Hey folks,
So I've been interested in finding some books about "the beats" since I saw the trailer for the upcoming film Howl. It centers around the Howl Obscenity trial back in 1957. If you have not seen it, well I can provide:
Anyway so in my wanderings I found some pretty comprehensive books that were highly enjoyable if not a bit self-reverential. It is true that the "beat" generation have been romanticized to such a degree that it's difficult to sort the mythology from the truth. A de-mythologizer would look at this motley group and say that all they see is a bunch of drunken-partiers who didn't want to get a job. They lucked onto a post-World War 2 disillusionment and rode it. They also didn't seem to like women very much. All these statements are most likely true. However these writers were necessary at a time when the country could of gone in many different directions. Civil Rights and economic depression fueled a group of young people who didn't know where they fit in. This bohemian crowd wasn't interested in the 50s ideal and saw the cracks inherent in that mythology.
However, everybody's gotta eat. Every writer wants to be heard by someone. I don't believe that the writers themselves are to blame for the commercial machinations of their exploiters. Getting published isn't easy. Ginsberg and Kerouac hustled and pushed themselves. As many drunken nights as they spent these guys were compelled to pour out their heart and souls on the page. The outpouring of emotion is felt on every page of Howl and The Subteraneans. Even with a certain amount of success these writers could go one of two ways: Embrace it or Resent it.
Kerouac and Ginsberg are illustrations of this dichotomy. Kerouac lived with a conflicted resentment that ended up killing him. Kerouac's novel Big Sur illustrates this in painful detail. He didn't want to be associated with the hippie movement. Yet he couldn't turn away their money. Unfortunately it was alcohol that ended up winning in the end. He chose to be numb, a cowardly way out especially for a man who felt compelled to share so much of himself in his writing. Without emotion he couldn't write, and without writing he didn't have an outlet. Alcohol became his undoing and a premature death.
Ginsberg on the other hand ended up embracing Buddhism and finding true love. While his 1950s work such as Howl and Kaddish are full of anger and frustration, his later work does show a hint of reconciliation. Ginsberg found peace in the spiritual, rather than the sensual. His life-mate Peter Orlovsky was not interested in any piece of his success. He wanted the man, rather than any association with the "beat" generation. They were together for more than 30 years. Ginsberg rushed headlong into being a part of the hippie movement which matched up with his philosophical sensibilities. Although one gets a sense that as the whole "beat" generation notoriety faded, he was still able to express his soul. The Fall of America, published in 1974, is just as honest as his earlier work. Rather than fade he embraced the "peace" movement and lived a much happier, emotionally honest life centered around a positive force: love.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish that more focus was thrown Ginsberg's way, rather than the "cool but doomed" Kerouac. Hopefully this year Ginsberg will make a comeback into the public consciousness. Of course I would love to see poetry reach that level of societal importance again. The "beat" generation were important and necessary in difficult times. Where is our modern literary movement? I crave some emotional honesty. Perhaps now is the time for it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment