article on the Bukowski-Society

[roni]

first of all:

I'm sorry, this article about the Bukowski-Society was published in a German newspaper and thus is in German language.

But I thought, some of you archivists around may be interested in having a look at it. It's a whole page. And there's a photograph of a great looking guy from that society.

Of course, this article - like most - can't live without clichee. But it still is somewhat okay.

The headline says: "Sex, Booze - and the depth of literature"

 

[Ponder]

Nothing wrong with the article-interview.
Hopefully some German youngsters will pick it up.
I'm sorry that the Buk society
has not many members anymore.
Considering to become a member myself.

Are there other foreign members?

 

[roni]

...Hopefully some German youngsters will pick it up.

well, the journalist/author of that article became a member later on. So I guess, I wasn't too bad at the interview
;-))

I'm sorry that the Buk society has not many members anymore.

this is one of the inaccuracies in the article: we never had more than 50 paying members and I never claimed so. So the "anymore" isn't correct here.
But sure, I'm aiming at 100+

... Are there other foreign members?

there are some foreign members from Austria and one from Switzerland.

Of course, I'd love to see you as a member. But don't feel obliged to come in.

And I do hope to meet you in Andernach this August.

 

[Socratease]

Any chance of a translation, Roni?

 

[roni]

if it's asked for, I could do a rough 'translation' by summing up the paragraphs.

 

[Socratease]

I, for one, would appreciate that. Thank you :-)

 

[mjp]

Roni, you're a superstar, man.

 

[Short Bus]

Great work Roni!
I used google translation tool to limited but useful (to me) effect.

 

[Petey]

I like the article very much and i am glad to be a member.
Are there any news about the symposium in August regarding the program?

 

[Ambreen]

Oh the photo of you is a big one ! You're a superstar, indeed !

I didn't think Roni was your name, it's funny

I studied german at school so I will try to read the article !

 

[Bukfan]

Great article, Roni! I understood most of it. Buk would have liked it. Too bad you refused the offer of being curator in the future Buk museum in Andernach. You would be the right man for the job! Anyway, well done!

 

[Pessimist]

Congratulations, Roni!

I've taken the liberty of starting a very quick, very sloppy translation. Here's the first part.

It's no great shakes, but you get what you pay for.

More to follow later if people are interested...

-------

Sex, Booze and the Depths of Literature
Part 1 of 3

An article from the FRÄNKISCHER SONNTAG, 4-5 April 2009.

When a French journalist asked Charles Bukowski if he liked women, the writer replied "Well, I'd rather fuck most of them than live with them. It was one of those typically provocative replies Bukowski used to cultivate his dirty old man image and make fun of tiresome journalists.

This image is part of his success, as it is with Charlotte Roche, who's bestseller Feuchtgebiete (1) is known for it's clear, earthy style. Bukowski's books are titled Fuck Machine and From the Gods Come the Great Pukes(2) - and one Bamberg native is concerned with their literary meaning.

Bukowski died in 1994. As chairman of the Charles Bukowski Society Roni Braun, known under the artistic name of Roni, is organizing the exploration of the writer's work and influence.

The Bukowski Society is based in Andernach am Rhein, where the American was born in 1920. Roni from Bamberg has been a member since 1998 and chairman for the last year. With his voluntary work the 38 year old would like to "smash" all the old cliches. He lectures about the similarities between Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and Charles Bukowski. All three enjoyed being provocative and rejected social conventions, rules, and collective, philistine behaviour.

Bukowski kept himself afloat until 50 with various jobs, including postman and slaughterhouse worker. At the same time he published poems and short stories in underground literary magazines. To this day, a number of Buk cliches persist: woman hater, sexist, drunk and dirty story writer. Part of this is certainly because Bukowski's biography and his work are tightly interwoven, says Roni.

(1) literally "wet lands", a play on words for female genitalia
(2) "Den Gättern kommt das große Kotzen" is the German title of "The Captain is Out to Lunch"

 

[Bukfan]

Well done, Pessimist! Please continue...

 

[willrodgers]

Good article and nice Pic Roni.

 

[strangegirl]

Very nice picture Roni. Congratulations. And thanks Pessimist for the first go at the translation, please continue....
I sounds like a nice article so far...

 

[Gerard K H Love]

I like the way the article is printed around Bukowski's profile and even the cigarette is framed by the article.

I always knew roni was a big shot.

 

[Pessimist]

Down & Dirty Translation, Part 2 of 3

In more than 60 books, most of which were volumes of poetry, Bukowski described his experiences on the fringe of American society. He reported laconically on the nightmare side of the American Way of Life; drinking antics, opportunistic sex and the daily struggle for survival. "When you look in the biography, you realise that in the books much is recorded more or less as it occurred," says Roni. So in the works there may be only a few fictional changes that have been introduced for dramatic reasons.

Roni has been interested in Bukowski since he was 16, when a friend brought the author to his attention. He was particulary impressed by the writer's anti middle class attitude. "I never thought of Bukowksi as a writer who only wrote about sex and boozing. On the contrary, from the beginning I saw a certain depth in him - in his attitude to life and in his personality"

Reading Bukowski had also become a way for a young person to distance himself from parents. "Bukowski writes about sex and boozing, not in an arousing way, but totally naturally, the same way he also writes about eating and drinking." That parents don't care for Bukowski's explicit sexual descriptions certainly contributes to the fact that 16 year olds are still discovering the author for themselves today.

While Bukowski often writes in the first person, his literary work is not a biography. "The genre is called autobiographical fiction," says Roni. But there may be some truth hidden in the texts, especially in the portrayal of alcoholism. "In his last ten years he drank in moderation, but on the whole he was still a heavy drinker." Rumour has it that the 35 year old Bukowski still stopped for a drink after being treated for a nearly fatal bleeding ulcer.

 

[Johannes]

Great. Thanks a lot!

Did they really ask you about being curator at the museum in Andernach, roni?

 

[Socratease]

Many thanks, Pessimist!

 

[roni]

wow, thanks everybody!

PESSI - your translation is very good. Thanks!
Looking forward to the rest of it.
(just a little thing with the last sentence of part 2 - the meaning should be: it is ONLY a rumor, that Buk did that, but NOT fact.)

Did they really ask you about being curator at the museum in Andernach, roni?

That is another inaccuracy / out-of-context-quote:

in fact I WAS asked to move to Andernach for a year to bring that museum into existence - but that was about 4-5 years ago, when the then-board of the society started with their plans. And I DID decline then, because I wanted to stay in Bamberg.

As most of you know: it turned out, that many plans of then never happened. Now I AM working on these old plans for a museum/memorial, but I started to do so only about a year ago. The people of the newspaper somewhat intermixed these two happenings so it sounds like I was recently asked, which is bullshit.


Another thing in that last paragraph comes up wrong:

In the interview there were two different questions: 1) how many members does the Buk-society have and 2) what kind of people are the members. They've melted my two answers into one like: "That the number of members, most of which are students and older fans from the 70s and 80s, has shrinked to 50, is something he regrets." - Beside the fact, that it didn't "shrink" to that number (which I said here before), this sounds a bit like I would not only regret the small number, but also the kind of members we have! (If I were a student, being a member or potential member, I'd feel insulted by this sentence.)


But that's how journalism goes, I guess. It wasn't even the fault of the interviewer: the editorial department did that.

Anyway. All in all it's alright.

... any news about the symposium in August regarding the program?

It's not all settled, so I'll have to keep quiet a little longer.
But if everything works out fine, there will be some GREAT shots you may know from around ...

 

[Pessimist]

Messy Translation, Part 3 of 3

(see above for Roni's comments on the content - journalism is like a sausage - better not to see how it's made)

Rumour has it that the 35 year old Bukowski still stopped for a drink after being treated for a nearly fatal bleeding ulcer, to cope with the shock.

And still other cliches are being invalidated. Bukowski himself made a beginning with the publication of his most powerful literary novel in 1982, The Worst is Yet to Come (3), in which he describes his youth. "He shows where his attitudes come from, and why alcoholism is an anchor for him," says Roni. More importantly, by this time literary critics had recognized Bukowski. "Doctoral theses were being written about him." And the city of Los Angeles had recognized the bungalow where Bukowski had lived earlier as a cultural heritage site.

Pull quote: Bukowski is a writer that will be discovered by 16 year olds of every generation.

Roni attends to the writer's memory through the publication of the Bukowski yearbook, the maintenance of the Bukowski Society web page at www.bukowski-gesellschaft.de, and the organisation of the annual symposium in Andernach. At the moment the society is endeavouring to have the city of Andernach establish a Bukowski museum in the writer's birthplace. It's an unpaid job that costs Roni a lot of time, but he also finds it fulfilling. "When you're mentioned in a book as a Bukowski expert, that's quite an honour."

The association's numbers have dwindled to 50, which he says is dismaying. Most of them are either students or people who came to Bukowski in the 70s or 80s. Roni hopes for more active members and attention when Bukowski's 90th birthday is celebrated in 2010. He turned down an offer to work as curator of the planned museum in Andernach despite his enthusiasm for Bukowski. He'd prefer to remain in Bamberg - and occupy himself with his favourite author here.

(3) "Das Schlimmste kommt noch" is the German title of Ham on Rye

 

[james]

very cool roni!

and thanks for translating, pessimist.

 

[Bukfan]

Nice translation, Pessimist! Thanks...

- And thanks Roni for clarifying some of the stuff in the article! Cool pics, btw...

 

[LickTheStar]

Thanks for the translations... and great photo Roni! Glad to see the society getting some good (if slightly inaccurate) press.

Also... where's that Buk pic from? Its a really good one and looks like its in HQ...

 

[strangegirl]

Yes thanks for the translation. Very cool indeed.

 

[roni]

Again, thank you all for your kind words.

... where's that Buk pic from? ...

according to the source-note of the newspaper, it's from a Swedish publisher named 'Härnqvists bokfärlag'.

To me it looks a bit like the series, rekrab used here:

I'll have to check this with the book, where these are in. Don't have it here at the moment. (I took it to the office to look it up for David.) If it appeares to be the same series, the copyright holder should be either Thomas Häpker or Inter-Topics, Hamburg.

 

[number6horse]

What a pleasure reading this thread. Thank you for translating, Pessimist and thank you Roni for all your contributions.

Now I need to have a really good day at the track, to get the money to fly over to that symposium in August. Wish me luck.....

 

[roni]

...Wish me luck.....

I do.

 

[pabst]

Pretty good article.

I just recently found out about bukowski through a series of youtube videos called "top 5 drinkers of all time" or something.

Now im obsessed.