The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, by Charles Bukowski

Analysis

Audiobook

Tales of Ordinary Madness, Wikipedia

Factotum, Wikipedia

Factotum, movie

Barfly, Wikipedia

Barfly, movie

Tales of Ordinary Madness, movie

Charles Bukowski chez Bernard Pivot

SUMMARY, by Begoña Devis

Despite the nice title, that story is in fact a very sad one, very Bukowski-esque. The most beautiful woman in town is also the unhappiest. She feels her beauty is a curse, believing no one can see beyond the obvious: her perfect body, her attractive and unique face. That’s why she attacks herself, constantly at war with herself and with everyone else; and even having found someone capable of seeing her inner beauty, and with whom she could perhaps be happy, she doesn’t allow it, probably because she doesn’t feel worthy of it, and finally decides she can no longer live in a world that seems too cruel and heartless to her. Her soul is too sensitive to bear it, and she’s also too angry, too young and too immature to have the ability to see things any other way and give herself a chance.
    In a few sentences, Bukowski gives us very important details about this beautiful girl so we can understand her behaviour. What happiness could she feel as a child in her family with an alcoholic father, who probably plunged them into poverty and abandonment? How could she believe she deserved happiness after being abandoned by her mother along with her four sisters following her father’s death? How could she trust others if all she received was envy from her sisters and sexual abuse from men? Even during the years she spent in a convent with her sisters, she didn’t live in peace; she was too beautiful not to be envied and rejected. It was only natural that she hated her beauty and decided to put an end to it once and for all.

 
PERSONAL OPINION
 
Childhood abandonment, alcoholism, and the sensitivity hidden behind rudeness and outbursts are recurring themes in Bukowski, who narrates his own miserable life through his stories. This one, coming from its author, is as heartbreaking as it is predictable, though always interesting to read, due to his direct, abrupt, and at times almost pornographic style, which makes it unique and compelling.
    Aside from the story itself, I personally —although I understand it couldn’t be any other way— have always found it deeply unfair that an unhappy childhood leads to a difficult life, while a happy one greatly contributes to making adulthood much more enjoyable. It’s like a win-or-nothing game, and only a few manage to turn things around, reconcile with their past, and live a full and happy life despite a difficult start. This wasn’t the case for the most beautiful woman in town.

QUESTIONS

-Cass was misusing her beauty. What do you think of working as a model? Is it a job as any other one, or it isn't a job you wouldn't like for your children? Is it a sexist job?
-Would you like to live for a time in a convent? Do you think it would be a benefit for people who lead a stressing life?
-What can be the reason of a self-inflicted wound? Has it anything to do with masochism?
-After making love, the narrator asked the girl her name. What would be the first questions you ask in a first date?
-"Once you accept a drink, you create your own trouble". How true / sexist is this sentence, in your opinion?

VOCABULARY

zap, of age, forged, fair, dramatics, schitzi, elephant ear, bail, fad, hustling, haggle, wearing, pecker, pace, shack, offhand

Carmina Burana, by Several Poets

Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff

Carmina Burana (“Songs of Burana”) is a collection of medieval poetry. It’s the largest and most varied surviving anthology of medieval Latin poetry. The poems belong to the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. They were written mostly in Latin, although some ones are in German because the manuscript was found in Bavaria, in a Benedictine monastery, Benedickbeuern, “Benedictoburanum” in Latin. The poems are about love, sex, gaming and drinking in taverns, and they are bawdy, anticlerical, satirical and irreverent.

They were written mostly by goliards, that is, clergy students that had abandoned the seminar and went travelling around Europe reciting their poems. The word “goliard” seems to come from Goliath, and so meant something bad, or the devil. Some sources say that they were Abelard students. Abelard was a philosopher, poet and theologian, famous for his romantic affair with the nun Heloïse. They had a child, although they supposed to be celibates, and the result of this conflict was that Abelard was castrated by her uncle. A good definition of “goliard” is “a drop-out and spoiled priest gone wild.”

So the goliards were a kind of entertaining travellers, and, contrasting with the troubadours, (who, by the way, wrote in a vernacular language), they praised the physical love.
These were the centuries when the first universities were being built, when reading silently for oneself and without moving the lips (an accomplishment of Saint Jerome which impressed his fourth century admirers) was a growing skill. Latin was an international language, and students used to travel not only to earn their living or to enjoy the life, but in search of teachers and their theories.
However, the Carmina Burana collection wasn’t found until 1803 and published in 1847.
It consists of songs of morals and mockery, love songs, songs of drinking and gaming and two spiritual theatre pieces.
Carl Orff created a musical composition based on some of these poems.
Only a few authors are known:
Hugh of Orléans (1093-1160). He spent his life roaming France. His nickname was Primas because they say he was a master of poetry.
Peter of Blois (1135-1212). He was the secretary of Henry II of England. He taught English in Paris and was Archdeacon of Bath.
Walter de Châtillon (1135-1204). He worked for Henry II and was secretary of the Archbishop of Rheims. He also worked as a teacher in Châtillon.
And a poet called the Archpoet, patronized as Poet Laureate by Rainard of Dassel (♰1165), Chancellor of Frederick I, aka Barbarossa. They say he was the coughing ghost because the word “cough” appears in some of his poems, and we don’t know anything else of him.
Abelard (1079-1142) wrote some poems in his youth, but we don’t know if some of the Carmina Burana poems are his.

Two poems translated from Latin into English by David Parlett

O Fortuna 

O how Fortune, 

inopportune, 

apes the moon's inconstancy: 

waxing, waning, 

losing, gaining, 

life treats us detestably: 

first oppressing 

then caressing 

shifts us like pawns in her play: 

destitution, 

restitution, 

mixes and melts them away. 

Fate, as vicious 

as capricious, 

whirling your merry-go-round: 

evil doings, 

worthless wooings, 

crumble away to the ground: 

darkly stealing, 

unrevealing, 

working against me you go: 

for your measure 

of foul pleasure 

I bare my back to your blow. 

Noble actions, 

true transactions, 

no longer fall to my lot: 

powers to make me 

then to break me 

all play their part in your plot: 

now seize your time — 

waste no more time, 

pluck these poor strings and let go: 

since the strongest 

fall the longest 

let the world share in my woe.

In taberna quando sumus 

In the tavern when we're drinking, 

though the ground be cold and stinking, 

down we go and join the action 

with the dice and gaming faction. 

What goes on inside the salon 

where it's strictly cash per gallon 

if you'd like to know, sir, well you 

shut your mouth and I shall tell you.

Some are drinking, some are playing, 

some their vulgar side displaying: 

most of those who like to gamble 

wind up naked in the scramble; 

some emerge attired in new things, 

some in bits and bobs and shoestrings: 

no one thinks he'll kick the bucket 

dicing for a beery ducat.

 

First to those who pay for wallowing, 

then we layabouts toast the following: 

next we drink to all held captive, 

thirdly drink to those still active, 

fourthly drink to the Christian-hearted, 

fifthly drink to the dear departed, 

sixthly to our free-and-easy sisters, 

seventhly to all out-of-work enlisters.

Eighthly drink to friars deconverted, 

ninthly, monks from monast'ries diverted, 

tenthly, sailors of the oceans, 

eleventhly, louts who cause commotions, 

twelfthly, those who wear the penitential, 

thirteenth, and whose journey is essential — 

to this fat pope, to that thin king — 

who the hell cares why they're drinking!

Drinking tinker, drinking tailor, 

drinking soldier, drinking sailor, 

drinking rich man, drinking poor man, 

drinking beggarman, thief and lawman, 

drinking servant, drinking master, 

drinking mistress, drinking pastor, 

drinking doctor, drinking layman, 

drinking drunkard, drinking drayman: 

Drinking rude man, drinking proper, 

drinking tiddler, drinking whopper, 

drinking scholar, drinking gypsy, 

drinking drunk or maudlin tipsy, 

drinking father, drinking mother, 

drinking sister, drinking brother, 

drinking husbands, wives and lovers

and a hundred thousand others — 

Half a million pounds would never 

pay for all we drink together: 

for we drink beyond all measure, 

purely for the sake of pleasure: 

thus you see us, poor and shoddy, 

criticized by everybody —  

God grant that they be confounded 

when at last the trump is sounded!