I am currently reading Mark Manson’s book titled The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. For the second time. The first time I read it was through an audiobook. Still, I bought a physical copy, just because.
Anyway, I came across the name of Charles Bukowski. Again. And I wondered why I keep seeing the name. It seems I am one of the few who probably do not know the man.
To be honest, when I first read his name in an article, I thought he was the character in a TV series that I watched a long time ago. It was about a nerd named Chuck who became a spy. I thought the last name was Bukowski but now I remember it to be Bartowski. Google confirmed this as well. The Bartowski part, haha…
Loser
So now that I have come across Charles Bukowski again, I intend to learn more about him. And to know the reason that makes him so searchable and quotable.
In Mark Manson’s book, he described Bukowski as a loser. To be more specific, his description was:
“Bukowski was a shameless drinker, womanizer, and all-around f*ck up. He would get drunk on stage at his poetry readings and verbally abuse his audience. He gambled a lot of his money away and had an unfortunate habit of exposing himself in public.”
Why then does his name come up in articles about writing and, of all topics, self-development? What’s with him?
Biography
Henry Charles Bukowski, Jr. was born on August 16, 1920, and died on March 9, 1994. He was born in Andernach, Germany but grew up in Los Angeles.
He had a rough childhood owing to a father who often beat him and his mother even for trivial matters. These scenarios—child brutality and parental indifference—will be portrayed in the author’s works later on.
He spent his early 20s writing short stories while doing odd jobs then traveled across the U.S. for 10 years. During that ten-year period, he completely abandoned writing in favor of a life as an alcoholic and destitute drifter.
In his mid-30s he returned to Los Angeles where he flourished as a writer. Albeit, still working in a menial job and publishing his writings underground.
In 1970, John Martin, publisher of Black Sparrow Press took a risk on Bukowski’s writings. The author and the publisher made an arrangement to publish the author’s work for a monthly allowance of US$100.
Bukowski’s writing
According to John Martin, Bukowski’s writings are not mainstream and thus his readership is not the mainstream public. This is despite the author having sold millions of books and his work translated into different languages.
However as explained by the writer himself in one of his interviews, the people who buy his books are those who are defeated, demented, and damned.
Bukowski’s writing is not for the delicate. He depicts violent images and uses graphic language both in his poems and stories.
Prolific writer
Despite Bukowski’s death in 1994 due to leukemia, fans are assured of plenty more of his writings. This is because he had a vast surplus of his writings and some of them were published posthumously.
He was known to be a prolific writer. He was consistent in his writing and he wrote in abundance.
By his own account, he usually writes 10 or 15 poems at once. He describes writing as something akin to combat with the typewriter.
In his lifetime, Bukowski created a large, completely unique, and widely admired body of work. Something that few poets today can even conceive of or surpass.
Owning your life
Alcohol was his fuel for writing. Even as a successful writer, Charles Bukowski was still a drunk. And gross. And a loser.
But he was unapologetic about it. Which may have been part of his appeal. Which probably explains the adulation of his writings.
As Mark Manson puts it: “It was his simple ability to be completely honest with himself- especially the worst parts of himself- and to share his failing without hesitation or doubt.”
Manson goes on to say that “the real story of Bukowski’s success is his comfort with himself as a failure. He didn’t give a f*ck about success.”
And to quote Bukowski himself:
“After losing a week’s pay in four hours it is very difficult to come to your room and face the typewriter and fabricate a lot of lacy bullshit.”
Accept who you are
So does this mean we should all just wallow in life as failures? No. Far from it. The lesson to be learned from Charles Bukowski’s life is to be yourself.
Accept who you are and from there improve yourself. By your own standards, not by the standards of others. There you have it- self-development.
This is why Bukowski is also often quoted in articles about improvement. Not because he was a loser but because he knew it and made something out of it.
I will end this article with one of Charles Bukowski’s poems:
Reinvent Your Life
Invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
don’t swim in the same slough.
Invent yourself and then reinvent yourself
and stay out of the clutches of mediocrity.
Invent yourself and then reinvent yourself,
change your tone and shape so often that they can never categorize you.
Reinvigorate yourself and accept what is
but only on the terms that you have invented and reinvented.
Be self-taught, and reinvent your life because you must;
it is your life and its history and the present belong only to you.
Hey, did you learn something from the life of Charles Bukowski? Kindly share them in the comments.
Outside links:
Charles Bukowski
The Transgressive Thrills of Charles Bukowski
Reinvent Your Life by Charles Bukowski
