Does Charles Bukowski Deserve a Bad Reputation or Does His Work Have some Redeeming Value - Research Paper Example

There might not be any other poet or that has ambiguous reputation as Charles Bukowski does. When one criticnames his creations outrageous, some others call him a genius writer, which would not surprise anyone who is acquainted with the poetry of Mr. Bukowski. His work truly has many socially unacceptable concepts such as sexism and alcoholism, and even pedophilia. However, it has many internal conflicts and emotions that were put on paper in poetic forms, and, for some readers, it has philosophical issues, as well. The real question is what qualifies as a part of the art, and what is bordering with the limits of that, which is acceptable. In my opinion, the art may be materialized in any way, unless it does not hurt other people. Charles Bukowski, being a misanthropic person (as it seems from his poetry) crosses this line with no regret. This is inappropriate for a writer, specifically when it comes to the one who writes preferably about his daily-life experiences as Bukowski does. Thus, the works written by him deserve the criticism from people, even though some of them have a few philosophical ideas. In other words, Bukowski deserves a bad reputation on him, not only for his indecent lifestyle, but also for his inappropriate delivery style, in which he does not care about the words he chooses. Bukowski’s works are worth more than they receive credit for in modern times owing to the die-hard fans of Bukowski’s works. It is irrational to give Bukowski a bad reputation based on a couple of bad written pieces of poetry and misrepresented information. His works go on and on dealing with aspects of his own life, where he puts all his cards on the table for his writers to understand. This is especially with his first four works, in which he depicts the images of his parents in a bad light, a rather brutally honest depiction of his own life (Altucher). From this image, most of his fans identify with him having gone similar experience and even being in a position to comprehend how much suffering he faced during his childhood. The main controversy is on his strong of honesty based on his experience with women and bad experiences that he faced with women. His negative depictions of women are rather rude, and show a total lack of respect with the women he had relationships with considering he talks of the people he hates. This creates a depiction of him as a sexist, who could care less about women and their status in society. It is for this reason that some of his works are dismissed because they also give detailed experiences of him and prostitutes. The prostitute parts in his works do not do any better to his image as they only aggravate it by labeling him as a womanizer. Instead of the negative light in which he is viewed, and that gives him a poor image and name, his works only show his full extent of honesty, where he can label things in the society as they are. This is instead of following conventional writing that tends to sugarcoat truths and facts by serving them as analogies or leaving readers and fans to fill in the blanks for themselves. In addition, to his honesty on sexist issues, he does appear to have boundaries to how his telling can go, as he does not always produce his works based on personal experiences. This can be seen with how he quits using his daughter in his works after she comes of age (Altucher). His works also have a redeeming value in the case of persistence, where he never quits writing stories and poems despite the challenges he faces. These include rejection by publishers, who refuse to publish his works on different grounds to an extent that he does not write for over ten years. After this, he made a comeback based on his experiences during the years he had been on hiatus, which proves a sense of persistence in is works. It is for this reason that most of his fans identify with him and his works; in the way, they bring out the victories achieved from struggles. Unlike most critics say, his works represent the struggle of a man to make it in life as a writer and against world fighting against him. Going through his poetic works and stories, they are off the normal lines of the trade, which draw concerns on the legitimacy of his works. This is concerning what qualifies to be subject matter suitable for literary expression, which lead to a bad reputation for him the scholarly world. His works are widely justified as they have redeeming value in the form of freedom, where his style and structure appears primitive, unformed, undisciplined and raw. It is because of this style that his works have popular appeal due to the identity they give to his fans. The works are widely simple and with plenty of appeal enough to gain him acceptance to The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry (Walsh 1). However, this does not happen, as they say, his works are not worth of careful study and that his works are only easy to love for novice readers. It is this reason, of appealing to novice readers that should save him from negative criticism because his works have value in introducing new readers to the literary world. It is the “soft” approach in his literary works that creates appeal in his works and creates a sense of identity. In addition, his works also have a sense of conformity especially in his book Love is a dog from hell, which forms the basis of his fans. The entire simplicity of Bukowski’s works should be enough to redeem him from the entire negative crisis that he receives and the poor image that scholars have. On the other hand, Charles Bukowski should not be exonerated from his poor image and reputation amongst scholars and the public. His works and conduct, in life, scream the opposite of a life well lived and works worthy of reading from a critical angle. He is described as a self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing, degenerate drunk, who can be seen his ways of life and works as seen in the books published after his 10 year hiatus (Green). There is no single way to prove that his works focus on his life and experiences, but the way they present issues is in the form of grand alcoholism. In his life, he would show up for events such as book readings, interviews and even in his poems and stories (Green). Bukowski is also known for his infamous ruin of literary style and language, where he adopts his own style to come up with his works. It is through this that he gains a poor reputation, especially with his lack of discipline. He fails to stick to conventional means, which some might call freedom of expression and revolution of literature, but fails to do any good to it. Instead, his works only draw those without any form of knowledge in literature and shallow minded people, who form his fan base. It is from this that he fails miserably at making a name in the world of alternative and contemporary literature as his works are only meant for novices and not beyond that. Concerning sexism and pedophilia, his works and actions do little to advance his image towards positivity, but instead beat it to a pulp. His reputation is utterly deserved as he labels women with a sheer lack of interest and in a negative light all in the name of telling his experiences to the world and his bad relationships with them. His works depict wandering from one woman to another with no sense of remorse or respect for women (Germain). This is his depiction of his struggles in an attempt to become a writer during the Second World War, which only serves to ruin his poor image further. In addition, alcoholism is depicted during his one-decade hiatus, where he seeks solace in alcohol to comfort him during his hard times (O’Neill). Critics and scholars focus on the negative influence of his works, which are not just depiction, but activities in which he engaged. His work lacks in many aspects; thus degrading him to a level of a non-writer, or a writer whose works have no value; in a scholarly sense. It is for this reason that he is denied recognition following the large-scale devaluation of literature and language by demeaning structures and discipline set to govern literary works. In addition, Charles Bukowski is deserving of his bad reputation as he uses literature as a stage to vent out his frustrations in life. This can be seen in his works where he claims and deems his father a Nazi who sadistic enough to mistreat his own son (Green). In conclusion, Bukowski is an author who deserves his bad reputation and whose works have a sense of redeeming value, which may not be immediately apparent. This is because art and literature contain content that needs a critical mind to analyze and understand, but Bukowski’s works lack on numerous levels since none of the required content can be found. Works cited Green, Timothy. The Bukowski Myth. 2009. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. < http://www.timothy-green.org/blog/2009/07/the-bukowski-myth/> Altucher, James. 6 Things I Learned from Charles Bukowski. The Altucher Confidential. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/10/6-things-i-learned-from-charles-bukowski/ Walsh, Vincent. Charles Bukowski: Outsider, Maverick and Misfit. Academia.edu. 2008. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. Germain, David. “Bukowski deserves better than ‘Factotum’. TODAY.com. 2006. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14362844/site/todayshow/ns/today-entertainment/t/bukowski-deserves-better-factotum/#.UROkO6XMCSo O’Neill, Tony. Dont blame Bukowski for bad poetry. Guardian News. 2007. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2007/sep/05/bukowski Read More