‘On Writing’ by Charles Bukowski and What it Means for Medium
Happy New Year you Filthy Animals!
One of the most prolific and controversial writers of the 20th Century, Charles Bukowski struggled for many years, drinking and slaving away behind his typewriter. The early period of his writing career was largely unsuccessful. He would write poems by the book-load and send them off to every literary magazine he could find. Eventually, some editors took a gamble on him — and let his work be published. But it was still a long road to his first novel Post Office. After that, things eventually picked up for Bukowski. His story is one of resilience, determination, and writing not to be famous, rich, or ‘to be a writer’, but because he absolutely could not refrain from writing.
Luckily, in today’s modern and technological world, we are all connected by this magical thing called the internet. It has created more ruptures that make it difficult for gatekeepers to shield artists from exposing the public to their work. We finally have spaces, platforms, and opportunities to create our work, send it out to the world, and let the audience decide if they want to be our audience without being vetted by editors. While this also means that not all work we have the opportunity of being exposed to is remarkable, genius, or even worthwhile, it does mean that we all get a chance that didn’t exist…
