Charles Bukowski

“Great art is horseshit, buy tacos.”

Poet, novelist, short story writer

Best known for poetry

‘Poet laureate of skid row’

“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5hhqvNDak8

Sentences- short, concise

Word choice- vulgar. Influenced by John Fonte.

Diction & tone- Satirical, cynical.

Characters:

Drunks, whores, petty criminals

Antiheroes

Loneliness, selfishness, poverty, apathy

No metaphors

Straightforward descriptions

“He walked inside and flipped on the light. A dozen roaches crawled away into the wallpaper and chewed and moved and chewed. There was a telephone, a pay phone. He picked it up…”

Tone: cynical, satirical, self-critical

“Some piece of wisdom would be inscribed on [his artwork] like: ‘Green heaven come home to me/ I weep grey, gray, grey, gray…’ Valoff was intelligent. He knew there were two ways to spell grey.”

“He replied, wait a minute, most writers, well, I meet them and they are complete assholes and horrible human beings. I wrote back, you’re right, I’m a complete asshole and a horrible human being. O.K., he answered…[I] am coming to check you out.”

Barfly: autobiographical screenplay written by Bukowski

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rgKAOdPx58