The Classics

So, I had to choose an elective.
My pile of already useless subjects
made a new friend.

A new friend
from a new deparment.

I sat down
looked around
F**k me.
My cat is closer to their age
than they are to mine.

It was the department of library science.
It was in English
and it was about books.

Soon came the first assignment.
We had to choose a book
A NEW BOOK!
present it
and persuade others to read it.

I was waiting to write my decision
on the wandering piece of paper.
It finally made its way to the back.

Ana Karenina,
the Chronicles of Narnia,
White Fang,
IT,
Jane Eyre
…
Just as I thought things couldn't get any worse
I threw up in my mouth a bit
50 Shades of Grey.

I was forcing myself not to write down
»Teletubbies«
(Such a shame it's not a book)

And then I sat throught it all.
Being »introduced« to Tolstoy
and what not.

Finally, it was my turn.

I chose the old cigarette-smoking,
whiskey-drinking,
w***e-f*****g,
son of a b***h.

Charles Henry Bukowski.

It was time for questions and comments.
What do you think of the Post Office?
Will any of you pick it up and read it?

She,
who chose 50 shades of I hate you
looked at me
and said:
»I don't think so.
The main character is a dick.
A monster.
I can't relate to that.
There are no positive characters.
You know,
there's no
hero.«

I decided to answer with the words of a classic.
And no, it's not E. L. James.

»Sometimes the world doesn't need another hero,
sometimes what it needs is a monster.«

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Chris]

Damn... if there I would have applauded you.

Even fiction has echoes of reality,
we write of what we would have done
or at least would have WANTED to do.
Sometime we CAN be brave enough
and foolish enough
to stand when all the others sit,
to speak out
in the silence
if only within our minds.

Chris

[Ryan]

I actually really love this! well written and I completely agree with you on 50 shades XD

[emmajoy]

There's more than rawness in here! It's off with my gear, dive into hot water up to my neck and do what the hell I want. Don't think this is about books but attitude.. needing to make choices but why, what's the point.. when I'm ready, not before. A list of books is almost too easy, could each choose a hundred each and still not make cohesive, entrancing, intriguing 'come read this' option for others. Such is life and what it's holds.. one man;s meat is a genre that hovers, saying what's what. Perhaps.

[Christoph]

Super interesting form.

I was tempted, for a second, to kind of dismiss it as telling a story in bullet points. But that's not it.

Presenting a story like this works stupidly well. I get a strong sense of the character (you, I figure) and see things through their eyes.

It's possible that I'm allowing it to work because, coming in the format of a poem, I grant it some sort of artistic majesty. Oh, look at me go, I'm a poem.

The way that foreign films feel more believable for me, because I don't know how being a Parisian actually feels, so this is probably right.

I'm probably missing the point. Oh well. It's just cool that this went so very well, and I'm trying to figure it out.

[Sara]

Hahaha, i'm glad I gave you sth to think about. Figured it out yet? :)

The form is somewhat inspired by Bukowski; the free verse and the narrative. I enjoy the rawness and the fact that it's hard to define. Is it a poem, a short story...a pile of s**t? 😁

[Christoph]

It's at least all of those things, and probably also something decent. I do have an inclination toward piles of s**t, historically.

We like what we like.

But I don't think I'll have you figured out in cursory glances. You'd have to show up here more than quarterly, from what I can tell, before I could hope to sink my teeth into whatever sort of s**t you're piling up.

A cordial invitation.

[Sara]

Thanks for the invitation, I know I've been really absent, life kinda got in the way. I'm trying to manage work, University and whatever I have left for "me" time. My reading (apart from the obligatory stuff) and writing's been suffering a lot due to that.. so I've been scattering my s**t all over my notebooks and never had a chance to rewrite it. Most of it isn't in English anyway.

Given your style of commenting, I have a hinch that I'd really like your writing, so expect a review :P

[Einstein Noodle]

brave young soul to be so feisty in college ... like many Bukowski is one of me top favorites .. the rebel and the dirt feel good on my skin ;) your protagonist me thinks is the fresh air on campus :)
E.

[Sara]

that's what they get when anyone, it doesn't matter what year you're in, can enroll in any elective .. it was just me and a bunch of 1st year babies, had to teach them a lesson :P also, I just got my period, so the feistiness was in overdrive

[Einstein Noodle]

ahahahaha ... what a positive sublimation of those "period" blues :) good on ya says i!

[Sara]

Period blues..I might steal that, sounds like a great title :D

[Einstein Noodle]

:) ....................