Charles Bukowski – Friendly advice to a lot of young men
Grow a beard.Circle the world in a paper canoe.Subscribe to The Saturday Evening Post.Chew on the left side of your mouth only.Marry a woman with one leg and shave with a straight razor.And carve your name in her arm.Brush your teeth with gasoline.Sleep all day and climb trees at night.Be a monk and drink buckshot and beer.Hold your head under water and play the violin.Do a belly dance before pink candles.Kill your dog.Run for mayor.Live in a barrel.Break your head with a hatchet.Plant tulips in the rain.
But don't write poetry.
Opinion essays:
1.
I have never heard of Charles Bukowski before, but right after reading his poem, which is called Friendly advice to a lot of young men, I realized that his artistry is really appealing and interesting to me. From my point of view the most intriguing parts in his poem which I mentioned earlier were: Author's usage of simple words, which are combined together and they create unusual collocations and metaphors. What was also really interesting was the structure of the poem. As it goes on, it is gradually becoming more and more bizarre.
But the main question is: What is the author's point?
As we can read from the title of the poem, the author provides his personal advice on how to live/ how to do certain things in life. I believe that the main point is hidden in the metaphors and the meaning can't be taken literally. (If we would clean our teeth with gasoline we wouldmost likely get chemical poisoning.) What I have taken from this is that the author encourages us to live our lives to the fullest not bound by strict social norms and conventions, we shouldn't be afraid to try out new things just because they may be considered crazy/silly, we should live our lives as the most authentic versions of ourselves. The last paragraph about not writing poetry, I believe, may refer to the author's personal retrospective look at his life and it may symbolize small piece of regret/pity, because as we know his life wasn't one of the happiest and was quite hard, so he wanted to warn us.
At the end of the day, this is just seeing things from my own point of view and my own interpretation of this poem and I personally think that in general there is no such thing as "correct interpretation" because we all look at things from different angles and we take individually what we exactly need....
-Juraj Pavúk
2.
Charles Bukowski ́s poem “Friendly Advice to a Lot of Young Men“ is a great example of a work which deviates from social conventions and norms. As the title suggests, the poem is author ́s advice to young men, who have to decide, at some point, what to do with their own lives. The point is, that all of the author ́s tips differ from those, which young people usually receive. They ́re bizzar, peculiar and odd. There ́s no point in brushing your teeth with gasoline, climbing trees at night, or doing a belly dance before pink candles, is there?
From my point of view, there is (up to a point) a reason, why Bukowski decided to choose these particular phrases and collocations. Gasoline is, actually, suitable for cleaning, isn ́t it?
In my opinion, Bukowski was trying to express his innner feelings via poetry. This poem reflects his eccentric, boorish and marginal lifestyle. It criticizes an ordinary way of life with a beautiful wife, kids, house, dog etc. ”Marry a woman with one leg”, ”Be a monk and drink buckshot and beer”, ”Kill your dog”...
We should do the crazy stuff, that doesn ́t make any sense. We should explore the world around us and try the things, we ́ve never tried before. But we shouldn ́t write poetry, because it ́s probably the most foolish activity ever ;)
I really enjoyed reading the poem - it ́s short, humorous, absurd and well- thought-out. I wouldn ́t hesitate to read another Bukowski ́s poem.
PS: I love Charles Bukowski ́s quote “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” In my family, we often mention this quote (or I ́d say this idea in other words), but we didn ́t know who the author is.
-Kvetoslava Žilková
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