Charles Bukowski Battles the Soul
Reading Charles Bukowski, the German-born author and poet, can often be good for the soul – as however shitty your own life might be in that particular moment, you know his literary alter ego, Henry Chinaski, is probably having it worse. Not that you glee in the face of other people’s misery, but the dirty realism of Bukowski’s writing has a rather unique way of putting your own life into perspective – hitting all the right notes for self-reflection – just when you need it the most.
While many are quite familiar with his novels, his poems are ofte ignored. Often tender in their rawness, they are not to be missed. Though, to be fair, you could easily say that a lot of his one-liners read like poems too. Here’s a selected few:
“Some lose all mind and become soul, insane. Some lose all soul and become mind, intellectual. Some lose both and become accepted.”
“If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.”
“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”
“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”
“Life without literature, is hell.”
Words: Lene Haugerud