Women In The Beat Movement Analysis
Core Concepts
2/25/13 2:18 PM
What is this class about? • Empowerment and ability to define yourself, don’t let others do it for you • Despite time period, all groups discussed drew on traditional methods to shape their world • Passion • Learning how to live What is culture? • Characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts What is subculture and what is its connection to culture? • Subculture is the group who is either viewed, or views itself, as disenfranchised and often in opposition to the larger culture in which they exist • Connected to culture because the subculture exists solely as a result the mainstream is in some way inadequate and must be …show more content…
changed How does culture work? (5 stages) Why is this relevant to this class? • Cyclical o Starts with contact o Identify/discern who you are contacting o Development of feeling o Intention – pick and choose components of others culture o Acting on aforementioned feelings What are the key components of culture? • Comprehensive because all parts fit together in a logical fashion • Learned rather than something we are born with • Manifested within boundaries of acceptable behavior • Conscious awareness of cultural standards agreed upon by consensus • Falls somewhere between static and dynamic (depending on how quickly changes are accepted) but tend toward conservative What is the difference between history and historicity and why is that relevant to this class? • History – the story of the political elite
Historicity - coined by Richard Mercer Dorson – the story of everyone else not covered by history • Relevance – we will be looking at historicity – the subcultures discussed in this class were in general left out or misrepresented by those who write and record history simply because history is controlled by the mainstream, which has a distaste for all things against the norm What is the relationship between ‘style’ and ‘substance’? Are they in opposition to one another? • Style - form of cultural ethnocentrism, the outward manifestation of substance • Substance – how much, and what kind of meaning, is essential in the things we do • Style and substance are in a constant state of negotiation What is ethnocentrism? • Your own culture does things the right way and anything that differs from your way is wrong and needs to be corrected What does “cultural relativity” mean? • Not the concept that all cultures are equal to one another • Implies that every culture must be evaluated in its own context, not in comparison to our own (or other) culture •
Theorizing About Subcultures - 1
2/25/13 2:18 PM
How does mainstream culture respond to subcultures? • Often times mainstream view subcultures with a sense of fear and wonderment at the same time • Mainstream may look to commodify the ‘cool’ aspects of a subculture as a means to make money, this often ends up destroying the subculture or results in the subculture making drastic changes in order to differentiate itself from mainstream culture Why are subcultures considered such a threat? • Breach the expectations of mainstream • Disrupt the basis of mainstream (based on consensus) • Disrupts the sense of order that mainstream requires • Deviate from the socially accepted code that safeguard the mainstream’s unbreakable status In what ways does a subculture operate as “noise?” • Interfere with orderly sequence of mainstream society • Challenge the mores, norms, traditional beliefs • Temporarily block the normal order of things o Do this by diverting the attention of mainstream culture to the actions of the subculture o Mainstream culture spends substantial time criticizing subcultural movements – distracts mainstream from starting wars and making money What are the seven characteristics of subcultural behavior? • Relationships approach communism • Sexual relationships deviate from the nuclear family (& monogamy) • Believe they are superior to mainstream • Only marginally political • Reject the rewards/status of mainstream • Look to spiritual leaders/tribal elders • Exist apart from mainstream, create their own folkways and more Define the 3 ways sub/countercultures can be studied: Phenomenological, Sociological (fundamentalist, utopian, revolutionary), Psychological • Phenomenological – the way a culture looks at the world or what it believes the world to be (beliefs and values) • Sociological – looks at the development of the following cultures
o Fundamentalist – fully (and literally) accept the basic ideals of mainstream o Utopian – mainstream cannot be succeeded or changed, required to make their own culture o Revolutionary – mainstream is flawed but can be changed • Psychological – Nathan Alder – Antinomian Personality o Establishment is evil and corrupt o Preoccupied with altering consciousness o Expression in sexual freedom and new art forms o Seek golden age of childish innocence/spiritual purity What is the connection between the emergence of “High Culture” in America and the emergence of subcultures in the United States? • High culture – cultural experience and attitudes that exist in the highest class segments of society, often associated with intellectualism, political power, wealth and prestige What is the best way to ‘kill’ a subculture? • Commodify it, the hipster kills the subculture, think Hot Topic
The Context for the Beats
2/25/13 2:18 PM
How are the Beats similar, and dissimilar, to the Lost Generation? • Lost generation: o Generation who lived through the war, became disenchanted with the world after the war, and gave themselves over to art and living for the present. o Many moved to Europe o They lived in hip’s present tense o Removed from previous certainties by the violence of war o Believed words like glory or honor now rang hollow • Beats: o they take destruction of life and morals Frighteningly for granted o To them, “how” to live is much more important than “why” What was “The Psychic State of Youth” (the historical moment of the Beats, post WWII)? • Post WWII, America was not in a state of normalcy as many portray o Bland selling out of the good life o Political retrenchment o Conservative laisse faire attitude o Nuclear anxiety What were the typical roles for women in the post World War II era? • Expected to be proper wives who is cultured, but stays at home and creative for the purposes of maintaining the household/children
The Beats - 1
2/25/13 2:18 PM
What are the origins of the Beats? Where did they meet? • The original "Beat Generation" writers met in New York. Later, in the mid-1950s, the central figures (with the exception of Burroughs) ended up together in San Francisco where they met and became friends with figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. • Central elements of "Beat" culture included rejection of received standards, innovations in style, experimentation with drugs, alternative sexualities, an interest in Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism, and explicit portrayals of the human condition. • Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York. • The adjective "beat" could colloquially mean "tired" or "beaten down" within the African-American community of the period and had developed out of the image "beat to his socks" • Met at Columbia in NYC (for the most part) Who did the Beats admire and want to emulate? • Transcendentalists such as Emerson, Thoreau, Melville and Whitman • Believed in the notion of man as divine and can transcend society • Resist consumer capitalism: no excess stuff, life is primitive, natural and common, introspection and altered consciousness, doing what feels right What was post World War II America like and how did this contribute to the emergence of the Beats? • Mainstream society pushed for a return to “normalcy” after the war • Would-be Beats could not forget the tragedies that occurred during the war (atomic bomb) and became disgusted after realizing what the mainstream was capable of doing What are the basic biographies (the important and relevant details) of the lives of (1) Kerouac, (2) Ginsberg, (3) Cassady, (4) Burroughs • Jack Kerouac – Born March 12, 1922 in Lowell, MA, parents are French Canadian, father was a printer/businessman, excelled at baseball, track, football in HS, scholarship to Columbia o Enlists in Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard at same time
o Alcoholic – eventually results in his death • (Irwin) Allen Ginsberg – Born June 3, 1926 in Newark, NJ o Father is a poet/HS teacher/Jewish Democratic Socialist, o Mother is a Communist, nudist and raging lunatic (insane) o Mother had series of mental breakdowns leaving Lewis to care for children o Attends Columbia (1943), intends to become a Labor Lawyer o Homosexual (loves Cassady) • William Burroughs – Born in 1914, St. Louis, MO o From wealthy family, mother is direct descendant of R.E. Lee, grandfather inventor of Burroughs adding machine o Wanted to smoke opium from early age, told it helps stop nightmares o Graduated from Harvard in 1936 (English lit.) o Lost heterosexual virginity in brothel, had homosexual fantasies o Travelled to Europe, studied medicine for year, married a Jew looking to escape Nazis o Rejected affluent lifestyle of family and its rewards, (early 40s) plunged into drugs (heroin), odd jobs, bisexuality • Neil Cassady – Born Feb. 8, 1926 in Salt Lake City o Raised by alcoholic father in skid row hotels in Denver o Between 14 and 21, stole over 500 cars Which Beats wrote what? • Kerouac – On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Town and the City, Some of the Dharma • Ginsberg – Howl, Yage Letters • Burroughs – Naked Lunch, Junkie, Yage Letters • Holmes – Go What is “Howl?” • Written by Ginsberg and first read at the Six Gallery in 1955 • Poem in which the speak explains a new perspective in which the best minds of his generation to be the homeless, the lawless, and those deemed insane by society • Dedicated in large part to the mind of Carl Solomon • Obscenity Trial – 1957, defended by ACLU
o Judge determines Howl has redeeming social value: ! Section 1 presents a picture of a nightmare world ! Section 2 is an indictment of the things that make it a nightmare world: materialism, conformity, and mechanization leading to war. ! Section 3 represents the way this impacts an individual ! Section 4 is a plea for holy living What is the City Lights Bookstore? In what ways was it both a Mecca and a lightning rod? • America’s first paperback bookstore in San Francisco, owned by Lawrence Ferlinghetti • Published huge number of legendary cult title such as Howl, popularity attracted new generation of untamed poets to San Fran What is Six Gallery? • In San Francisco, location of the first public manifestation of Beats, moderated by Kenneth Rexroth, Ginsberg reads Howl for first time The Beats were on the road to where? (note: there is no one ‘right’ answer to this question) • San Francisco What was Ginsberg’s “New Vision of Art?” • Naked self-expression is the seed of creativity • Artist’s consciousness is expanded by a derangement of the senses • Art eludes conventional morality What is the “Dark Night of the Soul?” • Harkens back to the Catholic mystic St. Johns of the Cross • Mystical spiritual path upon which one believes he has lost everything, including the grace of God • Exhaustion of an old state and the growth of a new form of consciousness What is the “Bedrock of Consciousness? • Ginsberg and Kerouac • Only place true art can exist • Only place where nothing but inner self exists What was the Kammerer Affair? What impact did it have on the Beats? • Lucian Carr stabs David Kammerer to death (1949) • Kerouac and Burroughs arrested as material witnesses
o Jack – helps Carr destroy murder weapon o Jack – persuades Edie Parker to bail him out by saying he will marry her o Carr – 1-20 years at Elmira Reformatory (released in 1946) Who is Carl Solomon and what is his relevance to the Beats? • Met Ginsberg in Columbia Psychiatric Institute • Solomon’s “mind” provides Ginsberg with inspiration to write Howl • Solomon deemed himself insane, Ginsberg was interested in his mental condition in the views of culture and society What influences do you think Ginsberg drew from his parents? • Father routinely recites Dickenson, Poe, Milton, etc. to children • Often pulled into his mothers illness, convinces Allen to take her via bus through rural NJ to find a rest home
The White Negro - 2
2/25/13 2:18 PM
Who wrote “The White Negro?” When? • Written by Norman Mailer, published in the summer of 1957 o Implies that the Negros are the source of hip for beats Who is a hipster? • Hipsters rejected middle-class values and took their cues for behavior from working-class Negroes. • Hipsters with a middle-class background attempt to put down their whiteness and adopt what they believe is the carefree, spontaneous, cool life style of Negro hipsters: o their manner of speaking and language o their use of milder narcotics o their appreciation of jazz and the blues o their supposed concern with the good orgasm • Mailer also said that the hipster, in attempting to emulate the Negro cultivated : o Irresponsibility o Spontaneity o Emotionalism o Immediate impulse gratification o Occasional use of drugs o More liberal and open attitudes toward sex o Interracial friendships o The use of four letter words • Mailer claims that by doing these things hipsters are attempting to separate themselves from the middle-class culture in which they were brought up What is the main goal of hipsters? • To keep out of society which, he thinks, is trying to make everyone over in its own image • They fear to be beat because once the sweet of sex has deserted them, they still cannot give up the search How is “the Negro” the source of hip? • Because the negro could not afford the inhibitions of civilization, he lived for the primitive present and the pleasures of the body (not the pleasures of the mind)
He has been living on the margin between totalitarianism and democracy for two centuries. o Any kind of unconventional action often takes disproportionate courage. • The presence of Hip as a working philosophy in the sub-worlds of American life is probably due to jazz…its subtle penetrating influence on an avant-garde generation. What is the connection between Bohemians, jazz and “the Negro” according to the article? • The bohemians (adventurers) were drawn to the hipness of the Negro via the growing popularity of jazz (jazz spoke across the nation) • In what ways is the hipster like “the Negro?” What is the hipster fighting for? • Hipsters are attempting to separate themselves from the middleclass culture in which they were brought up. What is hipster language? What are the specific examples the author gives of hipster language? • Abstract ambiguous alternatives in which from the danger of their oppression they learned to speak o Example ! That cat will never come off his groove. • This is a substitute for “stubborn” • The language of Hip is a language of energy, how it is found, how it is lost. • The words are: o Man, go, put down, make, beat, cool, swing, with it, crazy, dig, flip, creep, hip, square What is the ethos of the hipster? • Know thyself and be thyself What is the hipster a counter to, according to the author? In what ways is comparing “the hipster” to “the Negro” problematic?
Hipster has never actually been through the trials and tribulations of being a negro. • Blacks have to live life in fear, without the comforts whites live with In what ways does the author say hipsters emulate “the Negro?” • Language – i.e. dig could have many meanings depending on tone and context • Try to emulate the Negro lifestyle of living in the primitive present • The African-American views everyday life in the terms of war, which the hipster adopts as his model for the rejection of conformity In which of his works does Kerouac revere “the Negro” in stereotypical yet celebratory terms? (see power point slides) • On the Road – white life style does not have enough life, joy, kicks, darkness, music, not enough night •
The Birth of the Beats - 2
2/25/13 2:18 PM
Who is Mildred Brady? What characteristics of the Beats did she include in her article on the Beats in Harper’s [magazine]? • Freelance writer for Harper’s Magazine • Wrote first real article about the Beats in 1947 • Says they are: o Different crowd o Poetry readings are solemn o Poetry transcends logic, invades unreasonable realm where relationships between ideas are sympathetic and mysterious o Lifestyle is a combination of anarchism and psycho analysis, which leads to: ! Abandonment of church, state, family ! Sex as a source of individual salvation in a collective world that’s going to hell What characteristics of the Beats did John Clellon Holmes include in his article “The Beat Vision”? • Instinctive individuality • Independent minds • Lust for freedom led to: o Black markets o Bebop o Narcotics o Sexual promiscuity o Hucksterism – aggressively promote o Existentialism – Jean Paul Sartre • Generation has been used, is raw, searching for the nakedness of mind and soul, reducing consciousness to bedrock, pushing against the wall of oneself What influence did Bebop have on the Beats? • Rejected the idea of jazz as entertainment • Even more cutoff from mainstream that beat writings o Did not care what was thought of it or its popularity • Tried to exploit the outsider feeling to become a true outsider • Constantly trying to become more abstract as to avoid reproducibility o Prevent whites from ripping it off
• Spoken-word style of the Beats drew on jazz rhythm Who were some of the Jazz musicians the Beats admired? • Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus • Charles Parker (1920): raised solos in higher intervals of song chords, freed him of traditional melody • Dizzy Gillespie (1917): stabbed Cab Calloway, dissatisfied with band music, became travelling musician • Thelonious Monk (1917): started in traveling gospel, returned to Harlem to play solo in clubs What role did spirituality and religion play in the emergence (and development) of the Beats? What the role of religion static or did it change as the Beat movement developed? What was the impact of Buddhism on the Beats? • Kerouac – following ideas replace his Catholic guilt: o Impermanence o No creator or savior, you save yourself o Way of Bodhisattva – peace, love, patience, generosity • Best way to achieve a goal (and enlightenment) is to experience desire fully, thereby draining it of its mystery – writing as orgasm Why was illegal drug taking a part of the Beat lifestyle? • Experimental, often unfamiliar with the effects of the drugs o Drugs may induce creativity, insight, or productivity • Inspired by the intellectual interest as well as the way it made them feel o Believed that these drugs help to maximize pleasure which was intrinsically good What stereotypes about Beats did Mainstream culture create in order to minimize, commodify and suppress the Beats? • Bop goatee and beret • Horn-rimmed glasses • Beat casual style Was the mainstream threatened by the Beats? Why? • In some cases yes: o Believe the beats were: ! Hostile to civilization
• What is • •
Worshiped primitive instinct, energy, blood Intellect relies on mystical doctrine and irrational philosophies ! Contempt for rational, coherent discourse o Can ultimately become violent, irrational, lead to drug addiction and madness Push primitivism on Beats to cover up anti-intellectualism society feels “cool” and “flipness”? Did these terms reflect Beat worldview? Cool – withdrawal, to be equipped, more equipped = less likely to be put down Flipness – ecstasy, beyond one’s experience, impossible to anticipate, to be Beat is to be flip ! !
Women and the Beat Generation - 4
2/25/13 2:18 PM
Out of what social milieu (setting) did Women Beats emerge?
• Increased consumerism, political repression, McCarthy witch hunts • Sexual contradiction: o Masturbation causes insanity, premarital sex is immoral, half of women married by 19, only whores had premarital sex How did college contribute to the emergence of women in the Beat movement? What did women study in college? What was the societal goal for sending women to college? • MrS degree – liberal arts (art, literature, religion, philosophy) • Societal goals: o Want women to be cultured, but stay at home o Want women to be creative, but use that for home/children How did the male icons of the Beat Generation relate to women? In what ways was “female rebellion” considered even more dangerous to the mainstream than “male rebellion?” What sorts of consequences did women who rebelled face? How did these consequences vary from those the male Beats faced? • Women were locked up physically, AND culturally: o There was no gray area…either you were a virgin or a whore, a nice girl or crazy o If you wanted to be adventurous, then you were probably categorized as a lesbian, whether you were or weren’t • In the 50s, if you were male, you could be a rebel. • Men could have sex with anyone and not be labeled while women were expected to remain virgins until marriage. In what ways were Beat women beat? • Even within the Beat community women could not find a new place. They became wives and mothers, only in a more chaotic and rebellious framework. o Someone needed to care for Neal Cassady's children o Someone needed to hang Jack Kerouac's T-shirts to dry o Someone needed to type "Kaddish" for Allen
Ginsberg
Who were Hettie Jones, Diane di Prima, Joyce Johnson, Joan Vollmer and Edie Parker? • Hettie Jones – wife of Black Beat author and poet LeRoi Jones, honest about how women used sex to gain entrance into the Beat world, women could admit their desired to have sex • Diane di Prima – poet, decided to explore her own sexuality, refused to include men other than for sex, had a child and didn’t tell the father until 6 months after birth, born in Brooklyn (1936), dropped out of Swarthmore College, Hettie Jones published her first book “This Kind of Bird Flies Backward”, bridge between beats and hippies • Joan Vollmer – became Burroughs’ wife, victim of William Tell incident, left suburban life in Albany, attended Barnard College (women’s college associated with Columbia) • Edie Parker – Kerouac’s first wife, left Grosse Pointe in favor of Columbia to explore all aspects of her life, moved in with Joan, apartment because early male Beat meeting place In what ways were women embraced by the Beat movement and in what ways were they oppressed? In what ways could one argue feminism and Women’s rights emerged from the female Beats? • Women assumed that they would be welcome in a movement that seemed to espouse universal equality • Virtually all the women who tried to join the Beat scene were college educated and that education caused them to want a lot more than just being a wife and mother. What is the “boy gang”? • Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Cassady • Ginsberg believe it to be the ideal model of creativity • Ginsberg & Cassady are lovers • The men tend to share each others live and tend to each other actively What are the 4 roles that women could play in the Beat movement? • Relegated to observer status, sexual surrogates, peripheral interest o The providers
o The musers – though provokers o The writers o The artists Although the women were on the periphery, what essential things did they often do? • Peripheral status allowed them to pursue intellectual pursuits such as art, literature and Buddhism • Often the primary bread winners • Had opportunity to start small presses
2/25/13 2:18 PM 4 short answer essays • each question will have a few parts If you know everything on study guide, you will be fine
2/25/13 2:18 PM
2/25/13 2:18 PM
What is this class about? • Empowerment and ability to define yourself, don’t let others do it for you • Despite time period, all groups discussed drew on traditional methods to shape their world • Passion • Learning how to live What is culture? • Characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts What is subculture and what is its connection to culture? • Subculture is the group who is either viewed, or views itself, as disenfranchised and often in opposition to the larger culture in which they exist • Connected to culture because the subculture exists solely as a result the mainstream is in some way inadequate and must be …show more content…
changed How does culture work? (5 stages) Why is this relevant to this class? • Cyclical o Starts with contact o Identify/discern who you are contacting o Development of feeling o Intention – pick and choose components of others culture o Acting on aforementioned feelings What are the key components of culture? • Comprehensive because all parts fit together in a logical fashion • Learned rather than something we are born with • Manifested within boundaries of acceptable behavior • Conscious awareness of cultural standards agreed upon by consensus • Falls somewhere between static and dynamic (depending on how quickly changes are accepted) but tend toward conservative What is the difference between history and historicity and why is that relevant to this class? • History – the story of the political elite
Historicity - coined by Richard Mercer Dorson – the story of everyone else not covered by history • Relevance – we will be looking at historicity – the subcultures discussed in this class were in general left out or misrepresented by those who write and record history simply because history is controlled by the mainstream, which has a distaste for all things against the norm What is the relationship between ‘style’ and ‘substance’? Are they in opposition to one another? • Style - form of cultural ethnocentrism, the outward manifestation of substance • Substance – how much, and what kind of meaning, is essential in the things we do • Style and substance are in a constant state of negotiation What is ethnocentrism? • Your own culture does things the right way and anything that differs from your way is wrong and needs to be corrected What does “cultural relativity” mean? • Not the concept that all cultures are equal to one another • Implies that every culture must be evaluated in its own context, not in comparison to our own (or other) culture •
Theorizing About Subcultures - 1
2/25/13 2:18 PM
How does mainstream culture respond to subcultures? • Often times mainstream view subcultures with a sense of fear and wonderment at the same time • Mainstream may look to commodify the ‘cool’ aspects of a subculture as a means to make money, this often ends up destroying the subculture or results in the subculture making drastic changes in order to differentiate itself from mainstream culture Why are subcultures considered such a threat? • Breach the expectations of mainstream • Disrupt the basis of mainstream (based on consensus) • Disrupts the sense of order that mainstream requires • Deviate from the socially accepted code that safeguard the mainstream’s unbreakable status In what ways does a subculture operate as “noise?” • Interfere with orderly sequence of mainstream society • Challenge the mores, norms, traditional beliefs • Temporarily block the normal order of things o Do this by diverting the attention of mainstream culture to the actions of the subculture o Mainstream culture spends substantial time criticizing subcultural movements – distracts mainstream from starting wars and making money What are the seven characteristics of subcultural behavior? • Relationships approach communism • Sexual relationships deviate from the nuclear family (& monogamy) • Believe they are superior to mainstream • Only marginally political • Reject the rewards/status of mainstream • Look to spiritual leaders/tribal elders • Exist apart from mainstream, create their own folkways and more Define the 3 ways sub/countercultures can be studied: Phenomenological, Sociological (fundamentalist, utopian, revolutionary), Psychological • Phenomenological – the way a culture looks at the world or what it believes the world to be (beliefs and values) • Sociological – looks at the development of the following cultures
o Fundamentalist – fully (and literally) accept the basic ideals of mainstream o Utopian – mainstream cannot be succeeded or changed, required to make their own culture o Revolutionary – mainstream is flawed but can be changed • Psychological – Nathan Alder – Antinomian Personality o Establishment is evil and corrupt o Preoccupied with altering consciousness o Expression in sexual freedom and new art forms o Seek golden age of childish innocence/spiritual purity What is the connection between the emergence of “High Culture” in America and the emergence of subcultures in the United States? • High culture – cultural experience and attitudes that exist in the highest class segments of society, often associated with intellectualism, political power, wealth and prestige What is the best way to ‘kill’ a subculture? • Commodify it, the hipster kills the subculture, think Hot Topic
The Context for the Beats
2/25/13 2:18 PM
How are the Beats similar, and dissimilar, to the Lost Generation? • Lost generation: o Generation who lived through the war, became disenchanted with the world after the war, and gave themselves over to art and living for the present. o Many moved to Europe o They lived in hip’s present tense o Removed from previous certainties by the violence of war o Believed words like glory or honor now rang hollow • Beats: o they take destruction of life and morals Frighteningly for granted o To them, “how” to live is much more important than “why” What was “The Psychic State of Youth” (the historical moment of the Beats, post WWII)? • Post WWII, America was not in a state of normalcy as many portray o Bland selling out of the good life o Political retrenchment o Conservative laisse faire attitude o Nuclear anxiety What were the typical roles for women in the post World War II era? • Expected to be proper wives who is cultured, but stays at home and creative for the purposes of maintaining the household/children
The Beats - 1
2/25/13 2:18 PM
What are the origins of the Beats? Where did they meet? • The original "Beat Generation" writers met in New York. Later, in the mid-1950s, the central figures (with the exception of Burroughs) ended up together in San Francisco where they met and became friends with figures associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. • Central elements of "Beat" culture included rejection of received standards, innovations in style, experimentation with drugs, alternative sexualities, an interest in Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism, and explicit portrayals of the human condition. • Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948 to characterize a perceived underground, anti-conformist youth movement in New York. • The adjective "beat" could colloquially mean "tired" or "beaten down" within the African-American community of the period and had developed out of the image "beat to his socks" • Met at Columbia in NYC (for the most part) Who did the Beats admire and want to emulate? • Transcendentalists such as Emerson, Thoreau, Melville and Whitman • Believed in the notion of man as divine and can transcend society • Resist consumer capitalism: no excess stuff, life is primitive, natural and common, introspection and altered consciousness, doing what feels right What was post World War II America like and how did this contribute to the emergence of the Beats? • Mainstream society pushed for a return to “normalcy” after the war • Would-be Beats could not forget the tragedies that occurred during the war (atomic bomb) and became disgusted after realizing what the mainstream was capable of doing What are the basic biographies (the important and relevant details) of the lives of (1) Kerouac, (2) Ginsberg, (3) Cassady, (4) Burroughs • Jack Kerouac – Born March 12, 1922 in Lowell, MA, parents are French Canadian, father was a printer/businessman, excelled at baseball, track, football in HS, scholarship to Columbia o Enlists in Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard at same time
o Alcoholic – eventually results in his death • (Irwin) Allen Ginsberg – Born June 3, 1926 in Newark, NJ o Father is a poet/HS teacher/Jewish Democratic Socialist, o Mother is a Communist, nudist and raging lunatic (insane) o Mother had series of mental breakdowns leaving Lewis to care for children o Attends Columbia (1943), intends to become a Labor Lawyer o Homosexual (loves Cassady) • William Burroughs – Born in 1914, St. Louis, MO o From wealthy family, mother is direct descendant of R.E. Lee, grandfather inventor of Burroughs adding machine o Wanted to smoke opium from early age, told it helps stop nightmares o Graduated from Harvard in 1936 (English lit.) o Lost heterosexual virginity in brothel, had homosexual fantasies o Travelled to Europe, studied medicine for year, married a Jew looking to escape Nazis o Rejected affluent lifestyle of family and its rewards, (early 40s) plunged into drugs (heroin), odd jobs, bisexuality • Neil Cassady – Born Feb. 8, 1926 in Salt Lake City o Raised by alcoholic father in skid row hotels in Denver o Between 14 and 21, stole over 500 cars Which Beats wrote what? • Kerouac – On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Town and the City, Some of the Dharma • Ginsberg – Howl, Yage Letters • Burroughs – Naked Lunch, Junkie, Yage Letters • Holmes – Go What is “Howl?” • Written by Ginsberg and first read at the Six Gallery in 1955 • Poem in which the speak explains a new perspective in which the best minds of his generation to be the homeless, the lawless, and those deemed insane by society • Dedicated in large part to the mind of Carl Solomon • Obscenity Trial – 1957, defended by ACLU
o Judge determines Howl has redeeming social value: ! Section 1 presents a picture of a nightmare world ! Section 2 is an indictment of the things that make it a nightmare world: materialism, conformity, and mechanization leading to war. ! Section 3 represents the way this impacts an individual ! Section 4 is a plea for holy living What is the City Lights Bookstore? In what ways was it both a Mecca and a lightning rod? • America’s first paperback bookstore in San Francisco, owned by Lawrence Ferlinghetti • Published huge number of legendary cult title such as Howl, popularity attracted new generation of untamed poets to San Fran What is Six Gallery? • In San Francisco, location of the first public manifestation of Beats, moderated by Kenneth Rexroth, Ginsberg reads Howl for first time The Beats were on the road to where? (note: there is no one ‘right’ answer to this question) • San Francisco What was Ginsberg’s “New Vision of Art?” • Naked self-expression is the seed of creativity • Artist’s consciousness is expanded by a derangement of the senses • Art eludes conventional morality What is the “Dark Night of the Soul?” • Harkens back to the Catholic mystic St. Johns of the Cross • Mystical spiritual path upon which one believes he has lost everything, including the grace of God • Exhaustion of an old state and the growth of a new form of consciousness What is the “Bedrock of Consciousness? • Ginsberg and Kerouac • Only place true art can exist • Only place where nothing but inner self exists What was the Kammerer Affair? What impact did it have on the Beats? • Lucian Carr stabs David Kammerer to death (1949) • Kerouac and Burroughs arrested as material witnesses
o Jack – helps Carr destroy murder weapon o Jack – persuades Edie Parker to bail him out by saying he will marry her o Carr – 1-20 years at Elmira Reformatory (released in 1946) Who is Carl Solomon and what is his relevance to the Beats? • Met Ginsberg in Columbia Psychiatric Institute • Solomon’s “mind” provides Ginsberg with inspiration to write Howl • Solomon deemed himself insane, Ginsberg was interested in his mental condition in the views of culture and society What influences do you think Ginsberg drew from his parents? • Father routinely recites Dickenson, Poe, Milton, etc. to children • Often pulled into his mothers illness, convinces Allen to take her via bus through rural NJ to find a rest home
The White Negro - 2
2/25/13 2:18 PM
Who wrote “The White Negro?” When? • Written by Norman Mailer, published in the summer of 1957 o Implies that the Negros are the source of hip for beats Who is a hipster? • Hipsters rejected middle-class values and took their cues for behavior from working-class Negroes. • Hipsters with a middle-class background attempt to put down their whiteness and adopt what they believe is the carefree, spontaneous, cool life style of Negro hipsters: o their manner of speaking and language o their use of milder narcotics o their appreciation of jazz and the blues o their supposed concern with the good orgasm • Mailer also said that the hipster, in attempting to emulate the Negro cultivated : o Irresponsibility o Spontaneity o Emotionalism o Immediate impulse gratification o Occasional use of drugs o More liberal and open attitudes toward sex o Interracial friendships o The use of four letter words • Mailer claims that by doing these things hipsters are attempting to separate themselves from the middle-class culture in which they were brought up What is the main goal of hipsters? • To keep out of society which, he thinks, is trying to make everyone over in its own image • They fear to be beat because once the sweet of sex has deserted them, they still cannot give up the search How is “the Negro” the source of hip? • Because the negro could not afford the inhibitions of civilization, he lived for the primitive present and the pleasures of the body (not the pleasures of the mind)
He has been living on the margin between totalitarianism and democracy for two centuries. o Any kind of unconventional action often takes disproportionate courage. • The presence of Hip as a working philosophy in the sub-worlds of American life is probably due to jazz…its subtle penetrating influence on an avant-garde generation. What is the connection between Bohemians, jazz and “the Negro” according to the article? • The bohemians (adventurers) were drawn to the hipness of the Negro via the growing popularity of jazz (jazz spoke across the nation) • In what ways is the hipster like “the Negro?” What is the hipster fighting for? • Hipsters are attempting to separate themselves from the middleclass culture in which they were brought up. What is hipster language? What are the specific examples the author gives of hipster language? • Abstract ambiguous alternatives in which from the danger of their oppression they learned to speak o Example ! That cat will never come off his groove. • This is a substitute for “stubborn” • The language of Hip is a language of energy, how it is found, how it is lost. • The words are: o Man, go, put down, make, beat, cool, swing, with it, crazy, dig, flip, creep, hip, square What is the ethos of the hipster? • Know thyself and be thyself What is the hipster a counter to, according to the author? In what ways is comparing “the hipster” to “the Negro” problematic?
Hipster has never actually been through the trials and tribulations of being a negro. • Blacks have to live life in fear, without the comforts whites live with In what ways does the author say hipsters emulate “the Negro?” • Language – i.e. dig could have many meanings depending on tone and context • Try to emulate the Negro lifestyle of living in the primitive present • The African-American views everyday life in the terms of war, which the hipster adopts as his model for the rejection of conformity In which of his works does Kerouac revere “the Negro” in stereotypical yet celebratory terms? (see power point slides) • On the Road – white life style does not have enough life, joy, kicks, darkness, music, not enough night •
The Birth of the Beats - 2
2/25/13 2:18 PM
Who is Mildred Brady? What characteristics of the Beats did she include in her article on the Beats in Harper’s [magazine]? • Freelance writer for Harper’s Magazine • Wrote first real article about the Beats in 1947 • Says they are: o Different crowd o Poetry readings are solemn o Poetry transcends logic, invades unreasonable realm where relationships between ideas are sympathetic and mysterious o Lifestyle is a combination of anarchism and psycho analysis, which leads to: ! Abandonment of church, state, family ! Sex as a source of individual salvation in a collective world that’s going to hell What characteristics of the Beats did John Clellon Holmes include in his article “The Beat Vision”? • Instinctive individuality • Independent minds • Lust for freedom led to: o Black markets o Bebop o Narcotics o Sexual promiscuity o Hucksterism – aggressively promote o Existentialism – Jean Paul Sartre • Generation has been used, is raw, searching for the nakedness of mind and soul, reducing consciousness to bedrock, pushing against the wall of oneself What influence did Bebop have on the Beats? • Rejected the idea of jazz as entertainment • Even more cutoff from mainstream that beat writings o Did not care what was thought of it or its popularity • Tried to exploit the outsider feeling to become a true outsider • Constantly trying to become more abstract as to avoid reproducibility o Prevent whites from ripping it off
• Spoken-word style of the Beats drew on jazz rhythm Who were some of the Jazz musicians the Beats admired? • Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus • Charles Parker (1920): raised solos in higher intervals of song chords, freed him of traditional melody • Dizzy Gillespie (1917): stabbed Cab Calloway, dissatisfied with band music, became travelling musician • Thelonious Monk (1917): started in traveling gospel, returned to Harlem to play solo in clubs What role did spirituality and religion play in the emergence (and development) of the Beats? What the role of religion static or did it change as the Beat movement developed? What was the impact of Buddhism on the Beats? • Kerouac – following ideas replace his Catholic guilt: o Impermanence o No creator or savior, you save yourself o Way of Bodhisattva – peace, love, patience, generosity • Best way to achieve a goal (and enlightenment) is to experience desire fully, thereby draining it of its mystery – writing as orgasm Why was illegal drug taking a part of the Beat lifestyle? • Experimental, often unfamiliar with the effects of the drugs o Drugs may induce creativity, insight, or productivity • Inspired by the intellectual interest as well as the way it made them feel o Believed that these drugs help to maximize pleasure which was intrinsically good What stereotypes about Beats did Mainstream culture create in order to minimize, commodify and suppress the Beats? • Bop goatee and beret • Horn-rimmed glasses • Beat casual style Was the mainstream threatened by the Beats? Why? • In some cases yes: o Believe the beats were: ! Hostile to civilization
• What is • •
Worshiped primitive instinct, energy, blood Intellect relies on mystical doctrine and irrational philosophies ! Contempt for rational, coherent discourse o Can ultimately become violent, irrational, lead to drug addiction and madness Push primitivism on Beats to cover up anti-intellectualism society feels “cool” and “flipness”? Did these terms reflect Beat worldview? Cool – withdrawal, to be equipped, more equipped = less likely to be put down Flipness – ecstasy, beyond one’s experience, impossible to anticipate, to be Beat is to be flip ! !
Women and the Beat Generation - 4
2/25/13 2:18 PM
Out of what social milieu (setting) did Women Beats emerge?
• Increased consumerism, political repression, McCarthy witch hunts • Sexual contradiction: o Masturbation causes insanity, premarital sex is immoral, half of women married by 19, only whores had premarital sex How did college contribute to the emergence of women in the Beat movement? What did women study in college? What was the societal goal for sending women to college? • MrS degree – liberal arts (art, literature, religion, philosophy) • Societal goals: o Want women to be cultured, but stay at home o Want women to be creative, but use that for home/children How did the male icons of the Beat Generation relate to women? In what ways was “female rebellion” considered even more dangerous to the mainstream than “male rebellion?” What sorts of consequences did women who rebelled face? How did these consequences vary from those the male Beats faced? • Women were locked up physically, AND culturally: o There was no gray area…either you were a virgin or a whore, a nice girl or crazy o If you wanted to be adventurous, then you were probably categorized as a lesbian, whether you were or weren’t • In the 50s, if you were male, you could be a rebel. • Men could have sex with anyone and not be labeled while women were expected to remain virgins until marriage. In what ways were Beat women beat? • Even within the Beat community women could not find a new place. They became wives and mothers, only in a more chaotic and rebellious framework. o Someone needed to care for Neal Cassady's children o Someone needed to hang Jack Kerouac's T-shirts to dry o Someone needed to type "Kaddish" for Allen
Ginsberg
Who were Hettie Jones, Diane di Prima, Joyce Johnson, Joan Vollmer and Edie Parker? • Hettie Jones – wife of Black Beat author and poet LeRoi Jones, honest about how women used sex to gain entrance into the Beat world, women could admit their desired to have sex • Diane di Prima – poet, decided to explore her own sexuality, refused to include men other than for sex, had a child and didn’t tell the father until 6 months after birth, born in Brooklyn (1936), dropped out of Swarthmore College, Hettie Jones published her first book “This Kind of Bird Flies Backward”, bridge between beats and hippies • Joan Vollmer – became Burroughs’ wife, victim of William Tell incident, left suburban life in Albany, attended Barnard College (women’s college associated with Columbia) • Edie Parker – Kerouac’s first wife, left Grosse Pointe in favor of Columbia to explore all aspects of her life, moved in with Joan, apartment because early male Beat meeting place In what ways were women embraced by the Beat movement and in what ways were they oppressed? In what ways could one argue feminism and Women’s rights emerged from the female Beats? • Women assumed that they would be welcome in a movement that seemed to espouse universal equality • Virtually all the women who tried to join the Beat scene were college educated and that education caused them to want a lot more than just being a wife and mother. What is the “boy gang”? • Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Cassady • Ginsberg believe it to be the ideal model of creativity • Ginsberg & Cassady are lovers • The men tend to share each others live and tend to each other actively What are the 4 roles that women could play in the Beat movement? • Relegated to observer status, sexual surrogates, peripheral interest o The providers
o The musers – though provokers o The writers o The artists Although the women were on the periphery, what essential things did they often do? • Peripheral status allowed them to pursue intellectual pursuits such as art, literature and Buddhism • Often the primary bread winners • Had opportunity to start small presses
2/25/13 2:18 PM 4 short answer essays • each question will have a few parts If you know everything on study guide, you will be fine
2/25/13 2:18 PM