Saturday, July 07, 2007

Two Quotes From Bukowski's Ham On Rye

"I walked around the library looking for books. I pulled them off the shelves one by one. But they were all tricks. They were very dull. There were pages and pages of words that didn't say anything. Of if they did say something they took too long to say it and by the time they said it you already were too tired to have it matter at all."

"His mother made him stick his nose into a book right away and she made him keep it there. She made him read all of his school books over and over, page after page. "He must pass his exams," she told me. It never occurred to her that maybe the books were wrong. Or maybe it didn't matter."

What do these quotes remind you of?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

first quote was pretty ironic.

second quote - my response is "but what if they are right".

sound like this author is a maupinesque cynic.

my advice to Bukowski if he is living. "go outside and play."

GGM

Stephen said...

As for the second quote, the correct answer is that it didn't matter. Its a stupid signaling game ... you have to pass the exams to move forward. If you think its a lousy game there is always joining a hard science or going into retailing. You have to play the game. The beautiful thing about America is you get to pick your poison

Wannabe Bastiat said...

Sam,

That is exactly what Bukowki says.

Anonymous said...

Jesus Christ in a Cadillac are you two off the goddamn mark.

The problem with your answers are that none of you get what Bukowski was saying. The first quote is nothing more than him saying - look at this garbage, people wasting lives to say absolutely nothing and having to say nothing in a million different way. You both missed it by looking for something more than what was written on the page.

As far as the second quote goes Bukowski was simply saying - there's nothing to figure out/accomplish in this life. Seeing as how the three of you spend your days sitting around being a whore in the gangbang known as academia I don't expect you to understand this. I'm hoping WB gets what Bukowski is saying (and why he writes) after he finishes "Ham on Rye."

As far as going outside and playing this is all I can say - Bukowski lived enough for ten men and that's a goddamn fact. While you guys talk about signaling during the day while beating your meat at night to Pornotube.com guys like Bukowski will be out there doing what the last hard men do in this life - living.

Some people realize it's better to live your life as a barfly than fool yourself into thinking you're doing something other than contributing to the futility that is life.

The three of you need to get laid. I've got a bottle of Maker's Mark calling my name...

Anonymous said...

My advice to jeff nutsack. "you need to go outside and play."

and if I have to listen to one more person telling what is wrong with my life and that they know what is best for me, I'm just gonna start swinging.

a little observation. "this is a blog". not a life doctrine.

GGM

Wannabe Bastiat said...

It doesn't fucking matter. It doesn't matter if you are in Blacksburg, D.C., or Bumfuck Egypt.

We are all fucked.

Anonymous said...

We always have been and we always will. At least we still have the All-Star game tomorrow.