Notes of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski

Product Information

Find sources: "Notes of a Dirty Old Man"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( July 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Regrettably this piece of apeshit does not add much to the value. History is filled with tales of men falling apart, finding only short-lasting pleasures in sex and drugs, and describing it in detail, as if anyone cared about yet another low-life writer. I broke programming, (honestly it never worked too well on me), but I forgot to amend my overlooking of Bukowski. I found a copy of this book in the English language section of my local book shop so I thought I’d give it a try.

These disjointed stories gives us a glimpse into the brilliant and highly disturbed mind of a man who will drink anything, hump anything and say anything without the slightest tinge of embarassment, shame or remorse. It's actually pretty hard not to like the guy after reading a few of these semi-ranting short stories." ―Greg Davidson, curiculummag.com Of the many columns and blurbs here, there is one about a party and the time Bukowski met Neal Cassady. He took a crazy car ride with Neal driving and John Bryan (who published Cassady’s letter to Kerouac in City Lights (and gave Bukowski the platform in his Open City paper to write the segments contained in Notes of a Dirty Old Man). This book has reconfirmed for me the fact that Bukowski is best at this form of writing - short stories. His poetry can be very hit and miss at times but his short story prose is more often good than bad and sometimes exceptionally fascinating and quirky.I’ve seen too many intellectuals lately, I get very tired of the precious intellects who must speak diamonds every time they open their mouths. I get tired of battling for each space of air for the mind. That’s why I stayed away from people for so long and now that I am meeting people I find that I must return to my cave. There are other things beside the mind. There are insects and palm trees and pepper shakers and I’ll have a pepper shaker in my cave. So laugh.” Not Quite Bernadette - https://bukowski.net/database/detail.php?w=5656&Title=notes-of-a-dirty-old-man This one has a higher rating than Notes... and I have to say that I find that rather alarming too, because it means that people read the last one and then this more extreme one and found this the more rewarding. Thrown into these situations, via all you know of the man prior, you cannot believe him when he tells you what he does. So either all he said before was a lie, or this is a new resignation of the spirit to drink. How terrible. Bukowski writes like a latter-day Celine, a wise fool talking straight from the gut about the futility and beauty of life . . ." ― Publishers Weekly

Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969) is a collection of underground newspaper columns written by Charles Bukowski for the Open City newspaper that were collated and published by Essex House in 1969. His short articles were marked by his trademark crude humor, as well as his attempts to present a "truthful" or objective viewpoint of various events in his life and his own subjective responses to those events." Source: Wikipedia Born from Bukowski's columns, the LA underground press of the 1960s, Bukowski defined his early alter ego, Hank Chinaski, as a self-described dirty old man who eyes his defeatist attitude about himself with his clarity to see humor and holiness in others. Addictive and instructive listening, Bukowski delivers the humanity and intelligence of all the unseen. Filled with his usual obsessions - sex, booze, gambling - Notes features Bukowski's offbeat insights into politics and literature, and his tortured, violent relationships. an intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple wayThe author Bukowski used to write the column "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" for the newspaper Open City (which I never heard of obviously)... One day, someone decided to tell him "hey why not compile them and publish them as a book"... I wish I can find that person so that I can ask him/her "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!”.