Saturday, August 29, 2015

BUKOWSKI ON WRITING ~






C H A R L E S    B U K O W S K I





[ Charles Bukowski to Ron Silliman March 1967 ]


       [ . . . ] I have read the critics — Winters, Eliot, Tate, so forth,

the New Criticism, The New New Criticism, the demands of Shap-

iro, the whole Kenyon crowd, the Sewanee crowd, I used half a life-

time reading the critics, and while I found the content pretensive

I found the style somehow pleasurable, and now it's nice of you

to tell me that the best of them are trying to get "human dignity,

self respect, the kind of pride you find in a wild, free stallion" back

into verse. that sounds as phoney as a horse's rubber asshole to me

but if that is your insight and/or your outlook, it's yours, and fine.

       IF ALL ELSE IS UGLY, IS DEADLY, THEN ISN'T IT OUR

DUTY TO BE BEAUTIFUL?" you scream at me in large caps. Ron-

ald, "duty" is a dirty word, and "beautiful" is a put down word. you

want to knock somebody off his dusty little legs — just demand that

he be "beautiful."




( Ecco 2015 )

16 August 1920
Happy Birthday Charles Bukowski