Today’s Zippy strip brings us a rambling poetic diatribe by Slouch Gravitsky, the Zipfigure of poet Charles Bukowsky in Bukowsky’s fictional alter ego, the (sometime) postal clerk Henry Chinaski — crude, aggrieved, cynical, alcoholic. And, oh yes, sharp-eyed.
This might be a burlesque of a specific Bukowski poem, but not one I’m familiar with; meanwhile, note the bottle of booze in the first and fourth panels (plus of course the cigarette) — plus Zippyesque dips into popular culture (Lawrence Welk, beef jerky, Taylor Swift)
(I’m hopelessly over my head in promised postings on complex topics much weightier than Slouch Gravitsky —
I have left undone those things which I ought to have done … and there is no health in me (morning prayer: general confession from the (Anglican) Book of Common Prayer (1662), slightly revised)
— so I’m rather desperately keeping my hand in with little postings like this one.)
Now from three Wikipedia entries …
— on Bukowski:
Henry Charles Bukowski (born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted home city of Los Angeles. Bukowski’s work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work.
… In 1986, Time called Bukowski a “laureate of American lowlife”.
Post Office is the first novel written by American writer Charles Bukowski, published in 1971. The book is an autobiographical memoir of Bukowski’s years working at the United States Postal Service.
In Los Angeles, California, down-and-out barfly Henry Chinaski becomes a substitute mail carrier; he quits for a while and lives on his winnings at the race track, then becomes a mail clerk. Chinaski drifts from place to place, surviving through booze and women, with his biting sense of humor and a cynical view of the world.
— on Bukowski’s Ham on Rye:
Ham on Rye is a 1982 semi-autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. Written in Bukowski’s characteristically straightforward prose, the novel tells of his coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great Depression.
… Like his previous autobiographical novels, Ham on Rye centers on the life of Henry Chinaski, this time during his childhood and teenage years. Throughout the course of the novel, Bukowski develops his misanthropic anti-hero character that is seen in his other works like Post Office and Hollywood. Chinaski, growing up poor in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, is shown developing into a sarcastic loner.
Then there are all those poems.
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