The Internet
Q: I think the Internet is a threat to the mainstream media. The news media.
Bloggers make them look bad.
Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest.
I believe the freedom of the Internet will be curtailed. By businessmen.
It won't just be you, although you will be among the first.
And they won't
say they don't like what people on the Internet have to say. About them.
They'll say it is about cracking down on pornography aimed at children, or identity
theft. Or hate-speech.
And I wouldn't count on the Congress going to bat
for the Internet. For freedom of expression.
The Congress is in the pocket
of the businessmen. Big Business.
Because Big Business will ruin a congressman
who gets too far out of line.
A: You could be right. The news is in trouble. Look at the product.
I know literature is in trouble. In America. It's a branch of Hollywood.
Many classic American books would have trouble finding a publisher in America today.
I can always go back to pamphlets. Selling self-published pamphlets out of the back
of my car. Like Scott Nearing. Who wrote, "In the College of Hard Knocks an
expulsion is often a promotion."
Me having 20-some novels online is
an affront to the littérateurs.
You know what I say to them?
No Oprah, baby.
No SUVs, no fitness gurus, no line of branded exercise togs.
No $100 coffeetable books on black folk art.
Go for a walk after supper.
Ride your bike to the post office. Buy a pamphlet. From the author, or through the
mail.
There aren't any good jobs. People are losing their homes. An illness
will wipe you out. Fuck you if you aren't rich. Nobody told you to be poor. What
are you--a smart ass? Bush has a mandate. He intends to use it. He accumulated capital.
He intends to spend it.
The New Yorker
Q: I see where the Buk finally cracked The New Yorker.
A: Yes. They wonder why he outsells more critically respected poets.
They say he is easy to love, "for novice readers with little experience of the
genuine challenges of poetry," but hard to admire, "for more demanding
readers."
Q: Do they say why that is?
A: Yes. Knut Hamsun, and Dostoyevsky, humiliate themselves, at the same time they humiliate everyone else. They say Bukowski makes himself the hero at everybody else's expense.
Q: Gee, I don't get that out of Bukowski at all.
A: Neither do I. What is "HENRY CHINASKI, MINOR POET, FLOODS UTAH
COUNTRYSIDE TO SAVE HIS SOFT LOS ANGELES ASS."
Or, "And there I
was, 225 pounds, perpetually lost and confused, short legs, ape-like upper body,
all chest, no neck, head too large, blurred eyes, hair uncombed, 6 feet of geek,
waiting for her."
Q: The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry leaves Bukowski out.
A: I don't believe Bukowski cared what The Norton Anthology of Modern
and Contemporary Poetry or The New Yorker thought.
He made a
living writing.
His books were all in print. In translation.
Q: Your books are all out of print.
A: I have a new book coming out.
I am excited about that.
I like the book I'm writing now.
That's satisfying.