"People Simply Empty Out"

[JAJT]

From: Letters of Note: People simply empty out

In 1969, publisher John Martin offered to pay Charles Bukowski $100 each and every month for the rest of his life, on one condition: that he quit his job at the post office and become a writer. 49-year-old Bukowski did just that, and in 1971 his first novel, Post Office, was published by Martin's Black Sparrow Press.

15 years later, Bukowski wrote the following letter to Martin and spoke of his joy at having escaped full time employment.

(Source: Reach for the Sun Vol. 3; Image: Charles Bukowski, via.)

8-12-86

Hello John:

Thanks for the good letter. I don't think it hurts, sometimes, to remember where you came from. You know the places where I came from. Even the people who try to write about that or make films about it, they don't get it right. They call it "9 to 5." It's never 9 to 5, there's no free lunch break at those places, in fact, at many of them in order to keep your job you don't take lunch. Then there's OVERTIME and the books never seem to get the overtime right and if you complain about that, there's another sucker to take your place.

You know my old saying, "Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors."

And what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don't want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does.

As a young man I could not believe that people could give their lives over to those conditions. As an old man, I still can't believe it. What do they do it for? Sex? TV? An automobile on monthly payments? Or children? Children who are just going to do the same things that they did?

Early on, when I was quite young and going from job to job I was foolish enough to sometimes speak to my fellow workers: "Hey, the boss can come in here at any moment and lay all of us off, just like that, don't you realize that?"

They would just look at me. I was posing something that they didn't want to enter their minds.

Now in industry, there are vast layoffs (steel mills dead, technical changes in other factors of the work place). They are layed off by the hundreds of thousands and their faces are stunned:

"I put in 35 years..."

"It ain't right..."

"I don't know what to do..."

They never pay the slaves enough so they can get free, just enough so they can stay alive and come back to work. I could see all this. Why couldn't they? I figured the park bench was just as good or being a barfly was just as good. Why not get there first before they put me there? Why wait?

I just wrote in disgust against it all, it was a relief to get the shit out of my system. And now that I'm here, a so-called professional writer, after giving the first 50 years away, I've found out that there are other disgusts beyond the system.

I remember once, working as a packer in this lighting fixture company, one of the packers suddenly said: "I'll never be free!"

One of the bosses was walking by (his name was Morrie) and he let out this delicious cackle of a laugh, enjoying the fact that this fellow was trapped for life.

So, the luck I finally had in getting out of those places, no matter how long it took, has given me a kind of joy, the jolly joy of the miracle. I now write from an old mind and an old body, long beyond the time when most men would ever think of continuing such a thing, but since I started so late I owe it to myself to continue, and when the words begin to falter and I must be helped up stairways and I can no longer tell a bluebird from a paperclip, I still feel that something in me is going to remember (no matter how far I'm gone) how I've come through the murder and the mess and the moil, to at least a generous way to die.

To not to have entirely wasted one's life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself.

yr boy,

Hank

​

​

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

"Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors."

Very potent indeed.

Speed for the post.

 

[ITA]

Great share. I've rarely seen it described so well.

 

[nitrousflame]

Thanks for the post. Reading things like this adds to my motivation to break free.

 

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[madison]

Great post. It sums up very nicely what most people spend their life doing: Turning up to work each day like robots, because they don't know any better and are too blinded by the victim mentality to see a way to escape.

 

[DeletedUser2]

They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds.

my fav line.

fear. the invisible shackles people accept.

Z

 

[mrsilva]

Great post!

"They never pay the slaves enough so they can get free, just enough so they can stay alive and come back to work."

I've been there. They just hold you tight. They keep you working and giving little bonus so you keep dreaming about a raise, about a promotion... about the good money! I want the BIG MONEY!

 

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[Guest14692]

“How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? ”
-Charles Bukowski, Factotum, 1975

 

[Skys]

“How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 8:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? ”
-Charles Bukowski, Factotum, 1975

If that's how you feel about your employees, you probably should never become an entrepreneur.

 

[fastlaneCoder]

This is a truly epic post! I'm speechless!

 

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[Guest14692]

If that's how you feel about your employees, you probably should never become an entrepreneur.

That's Bukowski for ya!

 

[Skys]

That's Bukowski for ya!

Great writer. Still, hating so much on employement makes me wonder how somebody who hates employement so much will look at his or her own employees.

 

[FiveOone]

Still, hating so much on employement makes me wonder how somebody who hates employement so much will look at his or her own employees.

I dont think Bukowski hated being employed, its more he hated wasting his life working shitty meaningless jobs.
After all, 'People Simply Empty Out' is a letter thanking someone who payed him to follow his passion. He was still an employee at the end of the day.

Another favourite Bukowski quote of mine relates to running your own race and somewhat entrepreneurship.

“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.”
― Charles Bukowski, Factotum

 

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[Vigilante]

Reposted the original letter to https://www.facebook.com/BlazeYourOwnPath

 

[andyredsox]

Love the post, that is so educational, you can learn a lot of things, and how to control oneself not to become a slave. Thanks!

 

[Rawr]

my fav line.

fear. the invisible shackles people accept.

Z

There is never a wall too high. There is just wall you haven't figured out how to jump yet.

 

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[EastWind]

There is never a wall too high. There is just wall you haven't figured out how to jump yet.

There is no wall, you are just imagining one. No need to even jump, just move forward