The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship is a collection of extracts from the journals of Charles Bukowski, spanning 1991 to 1993. The book was first published in 1998 with illustrations by Robert Crumb. The diary entries record the last few years of Bukowski's life, ages 71 to 72 (having lived only to age 73), in which he talks about drinking, gambling, aging, fighting, fame, and the ordinary, day-to-day activities of a famous, alcoholic, gambling writer. Of most importance throughout this novel is that Bukowski makes sure his 9 different cats are well-fed and taken-care-of, even when his girlfriend (several decades younger) is too drunk or hungover to help with this activity.
The title is taken from the first sentence of the last diary entry, although it doesn't define any plot but acts as a type of prose. Given the contexts of the poems about Anarchy and Anarchism in Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame: Selected Poems 1955–1973 (1974), it is likely that Bukowski's work here (especially the title) is inspired by the Anarchist-Communism he discovered when working with anarchist and Jewish editors in New York, USA in the early 60's (see the poem: "I Wanted to Take Down the Government, But All I Took Down was my Best Friend's Wife").
Legacy
Numerous sayings of Bukowski from this book, particularly about racetrack betting, are enthralled in the movie Factotum.
Samuel Pepys was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Navy of England and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a young man. Pepys had no maritime experience, but he rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and King James II through patronage, diligence, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy.
Henry Charles Bukowski was a German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer.
"To His Coy Mistress" is a metaphysical poem written by the English author and politician Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) either during or just before the English Interregnum (1649–60). It was published posthumously in 1681.
James Dennis Carroll was an American author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries, which inspired a 1995 film of the same title that starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll, and his 1980 song "People Who Died" with the Jim Carroll Band.
Alexander Berkman was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing.
Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705) was a Puritan minister, physician, and poet whose poem The Day of Doom was a bestseller in early New England.
Lu You was a Chinese historian and poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋).
Fujiwara no Sadaie (藤原定家), better-known as Fujiwara no Teika, was a Japanese anthologist, calligrapher, literary critic, novelist, poet, and scribe of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods. His influence was enormous, and he is counted as among the greatest of Japanese poets, and perhaps the greatest master of the waka form – an ancient poetic form consisting of five lines with a total of 31 syllables.
Ernst Toller was a German author, playwright, left-wing politician and revolutionary, known for his Expressionist plays. He served in 1919 for six days as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, after which he became the head of its army. He was imprisoned for five years for his part in the armed resistance by the Bavarian Soviet Republic to the central government in Berlin. While in prison Toller wrote several plays that gained him international renown. They were performed in London and New York as well as in Berlin.
Barfly is a 1987 American film directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway. The film is a semi-autobiography of poet/author Charles Bukowski during the time he spent drinking heavily in Los Angeles, and it presents Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski. The screenplay, written by Bukowski, was commissioned by the French film director Barbet Schroeder, and it was published in 1984, when film production was still pending.
Factotum is a 2005 French-Norwegian drama film co-written and directed by Bent Hamer, adapted from the 1975 novel of the same name by Charles Bukowski. It stars Matt Dillon as Bukowski’s alter ego, Henry Chinaski. Although events in the book take place in Los Angeles in the 1940s, the film has a contemporary setting.
Lyle Stuart was an American author and independent publisher of controversial books. He worked as a newsman for years before launching his publishing firm, Lyle Stuart, Incorporated.
Kagerō Nikki is a work of classical Japanese literature, written around 974, that falls under the genre of nikki bungaku, or diary literature. The author of Kagerō Nikki was a woman known only as the Mother of Michitsuna. Using a combination of waka poems and prose, she conveys the life of a noblewoman during the Heian period.
The Bolshevik Myth is a book by Alexander Berkman describing his experiences in Bolshevist Russia from 1920 to 1922, where he saw the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Written in the form of a diary, The Bolshevik Myth describes how Berkman's initial enthusiasm for the revolution faded as he became disillusioned with the Bolsheviks and their suppression of all political dissent.
The bibliography of George Orwell includes journalism, essays, novels and non-fiction books written by the British writer Eric Blair (1903–1950), either under his own name or, more usually, under his pen name George Orwell. Orwell was a prolific writer on topics related to contemporary English society and literary criticism, who has been declared "perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture." His non-fiction cultural and political criticism constitutes the majority of his work, but Orwell also wrote in several genres of fictional literature.
Josiah John Goodwin was a British stenographer and a disciple of Indian philosopher Swami Vivekananda. Goodwin is known for recording Vivekananda's speeches, and it is thought that without his efforts most of Vivekananda's works would have been lost.
Erich Mühsam was a German-Jewish antimilitarist anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic, for which he served 5 years in prison.
There's Gonna Be a God Damn Riot in Here is a film documenting the last live poetry reading given outside the US by Charles Bukowski, even though he lived and wrote for another 14 years. The reading was given at the Viking Inn, a small concert hall in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on October 12, 1979. It is produced by Dennis Del Torre and directed by Jon Monday for mondayMEDIA distribution.
"Death-Song of Conan the Cimmerian" is a 1972 fantasy narrative poem by American writer Lin Carter, featuring Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian. It was first published in Glenn Lord's Howard fanzine The Howard Collector, no. 17, Autumn, 1972, and reprinted in Carter's poetry collection Dreams from R'lyeh, and the magazine The Savage Sword of Conan v. 1, no. 8, October 1975. This last appearance included illustrations by Jess Jodloman.
Charles Bukowski's work has influenced popular culture many times over in many forms, and his work has been referenced in film, television, music and theater.
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