Bukowski Gets Clean: Vows to Shower at Least Once This Week
But Did He Even Pay the Water Bill?
Charles Bukowski just made a promise that his readership almost can't believe. It's one that might alter his notorious reputation and change his image forever. It's something they would never have expected the poet to ever say...
"I'm going to get clean."
Wow. Does he actually mean it?
His addiction to alcohol and other substances is no secret. Bukowski would like for you to believe that his drinking never has been, or will be, a problem. "It's not a problem if you can handle it," you might hear him cough, bleary-eyed from the previous night's bender.
Of course, we need to take this with a grain of salt (please hold the tequila): serious followers of his work will remember that Old Hank had to take a few years off from writing because his drinking was so out of hand.
But this raises an interesting question about addiction--is it really a problem if the abuser embraces what society deems to be a problem?
And not only that, what if the abuser profits from their addiction? Whatever Bukowski's artistic process is, it seems to be based in a rigorous rotation of butts, booze, and beers. Take that away from him and what is he? Just another struggling poet who haphazardly decides where his line breaks should be?
A risky use of substances just sort of seems to be his entire vibe.
Truly, his mantra of "find what you love and let it kill you" is something we are witnessing in real time.
A risky use of substances just sort of seems to be his entire vibe. Truly, his mantra of "find what you love and let it kill you" is something we are witnessing in real time.
Not only that, an entire literary empire can be built merely around this persona of being a drunk, foul-mouthed seer-poet who is going to tell you like it is whether you want to hear it or not. Despite his issues (those within his personal life combined with some issues of language and form), Bukowski has a rabid fanbase who are actually interested in his depraved prose and his downtrodden poetry. His work is bleak, violent, and hypersexual, but readers can't seem to get enough of him.
Can the man who wrote the following in his novel Women actually be thinking about getting on the wagon?:
"If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget: if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen."
Can the man who wrote the following in his novel Ham on Rye actually be thinking about getting sober?
"Getting drunk was good. I decided that I would always like getting drunk...drink was the only thing that kept a man from feeling forever stunned and useless."
So when he says he’s “going to get clean,” does that mean no more chain-smoking like a man who's got nothing to lose? Or does this mean no more bottles of wine for breakfast? Maybe he won't get so black out drunk that he gets thrown off a French television program and then threatens to stab their security force? Perhaps he means no more speed, coke, mescaline, or pills?
Um, no.
He's still going to do all of those things.
After further clarification, Bukowski just meant that he might shower today. And if he doesn't remember to do it today, maybe once later this week.
And no, wetting himself after passing out in a bathtub or covering himself in his own vomit and/or blood does not count.
This needs to be an actual attempt to clean himself with actual water.
So no, Bukowski isn't going to "get clean" in the sense of getting sober. In fact, going an extended period of time without alcohol might actually kill him.
So if he does get in the tub, can somebody make sure he doesn't pass out?