Happy Birthday Charles Bukowski! …and Madonna?
by Jaden
Today, August 16th, are the celebrity birthdays of writer Charles Bukowski and singer Madonna, those dirty birds!
The first time I ever heard of Bukowski was from an actor back in 1999 while working on a movie together. From the writers I had mentioned liking, he thought Bukowski would be a good match for my tastes. I couldn’t understand the name he was saying and made him spell it for me. Without writing it down, it just wouldn’t stick; I have a better visual memory than aural. It took me a few more years before my little brain could even process that name, much less go and find his books at the book store. When I finally did buy a book, I was hooked.
The first (and my favorite) Bukowski book I read is a collection of short stories called Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983). I liked it so much that I purchased it as a gift for many of my friends. I also enjoyed Post Office (1971) and Women (1978), which were gifts given to me.
The works of Bukowski came into my life at just the right time for me to enjoy them, in my 20s, when I was living and struggling in the area where Bukowski was living and struggling, Hollywood!
Boozing, drugs, theft, and violence are frequent topics in Bukowski’s works — topics that would probably interest me less had they come into my life during my more mature and sober years.
Despite the topic matter, Bukowski has an outstanding writing ability to describe actions, feelings, happenings, and relationships. The arrangement of his words invokes a most vivid and raunchy world.
From Bukowski, I learned a lot as a writer. For one thing, sometimes saying less is more. Bukowski is very good at being short and to the point.
BUKOWSKI MOVIES
Barfly (1987) is an odd Bukowski movie that stars Mickey Rourke as Henry Chinaski (Bukowski) and Faye Dunaway as Wanda Wilcox (his lover).
Another Bukowski adaptation is Factotum (2005), which stars Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, and Marisa Tomei, also bizarre, but much more enjoyable than Barfly, this is a good representation of Bukowski’s style.
Movies I would like to see are John Dullaghan’s documentary Bukowski: Born into This (2003) and adaptation Ham on Rye that will hopefully be brought to fruition by James Franco, as is rumored.
Today, August 16, writer Charles Bukowski was born…
Born in 1920 Germany, Bukowski moved to the USA very young with his American father and German mother.
In 1944, Bukowski was found not fit for military service and did not meet the physical, mental, or moral standards.
Bukowski struggled greatly in his life and his work reflects it. Bukowski’s stories tell about the darker side of the common man and expose the seedy scenes of the American city life in the Southern California, Los Angeles region.
Aside from his vulgar writing, Bukowski is probably most known for his alcoholism, which was his way of dealing with being an outcast.
Bukowski Quote on Kitchens and Men
“Too Sensitive” from Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles Bukowski
“often, the state of the kitchen is the state of the mind, confused and unsure men, pliable men are the thinkers. their kitchens are like their minds, cluttered with garbage, dirty ware, impurity, but they are aware of their mind-state and find some humor in it. at times, with a violent burst of fire they defy the eternal deities and come up with a lot of shining that we sometimes call creation; just as at times they will get half drunk and clean up their kitchens. but soon again all falls into disorder and they are in the darkness again, in need of BABO, pills, prayer, sex, luck and salvation. the man with the ever-orderly kitchen is the freak, however. beware of him, his kitchen-state is his mind-state: all in order, settled, he has let life condition him quickly to a basened and hardened complex of defensive and soothing thought-order. if you listen to him for ten minutes you will know that anything he says in a lifetime will be essentially meaningless and always dull. he is a cement man. there are more cement men than other kinds of men. so if you are looking for a living man, first check his kitchen and save yourself time.”
Beloved and remembered today for his perfect imperfections,
outstanding writer: Charles Bukowski.
