A Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda

This is the second book, right after the Teachings of Don Juan, and is a continuation of the same story line, with Carlos returning to see Don Juan after he got defeated by the first enemy on the Path to Knowledge, Fear, at the end of the previous volume.  The emphasis in this book is on learning "Seeing" which in Don Juan's system is seeing the world and humans as they really are, consisting of energy lines, which form egg-shapes around humans and a cocoon around the planet.  Do not confuse these with the "Lay Lines" which are used for dowsing, if you believe in that. 

Don Juan uses the "Little Smoke" ally to teach Carlito about "Seeing" and also to let him see "The Guardian" at the gates of the Other World.  Don Genaro also tries to teach Carlito to see by displaying feats accomplished by the tentacles of his luminous egg, but it doesn't help.  Don Juan says that Don Genaro almost killed Carlito by trying to make him see, because he liked him a lot and wanted to help him.

At the end of the book, Don Juan tells Carlos that he doesn't really change by acquiring all this sorcerer knowledge and that he is still a luminous egg like every other human being and that he will die and disappear forever, just like everyone else.  Don Juan also demonstrates to Carlos that his belief that every moment in life is unique and unrepeatable is false.  He makes a leaf fall from a tree in the exact same way as a previous one, touching on the exact same branches, which Carlos says was like watching an instant replay on television.

This time around, I started reading the 10 books from the third, but I went back to the second before I got to the fourth because I realized I forgot many things, even though I've read it before.  I am still amazed at how Castaneda's critics take unimportant parts of his work and make them the arbiters of success or failure.  Like for example Clement Meighan and Stephen C. Thomas are amazed how Catholicism is not an important part of Don Juan's repertoire and call him decisively anti-Catholic, which is not typical of Yaqui Indians, which are fervent Catholics.  But these anthropologists are only looking at the outer, the exoteric, of which neither Don Juan nor Castaneda were interested much, but instead they cared about the inner, the esoteric knowledge, which has been passed on for thousands of years, before any of the current Indian tribes existed, and way before the white man came over the sea with his convenient religion that justifies oppression.

At one point Don Juan asks Carlos why does he assume that he is really a Yaqui Indian?  Maybe he is a Mezotec Indian, or some other tribe?  Don Juan had a very low opinion of the Indians in the Americas, and often regretted that he was born as an Indian.  He was absolutely not interested in Yaqui "group life" and similar traditions which he considered primitive superstitions,  These are the outer forms that other anthropologists and missionaries would usually see when living among these tribes.  The secrets that Don Juan was party to and which he tried to convey and teach to Carlos were infinitely older and more powerful, the true supernatural powers of the sorcerers of the dawn of time. 

Don Juan mentions that the teachings came through the Toltecs, which taught pyramid building to the Maya and inspired the space ship designs on the inner pyramid walls, but at another time he mentioned that this Secret Knowledge predates even the Toltecs, going back to the mist of the earliest times of humanity.  Basically, trying to learn the Yaqui way of life from Don Juan's and Castaneda's teachings would be like trying to learn outward Tibetan Buddhism from Gurgjieff's writings.  Both men were completely uninterested in the current superstitions and empty rituals that the common folk were wasting their time with, but instead wanted to learn the primeval secret knowledge that has been passed only to the rare ones who were chosen by "The Spirit" in an uninterrupted line from teacher to student, without anything being written down until very recently. 

Similar critics of Castaneda ask about how come Don Juan is not hostile to the Mexican state, and Mexicans in general, which massacred the Indians.  However, Don Juan, in this very volume, tells Carlos that his mother and father were brutally murdered by Mexican soldiers, while he watched, as a little boy, and then he was viciously beaten by the same soldiers, breaking several of his bones.  However, while for a long time he plotted revenge, eventually when he started advancing on the Path of Knowledge, he realized that the biggest punishment for those soldiers is that they will die and disappear into nothingness, like phantoms who never really existed, while those chosen by the Spirit, who became true warriors on the Path of Knowledge, never died in this world and moved consciously to another plane of existence.

Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda

Long time ago, when I was just entering my teen years, my uncle, once removed, who later died of Multiple Sclerosis, gave me the book "The Teachings of Don Juan" with the task to read everything else by the author.  I was mesmerized by the story inside, and also by the addendum describing the hierarchy of the spiritual beings encountered.  I wolfed down the book, and then got the next one "Separate Reality" and wolfed down that one too.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find the rest of the books, although these were the early 90s already, so Castaneda has already published 8 of the total 10 books.  My English was not that great at the time, so I had to read the first two books in Serbian/Croatian translations, where they were published in small batches, and were difficult to find.  Of course, there were none in a Macedonian translation, the domestic publishing industry being pretty much a joke.

Soon after, life took over and I forgot about my promise and Castaneda.  Some years later, when I was a sophomore in university, I remembered Castaneda again and read the third and fourth books, "Journey to Ixtlan" and "Tales of Power", however at the same time I got access (through the nascent internet) to the writings of Richard de Mille and other Castaneda critics, which resonated with me as initially I truly believed these to be works of scientific anthropology.  Also, when I found out that the last two books have to do with "Tensegrity" which critics say Castaneda lifted from some traveling Chinese teacher - I got even more disappointed, as most of the moves in "Tensegrity" seemed to be modifications of Tai Chi moves, which I was practicing at the time. So, I decided to forget about Castaneda and considered my time spent reading his books (and practicing the exercises!) to be a complete waste.  For many years.

Then, one day in the far future, after I got several degrees and moved to half a dozen different countries, older and fatter and balder, walking through a nearby neighborhood I saw "The Teachings of Don Juan" lying by the sidewalk.  It was like meeting a long-forgotten friend.  No, I didn't immediately go back to believing in everything Castaneda wrote, but it was more like nostalgia trip into my long gone past.  I did make a note to get my Castaneda books when I go back to my parents house in Europe.  And so I did last summer, but did not start reading them until this summer.  This summer I decided to actually read all ten books, but since I've already read the first one several times, and the second twice, I decided to start with the third one.  This time I was not under the belief that these books are anthropological fact, but saw them as a mixture of mysticism, biography and instruction, alike the books of Swedenborg and Gurdjieff. When you look at them through that prism, they become much more valuable, especially if you find a way to apply some techniques to your everyday life.

The third book "Journey to Ixtlan" deals with "Stopping the World", a major step in a sorcerer's life when they become separated from the delusional and unreal world around us, but make a breakthrough to the "other world" which is the only real one.  Hallucinogenic plants and drugs are completely de-emphasized, and emphasis is put on sorcerer's (Carlos') training in a different perception using his default five senses, but in a different way than normal.  Don Juan also explains the further path of the sorcerer, when one chooses whether they will be a hunter or a warrior, which is the root of the much more fine distinctions built upon in the later books.  Acquiring an Ally from the Other World and being constantly conscious of one's own impending, unavoidable death, which should serve as an advisor, not a threat, are also some of the main points discussed in this volume.  The books ends with Don Juan (Matus) and Don Genaro (Flores) leaving young Carlito to meet his ally face to face, after he succeeded in stopping the world, as they think he is ready.  But Carlito decides to leave the assigned place and go back to LA, feeling himself not ready for face to face meeting with the Ally. The journey to Ixtlan, Don Genaro's home, is a metaphor on how when the sorcerer succeeds in "Stopping the World" (which might have parallels in Gurdjieff's teachings), then the person is never the same anymore, and cannot really go back to what he thought as home before, as that place doesn't really exists for him, and all the people in his life, except sorcerers, become like phantoms, with ephemeral, unimportant existence.  The journey to Ixtlan is a journey that can never be completed, Don Juan says, and what is Ixtlan for Don Genaro, is LA for Carlos. 

Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

This book is a collection of columns that Bukowski wrote for LA underground newspapers, mostly Open City, where the editors would allow him to write whatever he wants, and that's exactly what he did. Most of the columns/chapters, separated only by short vertical lines, are stream of consciousness writing with no regards to punctuation or grammar rules.  Pretty much every sentence is run-on.

The prose is dense, full of memories or musings about the nature of the world.  I prefer the stories about his past, that he actually lived through, rather than his opinions on philosophical issues, which are neither very original nor very entertaining.  Some of the columns/chapter are precursors to chapters in his later novels "Ham and Rye" and "Factotum", but in a very rudimentary form, and without much humor, which one can find in the novels, but with pure anger and frustration, with some very strong and disturbing language spread throughout (obviously not edited by an editor).  One especially memorable sentence starts with "All women are animals ..." which is a disturbing statement, though it becomes clear later what he meant and that he has a similar opinion about men as well, and the entirety of the human race.  Not sure if that makes it much better, though.

It is much more difficult to read than his novels or even short stories, even though some short stories are interspersed among the columns.  He universally refuses to use a capital letter at the beginning of sentences and there are almost no paragraph breaks or other punctuation rules that help with reading, so it is a bit of an effort to go through, but eventually it is worth it if you enjoy Bukowski sharp sarcasm, observations and rawness.

Hollywood by Charles Bukowski

This novel follows, chronologically, "Women" and in it there is no promiscuous sex, since Chinaski is now married to the last woman from "Woman" which he calls Sarah in the novel, and who is Linda in real life. As in previous books, pretty much everything in it reflects Bukowski's real life, only the names are changed, and not much either.  As one of his former USPS colleagues said in the biographical movie "Born into this" - everything in the novel "Post Office" was true, only the names were (slightly) changed - the character in question was named Tom in the novel, while he is Don in real life.  Same with Hollywood.

Lots of crazy Hollywood types in the book, but by now (2020), we're quite used to Hollywood types being brainless idiots with egos larger than the universe, so it is not as shocking as his previous books.  I think Bukowski is getting older here and almost feeling his impending death, which occurred just after he finished his last novel "Pulp" - which is his only novel where Hank Chinaski is not the main protagonist, and is not based on Bukowski's real life, which makes it, as one critic put it, "the worst American novel ever written." 

I really got sick and tired of reading about horse races and horse race gambling.  I've never been a fan of gambling in my life, as it is only for idiots who can't do math, and I learned way too much about betting on horse races than I ever wanted to know.  Also boxing matches and betting on boxing.  Don't care and never will. 

It is a good idea to see the movie "Barfly" first, so one can compare the parts in the movie with the descriptions Bukowski gives in the book.  Some parts were changed, because his script was far more brutal and anti-social than what the Hollywood producers (Firepower=Cannon) allowed.  And also, while Mickey Rourke makes a passable Chinaski, Fay Dunaway is definitely not the hard-drinking, foul-mouthed broad from Bukowski's script.

An interesting read overall, however not as vile and shocking as "Women", not as well-written as "Post Office", not as relevant as "Ham and Rye" and not as comprehensive as "Factotum."

Factotum by Charles Bukowski

This book describes the 20s and 30s of Bukowski's life.  It starts where "Ham and Rye" finishes, and ends before "Post Office" begins.  Of course, in between are the "10 years of drunken blackout" as Bukowski likes to call it.  It is written in his recognizable style, and fans will love his flowing prose and conversational writing.  It has even less women in it than "Post Office", so any accusations of misogyny would have even less proof than in his other books.

The book describes Bukowski traveling around the US: St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, Miami, etc. and working random menial jobs, from where the title of the novel comes from.  A couple of times he tries to get a job as a journalist, mentioning that he has two years of Journalism at LA City College, but editors are uninterested, and instead offer him job as a janitor, which he soon abandons.

The two important women in the book are Jan and Laura.  Jan is round-of-the-mill barfly, promiscuous alcoholic that Bukowski (Chinaski) shacks up with several times, but as he puts it, things went downhill when Jan would "not get her four fucks per day". Laura on the other hand has a rich sugar daddy, who also keeps two other women around, and she shops on his credit.  However, when the rich sugar daddy dies after consuming a bottle of vodka, the whole gig falls apart, and Chinaski says that he "never saw Laura" or the other two women again.

The 2015 movie "Factotum" is quite accurate representation of some plot points in the book, though Bukowski's writings are simply unfilmable.  The whole immersive experience in Bukowski's writings is to do with his internal dialogue, and his take on descriptions of places, things and people (with his dark humor and sarcasm), which cannot possibly be transferred to a visual medium, unless the entire thing is done as a full narration.

The 1986 movie "Barfly", for which Bukowski wrote the script, and appeared as a bar wino, and also used the experience to write a scathing novel about the film industry ("Hollywood"), is also based largely on "Factotum", but the script takes other liberties and veers off the actual book, which might a good thing, more original content.  Mickey Rourke had down the general leering, non-serious attitude that Chinaski shows in the books, but Matt Dillon is closer to how Chinaski treats other people, especially women.  Both films are interesting to watch, but nothing special in the big picture of things.  Just read the books.

"Ham on Rye" by Charles Bukowski

I always thought Mark Twain's novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were the seminal American coming-of-age works, but that was only until I read this work about Bukowski's childhood and youth. The title might be a word play on "Catcher in the Rye", another seminal coming-of-age American novel, which was actually banned for a while because it had some sex and suicide in it. If that's the criteria, then Bukowski's novel should have been banned for all times, since it has all that and way, way more.


First the random violence that his father bestows upon him is absolutely disturbing by today's standards. I read online reviews saying "that was normal in the 1930s and everybody did it", but hell, it is still disturbing, especially when teachers at school do it, like the principal who almost broke little Charles' hand to prove he is tougher than the little kid - what a psychopath!


The kids at school beating on each other, especially on the weaker ones, is also described very disturbingly, especially incidents like and older kid breaking smaller kid's teeth by shoving his mouth into a water fountain, which went unpunished. Growing up in such environment Bukowski realized that there is only one way to survive - became more asshole than all the assholes around him. And he succeeded!


 By the time he is in high school, he is one of the toughest kids around and nobody dares messing with him. That also leaves him with no friends as well, which is why he turns to alcohol about age 15 and keeps at it until the end of his life, just before his 74th birthday.


The book is written in a very flowing and conversational manner, as Bukowski always said that one should write as one speaks, and he hated the flowery, embellished language of the 19th century writers (which I actualy like, quite a bit). Things like a 13-year-old girl being raped by her father ("her father took her virginity"), suicide and egregious domestic violance are mentioned in passing, as if they are the most normal things.


Bukowski describes how he hit his own father eventually, although their relationship ended later, when his father threw out his short stories and typewriter, which Bukowski couldn't forgive (he had to draw a line somewhere).


Bukowski's advice for writers is, when a story or a chapter is finished, delete the first and last paragraphs, so this book ends pretty much in mid-page, mid-action, just like it starts.

Women by Charles Bukowski

This is probably one of the most controversial works by Bukowski, although all his works are more or less controversial.  It depicts the period of his life when he was already quite famous, though not famous enough to stop with the public readings.  Later on he started making enough money from royalties, so he stopped appearing in public, which he always hated, as he hated crowds, fakers, posers, and most people in general. 

The book describes his relationships with about a dozen women, who, with one or two exceptions, were all crazier than him, greater addicts than him, and more promiscuous than him, which is quite an achievement.  The longest relationship is with Lydia Vance, actually Linda King in real life, who comes across as a total psycho, though Bukowski rose up to be her equal, even breaking her nose in a fight once.  The other women are always-high-on-uppers Tammy, who slept around as much as she could, and even offered to blow her own brother; Katherine, a Texas cutie, who doesn't stay long, Iris, a British Columbian waitress with a hot body, Tanya, who couldn't give good blow jobs, and many others.

There are lots of accusations of misogyny thrown Bukowski's way because of this book, however he was always surprised by that, often repeating that he treats men much worse than women in his novels, and yet nobody complains about that.  Indeed the men in the novel are all opportunists, cowards, thieves, frauds, weaklings, without morals and generally unlikable. 

The book ends after he finally decides to shack up with Sara, who is a devotee of Dryer Baba (Meher Baba), and doesn't let him fuck her in the vagina until the very end of the book.  He talks a lot about "mounting" women for sex, and I guess many people take offense to that, but it is just another of his mannerisms and ways of speaking, which makes his prose more interesting to read.