shit. That being said it's hilarious how pretentious this is when he says not to write out of pretentiousness. It falls under the same category of writing as those "Don't Date a Girl Who Travels" bullshit articles. I don't know who Charles Bukowski is, but I don't see why he feels the need to do the same thing brogrammers do on a daily basis. if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter
don’t do it. searching for words
Charles Bukowski is the last poet I'd call pretentious. He's like a meaner, drunker, poorer Hemingway. His biographical character raped a retarded woman on his mail route in his first book. He kicked the shit out of his girlfriend wearing shorts and white loafers during an interview. He came from a generation where men had to be tough as nails badasses and he slept on benches, drank til he had a bleeding ulcer and his hobby was going to the horse track but he wrote tender poems about the death of his first girlfriend, "A pot bellied whore." I love him. He's unflinchingly honest and complex.
And self-fucking-love -- yes, we shouldn't be "consumed" by it -- but we do love our words, especially when they make us laugh out loud. You don't have to take his opinion about anything. He was a suicidal sot. I guess you missed this last week. Glad to hear you are up [edit] and about again, spinal tap notwithstanding. I was so scared when I had to get a spinal tap... if the doctor taps a millimeter away from the mark. . .
Pretentiousness is probably a matter of interpretation: one of the recently mentioned on hubski cognitive biases. "don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love."