Saturday, December 15, 2007

The Aliens by Charles Bukowski

A very cool animated piece with Charles Bukowskis poem.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

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Anonymous said...

The video was nice, but (and feel free to call me old-fashioned) I am not sure about this kind of presentation. When it comes to poetry, I think it is better read or heard. There are some things that technology perhaps should not be allowed to influence. Books on tape is a fine example. Now poetry on film? Is our attention span really so short?

Book Calendar said...

I think it was interesting. Usually they just record the author talking. I think it is good to experiment with poetry. Charles Bukowski has been on film a lot so it really isn't new to him. He wrote the script for the movie Barfly and there is a biographical film of him. He is truly wicked in his biographical film. I saw the film at the Film Forum in New York.

Yes, people have a really short attention span. It is better to have poetry on film than a lot of the things which are coming out.
I happen to like when they mix media in art. Painting and poetry, sculpture and poetry, etc.
The idea of synopticon is wonderful in many ways.
http://www.robertpepperell.com/synopt.htm

Anonymous said...

Experimentation aside, do you really think that poetry should become so populized and distorted to fit pop culture and its limited attention span? Give it to the masses and they will trample it. Need I mention the example of MTV? because when we think "good music," yea, sure - we think "MTV."

Book Calendar said...

No, poetry should not become popularized in the sense of MTV. More people should read it, because it improves communication.

As far as giving it to the masses, there has been a 10x fold increase in the amount of poetry being written in small chapbooks because of the ease of self publishing. So, it is already being given to the masses.

I don't see it being trampled yet. Poetry is a very individual thing. Because it resonates so much at the individual level, it is very hard to hand quality poetry over to things like MTV.

I also see a lot of poetry blogs. Once again, this is very personal, so I don't see it being trampled.

This is an excellent example of reaching out "to the masses" without denigrating poetry.

http://www.poetshouse.org/libraries.htm

Anonymous said...

Reaching out is very different from popularizing or "giving to the masses." All I meant to say was that perhaps videos such as this one should not become a trend. As for the increase of published and read poetry collection, I cannot be happier.

Book Calendar said...

Thank you for commenting. A little debate is much appreciated. It keeps things alive.

Cipriano said...

Love the poem.
Love the animation.
Thanks for sharing with your audience.

Nezha said...

Hi,
Great poem and i think the animation really captures the feel of it.

Anonymous said...

Great blog you have here---and I absolutely adore that Bukowski poem/animation! I'll definitely be stopping by more in the future. =)