Mané Gukasyan

Delving into the mysterious mind of Charles Bukowski

Story Identification :

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”

An American Novelist/Poet/Genius born in the 1920s

Had a hard life and much of his writing and themes reflect that

Attended Los Angeles High School but never graduated

Left to New Orleans after tiring from his Father’s Beatings

Who was Charles Bukowski?

Got Acne Vulgaris which made him feel inferior for a good while because he was occasionally picked on

His “first love” turned out to be a prostitute who took the little money he already had.

He got a temporary job as a mail carrier at the post office but was forced to quit when he got a bleeding ulcer which nearly killed him.

Bukowski began to drink at a young college age to rebel both, against his father and society who had treated him so roughly.

It was then that he began to show just how cynical he was in his novels and poems.

• Bukowski was first published by a woman named Barbara Frye, born to wealth, who took a liking to one of his poems called “Harlequinn”

• She wrote to him saying she had a congenital conformity and feared no one would marry her.

• Bukowski had never seen Frye but wrote back promising that he would and did.

• The marriage lasted for two years.

Now what is it about Bukowski’s crazy mind that fascinates me??? •His Ideas

•His Themes

•The beauty with which he interweaves the two in his work

Some Telling Quotes from his Work That Struck me...• Humanity, you never had it to begin with• There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on

what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

• It's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well.

• “That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.”

• The ladies usually go for the biggest damn fool they can find; that is why the human race stands where it does today: we have bred the clever and lasting Casanovas, all hollow inside, like the chocolate Easter bunnies we foster upon our poor children.

WORKS CITED Johnson, Adam. "Charles Bukowski, American Author ~

Timeline of Bukowski's Life." Charles Bukowski, American Author ~ Timeline of Bukowski's Life. Harper Collins Corp, 25 July 2012. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.

Montfort, Michael. "Charles Bukowski." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 1997. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

Poetry Institute, Harriet Monroe. "Charles Bukowski." : The Poetry Foundation. Media and Press, June 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

Schindler, April. "Charles Bukowski: Sifting Through the Madness." The Oswegian. Wordpress Media, 09 Feb. 2012. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.

Staff, Network. "Charles Bukowski Biography." Biographies:Charles Bukowski. A&E Networks Television, Apr.-May 2003. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.