Revolutionary Artists

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

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