A great lyricist might remind you of your favorite literary icon, and some songwriters might take that connection as a great compliment. But don’t get around to telling Nick how similar he is to Charles Bukowski, the former pointed out in a recent blog post, confirming that he is no A fan of the controversial author.
The exchange happened via a recent post on the Cave website Red Hand Filesafter a fan named Simon wrote to him: “In my opinion, you are one of those bonzer fans, like Bukowski is with Jeter. Thank you, Mr. Cave.”
Kev had to say this in response: “Thank you for your messages, but, I’m sorry, Simon, I don’t like being compared to Charles Bukowski. I appreciate you trying to be nice and make me feel good and all but I don’t like the guy. That’s a known fact. Now If you call me, say, ‘Philip Larkin of Joanna’ or ‘Stevie Smith of Ivory’ or ‘All singing, all dancing John Berryman’ or ‘Langston Hughes of the Banger’, I’m very happy.”
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Although his prolific output of poetry and fiction is widely celebrated and often cited today, Bukowski—who died in 1994—was also frequently criticized, largely for his sexually explicit portrayals of women and misogyny. Cave continued: “In my opinion, Charles Bukowski is the ‘Bukkake of Bad Poetry,’ and he just blows trash about it. I don’t like him. I just don’t. Not even an iota. Not at all. Love, Nick.”
Just in case you were about to subject yourself to a potential Google search: Bukkake is a trope in pornography that usually involves one woman, a group of men, and… you can imagine the rest. You don’t have to read a lot of Bukowski to conclude that, yeah, he probably would have screwed that up.
The cave should really be, truly It doesn’t chime with Bukowski’s work, because he also wrote in a more emotional blog in January that “hate is no longer interesting” after the death of his eldest son Jethro Lazenby at the age of 31 last May: “When my son died, I faced actual devastation, and without any real effort from My effort, loathing towards the world began to wobble and collapse beneath me.”
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