Bukowski IQ?

[Bukfan]

On the dvd ,which comes with the latest yearbook from the german Bukowski society, there's a clip with Linda King who says a couple of times that Buk was very intelligent. - Well, she's no IQ expert but she did live with Buk for a long time...

 

[Stellaover40]

I thought! Not beeing very intelligent myself, I guess (but rather educated), that an advanced writingtechnique is an result of education rather than a measurement of intelligens. And - is it easier to write simple?(I'm asking as I'm no writer at all). Is the substance and content of Bukowskis texts simple - I wouldnt think so. As rekrab said: tuned in, aware and conscious. I know a lot of educated people who are close to idiots in comparison to Bukowski, incapable as they are to se through the life and culture they live in.

 

[Rekrab]

I don't think it was so much that he knew sophisticated literary technique as that he knew how to use it in a subversive manner, and when not to use it, when to deviate from "good writing," lapse into gratuitous surrealism or easy conversation after some high formal lines. He just showed a lot of smarts in how he handled things. Later he dropped all that and just went for the pure simple line. Is that harder to do? Not really. It's just the smart thing to do.

 

[Agenbite]

Was it Nieztsche who said that Jesus was probably an Idiot or at least would be judged so by many?

Again I'm not trying to be elitist here. (So many people become terrified when IQ is mentioned as though it was some Holy Testimony as infallible as The Bible or The Constitution).

I don't think I.Q. tests where all the rage when Bukowski was at school or when he was examined for the Army...but what do I know...I'm off to light farts in the dark...

That was Dostoyevsky...and his novel "The Idiot" is the culmination of that philosophy. It's about a horribly good-natured and selfless person stuck in Russian society. It's a good read, but long.

 

[Bukfan]

Actually, I couldn't care less for Buk's IQ. What does it really matter? Maybe it was 110, maybe it was 130. So what? I like his writings regardless. He could be sub-normal for all I care...

 

[HenryChinaski]

lol yeah, his IQ doesnt concern me much either.