Dear Charles Bukowski...

Oddly enough, your end results of mankind isn't strange and unrealistic at all. It's a possibitlity and that's enough. Honestly, if I were to guess/predict the idea of where you were going with the word choice you used in your lyrics, I would say how you definitely wanted to get people's attention with dramatic yet realistic potential to be the way we view our world in the near future. I agree with you however, in my opinion I see it as a generalization and just simply further analysis of conclusions from what we are already slowly,but surely experiencing now. "Radiated men" could be the conclusion of a nuclear war, "a bag boy with a college degree" can represent the recession amongst us fellow Americans, and so on. Moreover, I admire your work and courage for being able to speak about something that seems so many have purposely overlooked because of their own "close-mindedness".
The poem seems to take place in many different time periods - present, past and future. You address the futility of government and education in the first section “As political landscapes dissolve / As the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree / As the oily fish spit out their oily prey / As the sun is masked” The beginning of the poem seems to detail how the end begins. The downfall of political power, the uselessness of education and extreme pollution are all things that have been topics in dystopian literature. In this poem, Bukowski sets it in the present in order to drive in the fact that we, as we are, function within a dystopian setting. A real live 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451. Although he does not go into detail of the cause of the downfall, one can relate his tone to just a general feeling of misanthropy towards humankind. He conveys a feeling of negativity harbored towards people in general, possibly believing that their inherent flaws have always caused this world to be a dystopia.
You conclude the poem by stating blatantly that the cycle is doomed to be repeated, whether it be by humans or another society of beings. He alludes to some sort of solace found in the aftermath of man’s self-created decimation in the final few lines of the poem; “And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard / Born out of that / The sun still hidden there / Awaiting the next chapter.” The circle of life and optimism are crushed by Bukowski’s blatant pessimism throughout this poem and his idea of, essentially, a cycle of destruction. The self-perpetuating, inherited flaw that mankind possesses creates his own destruction. The poem conveys an overall theme of helplessness, and the hopelessness of life itself – all qualities that are most certainly depicted in all novels.
--Lovely :)

Father and Son(Author Comparison)

In many literary works, family relationships are the key to the plot. Through a family's interaction with one another, the reader is able decipher the conflicts of the story. Within a literary family, various characters play different roles in each other's lives. These are usually people that are emotionally and physically connected in one way or another. They can be brother and sister, mother and daughter, or in this case, father and son. In the Arthur Miller's novel, Death of A Salesman, the interaction between Willy Loman and his sons, Happy and Biff, allows Miller to comment on father-son relationships and the conflicts that arise from them.However in the story were currently reading in my class called "The Crucible" by McCarthy has a strong yet distant relationship between the boy and his father mentally/verbally during such a time.

During most father-son relationships, there are certain times where the father wants to become more of a "player" in his son's life than his son believes is necessary. The reasons for this are numerous and can be demonstrated in different ways. Miller is able to give an example of this behavior through the actions of Willy Loman. When Biff comes home to recollect himself, Willy perceives it as failure. Since Willy desperately wants his oldest son, Biff, to succeed in every way possible, he tries to take matters into his own hands. "I'll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time". The reason that Biff came home is to find out what he wants in life. Because Willy gets in the way, matters become more complicated. Partly due to Willy's persistence in Biff's life, they have conflicting ideas as to what the American dream is. Willy believes that working on the road by selling is the greatest job a man could have. Biff, however, feels the most inspiring job a man could have is working outdoors. When their two dreams collide, it becomes frustrating to Willy because he believes that his way is the right way. If a father becomes too involved in his son's life, Miller believes friction will be the resultant factor.