{"id":451,"date":"2010-02-21T09:14:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T09:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/?p=451"},"modified":"2020-12-11T01:03:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T08:03:09","slug":"is-charles-bukowski-a-great-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/2010\/02\/is-charles-bukowski-a-great-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Charles Bukowski A Great Artist?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Charles Bukowski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A reader writes:<\/i><\/p>\n

Dear Ray Harvey:<\/b> Is Charles Bukowski a great artist?<\/p>\n

— Billy Badass<\/p>\n

Dear Billy Badass:<\/b> No, he\u2019s not. Bukowski is too sloppy to be a great artist. He lacks vision. He lacks depth and he lacks focus. Reading him, one is reminded of Truman Capote\u2019s criticism of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road<\/i>: \u201cThat\u2019s not writing; it\u2019s typing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here’s what I regard as a quintessential Bukowski poem:<\/p>\n

A RADIO WITH GUTS<\/b><\/p>\n

it was on the 2nd floor on Coronado Street
\nI used to get drunk
\nand throw the radio through the window
\nwhile it was playing, and, of course,
\nit would break the glass in the window
\nand the radio would sit there on the roof
\nstill playing
\nand I’d tell my woman,
\n“Ah, what a marvelous radio!”
\nthe next morning I’d take the window
\noff the hinges
\nand carry it down the street
\nto the glass man
\nwho would put in another pane.
\nI kept throwing that radio through the window
\neach time I got drunk
\nand it would sit there on the roof
\nstill playing-
\na magic radio
\na radio with guts,
\nand each morning I’d take the window
\nback to the glass man.
\nI don’t remember how it ended exactly
\nthough I do remember
\nwe finally moved out.
\nthere was a woman downstairs who worked in
\nthe garden in her bathing suit,
\nshe really dug with that trowel
\nand she put her behind up in the air
\nand I used to sit in the window
\nand watch the sun shine all over that thing
\nwhile the music played.<\/i><\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n

I think Bukowski does<\/em> possess something \u2014 which is to say, he\u2019s not devoid of skill or talent, and I admire his devotion to the sacred art of literature. For one, as you can glimpse above, he does<\/em> possess a genuine sense for beauty<\/a>, though it doesn’t consistently come through. And I think he\u2019s genuinely intelligent. His all-time favorite movie was Eraserhead by David Lynch,<\/a> which I think is interesting. But in the end, Bukowski\u2019s talent remains largely fallow. I like drunken tortured writers as much as anyone, and I am as susceptible as anyone to the romantic quality we see and sense in that sort of writer. Still, I regard Bukowski as over-focused on alcohol and therefore limited.<\/p>\n

In short: If you\u2019ve read a few Bukowski poems or stories, you\u2019ve pretty much read them all, and a little Bukowski goes a very long way.<\/p>\n

Here’s Bukowski at his best (and I do love this movie which he wrote):<\/p>\n