Charlie Parker cut a song called "Old
Folks" with a chorus, singing the lyrics of the song. Behind his soaring alto
saxophone.
The song is about a person called Old Folks. Everyone knows him
as Old Folks.
I call a character in OLD FOLKS AT HOME Old Folks.
If I'm writing about myself and switch to third person, and write about Old Folks,
that's me. Just as Parker, Florida, in my book isn't the real Parker, Florida, but
a fictional town of the same name in the same location as Parker, Florida. A little
to the west of the DuPont Bridge across East Bay.
* * *
Bukowski Never Did This is about the relation of fiction to nonfiction,
or memoir. In fact, it switches back and forth from Novel to Diary, in alternating
sections of the same book.
You can read the book at The Daily Bulletin.
Subtitled A Newsletter on the State of the Culture, or, How To Write World Literature
from Parker, Florida.
Not all that many people trying to write world
literature from Parker, Florida.