I've talked a great deal about what happened without really talking about the things that made the beat generation a revolutionary force not only in literature but in society. William S Burroughs is a trust fund baby. His great grandfather invents the burroughs adding machine. The precursor to the modern day calculator. He will never have to work a day in his life. His childhood is remembered as a blur of nannies, servants, and absent parents. Bill receives the best money can buy including a Harvard education. Yet still he is restless.
Jack Kerouac is the child of a printer and a factory worker. Raised catholic by his french-canadian parents who do not teach him english until he is five years old. Jack is pure American kitsch. He has boy next door looks. Jack goes to Columbia on a football scholarship. That is the image we have of him and the one the media portrayed. People forget that he is expelled from Columbia and joins the Navy only to be honorably discharged after six months. He proves to be middle class with a passion for adventure.(noteablebiographies)
The lower class is where Allen Ginsberg started his life. The son of jewish writers, he is raised among several progressive political perspectives. His mother is a radical communist who idolizes Stalin. She spends most of her life in and out of institutions. When he is accepted to Columbia he is aided by a grant from the YMHA. His perspective will always come form the downtrodden. (popsubculture)
As far as perspective goes they have the American audience covered. At least the white portion that bought books. Stylistically they are miles apart from the other published authors of their time. Burroughs first novel is a linear story about the trials of a heroin addict. Jack Kerouac's first novel is equally pedestrian. As Ginsberg gets attention for his epic poem the tide shifts. How they write becomes as important as the subjects they write about. Jack goes on benders for days at a time to write his novels. Bill writes bits or skits that amuse him while he is high. Ginsberg then takes the skits and arranges them into a story.
The beats, specifically Brion Gysin and Burroughs, are credited with inventing cut-up poetry. (socialfiction) The method is simple. Take a written poem and then draw geometric shapes on the page. Cut out the shapes and rearrange them. Sometimes these are brilliant but more often than not they take mediocre poems and turn them into insane ramblings. The point these artists were trying to make with this method was that words have hidden meaning and the order they are presented in makes a world of difference.
As a group they dabble in every popular religion, from Buddhism to Scientology. The world is seen as a place to explore and that everything is an experience. All things should be experienced at least once. Even if one has no intention of repeating the experience. Especially if one is terrified or disgusted by an act it should be experienced. As human beings it is our duty to go out into the world and get our hands dirty.
These men constantly overlooked class, status, race and gender. Before becoming successful they learn every street con there is. Joan Vollmer, who will be Bill's wife is infamous for her cons. She will steal or forge prescriptions for Benzedrine inhalers, just to crack them open and chew on the pad soaked with the drug. Finding herself homeless and hungry she sits in front of a cafe in New York starring into space until they commit her to Bellvue. She is an accepted part of the group. Prejudice is for the weak minded and the ignorant.
These men bring art back to literature. Artists create art as a compulsion. They do this by defying the conventions of their time. They break laws in their personal lives and with their art. As a group they cross mediums and invent new sub-genres. With their words they inspire generations to stand up and be counted. Artists will make art until they die. The beat generation inspires change even after they are all gone
Sources Cited:
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Jo-Ki/Kerouac-Jack.html
http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/allen_ginsberg.html
http://www.socialfiction.org/?tag=cut-up
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
And The Beat Goes On
Shortly after Kerouac's death and the murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson Family, the movement goes underground. Burroughs is commissioned to cover the Democratic National Convention by Rolling Stone. (Literary Outlaw) At the same event Ginsberg is there to protest the war in Vietnam. A riot breaks out and they garner the attention of the FBI.(popsubculture) The hippie ideals of peace, free love, and experimentation subside. The generation that grows up idolizing these writers themselves pass these works on to the underground.
The counter culture is still very much alive in the seventies. For many the early seventies just seem like the late sixties. This is very true in cities like San Francisco, New York, and London. Signs that the movement has not yet died become more evident in popular culture. A band by the name Steely Dan emerges in the rock music genre.(steelydan) The name is lifted from a bit in Naked Lunch.
It becomes cool to rebel. Many early punk bands cite the beat writers as inspiration for their music. The punk movement in the counterculture is a natural reaction to the failure of the hippies. The hippies are soft, middle classed, drug abusing, cause minded, and organized. Punks are hard, lower class, drug abusing, and anarchistic. They don't want to change the world from inside the system. They want to blow it up. Punk truly is anti-establishment. whatever was expected they do the opposite. In every sense of the term.
Clothes are used just to keep the fuzz from busting you for nudity. Everything can be fashion. From second hand clothes to trash bags, dog collars to army surplus boots. Hair becomes optional and in the poser crowd more of a statement to get noticed. Victorian manners are not questioned. They are ignored entirely. The music of the punk bands is eclectic. Velvet Underground has smooth poetic thoughtful songs. The Stooges are downright nasty and mean. The Ramones are brutally fast and energetic. There seems to be no particular sound to define the genre.(laurahird)
In 1970 Ginsberg founds the Jack Kerouac School For Disembodied Poets in Boulder, Colorado. He begins to gather more literary praise by winning a National Book Award for The Fall Of America in 1972. Ginsberg is then inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1973. With Jack gone the media seems to shift it's attention to Allen. Burroughs becomes envious of Ginsberg's success. He becomes nomadic and shuns the United States for shunning him. In 1974 he moves back to America after twenty-four years abroad. In 1982 Burroughs gains critical praise by being inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.(popsubculture)
Ginsberg takes speaking engagements throughout the seventies and eighties. Allen tours with Bob Dylan in 1977. Burroughs takes any job that comes his way. With the aid of his new manager James Grauerholz he broadens his appeal. Burroughs takes a few acting jobs and begins to prefrom public readings of his works.
The beats become highly popularized in biographies and documentaries. It is not unusual for Allen to show up at a protest. also less unusual is for Burroughs to be spotted with Andy Warhol at Studio 54. William Burroughs makes guest appearances on Saturday night live and plays a junkie in Drugstore Cowboy. The beats are officially iconic.
Sources Cited:
Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S Burroughs New York. Henry Holt. 1988
http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/allen_ginsberg.html
http://www.steelydan.com/faq.html
http://www.laurahird.com/kingpunk2.html
The counter culture is still very much alive in the seventies. For many the early seventies just seem like the late sixties. This is very true in cities like San Francisco, New York, and London. Signs that the movement has not yet died become more evident in popular culture. A band by the name Steely Dan emerges in the rock music genre.(steelydan) The name is lifted from a bit in Naked Lunch.
It becomes cool to rebel. Many early punk bands cite the beat writers as inspiration for their music. The punk movement in the counterculture is a natural reaction to the failure of the hippies. The hippies are soft, middle classed, drug abusing, cause minded, and organized. Punks are hard, lower class, drug abusing, and anarchistic. They don't want to change the world from inside the system. They want to blow it up. Punk truly is anti-establishment. whatever was expected they do the opposite. In every sense of the term.
Clothes are used just to keep the fuzz from busting you for nudity. Everything can be fashion. From second hand clothes to trash bags, dog collars to army surplus boots. Hair becomes optional and in the poser crowd more of a statement to get noticed. Victorian manners are not questioned. They are ignored entirely. The music of the punk bands is eclectic. Velvet Underground has smooth poetic thoughtful songs. The Stooges are downright nasty and mean. The Ramones are brutally fast and energetic. There seems to be no particular sound to define the genre.(laurahird)
In 1970 Ginsberg founds the Jack Kerouac School For Disembodied Poets in Boulder, Colorado. He begins to gather more literary praise by winning a National Book Award for The Fall Of America in 1972. Ginsberg is then inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1973. With Jack gone the media seems to shift it's attention to Allen. Burroughs becomes envious of Ginsberg's success. He becomes nomadic and shuns the United States for shunning him. In 1974 he moves back to America after twenty-four years abroad. In 1982 Burroughs gains critical praise by being inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.(popsubculture)
Ginsberg takes speaking engagements throughout the seventies and eighties. Allen tours with Bob Dylan in 1977. Burroughs takes any job that comes his way. With the aid of his new manager James Grauerholz he broadens his appeal. Burroughs takes a few acting jobs and begins to prefrom public readings of his works.
The beats become highly popularized in biographies and documentaries. It is not unusual for Allen to show up at a protest. also less unusual is for Burroughs to be spotted with Andy Warhol at Studio 54. William Burroughs makes guest appearances on Saturday night live and plays a junkie in Drugstore Cowboy. The beats are officially iconic.
Sources Cited:
Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S Burroughs New York. Henry Holt. 1988
http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/allen_ginsberg.html
http://www.steelydan.com/faq.html
http://www.laurahird.com/kingpunk2.html
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Soical Evolution
Ginsberg and Burroughs grab the attention of their generation. Artists flock to New York, where the writers met. A different set follows the writers to San Francisco. These men however are not the settling kind. They are the modern day gypsies. They travel to where it's happening. This is the excuse used more often than not.
The reality is far less romantic. Burroughs is either outrunning drug charges or being subpoenaed for indecency. Ginsberg falls in love with San Francisco and fights his indecency charges from there. The others in the group are less than impressed by the bay area. A generation starts growing up on their works.
First the new genration encounters the Beatniks. The generation pre-Vietnam war has little identity. The Beatniks like the kids and vice-versa. Since the new generation is hip to the beatnik ways they are referred to as hip people or hipsters. This is shortened to hippy.( DISCovering U.S. History) This generation is not new or different they are merely the second generation of beatniks. The new generation is more optimistic. Instead of sitting in coffee houses talking about change they join groups and fight for social change. They accomplish what the beatniks would not. They make a counterculture.
It is said that the bible of the Hippies is 'On The Road'. The book covers four road trips. Mostly between New York and San Francisco. The offspring of the baby boomer generation see the text as a romantic adventure. Kerouac intends it to be a silly story for he and his friends. This is evidenced by his thin disguising of his fellow luminaries. Himself, Ginsberg, and Burroughs. The book highlights America's fascination with the road and automobile travel. Along the way we encounter hit-and-run romances, bop jazz, liquor, marijuana, all-night diners, and hitchhiking. (St James Press)
Critics blast the work. Going as far as to make Truman Capote quip that Kerouac's fiction was more typing than writing. Kerouac loves promoting the book. He tells stories of a 120 foot roll of teletype parchment, which is the backbone of the novel, typed mostly while high on Benzedrine.
Kerouac is the media darling of the beat movement. He is controversial without being offensive. Unlike his contemporaries he is not cited with indecency. His sexual exploits are tame compared with the sodomy that Burroughs and Ginsberg enjoy. He is revered by beatnik and hippie alike. Burroughs says of him, "Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levis to both sexes. Woodstock rises from his pages."(Hippy) .
Still he carries the title of both god and devil. While the hippies flock to San Francisco with the aid of his words, his words for them are not sweet. His last interview will be with Willaim F Buckley.
His death in 1969 at the age of 47 due to liver failure would begin the decline of both the beatniks and the hippies.
Source Citation: "Hippies and 1960s Counterculture." DISCovering U.S. History. Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://ezp.tccd.edu:2055/servlet/HistRC/
Source Citation: "On the Road." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://ezp.tccd.edu:2055/servlet/HistRC/
http://www.hippy.com/hippyquotes.htm
The reality is far less romantic. Burroughs is either outrunning drug charges or being subpoenaed for indecency. Ginsberg falls in love with San Francisco and fights his indecency charges from there. The others in the group are less than impressed by the bay area. A generation starts growing up on their works.
First the new genration encounters the Beatniks. The generation pre-Vietnam war has little identity. The Beatniks like the kids and vice-versa. Since the new generation is hip to the beatnik ways they are referred to as hip people or hipsters. This is shortened to hippy.( DISCovering U.S. History) This generation is not new or different they are merely the second generation of beatniks. The new generation is more optimistic. Instead of sitting in coffee houses talking about change they join groups and fight for social change. They accomplish what the beatniks would not. They make a counterculture.
It is said that the bible of the Hippies is 'On The Road'. The book covers four road trips. Mostly between New York and San Francisco. The offspring of the baby boomer generation see the text as a romantic adventure. Kerouac intends it to be a silly story for he and his friends. This is evidenced by his thin disguising of his fellow luminaries. Himself, Ginsberg, and Burroughs. The book highlights America's fascination with the road and automobile travel. Along the way we encounter hit-and-run romances, bop jazz, liquor, marijuana, all-night diners, and hitchhiking. (St James Press)
Critics blast the work. Going as far as to make Truman Capote quip that Kerouac's fiction was more typing than writing. Kerouac loves promoting the book. He tells stories of a 120 foot roll of teletype parchment, which is the backbone of the novel, typed mostly while high on Benzedrine.
Kerouac is the media darling of the beat movement. He is controversial without being offensive. Unlike his contemporaries he is not cited with indecency. His sexual exploits are tame compared with the sodomy that Burroughs and Ginsberg enjoy. He is revered by beatnik and hippie alike. Burroughs says of him, "Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levis to both sexes. Woodstock rises from his pages."(Hippy) .
Still he carries the title of both god and devil. While the hippies flock to San Francisco with the aid of his words, his words for them are not sweet. His last interview will be with Willaim F Buckley.
His death in 1969 at the age of 47 due to liver failure would begin the decline of both the beatniks and the hippies.
Source Citation: "Hippies and 1960s Counterculture." DISCovering U.S. History. Gale Research, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://ezp.tccd.edu:2055/servlet/HistRC/
Source Citation: "On the Road." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. http://ezp.tccd.edu:2055/servlet/HistRC/
http://www.hippy.com/hippyquotes.htm
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Beatniks Emerge
When we hear the word beatnik many things come to mind. First is the look. Dark clothes, beret, dark glasses, blue jeans. Throw a beard on the boys or give the girl long stringy hair. They hang out in coffee houses and play bongos while reciting poetry. They snap instead of clapping. Their speech is alien and requires a translator at times. They look like this:
[photobucket]
That is the stereotype I want to shatter. In actuality they looked like this:
[photobucket]
The man in the middle is Allen Ginsberg. In 1954 he moves from New York to San Francisco. There he meets his lifelong love Peter Orlovsky and his mentor William Carlos Williams. He also meets Michael McClure, who gives Ginsberg a reading for the newly-established "6" Gallery. The result is "The '6' Gallery Reading" which takes place on October 7, 1955. The event will be hailed as the birth of the Beat Generation, because it is also the first public reading of Ginsberg's Howl, a poem which will garner world-wide attention for him and the poets he associated with. The beatniks were born. [poets.org]
Everyone knows what a beatnik looks like but nobody takes the time to ask what a beatniks stands for. While it is true that Howl will "ignite a generation of middle-class Polyannas".[Martinez] This generation is actually following in the footsteps of the generations before them. For them however, it is illegal. Drugs, thanks to the FDA and DEA are now frowned upon. Artists and their followers abusing substances to reach beyond the limits of the sober imagination is as timeless as thought.
You are either hip or square. The squares follow the rules and conform to the rigid societal standards of the time. Beatniks stand for everything the squares hate. They believe in liberal ideals, free drug use, and love without rules. All this is centered around popular jazz and stand up poetry readings. According to the beats society is ill. They are years away from having enough people agreeing with them to really create a counter culture.[Cottom]
Works cited:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/beatnik/templestonepilot/beatnik.jpg
http://media.photobucket.com/image/allen%20ginsberg/stuffinjello/beatscorbis460.jpg?o=55
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/8
http://ezp.tccd.edu:2358/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=19324271&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site
http://ezp.tccd.edu:2358/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=17605539&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site
[photobucket]That is the stereotype I want to shatter. In actuality they looked like this:
[photobucket]The man in the middle is Allen Ginsberg. In 1954 he moves from New York to San Francisco. There he meets his lifelong love Peter Orlovsky and his mentor William Carlos Williams. He also meets Michael McClure, who gives Ginsberg a reading for the newly-established "6" Gallery. The result is "The '6' Gallery Reading" which takes place on October 7, 1955. The event will be hailed as the birth of the Beat Generation, because it is also the first public reading of Ginsberg's Howl, a poem which will garner world-wide attention for him and the poets he associated with. The beatniks were born. [poets.org]
Everyone knows what a beatnik looks like but nobody takes the time to ask what a beatniks stands for. While it is true that Howl will "ignite a generation of middle-class Polyannas".[Martinez] This generation is actually following in the footsteps of the generations before them. For them however, it is illegal. Drugs, thanks to the FDA and DEA are now frowned upon. Artists and their followers abusing substances to reach beyond the limits of the sober imagination is as timeless as thought.
You are either hip or square. The squares follow the rules and conform to the rigid societal standards of the time. Beatniks stand for everything the squares hate. They believe in liberal ideals, free drug use, and love without rules. All this is centered around popular jazz and stand up poetry readings. According to the beats society is ill. They are years away from having enough people agreeing with them to really create a counter culture.[Cottom]
Works cited:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/beatnik/templestonepilot/beatnik.jpg
http://media.photobucket.com/image/allen%20ginsberg/stuffinjello/beatscorbis460.jpg?o=55
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/8
http://ezp.tccd.edu:2358/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=19324271&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site
http://ezp.tccd.edu:2358/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=17605539&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Thursday, November 5, 2009
What is a Beat
When studying American history and it's pop culture there is an obvious shift in the late 1940's. America is coming out of it's worst economic time. The generation that grew up during the great depression are now at the forefront. At this point everything is censored by churches and the people who considered themselves morally righteous enough. All forms of art are inspected for morally questionable content. This society demands conformity and 'decency'. Nothing less would tolerated.
During this time our leaders of the Beat movement meet in New York City. Columbia University to be precise. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg attend the university along with Neal Cassidy. Lucien Carr introduces William Burroughs to Kerouac and Ginsberg. They begin collaborating. In 1946 Burroughs met Herbert Huncke while trying to sell him a firearm. These men constitute the bulk of the beat writers.
In a magazine interview Kerouac refers to his generation as the beat generation. Beat has nothing to do with music. It is a carny term for someone beaten down, poor, exhausted, at the bottom of the world. Burroughs is being published but could not be published in the United States due to decency laws. Kerouac has not yet found his voice. Ginsberg grabs the attention of the world first with his brilliant poem 'Howl'.
I will cover many events in the next posts that will be the shaping of this generation. Something very important has to happen first. Burroughs is picked up by an American publisher and they decided to release Naked Lunch on an unsuspecting American audience. The book is banned and the author is charged with indecency. The trial that follows will change the art world in America forever. Burroughs ultimate win and citing freedom of speech as his reason will blow the doors off censorship for good.
Source Citations:
Louis Menand. "Drive, He Wrote." New Yorker (Vol. 83, No. 29) Oct. 1 2007: 88-93. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 05 November 2009.
Anslinger, Harry. Statement. Tuesday Apr. 27, 1937. Hearings on H.R. 6385, Taxation of Marijuana, Apr. 27-30 and May 4, 1937. US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.
During this time our leaders of the Beat movement meet in New York City. Columbia University to be precise. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg attend the university along with Neal Cassidy. Lucien Carr introduces William Burroughs to Kerouac and Ginsberg. They begin collaborating. In 1946 Burroughs met Herbert Huncke while trying to sell him a firearm. These men constitute the bulk of the beat writers.
In a magazine interview Kerouac refers to his generation as the beat generation. Beat has nothing to do with music. It is a carny term for someone beaten down, poor, exhausted, at the bottom of the world. Burroughs is being published but could not be published in the United States due to decency laws. Kerouac has not yet found his voice. Ginsberg grabs the attention of the world first with his brilliant poem 'Howl'.
I will cover many events in the next posts that will be the shaping of this generation. Something very important has to happen first. Burroughs is picked up by an American publisher and they decided to release Naked Lunch on an unsuspecting American audience. The book is banned and the author is charged with indecency. The trial that follows will change the art world in America forever. Burroughs ultimate win and citing freedom of speech as his reason will blow the doors off censorship for good.
Source Citations:
Louis Menand. "Drive, He Wrote." New Yorker (Vol. 83, No. 29) Oct. 1 2007: 88-93. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 05 November 2009.
Anslinger, Harry. Statement. Tuesday Apr. 27, 1937. Hearings on H.R. 6385, Taxation of Marijuana, Apr. 27-30 and May 4, 1937. US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
