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

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