Dark Party: The image portrayed of Bukowski of of a hyper-macho, uber-porn writer -- a bum who became a writer. Is this a fair assessment of Bukowski? How would you define him as an artist?

Michael Phillips: Bukowski fostered the "bum who became a writer" persona, so it's understandable that many have that impression of his work. He also wrote a lot of titillating stories for adult magazines in the 1970's, but for the most part he wrote those pieces for the paycheck. If you look at his work as a whole, the macho/porn/bum pieces are far outweighed by the work that falls decidedly outside of that narrow range.

His sensitivity was often on display in his work, and if one were to read only the more introspective pieces they would come away with a completely different impression. But the sensitive poet doesn't sell as many books as the two-fisted, brawling womanizer, so he played up that angle in public. There is a scene in the documentary "Born Into This" where he can barely finish reading a poem about Linda King (Bukowski’s girlfriend) because he keeps breaking into tears. If that doesn't blow the macho image out of the water, I don't know what does.

DP: Bukowski the man seemed in constant battle with convention. Part of him seemed to want to settle down (thus his jobs with the LA Post Office), but another part of him wanted to howl at the moon. How much do you think Bukowski struggled with his dual desires?

Michael: He wanted to be left alone, I suppose that could be seen as a desire to settle down. He had a fear of poverty, and was always frugal and careful with the money that he had. The post office represented security, but his true nature was in opposition to a scheduled 9 to 5 life, so he did struggle constantly with that, right up through 1970 when he quit the post office to write full time. His employee records at the post office are littered with warnings and threats of suspension for missing work due to "illness." He was not a model government employee by any stretch.

He was a realist, above all else, and he knew that he could not make a living as a poet alone. Remember that when he quit the post office for the last time it was to write a novel. A novelist has a much better shot at a living wage than a poet. I have noticed that many people discovering Bukowski for the first time do so through the novels, so there is something to that. He started at least three novels before “Post Office,” (Bukowski's first novel) but never completed any of them. The loss of the regular job seemed to give him the motivation he needed to finish a novel.

His poem and short story output also skyrocketed after leaving the post office. He wrote a lot when he was working, but nowhere near what he wrote when he was writing to survive. As for howling at the moon, he did that all his life, even after he was safely ensconced in his house in San Pedro, living a relatively quiet and stable life with Linda. His demons never left him. Linda says that shortly before his death he took up the practice of meditation, but for most of his life he was an angry man. The seeds of that anger are all in his book, “Ham On Rye.”

DP: How would you define the relationship between Bukowski and his primary prose character Henry Chinaski? How closely do the two resemble each other?

Michael: Bukowski said Chinaski was mostly autobiographical, with 5 percent or so (depending on when he was asked the question) being fiction. That would seem to be part of his myth though, as a good deal of what he wrote was exaggerated, fabricated or adapted from the experiences of those around him. He had a large circle of acquaintances, a smaller circle of friends, and a never ending flow of total strangers in his life. Yet at his core he was a solitary man.

Part of me thinks he kept people around for inspiration and even source material. He did live an edgy life in many ways, and he did experience most of the things that he wrote about frequently - his main repeating themes. Though the period of his life when he was unemployed and living hand to mouth is much shorter than the Bukowski myth would have you believe.

His "ten year drunk" was more like a couple of years on the road, fresh out of college (two years at LA City College, he did not graduate). He was rarely unemployed for an extended period of time. His work ethic when it came to writing was not far removed from his work ethic in general. He disliked the jobs he had, but he usually had a job.

DP: One could argue that Bukowski's writing reflects hostility toward women and homosexuals. Some critics slam him as a sexist and a bigot. What is your opinion?

Michael: He definitely had prejudices common to many people of his generation. I think homosexuality was not something he had any experience with until he began to travel in 'literary' circles. He had no frame of reference, so fell back on prejudice and cliche. Though he did have friendships with, and respect for, several gay writers, he eventually tore them down, sometimes using their homosexuality as a method of attack. But he tore down virtually every friendship he had, the reasons as varied as the people.

I don't see him as a bigot because he was not intolerant on those levels. He was intolerant of people as humans, but not because of their sexual leanings or race. This is a sticky subject to sort out, again, because of when he was born. It is difficult for us to understand how many prejudices were taken for granted in the early part of the twentieth century. Most people didn't question these things until the civil rights movement in the 60's. Not to dismiss prejudice, but it is important to put it in context. I'm sure many of us have parents or grandparents who say things that make us cringe. They are not necessarily intolerant, they just came from an ignorant generation.

I never understood the sexist label. I have tried to understand where people are getting it, but I really can't find any basis for it in his work. In his persona, perhaps, but not in the work itself. He could be brutal and abrasive, but it was applied evenly across the board; women, men, homosexuals, bus drivers...

DP: Bukowski's poetry is raw and often an uncompromising looks at the life of the working man. What two or three poems do you think capture the essence of Bukowski?

Michael: Interesting question, because the handful of poems that are the essence of Bukowski to me have nothing to do with the plight of the ordinary working man, but rather with the pain of living in this world. “The Bluebird,” “The Crunch,” “Dinosauria” “We” - those come from a raw soul who can't come to grips with why the world is set up the way it is. Someone who feels the things in these poems has to have a defense, and I believe that's why the Bukowski persona was born. As a defense mechanism.


Read our interview with Linda King, Buk's former girlfriend, here


Read our interview about Jane Austen here

Labels: 5 Questions, Bukowski, Michael Phillips

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The U.S. is obsessed with serial killers. We read about them, we develop TV shows about them. And we make movies about them. Here is our list of the greatest (most popular and well-known) cinematic slashers of all time.

Freddy Krueger

The Child Molester and Dream Demon

First Appearance: Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

No. of Film Appearances: 8

Created By: Wes Craven

Actor: Robert Englund

Description: Freddy’s face is a mutilated, fire ravaged visage covered by smooth, bumpy scars. His teeth are rotting and jagged. He’s fond of wearing a dark fedora and a red-and-black striped shirt. He rarely goes anywhere without his clawed glove.

Backstory: Freddy’s mother was a nun who was tortured and raped by more than 100 pyschos while she was trapped in a prison for the criminally insane. His mother nearly died in childbirth and Freddy found a home with a violent alcoholic who abused him both physically and mentally. Freddy later murdered his adoptive father. Freddy grew up, got married, and fathered a daughter. He worked at a power plant and developed a fondness for kidnapping and murdering children. The police called him the Springwood Slasher. After Freddy was captured, law enforcement bungling forced them to release him. The parents of Freddy’s victims hunted him down and burned him to death. But before death took him, Freddy was approached by three evil dream demons who gave him the power to turn dreams into reality. Now Freddy returns to hunt victims in the night.

Method of Murder: Freddy wears a metallic glove with razor sharp claws at the end. He likes to torture his teenage victims, by manipulating their dreams. He generally kills them while they sleep – the wounds materializing in real-life after he slays them in slumber land.

Killer Quote: “One, two, Freddy's coming for you/ Three, four, better lock your door/ Five, six, grab your crucifix/ Seven, eight, gonna stay up late/ Nine, ten, never sleep again.”

Random Pop Reference: Freddy has appeared in three episodes of “The Simpsons” Halloween specials.

Honors: AFI ranked Freddy number 40 on its list of greatest Heroes and Villains list.

Jason Voorhees

The Hockey Mask and Machette-welding Mass Murderer

First Appearance: Friday the 13^th (1980)

No. of Film Appearances: 12

Created By: Victor Miller, Ron Kurtz, Sean S. Cunningham, Tom Savini

Actors: Many actors have portrayed Jason including Ari Lehman, Warrington Gillette, Steve Daskewisz, Richard Booker, Ted White, Tom Morga, C.J. Graham, Dan Bradley, Kane Hodder, and Ken Kirzinger

Description: A gigantic, mammoth man with a distorted, ugly face usually clad tattered dark clothes. Jason rarely speaks. He wears an old 1950s style Detroit Red Wings goalie mask and carries a machete.

Backstory: Jason was not the primary killer in the first “Friday the 13^th” movie – his mother was. Jason was the motivation behind her murders – because he died from a drowning while camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake fooled around. Jason – the mass murdering adult – didn’t come until the 1981 sequel. Not much is known about Jason. He was a mentally challenged child who grew up with an abusive mother. Creators re-engineered his drowning so that he didn’t die, just washed up on shore and lived in the forest. It is speculated that he continues to kill to please his dead mother. His creators have called him a “psycho-savant” with a high tolerance for pain.

Method of Murder: Jason is quite fond of using sharp object to poke, dismember, and slaughter his victims. That’s why he really enjoys using his rusty, blood-splattered machete.

Killer Quote: “He (Jason) doesn't have any personality. He's like a great white shark. You can't really defeat him. All you can hope for is to survive.”

Random Pop Reference: Jason has become a cultural icon – from comic books to parodies to appearances in pop songs. Musicians from Alice Cooper to Tupac Shakur have sang about him.

Honors: Jason received a lifetime achievement award from MTV in 1992 – one of only three fictional characters to ever get the award.

Michael Myers

The Supernatural Babysitter Butcher of Illinois

First Appearance: Halloween (1978)

No. of Film Appearances: 9

Created By: John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Actors: Many actors have played Michael including Nick Castle, Tony Moran, Will Sandin, Dick Warlock, George P. Wilbur, Don Shanks, Chris Durand, Brad Loree, Tyler Mane, and Daeg Faerch

Description: A hulking man in soiled gray overalls wearing a rubber William Shatner mask backwards and often carrying a butcher knife. He is obsessed with teenage girls and often follows them around before murdering them and their friends.

Backstory: The character, according to creator John Carpenter, was based on Yul Brenner’s killer robot in the film “Westword.” At six years old, Michael murders his sister with a butcher knife on Halloween night. The boy was sent to a hospital for the criminally insane. He escapes as an adult and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to continue murdering teenagers. It is likely that Michael is supernatural or possessed by some supernatural evil spirit – because he cannot be killed (by bullets, knifes, etc.).

Method of Murder: Michael enjoys killing with knives – but he’s very resourceful when he needs to be.

Killer Quote: “(I wanted to) raise this Michael Myers character up to a mythic status; make him human, yes, but almost like a force. A force that will never stop, that can't be denied."

Random Pop Reference: Michael made his debut in video games in a 1983 Halloween game released by Atari. He’s been the subject of novels, comic books, toys, dolls, etc. Another icon of the horror movie slasher genre.

Honors: The Halloween series has grossed more than $328 million worldwide.

Leatherface

Got Chainsaw?

First Appearance: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

No. of Film Appearances: 6

Created By: Tobe Hooper

Actors: Leatherface has been portrayed by actors Gunnar Hansen, Bill Johnson, R.A. Mihailoff, Robert Jacks, and Andrew Bryniarski

Description: A big, chubby man who is mentally retarded. He wears old clothes and likes to stalk around wearing the peeled off facial skin of his victims. He enjoys lugging around a gas-powered chainsaw.

Backstory: Leatherface’s real name is Bubba Sawyer. He is one of four brothers who live with their grandparents and great-grandmother in an old house in Texas. The family members are cannibals – and Leatherface the primary cook. In the new series of movies, Leatherface’s real name is Thomas Brown Hewitt. His mother dies in childbirth and he is tossed in a Dumpster where a woman finds him and takes him home. The creators noted he’s treated more like a pet than a son.

Method of Murder: Leatherface uses a chainsaw to dismember his victims and then carves up the meat for storage in a meat locker – so his family can dine on the remains later. He’s also been known to use a sledgehammer.

Killer Quote: “Leatherface is completely under the control of his family. He'll do whatever they tell him to do. He's a little bit afraid of them.”

Random Pop Reference: Leatherface has been the main character is a series by Wildstorm Comics.

Hannibal Lecter

Psychiatrist and Cannibalistic Serial Murderer

First Appearance: Manhunter (1986)

No. of Film Appearances: 5

Created By: Thomas Harris

Actors: Brian Cox, Anthony Hopkins, Gaspard Ulliel and Aaran Thomas

Description: A short, thin man with great physical strength for his size. He has a sixth digit on his left hand (two middle fingers). He had wispy black hair which he slicks back over his head and small than average teeth. He also has a calm, creepy demeanor and an uncomfortable stare. He’s extremely sophisticated and quite an elegant talker.

Backstory: Lecter is the son of Lithuanian aristocrats and is orphaned with his sister during World War II. The siblings are captured by Nazis – who murder his sister and eat her – in front of him. Later escaping, Lecter is raised in an orphanage until adopted by his uncle. He has an affair with his uncle’s wife after his death. His obsession with catching his sister’s killers overcomes him and hunts down, kills, and eats each of them. He is a brilliant man and graduated from the John Hopkins Medical Center to become a world renowned psychiatrist. He continues to kill – mostly patients and those connected to his patients until he is arrested by the FBI and imprisoned.

Method of Murder: He murders in various methods, but usually eats his victims by cooking them up gourmet style.

Killer Quote: “(Lecter) is standing at rest - like a savage animal confident of the brutality coiled up inside him. His speaking voice has the precision of a man so arrogant he can barely be bothered to address the sloppy intelligence of the ordinary person.”

Random Pop Reference: Lecter has been parodied on “South Park” and in the movie “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”

Honors: “Silence of the Lambs” won the Oscar for best movie in 1991.

Jigsaw

Want to Play a Game?

First Appearance: Saw (2004)

No. of Film Appearances: 5

Created By: James Wan and Leigh Whannell

Actor: Tobin Bell

Description: A balding middle aged man with a hang-dog, expressionless face. He is paunchy and average sized, but very cunning, patient, and willing to do what it takes to succeed.

Backstory: Jigsaw is Jonathan Kramer, a civil engineer who is dying from an inoperable frontal lobe tumor as a result of colon cancer. He is divorced from his wife, a drug counselor, after their unborn child dies in an attack by one of his wife’s patients. The event makes Jigsaw angry and detached. Once he learns of his cancer, Jigsaw devises intricate traps and places flawed people into them in order for them to see the error of their ways. Those who survive, Jigsaw believes, will be better people. Oddly, Jigsaw doesn’t see himself as a murderer, but someone who helps people. He wants his surviving victims to appreciate their lives.

Method of Murder: Jigsaw sets up deadly traps to see how far his victims will go in saving their own lives. If they die he cuts a jigsaw puzzle shaped section of their flesh – as a symbol that they where missing a part of themselves needed to survive the traps.

Killer Quote: "He's not Jason or Freddy. He's not even Hannibal Lecter. He's a person with extreme beliefs and he really thinks he's making a difference. He's a vigilante if anything. He thinks he's making a difference."

Random Pop Reference: Jigsaw action figures are now available.

Honors: The Saw movie series has earned more than $555 million worldwide.

Patrick Bateman

The Boy Next Door

First Appearance: American Pyscho (2000)

No. of Film Appearances: 3

Created By: Bret Easton Ellis

Actors: Christian Bale, Dechen Thurman, and Michael Krembo

Description: A sophisticated, well-educated young investment banker. He’s handsome, but intense and very competitive. He’s fond of wearing expensive designer clothing – especially suits. He is arrogant and seems full of self loathing.

Backstory: Bateman is the oldest son of wealthy Long Island parents. His parents are divorced and his mother lives in a sanatorium. Bateman attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard University, and Harvard Business School. He lives in Manhattan on the Upper Wide Side and works in investment banking. He’s the ultimate yuppie, except that Bateman leads a double life and enjoys murdering people in a variety of ways – including torture and cannibalism.

Method of Murder: Various – but he likes to torture or have sexual liaisons with his victims before killing them.

Killer Quote: "I like to dissect girls; do you know I'm utterly insane?"

Random Pop Reference: In the Showtime serial killer series “Dexter,” the main character uses Patrick Bateman as an alias.

Honors: “American Psycho” has become a cult hit.

Chucky

This Doll is Your Worst Nightmare

First Appearance: Child’s Play (1988)

No. of Film Appearances: 5

Created By: Don Mancini, John Lafia, and Tom Holland

Actor: Voiced by Brad Dourif

Description: A two-foot tall plastic “Good Guy” doll. The doll has red hair and big, blue eyes and wears cute overalls.

Backstory: A serial killer called the Lakeshore Strangler is shot by police. The mortally wounded killer, Charles Lee Ray, breaks into a toy store and falls on top of pile of “Good Guy” dolls. Just before he dies, he chants a voodoo spell to place his soul into one of the dolls. The toy store burns to the ground, but the doll lives.

Method of Murder: Chucky kills with various methods, but generally like to use hammers, knives, and hatchets to do away with his victims.

Killer Quote: “This is certainly not "Pinocchio" or "Babes in Toyland," and it may not do much for the sale of large boy dolls between now and Christmas.”

Random Pop Reference: Chucky was parodied on “Robot Chicken,” and voiced by Mark Hamill.

Honors: The Child Play series has gross more than $175 million worldwide.

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Labels: Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Horror, Movies, Serial Killers, Texas Chainsaw Massacre

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