Postnuclear Poetry and the Beats–Ginsberg, Reed, Kerouac, and Vonnegut
What was perplexing, enlightening, or thought-provoking in this week’s readings? Who were your favorites?
My personal favorite of the week is Jack Kerouac. You might want to check out an NPR story that ran in the summer of 2007, on the 50-year anniversary of On the Road and Kerouac’s manuscript scroll. Among other interesting tidbits, it reveals how Kerouac connected sheets of typing paper into a long scroll so he’d never have to slow down to change the paper, allowing him to just burn through his story. As Dean Moriarty says early in the novel, “Man, wow, there’s so many things to do, so many things to write! How to even begin to get it all down and without modified restraints and all hung-up on like literary inhibitions and grammatical fears…” Just going without stop probably helped Kerouac avoid getting “hung-up.”
Fast-paced seems to be a theme in many of these writers’ approaches. They all (maybe not Kerouac) are itching to attack the establishment, to rebel. Recently, our family watched West Side Story. I hadn’t watched it in a long time, and I was struck by how much it felt like a period piece (produced in 1961) and how parts of it reminded me of The Beats, especially the song/dance number, “Play it Cool.” The young characters are full of rage and anger, and yet the new leader of the Jets urges them to “play it cool.” Even when they’re playing it cool, underneath boils rebellion. Here’s a YouTube video of the scene:
One final 20th century pop connection with our poets: last week my 12-year-old son was listening to an old CD of ours and kept replaying one song that he liked, “I Should Be Allowed to Think,” by the band They Might Be Giants (1994). As I hummed along, it struck me–these are words from one of our Giants of American Poetry. Here are some of the lyrics that piqued my interest…and a video of the song itself…can you tell who they steal from and riff on?
I saw the best minds of my generation
Destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical
I should be allowed to glue my poster
I should be allowed to think…
I saw the worst bands of my generation
applied by magic marker to dry wall
I should be allowed to shoot my mouth off
I should have a call-in show…
I am not allowed
To ever come up with a single original thought
I am not allowed
To meet the criminal government agent who oppresses me
I was the worst hope of my generation
Destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical
I should be allowed to share my feelings
I should be allowed to feel…
I am not allowed to think
I am not allowed to think