Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

I like learning about how great writers work. I also like learning about people who live on the margins. This means I would, eventually, square my eyes on Charles Bukowski.

Even so, I had expected a different DVD to arrive in the mail than the one that turned up this week. But then anything generated by Charles Bukowski is like that; it comes at you whether you expect it to or not. Bukowski: Born Into This is not a flick you watch while eating popcorn with the kiddies. Heck, I didn’t want the Beast to hear some of that language. The man was crass. He was a womanizer. He was seldom seen without a drink in his hand. He survived child abuse. He had few successful relationships. For much of his life he lived in squalor. And he wrote. And wrote. And wrote.

I couldn’t live a week like he did. Nor would I want to try. The film is well done, not brilliant, and the subject ensures it isn’t visually arresting. But Bukowski wouldn’t care — about the film’s few flaws or, for that matter, my assessment. He never cared about critics. Or publishers. Or agents. Or even the audience. He knew who he was and he took what was inside him and filled pages with truth — the sort of truth that comes from somewhere beyond the conscious mind.

I like learning about the very few who are capable of that.

This post was added on Thursday, August 07, 2008 by Tom Swift at 11:43 and is filed under Lesser Media.