Vanessa Hernandez
3 November 2010
Eric Olson
Writing/Lit
“Don’t try”, this blunt statement resides on the tombstone of the deceased Charles Bukowski. It strands from the advice he often gave to not limit oneself when it comes to writing. Many writers withhold their potential by adhering themselves to certain styles (take for instance a rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter, etc.) By strictly following the rules, the writer is trying to formulate his ideas around guidelines instead of simply writing from inspiration.
Bukowski and many of the other poets try to deviate from the “words before voice” notion by ignoring constricting stylistic choices and using imagism. Imagism focuses more on the idea of having a poem evoke certain emotions instead of simply stating them. It leaves the reader with space to have their own interpretation and focuses more on the experience than the expression.
I like Bukowski’s writing a lot because he “…implicitly rejects visionary and shamanistic poetics in favor of a gritty rooming house lyricism” (56) and he writes about cats, which is always enjoyable. The poem that struck me the most was The Mockingbird. I especially liked The Mockingbird because it beautifully uses the power of imagism by telling the story of a cat that finally attacks the mocking bird who had been “mocking mocking mocking” (59).
The poem altogether is a mere two stanzas that bluntly tells the death of a mockingbird. Its publishing date is 1965 whereas Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, was published only five years earlier. Both writings deal with the happenings of fate upon the individual, except Bukowski seems to be mocking his by having the cat capture the bird to play with and eventually kill.
All together, Bukowski’s un-American dream life heavily influenced his writings because if he had never been a poor, drunk, leathery, womanizer, his work wouldn’t possess the gritty sarcasm I have enjoyed reading. I especially respect his prompt writing style and rejection to the “classical” writing because it does tend to limit people’s potential by forcing them to write for the rules and not for themselves.
Good, clear prose here, Vanessa. You say what you mean in a straight forward, unadorned style. Very nice. I think you spend a little too much time with biographical information, and your section connecting "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Bukowski's poem is a little underdeveloped. I wouldn't have made this connection (I don't know why not; it's right there in the title!), so I think you bringing it up is interesting. But I guess we're missing a discussion of the significance of Lee's title, whereas the significance of Bukowski's title is obvious. Just explain yourself a bit more.
ReplyDeleteAlso be careful with your terms. Though I really like your discussion of Imagism as you see Bukowski using it, the term Imagism isn't normally applied to him--it's usually relegated to a particular school of writing that would include William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound, who were writing twenty or so years earlier. Not that the connection isn't an interesting or useful one, but maybe focus on how Bukowski's imagistic technique is perhaps different from the Imagism school.
Other than that, you're on the right track here=8
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