Letter to the Author of "Dinosauria, We": Charles Bukowski

[Hmm. Alright, I honestly can't remember when this thing is due, tomorrow or next Friday. I blame it on my short attention span. But here's my all @ 11pm]

October 27, 2011

Dear Mr. Charles Bukowski,

I quite liked your poem "Dinosauria, We," and I found it interesting. The words and phrases you chose gave the impression that our actions now as humans will most likely lead us to that dark, desolate world described in your poem. In a way, I agree. Note that I do not completely disagree with human methods today (okay, okay, some of them I do). However, I feel that our choices now have an effect on the world, but we just may not know it. Or want to know it.

When answering some questions regarding your poem in my english class, I subconsciously decided to substitute almost every (if not every) "this" with "humanity," and everything makes a little sense in that point of view.

"Born like [humanity] 

Into [humanity]

[...]

Dying because of [humanity]

Muted because of [humanity]

[...]

Because of [humanity]

Fooled by [humanity]

Used by [humanity]

[...]

Made crazy and sick by [humanity]

[...]"

And so on and so forth. You can plug a lot of things into the poem to replace "this," and it would still make sense. Your writing was--is--just that profound.

I think that you developed the material for your poem by taking human nature and behavior and predicting the extreme outcomes of such actions. I too believe that our humanity will be then end of us, if not the entire world. The end of the world as you wrote it may have been brought around by wars (started by us), overdevelopment (of our society), and our human nature in general.

Speaking of human nature, I feel that you talked about it a lot in "Dinosauria, We." You speak of "political landscapes dissolv[ing]", and an overqualified bag boy at a store, and fist fights-turned-assaults-and-murders. Even today, some governments are being overthrown or are simply falling. The job economy is real low; an employee at a supermarket might very well be a college grad. And humans tend to be very sensitive and fragile, psychologically and emotionally, which would explain the fist fights (no big deal) and shootings, stabbings, and murders (troubling, but not quite at the top of our list of worries). Humans often have short tempers and a lack of understanding, and we are always ready to blame others or end it all. We also require a higher power to be above us at all times, as a desperate attempt to hope for a better day (the need for religion).

A lot of things we have today we won't necessarily need or value tomorrow. Money is just paper and metal. Land is just dirt we stand on. Many things  may not be here later on, like the water or rain you mentioned in the writing, or the trees or animals or organic life. 

So many things made sense in your poem telling of the potential future of the world as we know it, and the current world as well. Hospitals do cost too much, especially for facilities that were built to help people.  Courts and the law are less tolerant; all "criminals" in court are criminals; there can't possibly be a mental problem of some sort. Our development of nuclear weapons will most likely cause our downfall as well. Eventually, everything will just stop, and then everything will return to 0 and restart.

I really do like your poem, Mr. Bukowski. I think it is well-written and a very good interpretation of how our current choices and lifestyle can and will affect our precious world. You leave so much to the reader's imagination and leave no room for assumption in some parts. Overall, I'd say a job well done!

Sincerely,

TrinnBloom, a.k.a. Alexandra

Father and Son: The Bond

Hehe...too lazy to come up with a weirder title, so we'll go with da default. It's late (relatively; early by my other post standards), and I'm tired, and I brilliantly left 98% of my notes in my locker, so yeah. It'll be short--as much as possible.

In The Road, the main characters are a man and his son, and it is apparent that the father just wants to protect his son and keep him as happy as possible in their situation. I noticed that the dad is always agreeing with his son, as if he was just making sure his son was satisfied. He says things that don't really contradict the boy, and the conversations generally have a soft tone to them. "Yes," "sure," "okay," "I know," etc. (Sorry, no good examples at the moment). In the flashbacks with the man and his wife, at the statement "Her cries mean nothing to him" (or something close to that) implied to me that he kind of loved his son more than his wife, or rather, the boy was more important to him at that moment in time. The father overall wants to keep his son safe, which is why he's constantly moving and pushing him and trying to explain their situation.

A certain conversation that really stood out to me was:

"Do you want to die? Is that what you want?"--"I don't care; I don't care."--"I'm sorry. Don't say that. You mustn't say that."

That was after the whole "I saw a little boy" scenario, and it proved that the father is really protective, and that in the end he just wants his boy safe.

Another thing about the bond between the father and son was the mutual love between them. They's argue: about the boy getting more or better things than his father (and the boy not liking that), about what to do, and so on. But when it comes down to it, in times of danger or extreme caution, all negative thoughts, feelings and/or emotions (leaving the boy to scout, shooting the man) are forgotten, and they rely on each other and enjoy each other's company, and they truly love each other. For example, after the argument regarding the other boy and the dog, and the narrow evasion of the "bad guys," the father told the boy to stay put while he got more firewood. Yet the boy followed him and helped him gather wood too. That was an "awww..." moment for me.

Sooo... Yeah. I felt a mutual love between the two, and they were/are always looking out for each other. That's probably what the relationship between parent and child is, anyway. That whole "unconditional love" thing; the need to protect your child, even if it seems harsh or mean, and still loving them no matter what.

Yeah. That's all I got. But, I apparently rewrote this little speech by the father to his son in found poem format (not really "rewrote" per se; just reformatted it):

"The Bond"

My job is to
take care of you.
I was appointed to do that
by God.
I will kill
anyone
who touches you.
Do you understand?

"If we were going to die would you tell me?"