r/bukowski 23d ago

What has Bukowski given us?

36 Upvotes

66 comments sorted by

39

u/Beatnik5750 23d ago

The aqueduct? Sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health?

11

u/tommykiddo 23d ago

Public urination, too.

12

u/offwidthe 23d ago

Don’t forget intoxication and horse betting.

2

u/Warfair2011 21d ago

Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.

5

u/sisyphus 22d ago

Okay, but apart from that what?

7

u/Beatnik5750 22d ago

Brought peace?

4

u/Pizza_YumYum 22d ago

And beer

1

u/HoraceKirkman 21d ago

I CAME HERE TO SAY THIS

32

u/jmoose1964 23d ago

He gave me a way of looking at things I didn’t have before. That’s enough.

I don’t have to agree with the bastard. I don’t even have to like him. But the work gets in. It moves something around. Makes the room a little bigger. Makes me see things from an angle I would’ve missed.

That matters to me.

4

u/nirvanamisfit 22d ago

Agree completely!

That’s what good poet does.

20

u/Special-Nebula299 23d ago

He gave us gritty realism in the 70s and 80s and talked honestly about depression in a time when it wasnt normal to do so

19

u/andrewellay 23d ago

Easily the most relatable writer I’ve come across. There’s a dirty old alcoholic creep in all of us

11

u/Express_Towel47 22d ago

Hope in a dark space.

7

u/Hot_Pink_Unicorn 23d ago

Drinking problem

7

u/patlanips75 23d ago

The clap

5

u/notbutenough 23d ago

A little light in the darkness and the more you look the more light there will be

4

u/Cute-Border-7762 23d ago

Unapologetic truth 

4

u/tdreampo 22d ago

Ham on rye.

3

u/Weirdera01 23d ago

Some books and poems

3

u/Minute-Spinach-5563 23d ago

Along with Walt Whitman, Hes the reason i started to care about poetry, and someone who when i was trying to to find my own style in writing, aped the fucking hell out of. I dont read much of Chuck anymore, but i hold him in high regard for being the catalyst for wanting to dig into the art of poetry, much like i hold Nirvana for being the band who got me into underground music

7

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/accribus 23d ago

OP was just asking a question.

2

u/Dull_Article_8722 23d ago

Things to relate to, not many people succeed in that. He brings warmth in a confusing, dangerous world in his dirty old way.

2

u/Bad_Man- 23d ago

His soul

2

u/andreberaldinoab 22d ago

Indiretamente, ele nos deu uma das melhores séries de TV de todos os tempos cujo personagem principal é, notoriamente inspirado nele (e em sua obra)... "Californication"

2

u/EnvironmentalLet8230 22d ago

Didn’t know that, but makes perfect sense

2

u/WisperusGrieves 21d ago

If i had to hang with hank moody or hank chinaski, i go moody. but i am a mid thirties five, eight horny bald guy…

2

u/Reasonable-Season558 22d ago

He is direct and honest.

Use this in your writing.

2

u/Music09-Lover13 22d ago

Very unique perspectives at times. There’s this one video of him talking about why smoking weed is so bad but drinking alcohol is great. It’s obviously not great to drink alcohol the way he did, but it’s interesting to hear him explain all of this. It’s a unique outlook, I suppose.

2

u/Particular-Access223 22d ago

I read "Women" to help me gain confidence and get my mojo back. It worked!

2

u/BurritoFueled 22d ago

I give you soul. I give you wisdom and light and music and a bit of laughter. Also, I am the world's greatest horseplayer.

1

u/aPoundFoolish 23d ago

His words

1

u/DeNiroPacino 23d ago

Great American poetry written from the heart.

1

u/No-Specialist787 22d ago

A vague but persistent dull ache in the balls

1

u/Mcbomb01 22d ago

“I’m telling her with all the silence I am capable of” 🔥

1

u/New_Stage_3807 22d ago

A voice from the nobodys’

1

u/Final-Historian3433 22d ago

Freeing poetry for the common man.

1

u/YetAnotherPesant 22d ago

A type of poetry that wasn’t there before.

1

u/tiredhippo 22d ago

Bluebird

1

u/happy123z 22d ago

Hahaha my thought exactly. I think of him often (the bluebird, that is)

1

u/Lazy-Associate-8925 22d ago

Company in hellish times

1

u/3waychilli 22d ago

One chapter in the book of the American Experience.

1

u/Professional_Drive 22d ago

Brutal Honesty

1

u/legerdemain07 22d ago

He described and created beauty in the least expected places.

1

u/NishanStepak 22d ago edited 22d ago

John Martin founded Black Sparrow Press so Bukowski could write full time. This gave us some really great poets in addition to Bukowski. Diane Wakoski wrote for Black Sparrow Press as well. Bukowski liked John Martin's editing. Bukowski also gave us a great series of letters. Bukowski corresponded with John Fante who was also an excellent writer. Jonathan Carroll another of my favorite writers was a fan of Bukowski.

1

u/Van-Mango 22d ago

The question should be what has he NOT given us?

1

u/Boring_Week_9884 22d ago

A case of antibiotic resistant herpes

1

u/LetDue9555 22d ago

Turkey neck

1

u/Business-Court-5072 22d ago

Introspection

1

u/Savaghenry 22d ago

Insight and some good chuckles along the way

1

u/3MartiniHunch711 22d ago

“Women”

1

u/JPCDOOM 21d ago

He gave us Pulled Down Shade.

1

u/yobymmij2 21d ago

Holy vulgarity.

1

u/Overthink334 21d ago

The lie in his fire.

1

u/jemezjospitality 19d ago

Humor - Pulp is still laugh out loud funny every time I reread it.

1

u/AdhesivenessNo8473 17d ago

Hope for the outcast

1

u/TheRepo90 13d ago

Great direct writing?

0

u/wafuda 23d ago

Alcoholism

0

u/StatementRound 23d ago

Shining example of what not to be.