As Hubert Selby says, in an interview with Ellen Burstyn (true story: I landscaped for her many, many years ago), he delivers catharsis-free, brutal narratives, but the consistent reaction he has gotten is that his work inspires compassion. This makes sense to me. Sometimes to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, you have to see what they suffer. It was not his intention: he was describing the world he knew, but on balance I think his work seems to have been beneficial.
And he makes the point that the key to ending suffering is to embrace it. It is counter-intuitive, but it works.
I have a personal story, but it will bring up some feelings I am not going to process this moment. Maybe tomorrow.
I saw, though, that he is sometimes included as one of the Beats, presumably because he deals with what we might generalize to the “Invisible People”. The people you know are there–the people sleeping on the sidewalk, shooting up in an abandoned house somewhere, selling their bodies and dignity for intermittent moments free of pain–but about whom you don’t want to think. They are too fucked up, you think. There is nothing you can do for them. They are not “one of us”.
I continue to dream of a great offensive into the world of pain, into the world of suffering. But nothing large can be built overnight, and until I heal myself, I am myopic and as likely to do harm as good.
I will say, though, that I have suffered greatly for this dream, and will continue to do so, as long as needed until I punch through to the other side.