Bukowski
Written for the lower class Written in California in 1968 for a weekly column in the Open City newspaper, Charles Bukowski 's “Non Horseshit Horse Advice” was intended to give advice to people going to horse races. Bukowski begins by describing the people you may or may not see at the Hollywood Park horse races. In the next paragraph he starts to explain how the track makes money off of the people betting on the horses, and how it is rigged. Then he says that he knows the way to win, but he won 't tell the readers because then everyone would do it. Next he describes when not to bet on horses, such as when all you have is the rent money you owe for that month. He then finally starts to give some advice. First he says to watch your under-lay shots, because they are often mistakes. Then he says to lay off the closers. This is because closers are audience favorites, but most likely will not win. He then says that if you must bet on a closer to do it for short races, because the crowd does not believe he has time to “get up”. Then he says watch your tote board, and only to bet when you can lose. This goes back to what he said about only rent when your rent money is not on the line. Finally he says that any profit loss venture is not based upon the number of winners you have but on the number of winners at that price. These words of advice all do a great job of summing up one of his major points, which is that the game is all rigged.
By not capitalizing anything in the article he has written, Bukowski tries to make his article easier to read by the less educated or lower class audience he is trying to attract. The higher class audiences would already have had a pretty good knowledge of horse racing. Horse races at the time were a staple recreational activity for the wealthy, and because of that his advice would be useless to them because they already know about them. Bukowski targets the lower class audience, because they are more
By not capitalizing anything in the article he has written, Bukowski tries to make his article easier to read by the less educated or lower class audience he is trying to attract. The higher class audiences would already have had a pretty good knowledge of horse racing. Horse races at the time were a staple recreational activity for the wealthy, and because of that his advice would be useless to them because they already know about them. Bukowski targets the lower class audience, because they are more
Cited: Bukowski, Charles. "Non-Horse shit horse advice." Open City [ California ] 1968, n. pag. Print. Jones, Amy, and Jennifer Greer. "You Don 't Look Like an Athlete: The Effects of." 34.4 (2011): 4. Print.