MFA rejection letters are a point of pride. The world of the MFA is a strange one. Workshops usually exist for the sole reason of building things, not typically breaking them down. Yet MFA enjoy doing precisely that: to strip away the intimacy of language for something a lot different, something purer. Not all MFAs are this way, plenty can be supportive. However MFAs do have a strange presence within the world, existing as their own word-driven universe.
Charles Bukowski never went into an MFA. Charles Bukowski did not do much good during their life. Quite a foul creature, Charles Bukowski remains a revered figure among people who really ought to know better. The amount of defenders that exist for Charles Bukowski should make a great number of people think twice about the welcoming liberal spirit of the art world. Any world that defends and creates excuses for Charles Bukowski is one that sorely needs to be shaken up. Sure, there are always going to be gross humans in any environment but he is particularly gross and egregious.
To see his ghost is to smell the gross. Even in death Charles Bukowski can be such an evil aura. People love his work, love it so much. Worshipped and adored for reasons that escape a great deal of people, an even greater deal stop at nothing to celebrate his drivel. Cruelty came to define so much of his output, his nastiness permeating the pages on which his stuff was written. Usually he tends to be one of the first people a reader encounters when they start off their transgressive teenage years. Plenty try to find better, kinder, gentler spirits after they first encounter Charles Bukowski. A great deal of better humans wrote better work than Charles Bukowski, yet it is that persona that drives most if not all of his popularity.
By confronting his aura a person can truly excel as a fine feathered-human. Nobody wants to be the one who lets Charles Bukowski win, who lets him slowly take over their life. Destroying Charles Bukowski’s ghost is of the utmost important. Only through taking him down, removing him from a life, can a writer truly find their own voice. For no one should let another artist influence to the point that they become a carbon copy. Everyone must find their own truth and must speak to that truth.
Original Post:
http://www.beachsloth.com/the-poet-confronts-bukowskis-ghost-by-kat-giordano
Inspiration: