Did the Beat period actually contribute anything or was it typical trendshit with superficially deep values...

It's not like they did anything that hadn't already been done by the modernists.

Stoicism for substance abusing degenerates.

I meant classical Cynicism..

True but I feel like the modernists weren't as accessible as the beatniks, which I why I blame them, the beatniks. It's one thing to write something avant garde and have only some academics/critics appreciate it, but I think that beatnik culture was too wide spread and too easy to poorly imitate. Thus giving us the cringy high school level poetry in publication nowadays.

I liked "Post Office" by Charles Bukowski, perhaps not beatnik but surely beat. "Women" was terrible.

Anyone read his poetry?

Just finished On The Road and while I was expecting a mess based on the things people here have said, I have to admit it wasn't that bad. The idea of "on the road" as a state of being as opposed to an activity is probably a pretty shallow idea, but it works for the novel and if you read it as an account of the gradual degeneration of the beat movement and the pains of growing old and barreling towards death it's not too shabby.

"Like A Flower In The Rain" by Charles Bukowski

I cut the middle fingernail of the middle
finger
right hand
real short
and I began rubbing along her cunt
as she sat upright in bed
spreading lotion over her arms
face
and breasts
after bathing.
then she lit a cigarette:
"don't let this put you off,"
an smoked and continued to rub
the lotion on.
I continued to rub the cunt.
"You want an apple?" I asked.
"sure, she said, "you got one?"
but I got to her-
she began to twist
then she rolled on her side,
she was getting wet and open
like a flower in the rain.
then she rolled on her stomach
and her most beautiful ass
looked up at me
and I reached under and got the
cunt again.
she reached around and got my
cock, she rolled and twisted,
I mounted
my face falling into the mass
of red hair that overflowed
from her head
and my flattened cock entered
into the miracle.
later we joked about the lotion
and the cigarette and the apple.
then I went out and got some chicken
and shrimp and french fries and buns
and mashed potatoes and gravy and
cole slaw,and we ate.she told me
how good she felt and I told her
how good I felt and we
ate the chicken and the shrimp and the
french fries and the buns and the
mashed potatoes and the gravy and
the cole slaw too.

Thank you.

I don't like it, especially due to the subject matter, women/sex. I otherwise like parts of his style when in compatible context. Raw, blunt or whatever. A good context would be the daily life of a depressed proletarian such as in "Post Office".

What do you think?

one of the most intellectually and artistically empty "movements" of all time.

irredeemable trash.

I just posted that poem to show how awful Bukowski is. It's really horrendous. It makes me imagine him reading Ulysses and getting nothing out of it except the idea that putting sexual references in something automatically makes it artistic.

I agree, not very good at all.

What about his other works? I feel like the style pares well with portrayal of inane life.

Second option.

The most intolerable thing about Bukowski is the fucking random-ass line breaks everywhere

I'm not too familiar with Bukowski, but it's hard to take him seriously at all after reading that poem.

His poetry is indeed dreadful, his fiction is at least not quite as terrible.

In the copy of "Women" I read there was several, seemingly intended, grammatical errors. Perhaps a "fuck you" to his readers.
I hear you, if interest should strike I suggest "Post Office".

this desu
burroughs if fantastic

tiredpepe.exe

this was actually pretty funny

I esp like the focus on the food at the end

Don't let one poem throw you off a guy entirely.

Bukowski was retardedly prolific, especially with regards to poetry. When you shit out that much, inevitably some comes out crappy.

He wrote some stuff that was really good and some stuff like that that wasn't.

It's also hip to rag on him here, because he's too easy to read, too sincere for those here who have become completely dependent on irony, and a little too appreciated by mainstream audiences, especially the kind of people who post those retarded pictures with some grim but life-affirming quote and a scruffy picture next to it

The best bukowski poem was written by raymond carver. The first link I found was from tumblr, but just get over it and read the poem.

donttry.tumblr.com/post/218656126/you-dont-know-what-love-is-an-evening-with

>muh sincerity
People like you are unironically the reason DFW killed himself. How's that for sincerity?

I'm European.

This is garbage.

"They should stop reading Bukowksi and they should stop listening to people who tell them to read Bukowski." - Nick Cave about high school kids. he hit it right on the head

They're not random, it's about isolating imagery.

I like Burroughs and Kerouac although their work doesn't feel related to me.

The 'Beat generation' as a meme movement is the McDonalds take on French existentialism.

the beat period basically influenced modern identitylit and slam poetry with their transgressive garbage.

If it weren't for the Beat crap, poetry that goes something like 'UH UH UH BLOOD.COMES.OUT.MY.VAGINA!"
would not never even be considered for any award or even be published outside of mockery.

The average young poet is now a lewd mixture of Poe, beatniks, some French feminist poet that lived off of cigarette butts and semen to understand the plights of queer Muslims, their vagina ethics professor, and some sentimentalist trash like Bukowski.

VAGINA.CIGARETTE.HEROIN.DESPAIR!!!
SLUT.BODY.MEN.SOCIETY!!!
RAPE.CANCER.ADDICTION.RELEASE!!!
UH!

I hope you get my point. I feel being explicit about it, with examples and such, makes it much more clear.

THE BEATS RUINED EVERYTHING

Your examples are very clear and I know exactly what you're talking about. That demographic you describe has a huge hardon for the imagery of cigarettes, drugs, and sex in gross visceral close-up. Grey, dirt, and vulgarity for hip aesthetic pleasure.

Personally I don't get a kick out of it, but it's no concern to me if someone else does I suppose. I can still read and write what I like.

Garbage post freindo, though I have to admit "the plight of queer Muslims quip was amusing. You sound like you could be a queer Muslim yourself though.

Burroughs is GOAT

youtube.com/watch?v=q4BPacAbK4c

Kerouac speaks about Celine xD

But these people take over all formal places of education and basically mount the zeitgeist and take it their own way.

e.g., the 21st century is all about reconciling (and for burgers, over 9/11)
These types take that to pomo extremes and make it all about rewriting history as the white man and his evils against the queer and dark. It doesn't even resemble what it once was, instead of being against racism and elitism they are reinforcing both (these academictypes are big into insulting the uneducated or less-educated, ironically enough). So, what was once a spirit of reconciliation is now a perverted fascism (even though they pejoratively label Trump one,) that endorses a separateness. Somehow, they rationalize prostrating to invaders with labeling them barbarians.

I wish this post could be reduced to generalizations, but goodness have I never even seen report of somebody fitting into any of these categories that did not also fit into the others. Somebody who labels Trump an 'ignorant fascist' is bound to be the same type to prostrate to islamics, which is bound to be the same type to support abortion and free birth control, which is bound to be the same type to somehow believe a culture that has been obsessed with consent for a century somehow is a 'rape culture', and which is bound to be the same type to claim cultural relativity while also condemning the culture of those they prostrate to. Certainly any that stray from this hold a different perspective than the related one described in this post. Pope Francis for example believes in accepting refugees for empathetic reasons, not sympathetic reasons, and wholly rejects gender politics, and believes Muslims to be misguided brothers rather than barbarians that are in need of European salvation.

It's almost institutionalized at this point, too; self-reinforcing.
stfu your a queer you stupid mahometan.