on his public persona, the image he cultivated and portrayed to his readers and to the world. His whole ''hey man, you can only write if you're loaded down to the last drop and in pain. fuck man, life is hard and unforgiving, I wanna put a bullet in the head of mr and mrs jones for being suck little consumer faggots. You gotta stare hard and long and push it to the edge gripping your steering wheel till it crumbles kiddo kid kid kiddo thats entertainment" that gets me. Like his whole self destructive personality his just a turn off to me because it was what i thought was cool when I was a young impressionable youth. His poetry could have literary merit, but I wouldnt know. Its just this kinda thing that brings me under the impression that he was a drunk loser whose thoughts werent all that original or thoughtful. Ill give him a shot one day though.

I got crucified and persecuted by the Jews and I objectively disapprove of Bukowski's works.

This is probably true. However, I'd argue that writing like Buk is difficult for anyone off the street with a pen and paper. I've seen people try to imitate him. There's a certain dimension Buk endows to his work through his own idiosyncratic ways of emoting and expressing himself. And THAT'S the key thing here. Yes, it's an easy read, but it's not an easy write if you aren't Charles Bukowski. That's really what we need to remember when we all think he doesn't have talent. He made it look easy. His soul is in those pages. One none of us share.

>the coolest thing in life is to be drunk and have sex
literally all humans have thought this

it's our thing

Can Bukkake fangirls just leave already?

I T S T H I S T H R E A D A G A I N

He is the ICP of literature

I don't know. There are moments you feel that there's something greater pushing through the filth, something more than what he's letting on, and then sometimes you are like, nawww...

youtube.com/watch?v=3ilmOZvpOa8

he's enjoyable because of his sense of humor and then he can bring the feels pretty damn heavy

If you'd actually read him, you'd know that he genuinely doesn't think very highly of himself or his work.

I've read at least a dozen...lots of people with low self esteem/who hate themselves also think they're better than lots of people

Whether you spergs dislike his content and form, he still manages to be emotionally resonant. I like him.

he was a sad and confused guy with a shitty life he made for himself. i like to read about that. simple as that. im not trying to get inspired. hell, i finished the stranger but we all know camus is a hack, and i can appreciate the structure and ideas in catcher in the rye, but i dont live by it.