Emotional Honesty: Ginsberg & Kerouac

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.

The Beats: Subterraneans and Kerouac.

Hey Those Out There In the Great Beyond,
How are you? If you're tired of me talking about Graphic Novels and Funny Books well here's a break. A few years ago while still harboring delusions about the stability of an English degree I took a class on Beat Literature. It was taught by Don Revell who is that kind of English teacher you dream of but never really get a chance to take a class from. He's crazy, irreverent, magical and deeply feels the poetry he's teaching. If you get a chance I highly reccommend checking out his poetry or attending a reading/class.

Anyway, I came to Beat Lit relatively late in regards to my poetry/modern lit experience. As a teen I was not really the rebellious type, my upbringing was full of pragmatism. Workaholics don't have time for drunken rambles and road trips. So while I found Beat Lit intriguing, I looked more toward structural formalist poetry. Modern poetry just didn't make any sense to me as a teenager, and I didn't feel it was relevant. Perhaps Beat Lit isn't really meant to be appreciated by those who haven't experienced a measured amount of turbulent existence. Maybe I just wasn't ready for it.

So I didn't end up picking up 20th century poetry until I was in my early 20s. Now my 20s ended up being the cliched self-discovery odyssey that should be expected. That could be the reason that I responded so strongly to On the Road upon first reading it. (I've talked about it before so I won't go in depth.) Kerouac's Sal Paradise is a reflective surface. The only identity he has is the women, friends, and alcohol that he surrounds himself with. It is not until the end that he discovers that only he can express his own emotional turmoil. He cannot rely on his friends, only himself. In our mid-20s this is an essential lesson. One must develop their own self-identity in order to move on to the next stage. How can you care about someone else if you don't know who you are yourself?

The main characters of Kerouac's novella The Subterraneans, exemplify this dilemma. Leo and Mardou are lost within their surroundings. Their lives are a desperate mixture of extreme emotions and actions. These two are able to equally mete out love and pain within their short coupling. The highs are high and the lows are low. Neither seems to be able to tell the other what they need or expect from each other. Clearly they do not know, because they don't know themselves as individuals. To cope with this Leo drinks too much. Mardou goes to see an analyst. Neither seems to do any good. The ending of their relationship is inevitable.

Knowing that the main character Leo is meant to be Kerouac, The Subterraneans is a form of confessional prose. Writing is Kerouac's safest method of coping with his extreme emotions. Otherwise he ends up drinking too much and getting into bar fights. His prose style tumbles out to the reader as he tries to convey his emotional turmoil. Kerouac needs to share his thoughts and emotions with the reader. He is begging for someone to explain to him what went wrong with Mardou. This emotional style requires the reader to bend a sympathetic ear. It's easy to toss him off as unbearably solipsistic, however Kerouac has no other healthy way to share his turmoil.

For me beat literature contains a wonderful emotional honesty that can be refreshing. Too often, as adults we are urged to loose our humanity in order succeed. "Grow Up" we are told. Kerouac explores the consequences of not being able to integrate his own extreme emotional state and a healthy self identity. Kerouac never manages to do so, and ends up alone.

I'll be writing more about Beat Literature this month so stay tuned. Book Slave.