Thanks to 20th century writers like Jack Kerouac, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway, the literary drunk has become something of a romantic archetype, despite its obvious failings. This idealized icon gets visualized through animation in a free-reign visual interpretation of a Charles Bukowski poem called “BEER.” From creative production studio Nerdo, BEER by Charles Bukowski projects the solemn words of the fabled gutter poet through abstract, minimalist illustrations that resemble the drawings of French illustrator Simon Landrein. Much like Blank on Blank’s Bukowski video, Nerdo’s animation is filled with charming illustrations and added sound effects that breathe life into these dismal stanzas.
The prose might sound like the sad-sack musings of your local drunk, but listen closely and you’ll get a taste of the fatal hopefulness of Bukowski finding solace “after splits with women,” “waiting for the phone to ring,” or even “waiting for the sounds of footsteps.” Nerdo describes the poem as a “manifesto of the author’s way of life,” and saw it as a way to really get inside of the head of the late writer. “A brain solo without filter, a tale of ordinary madness, showing how much loneliness and decadence can be hidden inside a genius mind,” Nerdo writes. In vino, veritas? Well, maybe the two go hand in hand. Watch the full animation below:
Videos by VICE
See more of Nerdo’s work on their website.
Via Open Culture
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