In What Ways Did The Beat Generation Influence Western Culture?

In what ways did the Beat Generation influence Western Culture?
HAYDN GREEN
A three part essay, presenting the case of how the Beat generation of the 1950s have been able to influence the majority of western culture; whether that be artistically, socially, musically or even politically. The way this essay has been structured, is to initially present the build up to the Beat generation that being the post-war modernist era of the 1920s and 1930s, following with a discussion of the Beat generation from the most prominent works and writers, to how they had been persecuted by an extreme right-wing American society. Subsequently leading to the explanation of why and how they have been so significant in how our culture has been able to change over the past sixty years. Furthermore, particularly toward the last part of the essay we take into consideration the various opposing individuals or organisations of the Beat generation and reveal why they had opposed them. The purpose or even the goals of this essay, alongside proving that the Beat generation had been influential on western culture, were to present a general understanding of the Beat lifestyle, the Beat canon. This three part essay is then concluded on how the Beat generation is still significant today and how we are still inspired b their ideals and their works even if we are not aware, also we discuss how the long timeline of Beat has ultimately come around to create a paradox of what those of the Beat generation were initially working to avoid.
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Haydn Green In what ways did the Beat Generation influence Western Culture? (EPQ) 2010/11
Table of Contents
Introduction PART ONE: ORIGINS OF THE BEAT GENERATION 1. Before the Beat 2. This is a Beat Generation PART TWO: THE BEAT GENERATION 3. The Three Pillars: Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs 4. Beat Culture 5. The Beats and the Law PART THREE: BEAT LEGACY AND CRITICISM 6. Beat Influence and Legacy 7. Criticism of the Beat Generation 8. Todays Beats Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Evaluation Word Count 3
7 10 16 23 28 36 39 43 47 49 57 59 61
Introduction
Abbie Hoffman once said that you couldnt have had the sixties without the fifties... and the fifties were the Beats1. This acts as a great epithet towards the Beat Generation, and brings to focus the main topic of this dissertation the legacy and effects of the Beat Generation. In 1948 during a conversation with the novelist John Clellon Holmes, Jack Kerouac had coined the phrase the Beat Generation2, and ever since it has been considered by many as a cultural phenomenon. From the ills which spread throughout American society during the Silent and Lost Generations, the Beats were a subculture of radical writers with the aim to kick the establishment, and to respond to any authority with two fingers, who were responsible for not only transforming the mass perception of poetry and literature, but acting as the catalyst for almost every movement, anti-war protest, sexual revolution, subculture and rock and roll lyric that came after them. The influence and legacy of the Beat Generation has attracted great interest over the years. In every subsequent decade, their works have been a subject to talk about, an inspiration. Through the literary styles, imagination and recollections of their own lives they have thus far inspired thousands, if not millions in believing that it is okay to not conform or follow the orders of society or government. Why they were such a phenomenon and how they managed to influence so many, are most interesting and therefore will occupy the majority of this project. Throughout, we will take a much closer look at the origins of the Beat Generation and what it was that influenced them, the definition of the term Beat Generation will also be discussed in depth. Furthermore, a large part of this essay will be focused on the prominent works of three of the Beat Generations significant writers. Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, along with the themes present in their writings and what they aimed at accomplishing from such works will be important. There will also be a section in Chapter 2 of this project focused specifically on the controversy and fame which surrounded them. Chapter 3 however, will centre its attention towards the primary topic within this dissertation, their legacy. It will be a fairly in depth account of why they were so influential, what they helped create, what they intended on happening, and the effects and inspiration that has been
1
Aronson, J. (2007). The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg. [DVD]. Tamony, P. (1969). Western Words: Beat Generation: Beat: Beatniks in: Western Folklore 28, No.4
derived from them over six decades. The section will end on a discussion of criticism towards the Beats both then and now, and see how the Beat Generation has been revived into popularity again and again.
What makes this project different to others is that it paves the way to understanding how and why this small group of people managed to influence so many. Rather than focusing on just the themes, origins and criticisms it is an additional study of something which has become an actual phenomenon, how they were possibly key in changing the way society was in the 1950s to ultimately leave us with such a culturally diverse and rich society today. Much of the research towards this project has derived from published books of the Beat writers themselves, other critical analysis of their works and the culture in which they were from. Other quite significant information has been found in past journals, articles and documentaries. As regards to the documentary films on the Beats, what has become convenient is that there are recordings from the 1950s and the 1960s which were largely focused on the effect they were having on society from a first-hand perception or experience and recordings which are more recent, filmed on a secondary informative basis, providing recollections of writers such as Ginsberg and of course those who have been effected from the Beat Generations legacy.
From my extensive research on the Beat Generation, it will be possible to come to an understanding of how or why the Beats were able to affect people. By looking at key individuals who themselves helped shape western culture and society as we know it today and indeed created their own influence, opens other doors into solving the idea of the Beats influence. Also, by studying the changes throughout the 20th Century on peoples perspective of poetry and literature, especially from the more traditional view to the contemporary, we are able to see possible inspirations taken from the Beat Generation. However, there are some restraints in this projects examination. It is clear from much criticism hailed at the writers, that people as a whole have not held a shared consensus on the Beats. Instead, society has almost been split into two opposing factions; for and against. This restrains the project because the majority of the information researched from those who have received the influence from the Beats is most likely to be biased. But, in order to create a balanced examination on the effects of the Beat Generation, it will be necessary to look at the other faction against the group of writers.
This dissertation is particularly beneficial to those who are of course interested in literature, sociology or indeed history. For not only is this a project based on a group of writers, but it also takes a look at the changes within society and American or possibly international culture by focusing on the effects towards those interested and how they managed to force a new society of subculture into existence. As regards to those interested in history, by discussing the changes within society over a period of time, and basing the essay on a group of writers publishing their works just under sixty years ago, it appeals to historians in a sociological and literary context. ... This is the Beat Generation J.C Holmes
Part One Origins of the Beat Generation
Chapter 1 Before the Beat

Throughout the Early Twentieth Century literature found itself on the brink of change. It had generally been split into two schools of writing; modernism and postmodernism, the former being just after the First World War (1914-18) and throughout the 1920s, and the latter being after the Second World War (1939-45) and continuing throughout the 1950s. The majority of the writers at this time had of course been witness to a war; they had undergone the same responses that were to distinguish them as a generation3. The first set of these writers were the Lost Generation; Malcolm Cowley elaborated on the name by calling them the first real generation in the history of American letters, the specially damned and forsaken, lost from all others and themselves...4 They were a group of writers who belonged to the modernist era of literature, those who became so consumed by the Great War, that the idea of realism or the more traditional forms of writing were outdated. War was indeed the central focus of their writing; and what made them and their works so significant at the time was the fact that they were able to represent all of those who had been called on for duty. They represented a generation. However, they had all been hurt by the war, in one way or another, and it is as if they had been released from it to show the world their pain, and gradually find themselves lost in the post-war period. They were unique because they could write about the war, and the way it had a hold over them, it was the only thing they could write about because nothing else had meant anything to them anymore. The theme of war can clearly be seen in Lost Generation
3 4
Aldridge, J. (1951). After the Lost Generation: A Critical Study of Two Wars ibid
works like Hemingways A Farewell to Arms or Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby two incredible novels following the lives of people throughout World War One Europe. As a generation they had thrived in the bereavement and began to loathe everything about the modern world, and of course modern America. It was a common belief within the Lost Generation, that America had become spiritually empty because of the war, and thus became undeserving of their presence. As a result of this many writers who considered themselves lost self-exiled themselves to Europe, where creativity was still possible. During the war, these writers grew a strong feeling of anger and hatred, which somehow created a feeling of excitement to be a part of a movement, feelings which had been the fuel or the inspiration of their works. But subsequently it became evident that they were beginning to lose that emotion. This idea of exile had originated from the need to sustain that feeling, that inspiration.
The young men came to Paris... they settled in flats and studios along the Left Bank and in the Latin Quarter... They took jobs as foreign correspondents for American newspapers, sent back social gossip and racing news; wrote book reviews, magazine articles, and stories... did anything to keep alive and to prolong the show. - John Aldridge, After the Lost Generation
This process of keeping the emotion or inspiration in tact started with the likes of Stein or Joyce in Europe, when they chose to leave their normal traditions of writing and resort to the idea of pure art, writing in the most basic form in order to relieve them entirely of their feelings. Likewise to such writers as Hemingway, they were in search of their own values and their own form of writing, their absolutes. Other writers however, would simply join this movement to transform it into a general rebellion against the idiot world into which they had been born. The exiled post-war writers effectively became a part of another peaking movement in Europe at this time Dadaism. Dadaists tend to follow the same suit as any other significant post-war writer like Hemingway, Joyce, Stein or Fitzgerald they all became so annoyed at how the world was modernising particularly in technology, and especially the significant growth and production of weapons. Ergo, as a result of all these feelings amalgamated together, this rebellious movement of literature and art turned itself into one with principles and concentration based around anti-war politics and the rejection of the universally accepted traditional forms of art.
Aldridge explains that, when art was in the hands of Dadaists it was an instrument of confusion and a by-product of isolation. That Dada itself had contained all the values and attitudes held by the exiled writers, but in the most extreme form possible. Essentially it had been dedicated to the pure and absolute art, rather than the older forms of art. The Dada Manifesto actually states that Art is a private matter; the artist does it for himself; any work of art that can be understood is a product of journalism5 However, this extremist view of an exiled literary movement would inevitably come to an end, only those who were apart of this movement were unaware of that prospect. Instead they were playing a role in a long-running show that seemed to never end, they became a part of everything they had opposed, that withering idiot world around them. The death of Dada and those in exile was the immediate result of a broken promise back home Wall Street. The crash of Wall Street and the end of the business boom throughout the 1920s ultimately brought about the diminishment and eventually the end to monthly pay cheques, small private incomes from securities and publishers advances toward the writing of their next book. People all over the world began making the line to the unemployment offices, and those who remained in their jobs, simply because they had invested too much in it, continued because it was the case of stopping what they were doing or to die. Unfortunately, the choice and decision had already been made for these men, as ever so slowly suicide had become the only resort. The Lost Generation had learned the hard way that all roads, if they are followed far enough, lead back to zero6. When we are able to look back at the effects the war and the depression had on the movement of art and specifically literature, we also have the ability to see what is likely to happen after such things occur in American history again. The impact of Dadaism and the rejection of anything that was considered traditional, in order to discover what was true to the artist themselves are things which were held with great significance to the Beat Generation twenty years later. Such elements of art had given rise to changes within society and subculture, there became a new generation which represented how people were generally feeling within society, and even afterwards during the later 1930s and early 1940s the Lost generation and Dadaists created an impact and had a hold over a group of people who grew into hipsters, junkies, jazz musicians. Those who had entered into a new level of depression and difference
5 6
Dada Manifesto, cited in Aldridge, J. (1951). p. 17 Aldridge, J, (1951). After the Lost Generation: A Critical Study of Two Wars. p. 21
that the abuse of drugs such as opium and listening of jazz managed to express exactly how they felt.
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Chapter 2 This is a Beat Generation

In his collection of essays and articles, John Clellon Holmes explains how the term a beat generation had come about. It was during a conversation between himself and the soon to become prominent Beat writer Jack Kerouac; Kerouac had been amazing Holmes of stories on his experiences across America, and his meetings with the wild kids from con men to hipsters. Talking of how, particularly American writers have come about to isolating themselves into generations, and how every few years these generations would change in order to discover themselves, thus discovering America and her society. Kerouac then claimed that This is a Beat Generation. Now, the word beat had of course been in existence years before the Beat Generation had formed, though the definition of the word had never been more significant than it had been in the earlier part of the twentieth century and since the arrival of the Beat Generation, the proper definition has been widely discussed does it mean upbeat, downbeat, deadbeat. Holmes states that it was more than mere weariness, it implies the feeling of being used, of being raw, it effectively means being pushed up against the wall of oneself7. The word had become so commonly known throughout America, that Kerouac recalls seeing a hipster, Herbert Huncke in Chicago and him saying Man, Im Beat! and from that one simple word Kerouac was able to understand what was meant, what Hunckes values were, what type of music he had listened to8.
7
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Holmes, J.C. (1988). Passionate Opinions: The Cultural Essays. University of Arkansas Press p. 58 Kerouac, J. (1959). The Origins of The Beat Generation in: Playboy June 59 p. 42
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The Beat Generation was another post-war generation, and because of that it had been compared to the other post-war generation, those who carried the word lost. But those were boys who detested the world they were walking into and yearned to return to the good old days9, when those who dubbed themselves as beat, were far from being lost. Instead they looked at the world without any concern, bereavement was no longer an issue to them, and the fact that morals within society were being shattered was of no importance. They took these things frighteningly for granted10. They were able to do so, because just like the Lost Generation knew nothing else but what happened during the Great War, the Beats knew no alternative to the world they were living in, they had grown up in the ruins of their society, and no longer noticed them as a problem. Unlike the Lost Generation, the Beats felt they needed a faith or at least a way to discover the internal self, whether it be through drugs, drink or sex of any nature, simply to elude themselves from the society in which they live. It was no longer the question of retracting themselves to any traditional form of art or life, but to seek something new. In the 1920s writers had a loss of faith maybe due to bereavement or the modern world, but Holmes refers to one of Voltaires jokes when explaining the Beats If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him. From coast to coast the generation had flooded American youth, represented by the same clean young face11 that being the face of the young girl who smokes marijuana and shows no sense of deviance, or the face of the young copywriter who leans on the bar drinking to be relaxed or the hot-rod driver who invites death simply to outwit it. They were as a whole of the two extremes, living and loving their lives in the only ways they knew how. They were kicks that they had got out of life, youngsters who could be clearly seen in Kerouacs book On the Road who were mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved12. Kerouac went and applied his own religious and spiritual rooting to On the Road, when he described the Beat Generation as a religious generation, a group of people seen to be on a quest for something, that being themselves. The Beat Generation had also been present throughout the very short and extraordinary career of James Dean, and in effect he became a symbol for all the youngsters across America who dubbed themselves as beat. He was their idol, in the same way that Valentino was the idol of
Aldridge, J, (1951). After the Lost Generation: A Critical Study of Two Wars. Holmes, J.C. (1988). P. 60 11 Holmes, J.C. (1988). Passionate Opinions: The Cultural Essays. University of Arkansas Press 12 ibid
10 9
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the twenties and Clark Gable was the idol of the thirties13. Though, Dean was not an idol to the Beats because he was what they wanted to be, rather he was already them a youth looking over the abyss separating him from older people the younger generation were able to respond to his acting far more easily than those of the past generations, to the older people Dean was in fact a bad actor who tended to mumble his words and was rather inarticulate. But to youngsters and in particular the Beat Generation, it was because he was partly unable to believe the words in his scripts. Amongst all his flaws and his loneliness, Dean was able to represent Beats the most through the way he looked, both physically and materially. His saddened facials features and eyes alongside his slouching and sloppy clothes or his untrimmed dont care what I look like hair had placed him in the forefront of the new youth movement. Another feature to Dean and contemporaries like Marlon Brando was his discipline of acting Method Acting. Essentially a way in which actors place themselves emotionally to their character, and what had made it so attractive to the Beats was how they managed to pent up all the emotion involved and release in one massive dramatically spectacular scene, good examples of this would be Dean in Rebel Without A Cause or Brando in On the Waterfront. The idea of method acting was effectively taken on by the Beats, it was the way they acted, and when we consider poetry in the Beat Generation had become something which required an oral performance, the Method was able to cater and turn words into something explosive, like Howl by Allen Ginsberg:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night Allen Ginsberg, Howl and Other Poems
Of course this is where the Beat Generation and their attitudes are focused the most poetry. To them it was a way of finding their beliefs, in an exaggerated way, like the Lost Generation. So much so, that the majority of the poets found themselves following Zen Buddhism, delving into a more homosexual lifestyle, some were even Catholic, and from these inspirations they were able to create their poetry all in the aid of discovering themselves internally and eluding or escaping from the world they live in. All of them believe that only that which cries to be said, no matter how unpoetic it may seem; only that which is
13
Holmes, J.C. (1988). Passionate Opinions: The Cultural Essays. University of Arkansas Press
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unalterably true to the sayer, and bursts out of him in a flood like Method acting finding its own form as it comes, is worth the saying in the first place14.
Critics have often described the works of the Beat Generation or the acting of Dean or Brando as enticing youth delinquency, thus resulting in more crime and gang culture which will be discussed even further in Part 3 but this general idea of togetherness or gangs which was used as a smear campaign towards the Beats can of course be seen in a different light. Holmes argues of how gangs or generations of the youth are not necessarily immoral in what they are talking about or believe in, but are more similar to those of older generations, those who have a sense of comradeship and different code of ethics, such as tribes, or even older to a more primitive sense, with the idea that one must do what one does in order to survive just like those fighting for their jobs throughout Europe in the late 1920s. This is also similar to the life of a hipster, of which the Beat Generation generally derives from, where the individual is more of a mysterious, nonviolent person who is able to discover himself through the use of drugs and jazz.
A postmodernist subculture consisting of members who were hipsters, con men, poets, college drop outs, and many more. All on, what Kerouac described as, a religious quest to discover the internal self, their own world in which they could and very much would live in to escape from the world in ruins of which they were born into. By the 1950s not only had they become famous for what they were doing, as much as they had become an international phenomenon, not all dubbed as the Beat Generation of course, in Britain they were Teddy Boys, in Japan they were Sun Tribers, and in Russia they were surprisingly hipsters. This was the generation who would use sex, drugs, music, literature and all sorts to find themselves. This was the Beat Generation.
14
Holmes, J.C. (1988). P. 75
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Part Two The Beat Generation
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Chapter 3 Three Pillars of Beat

Ever since the end of the Beat Generation, there has been a common consensus amongst those who are aware of their works, of which stand out as the most prominent pieces of work, thus leading to a shared consensus of whom are the key writers of the generation as a whole. Society has filtered them down, to what I like to call the three pillars of Beat, that being Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Altogether it could be quite agreed upon that they were the founders of the Beat Generation, hence the term three pillars without them none of this would have even started however, it was not as if they had come together and planned on writing such influential works, or throw a spanner in 1950s society. It was more a case of being accidental; their entire friendship had been an accident and so on. But thankfully, this accident was what some would call destiny, as though it was meant to happen, because this three-way friendship was able to kick-start a part of the society we live in today. The accidental meeting had taken place in New York at Columbia University during the mid1940s. They were attracted to each other through their vision of America and their mutual opposition to the status quo. Although, Burroughs had once stated that you couldnt find three more different writers which on some level carried truth, amongst their friendship and their likeness with each other, their styles of writing were very different. From Kerouacs
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spontaneous prose15, Burroughs Cut-Up Period to Ginsbergs neo-Whitman-esque poetic structure, they were able to share a similar outlook and sensibility16. The prominent works in question are of course, Howl and Other Poems (Ginsberg), On the Road (Kerouac) and Naked Lunch (Burroughs). In spite of each of the writers having their own writing techniques, they oddly chose to write about similar things. All of said works are in some way or another autobiographical, as they manage to not only portray their own lives as much as portraying the lives of those around them, or in other words their generation, as well as their values and attitudes, such as Christianity, Zen Buddhism and Judaism. Allen Ginsbergs Howl had effectively signalled the arrival of the Beat Generation. Recited at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, he had delivered what was to become one of the most important poems of the entire generation and possibly the entire decade. William Carlos Williams the man the Beats had taken inspiration from called it evidence that he the poet has been through Hell17. What had made it so significant was the fact that it was new in the eyes of 1950s society, to the average American such writing and poetic style had not been around for at least one hundred years, since the days of Walt Whitman. It had been written to be said, featuring long sentence structures and relying on ones ability to hold long unbroken breaths, for example who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz. Furthermore, alongside the oral performance the level of obscenity involved in the poem had made it even more explosive, of course it was this that would also make it nationally and then eventually internationally famous. Being an autobiographical piece Ginsberg invites us the reader on his quest into hell, introducing us to those who surrounded him, presenting the reasons why they have been destroyed by madness Going back to what has briefly been discussed, the Beat Generation were generally concerned with discovering a new world away from the ruins they had been born into. And in effect Howl was able to demonstrate everything which was wrong with that first and realistic world. It is as if the speaker within the poem that being Ginsberg himself was looking back on
Kerouac, J. (1959). The Origins of The Beat Generation in: Playboy June 59 Foster, 1992 cited in Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965. Whitney Museum of American Art: Flammarion
16 17 15
Ginsberg, A. (2006). Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books
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the world we all live in from the world he has already discovered. Particularly when in the last part of the poem, the speaker repeats being with you in Rockland, almost said with sympathy or pity. With this concept in mind, Ginsberg was able to encompass everything the Beats were about, standing as non-conventional and refusing to bow down to the American establishment. This is partly what had made Howl so explosive at the time, as the words within were connecting with those who were hearing and reading it. In spite of the poem being autobiographical and following the lives of the people surrounding Ginsberg, it also documents in some way, simply through the little words like Mohammedan the lives of everyone who joined the Beat movement. Whereas On the Road, a Beat novel which had been written in 1951 but not released until 1957 was not far from being on the same page as Ginsbergs Howl. It became a common theme throughout Kerouacs works to write about events which had really taken place, therefore the writer incorporates a lot of autobiographical writing within the novel, and even uses a form of nom de plume or more commonly known as pseudonyms for the characters within the book, in order to disguise Kerouacs real friends, like Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. The novel itself is rather self-explanatory, as it follows the lives of two significant characters them being Dean Moriarty and Salvatore Paradise, who are in fact Cassady and Kerouac on their travels across America and eventually Mexico, on the road. However, there is a deeper meaning to the phrase On the Road which would have held a stronger connection to those of the generation within the 1950s than it does to the modern reader. Kerouac intended the novel to reveal a sense of freedom for the protagonists; with the road offering them not only experience to add to their young lives, but also more specific elements such as inspiration, especially when they were both budding writers. As we have already discussed, aspects such as freedom, and the concept of finding oneself were some of the most ideal things to add to ones life. Although, unlike Howl, Kerouac explores the criticisms which had faced the youth culture at the time, one of them being subsequent failure. Throughout the 1950s failure became a most feared prospect, success and up was the only direction the youth intended to go. But within the second part of the novel, the writer is able to demonstrate the downfall of an epic hero Moriarty/Cassady he became a hero because he lived the way he wanted to live, and as a result became an iconic figure in Sals/Kerouacs eyes. This womanizing, live life to the fullest man suddenly came to realise the troubles within his life, for example how he was not making a success of his writing, the abandonment of his wife and children, or the fact that
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almost every character within the novel had become more than frustrated with him, and simultaneously Sals travels become more of a disappointment rather than a bon voyage. The joyrides were no longer as joyous as they used to be. Though, through this technique of bowing down the common conception of 1950s youth, Kerouac was able to represent everything that was Beat. This is something which of course links back to the idea of being downbeat, to realise what was wrong with the world we all live in, get pissed off about it, and work to relieve yourself of it. In this particular case, Kerouac turns to God, seeking religious inspiration and guidance to discovering that world where only the Beats can live. By the end of the novel, the reader is merely left wondering what to think about the likes of Dean Moriarty, and questioning whether we as a people need to start growing up, that we need to stop joyriding, going from adventure to adventure, waking up to smell the rotten coffee of a post-war society. Thankfully, Kerouac never answered those questions, and as a result the novel influenced many of its readers from writers to musicians like Bob Dylan to photographers and so on. Inspiring them to open their eyes to the world we live in, to go on their own adventures to reach their discoveries, or even to embrace religion and spirituality to inspire their work. Burroughs Naked Lunch is quintessentially the postmodern novel to be written within the Beat Generation, as it has the ability to represent everything which is the truth about 1950s and indeed our very own society, and is forever suspicious of those within. Not only had it risen to become one of the most controversial and obscene texts of the generation, thus shocking everyone who had come to read it, and eventually found itself dragged across the floors of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. It had marked itself as William S. Burroughs influential and inspiring magnum opus. The story follows the life of William Lee or Lee the Agent, which was in fact a portrayal of the authors own life, and even the pseudonym used by Burroughs for the previous semi-autobiographical novel Junky. Likewise to the other prominent Beat works Naked Lunch was very much autobiographical, presenting the travels and lifestyle lead by Lee/Burroughs in New York, Mexico and Tangier. The novel also presents the lives of those who surrounded Lee, who were like him junkies or otherwise known as drug addicts. Unlike most novels of this time, there was not necessarily any hero present, the reason for this being that every character in Naked Lunch has of course done something wrong in their time whether it be drug use, or what some critics may call paedophilia or any other sort of crime. Rather the types of characters are the guilty and the guiltier, although, there are those within the novel who the reader would see as an antagonist
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and those as a protagonist mainly William Lee. The author in some way or another stands as a ghost on the sidelines, effectively putting himself into his art and becoming El Hombre Invisible the name which was given to him when he was living in Mexico18. Burroughs also manages to give the text an abundance of irony, which then becomes rather symbolic or representative of the world we are all living in, focusing on the troubles within the very fabric of the American lifestyle, her government and her society. He uses this vicious sense of satire throughout the novel giving the reader incredible grotesque images to consider, of which become symbolic of the real world and tear away the lies which were purposefully designed images in order to reveal the naked truth, the person underneath. The ones who are designing these images, which Burroughs presents in the novel, are of course those doing it for their own wicked benefit, the higher-ups. And it is Burroughs who has chosen to retaliate with the one thing they fear most; words19. But these grotesque images can in some cases transform into the surreal, for instance the tale of the talking rectum.
Benway: Why not one all-purpose blob? Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk? His whole abdomen would move up and down you dig farting out the words. It was unlike anything I ever heard... ...This ass had sort of a gut frequency. It hit you right down there like you gotta go. You know when the old colon gives you the elbow and feels sort of cold inside, and you know all you have to do is turn loose. Well this talking hit you right down there, a bubbly thick, stagnant sound, a sound you could smell... ...This man worked for a carnival you dig, and to start with it was like a novelty ventriloquist act. Real funny, too, at first. He had a number he called 'The Better 'Ole' that was a scream, I tell you... ...After a while the ass started talking on its own. He would go in without anything prepared and his ass would ad-lib and toss the gags back at him every time... ...Then it developed sort of teeth-like little raspy incurving hooks and started eating. He thought this was cute at first and built an act around it, but the asshole would eat its way through his pants and start talking on the street, shouting out that it wanted equal rights. It would get drunk, too, and have crying jags nobody loved it and it wanted to be kissed same as any other mouth. Finally it talked all the time day and night, you could hear him for blocks screaming at it to shut up, and beating it with his fist, and sticking candles up it, but nothing did any good and the asshole said to him: "It's you who will shut up in the end. Not me. Because we don't need you around here anymore. I can talk and eat and shit."...
18 19
Skallagrimson, Egil. (2005). Concerning Naked Lunch. Kuro5hin Accessed 3rd December 2010 ibid
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Haydn Green In what ways did the Beat Generation influence Western Culture? (EPQ) 2010/11 ...After that he began waking up in the morning with a transparent jelly like a tadpole's tail all over his mouth. This jelly was what the scientists call un-D.T., Undifferentiated Tissue, which can grow into any kind of flesh on the human body...So finally his mouth sealed over, and the whole head would have amputated spontaneous...except for the eyes, you dig. That's one thing the asshole couldn't do was see. It needed the eyes. But nerve connections were blocked and infiltrated and atrophied so the brain couldn't give orders any more. It was trapped in the skull, sealed off. For a while you could see the silent, suffering of the brain behind the eyes, then finally the brain must have died, because the eyes went out, and there was no more feeling in them than a crab's eye on the end of a stalk.
Naturally, this image is humorous, especially in the way that Burroughs is able to present it to his readers. Although, like any other image throughout the novel, it bears a message which is worth listening to, and could represent the carnival entertainer in the image or indeed any other performer, or even more so politicians; the thing that they try to mould and force to their own purposes takes over and ends up devouring them. It is based around the idea that no one can have true control over their creations. When the transformation of the rectum into both the mouth and the voice occurs, effectively with the brain dead behind the insect eyes 20 it leaves behind only a mindless creature, which in the eyes Burroughs is more than applicable to the society in which we live in, the 1950s was the beginning of the new postwar generation with everyone downbeat, the effect of such things as the holocaust within society and for us our society is conducted by mass paranoia and over-control, thus making the novel ever more influential. Another key feature within Naked Lunch is the subject of both drug abuse and addiction. The subject is generally misunderstood, as the majority of readers stand away in shocking belief that Burroughs is advocating the use of junk i.e. various drugs which Burroughs claims to be non-hallucinogens, such as heroine, dilaudid, morphine and opium. When in fact it is quite the opposite, the author neither glorifies nor demonizes the use of drugs, rather it be a warning to the readers of what drugs can do to a user. In his introduction to the novel, Burroughs shows us that drug addiction is essentially a medium portraying the sense of organisational powers, such as the junk pyramids. And effectively connects the issue of drug addiction to the governmental controls over society. For instance, Burroughs commented on the use of drugs as a money-making mechanism used by government agencies on the weaker uneducated peoples. The paranoia of Naked Lunch and 1950s society would be one to say governments create an abundance of liquor stores and access to illegal and legal drugs to
Skallagrimson, Egil. (2005). Concerning Naked Lunch Nausea and Irony Page. Kuro5hin Accessed 3rd December 2010
20
21
prevent them moving into positions of power and prestige21, which of course is nothing other than a postmodern belief. The author also uses a technique called dual narrative, where he reveals the exaggerated image of drug use in America, which has been designed by government propaganda, then following this image with a less interesting explanation of how it really happens, derived from the experience of an actual user, thus giving prospective users less reason to start. It is aspects such as these that many across the world and throughout the 20th century have come to admire the genius of William S. Burroughs. The sheer complexity within his writing and displays of images prophesising the underlying truths of American postmodern society, have subsequently inspired others to go onto a similar mission to fight against the society in which they live in, and wipe away the lies which may effectively leave them as the puppets of the higher-ups authorities.
21
ibid
22
Chapter 4 Beat Culture

In his collection of cultural essays, John Clellon Holmes described the Beat Generation is a vision not an idea22, which of course referred to the concept that much of the Beat works had derived from a form of visionary experience. However, there is far more to consider about the Beats, and the culture or society in which they had come from, if one is able to understand fully the Beat Generation. By defining Beat as a broad cultural movement, it becomes evident that the Beat spirit and sensibility had extended well beyond the now legendary literary accomplishments, by touching or even transforming the American artistic life.23 The first things that must be considered are the values which had been held by writers, artists and musicians of the time, of which were able to bring about this cultural shift. The generation as a whole had become significantly widespread across America, stretching from the canyons in Los Angeles, through San Francisco, up to New Yorks Greenwich Village, and all those who inhabited these Beat hotspots all shared the sense of spontaneity and likeness of living in a new bohemian community. Effectively, they were able to support each other, collaborate with each other, and encourage their goal of freedom of expression over the pressure of the prudish and conventional 1950s society. By doing so, the Beats had come to realize the growing gap between American promise and reality, by focusing and celebrating
Cited in Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965. Whitney Museum of American Art: Flammarion Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965. Whitney Museum of American Art: Flammarion
23
22
23
the lives and values of those at the margins of American society the great unknown and undiscovered peoples which naturally ranged from the impoverished, the homosexuals and the African-Americans. They knew that you could love your country and still be a rebel24. Through their works the Beats were able to present their own values and beliefs towards the society in which they were living in, particularly the growing anxiety around the arms race and the nuclear bomb, McCarthyism and strong conservative movement to slander peoples names without any form of evidence, the death penalty, or even the rapid migration to the suburbs. They were people of the fast life, along with the likes of James Dean with the will to live fast and die young which of course had been induced unto them by the particular substances and experiences in which they became addicted to, from peyote to LSD, the Beats had effectively forced themselves into their own visionary experiences, which subsequently inspired them to write their most prominent works. This brings me back to Clellon Holmes quote about the Beat Generation being a vision not an idea. When Allen Ginsberg had been asked to give a history of the Beats in overview for a conference at New York University he had only one observation, almost any of the seminal figures had had some kind of visionary experience. Some sort of vision which they thought as either supernatural or Buddhist or a variety of religious experiences25. For instance Ginsberg had the vision of William Blake in his dreams, Burroughs would have a number of occurrences throughout his life where he would fall into the unconscious, or more so out of the normal mode of consciousness; Kerouac had fallen back on Rocky Mount from a bright light in belief that this was some ecstatic vision of God. The reasoning of why they forced themselves into these experiences had been their need to have a vision of God, to have that experience of ecstasy. Kerouac explained this concept perfectly in his Playboy article, The Beat Generation is basically a religious experience you feel this. You feel it in beat, in jazzThe generation had essentially been polarized by two types of people, the ecstatic and the cool, of which experienced the mystical and narcotic side of art, and the beaten down, or the beatitude as Kerouac put it who were more realist in their approach to art, thus representing everything that was realistic, but in their own world which had been experienced through drugs and religion. These experiences or feelings had only been translatable through the arts, and incomprehensible in politics. Along with delving into the mystical experiences or the extremes of narcotic or substance induced visions, the Beats are misunderstood in their role in the cultural shift throughout the 1950s. As mentioned
24 25
ibid Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965. P. 30
24
above, very briefly, they managed to revive the idea of Dada art, create a sense of abstract Expressionism; they became highly involved with American independent film and even Happenings essentially a performance or an event which is considered a form of art. So much so, that the writers and artists of the generation were able to cross over from their specialized form of art, for instance, poets became painters, and painters became visual or performance artists, which in effect created a larger connection between those of the generation as we can clearly see with artists like LaVigne illustrating books for Ginsberg and so on. (See Appendix 1) Naturally it became the groups ambition to be as non-conventional as possible, it was in their eyes the best way to express how they felt about the society in which they were living and even more importantly their culture, their values and their beliefs. The culture itself had involved a surplus of spontaneity and immediacy, Kerouac stated that he loves it because its ugly. This spontaneity of course had to be delivered in particular places, in the Beat hotspots across America. The venues themselves were able to connect the generation far greater than anything else, as they became the social gathering places for those within the said generation. Such venues subsequently became famous for beat writing and performances, such as the Black Cat Caf, the Coexistent Bagel Shop in San Francisco or the Caf Bizarre in New York. The backdrop of the cafs of coffee shops or restaurants, effectively added to the bohemian image the Beat generation intended to create for themselves. Another feature of the Beat circuit of meeting places was the artist co-op galleries such as The Six gallery in San Francisco which inevitably became a shrine or indeed a testament to the Beat generation after the first reading of Allen Ginsbergs Howl in 1955. All of these venues were put to the forefront of this revolutionary move by the Beats to change locations of where they could present their art, it became symbolic of their rejection of the old classical periods very much like a modernist approach to art away from the academies and the museums and into the streets and the coffee houses to create this new form of realism; street realism. It was more than simply writing poetry or creating a novel and then hoping that people one day come to read it, it was an idea of performance, raw and naked for everyone to see. The process of this new kind of realism was stressed, but moreover the improvisation and the spontaneity of it all were paramount. The Abstract Expressionist artist Jackson Pollock became significantly influential to the way the Beats would go about things within their culture. Pollock chose to substitute the idea of process and performance with narrative pictorial space, where one acts out body rhythms and primitive motions but on their canvas. For the majority of the Beat Generation this method
25
had been taken into consideration, but for writing rather than painting, which in effect created a new form of writing style. Kerouac, being a painter, chose to follow this form of writing, and even described his writing style as sketching which became evident in the way he wrote On the Road. To Kerouac the idea of immediacy was vital, as a result, he was able to write the entire novel in one sitting, rarely going back to edit or modify his work the first thought, is the best thought. Michael McClure another significant member of the Beat Generation stated that Pollocks was integral not only to his own life, but it was the dynamic open rhythms of the Pollock works which attracted the consciousness of the Beat generation throughout the fifties. His work was both abstract and ambiguous, unlike Kerouac who provided us with work of a more raw nature, in Seymour Krims words he glorified promiscuity, pot-smoking, speed, kicks and overall excitement, it was these features of his works which attracted people the most to the Beat movement, mainly due to the fact that they were much more than art, these were features of his own life. This idea of turning art into everyday life, making it seem as though it were a living thing, by using everyday things like debris or clothes or junk was the point Pollock had left the Beat movement at. Young artists all over America were striving to use this method of art, Ginsberg and Kerouac with their writing or Conners assemblages, were all a part of this culture that seemed to be emerging out of nowhere, this street-realism. Subsequently this sense of everyday life had leaked into Beat poetry; it was almost the aim or goal of writing a poem within the Beat generation to incorporate a sense of realism. It managed to include all kinds of subject matter, for instance the subordination of African-Americans became demonstrated in Beat poetry through the tactical use of African-American slang, the fast-paced long-breathed meters of Walt Whitman had a significant role in poetry during the fifties. They had been presented by the Beats in a simple but confrontational manner, so much so that they had achieved their ultimate goal of overturning the societal values, and redeemed the commonplace, the street. Everything had been brought down to earth26. But the Beat culture had not quite finished in the fifties. In the sixties a new culture had begun to emerge, particularly after the problems surrounding Vietnam and especially after both he Kennedy and King assassinations. Following such major events were masses of people forced into political action, which was in fact unlike the Beats. However, the ideals that were once held by the Beat generation, regarding self-discovery, self-realization and the individual, were very much alive, and could be seen anywhere within this new culture of the
26
Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965. P. 38
26
1960s, for instance with hippies which is a term that was derived from the word hipsters creating their own communes, or even feminists exploring personal choices 27. The counterculture of the sixties had been built on the foundation of non-conformity, which had been established by the Beats in the fifties; you couldnt have had the sixties without the fifties... and the fifties were the Beats
27
Ibid.
27
Chapter 5 The Beats and the Law

America when will you be angelic? When will you take off your clothes? When will you look at yourself through the grave? When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites? America why are your libraries full of tears? - Allen Ginsberg, America Howl and Other Poems
One could argue, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, that present-day American culture wars actually began on May 21, 195728. For it was on this specific day, that the United States legal system cast or even declared a war on one man, who in the eyes of many at the time was brilliant, albeit marginal, and homosexual who felt the need to speak out in protest of the repressiveness of the American society29; the man was Allen Ginsberg, the crime was the selling of his book Howl and Other Poems. Although, it was not Ginsberg who had initially been arrested for what had been written, that being the series of four letter words, and references to both homosexuality and drugs. Instead it had been Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the original publisher of the collection of poems and the owner of City Lights of San Francisco and his office clerk Shigeyoshi Murao. During the time when Ginsberg had presented the book to Ferlinghetti, the publisher had already anticipated what was to follow from the eyes of the American censor. As a result, Ferlinghetti sent the manuscript of Howl to the American Civil Liberties Union, where he was inevitably and reluctantly forced to substitute some of the words in the book with asterisks. Although,
28 29
Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965. P. 123 Ibid
28
soon after publishing the book, and from what the American censor, would have described as public outcry due to the level of obscenity involved, hundreds of copies had been seized from the San Francisco shop by US Customs. But, as a result of intellectual and artists outrage all over the country at the fact the publisher had been taken to court for such a book, the US Supreme Court were much obliged to drop the case. Though, the war against the Beat generation and their levels of obscenity had not ceased there, which can be clearly seen, in an event just a few months after the case against Ferlinghetti had been dropped the municipal police department moved in on City Lights Bookstore. Therefore it was this idea of obscenity, linked with the question of whether the book and the poems within have any morals to them, if they do not then they subsequently hold no merit of work. At least, this was the argument of the censor and Assistant district attorney Ralph McIntosh. They specifically targeted the use of words such as cock, fuck and balls to build on their argument, and indeed the references to homosexuality, which of course was taboo in 1950s America as well as it was illegal. However, the more than experienced ACLU defence team during the trial of Ferlinghetti and Murao, and criminal lawyer Jack Ehrlich, produced the counter-argument, which had been supported with an extensive amount of testimonies and letters all affirming that the book in question held both social and literary merits. Ultimately, as a result of Ehrlichs impressive argument the Judge W.J Clayton Horn a conservative jurist well known for his Sunday Bible schools found the publisher not guilty (Murao had been dismissed from the case at an earlier point, since it was believed that he may not have know the actual content of the book whilst selling it to undercover police officers) on the grounds that unless the book [was] entirely lacking in social importance it [could] not be held as obscene. Thus concluding the case on the thought that even though Ginsbergs message had been neither convincing nor civil in what it was expressing, it still was a legitimate expression of social protest30. And even though, Judge Horn had concluded that the book could not legally be defined as obscene, since it held a merit of work. The question which had followed was what could physically be constituted as being obscene. By the 1960s, a long series of prominent people associated with the Beat generation had found themselves in conflict with the American censor in order to protect their works from being suppressed, even despite the many landmark anti-censorship laws which had been passed by the Supreme Court in the mid-60s. By this point, the level of censorship and imperative to declare something as obscene had gone well passed the days of Ferlinghetti and
30
Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965. P. 124-5
29
Howl, it began to create a world of political danger, in the sense that censor campaigns had transformed into vigorous ideological manipulation with politicians and religious leaders making a scapegoat out of the artists and the Beat generation, to draw attention away from the more social and moral problems within society which had not been caused by Beat works, rather from the distress and anger after the war and toward the ever-optimistic Eisenhower administration which had been frustrating the American public. Such campaigns went on to argue that Beat works were immoral obscene and even blasphemous which was naturally devised to anger the Christian Right. This targeting of words and images and to force them into the boundaries of obscenity gave the censor and particular individuals greater control over the community, specifically the conservative communities. Thus making the entire process such a success for the public officials and overzealous religious leaders of the time. It was the expression and representation of things such as homosexuality, bisexuality, interracial relations, and the advocacy of both sex and free drugs what made the Beat generation as vulnerable to censorship as any other artist at the time. Subsequently, they became central focus in the majority of American media throughout the fifties and sixties; it made them interesting, their nonconformity and unusual dress grabbed the attention of the American public, despite how they were being attacked. In fact, in some cases the media very much praised the Beats, or at least made them look better than other groups of people, otherwise known as straights. The polarization between the Beats and the straights became a heated discussion, the media forced the two to become analogous, for instance in September 1959, Life magazine published an article or indeed photo essay which compared the two extremes; God-fearing citizens of Hutchinson, Kansas or Squaresville, USA and the beatniks of Venice, California31. (See Appendix 2) Of which explains, that three girls of Hutchinson, Kansas invited Lawrence Lipton, the leader of the Venice Beat community to come and teach them about being beatnik. Obviously the meeting had been cancelled after the level of outrage within the small Kansas community, where police had even hinted that if Lipton were to arrive in Squaresville then there was the possibility he would be arrested. An example of how much control censorship or antiBeatism had had is how Luetta Peters one of the three girls quickly acknowledged the common hate expressed toward anything or anyone Beat, We know Beatniks arent good... we thought they talked funny... Now we know they get married without licenses and things like that, which unsurprisingly proves to us how the brave protectors of these three girls
31
ibid
30
alleged or gave them some imagined impression that Beat links to criminality. The Beat critic Norman Podhoretz was able to sum up this phenomenal connection between the Beat generation and criminality,
The spirit of the Beat generation, strikes me as the same sprit which animates the young savages in their leather jackets who have been running amuck in the last few years with switch-blades and zip guns... [I] believe that juvenile crime can be explained partly in terms of the same resentment against normal feeling and the attempt to cope with the world through the intelligence that lies behind Kerouac and Ginsberg. - Podhoretz, N. (1958). The Know-Nothing Bohemians. University of North Carolina
When Beat behaviour began to cross the threshold of being involved with well known crimes, and then being open about it, it of course made matters worse for example, Lenny Bruces arrests for narcotics possession in the early 1960s, the associations which had been made between Beat and criminality soon transformed into generalizations. For the most part, however, those constantly harassing them, found themselves with little choice but to charge them on the grounds of obscenity. Though they did not rest with one charge per person associated with the Beat generation, in fact there were many. Such pressure and control over a persons freedom of expression through both words and images is bound to consequentially create devastating effects, particularly unto those who are being controlled. Whether it was Barney Rosset, the publisher of Grove Press having to sell off his property just so he would be able to afford his legal fees, or small Off Broadway theatres, coffeehouses, and movie houses having their licenses periodically revoked, the impact of said pressure would affect these individuals at greater extents, particularly their psychological and financial state. For instance, over the period of his twenty-year career Lenny Bruce had been arrested nearly twenty times on charges of obscenity. The effects were so significant that Bruces publicity quickly diminished and performances were cancelled, ultimately dragging a man who once boasted a salary of more than $3,500 a week to declare his bankruptcy. Less than a year later, he would die of a morphine overdose at the age of forty32. But, American attitudes towards the more unconventional within society had been proven to be more complex than what the common post-war cold war stereotype of being unconventional suggests. In 1953 a national survey on conformity within society had been conducted, which resulted in saying that academics, writers and artists were more highly ranked with social stature than businessmen or politicians, because of the idea of the
Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965. Whitney Museum of American Art: Flammarion
32
31
assumed propensity of intellectuals to question things most people took for granted. Public opinion went on to back the evidence which had been found in this national survey, through the controversial and well publicized campaign of Judge Horace W. Wilkie of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, who effectively got re-elected in 1964 on a referendum of conservative Christian values versus the right to free speech Wilkie representing the latter. Therefore, by this point it was becoming clear that the mostly straight, white, male status quo that had been in command of the legal systems weeding out of unwanted words and images had come to realise their biggest fear; that the power to control the sensibility and limits of culture was slipping from their grasp 33. This had effectively led the phenomenon known as Cold war America to team up with the cultural watchdogs of the time, who kept a keen eye on the artistic landscape to ensure that the abnormal or unconventional could be found and eventually stopped. Congressman A. Dondero was able to display this amalgamation of the two controlling fronts of American society by warning of a foreign enemy that reeked of all the isms of depravity, decadence and destruction... He then went on to discuss the different movements of American art from Cubism to Abstractionism, whilst ultimately comparing them all to Communism. This type of rhetoric is almost reminiscent of Nazi campaigns against entartete Kunst, or degenerate art, where the majority of America had attributed most of the social and cultural ills to the Beats. For instance, the Massachusetts Supreme Court considered them brutal, obscene and disgusting, to a judge in Boston they were fornicators who portrayed unnatural acts and even to J Edgar Hoover they were violent enemies who had to be reformed, reined in, and set straight. Homosexuality and criminality within 1950s America was perhaps the most extreme of all crimes. And as in many cases of homosexuality within artistic works, it is used as a tool for discrediting the art and indeed the artist. However, at this time, as it is still in some states, homosexual sex was illegal, although with the case or the subject of homosexuality and the Beats, it was not about the act of homosexual sex that was the issue, in fact it was the representation. But nevertheless the power and connection between criminality and homosexuality was still used as a useful tool to discredit the words and the images which represented it. Therefore when it come to the prosecution of beat artists such as Burroughs, Ginsberg and Bruce the representation or even reference to homosexuality within their words had been used as evidence within court to consider the works in question as illegal and indeed dangerous to society. Homophobia had been so harmful in America at this time that it had
33
ibid
32
been used tactically by the censor to diminish the publicity and reputation of Beat artists who were not even gay. This can be seen with the case of Michael McClure and The Beard, where the district attorney on the case charged them with lewd dissolute conduct in a public place which had in fact been the common charge against homosexuals who had been arrested in mens rooms 34. Another feature to the Beat culture in which the American public had not taken to kindly to was of course their proximity to African-American culture. Although, what made this feature different from the others; homosexuality, drugs and pornographic representations, was the fact that being black in the United States, as well as being involved in miscegenation or an interracial relationship, was not a crime. Therefore showing us, unlike becoming involved in homosexuality etcetera, the fear of African-American power and the growing civil rights movement was one which was most hidden and unconscious. As a result, the issues people had had regarding the Beat association with the African-American population, were not included in the prosecutions against obscenity, rather it lay below the surface of the hostility and hatred toward the Beats. African-American culture became well integrated with the Beat culture of the 1950s and the 1960s, so much so, that some of the Beat works which could easily be associated and included references to black America, such as Norman Mailers The White Negro were considered to be both retrograde and racist in the way it was able to represent African-Americans. For instance within the essay, Mailer portrays his belief that African-Americans were the positive reason for both Beat bohemianism and juvenile delinquency. But the real intention behind eh essay was to show the connection and comparisons Beat culture had with African-American culture. While African-American music, literature, and art did not need any validation from whites (except as a means of entering the cultural mainstream), associations with African-American culture helped spur the beats own attitude toward race and racism35. For instance, during the case against Burroughs Naked Lunch, Allen Ginsberg referred to a passage which had been singled out by the court, The Clerk looked at the card suspiciously: You don t look like a bone feed mast-fed Razor
Back to me . What you think about the Jeeeeews ? Well, Mr. Anker, you know yourself all a Jew wants to do is doodle a Christian girl . One of these days we ll cut the rest of it off.36
Richard Cndida Smith (1996), cited in Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965. Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965. 36 Burroughs, W. (2005). Naked Lunch. P. 178
35
34
33
and stated that in fact it was a brilliant and funny satire of the monstrous speech and thought processes of the anti-Negro, anti-Northern, anti-Semitic, Southern white racist bureaucrat. Even Lenny Bruce incorporated references to both African-American and Jewish cultures, in order to symbolize a basic rejection of the WASP-controlled society in which they were all living, a society which he considered to be lacking in honesty, decency, mercy and morality37 whereas Ginsberg recollected in 1970 that they were living in a society which had been vastly controlled by bureaucracies which had the intentions of splitting up the generations and provoking any youth crimes, setting black on blacks and create apartheid within America, to poison the community. All of which censorship had contributed to, when one look s back at the texts and books of the authors of the day and placing them next to the juridical texts regarding them, it becomes clear to see that the general fear which had been widespread over the United States; fear of homosexuality, African-American or nonWASP power, and even the pornographic and erotic references and subtexts which existed in said works, had been born of one parent fear, an overthrow of the dominance of white, heterosexual bourgeois men of America.
37
Frank Kofsky cited in Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950 -1965.
34
Part Three Beat Legacy & Criticism
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Chapter 6 Beat Influence and Legacy

Beat begat beatnik and beatnik begat mod and mod begat hippie and hippie begat punk and punk begat grunge. This great line of bohemianism has been stretched over at least forty years of history. The Beat generation has in some way influenced almost every counterculture that has ever been interwoven into the fabric of American society, culture, literature, music, spirituality and even politics. Michael McClure once stated when being asked about the film The Source 38- that he becomes satisfied when he is able to see how the Beat culture has extended to influence people of today, it is visible in the dramatic interpretations of passages from Beat works by the likes of Johnny Depp, John Turturro, and even the late Dennis Hopper. But what is interesting is how they were able to influence so many, over such a large length of time. Ed Sanders in his poem The Legacy of the Beats is able to explain how the Beat generation not only influences himself, but how significant their role was to the many subcultures, particularly throughout the 1960s and the 1970s. For example he describes a series of lessons that have been taught to us by the Beats.
We learned from the Beats how to change The word No into Go! Go!
Sanders goes onto suggest that people should want to overcome their tendency to be withdrawn, instead, people should be expressive and outgoing, appreciating the enjoyable experience of overcoming their inhibitions. Furthermore, as has already been explained in depth above, it was the Beats who started the concept of that its okay to be gay, and that it
38
Michael McClure cited in Lawlor, W. (2005). Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons and Impact.
36
was good for people to enjoy the beauty of the things that were around them from the art they saw and produced to the environment they lived in. This energy that was within the Beat generation, whether it be from t he music that they had listened to, or the films and visual experience they made or underwent, had fallen into the hands of the youth at the time, where they were then able to express themselves in the way they knew how, forever progressing society and culture. In his prologue of Beat Culture and the New America 1950-1965 Allen Ginsberg provides a list of how the Beat generation were able to affect society. Ever since the liberation and the battles for free speech in the 1950s then paired up with the liberation of spirituality and sexuality, the youth cultures of the 1960s were given the chance to go further and expand the level of liberation within the gradually liberalising America, so much so that by the end of 1960s, people experienced a sexual revolution, which not only gave greater freedoms to a persons sexuality but in a persons gender, that referring to the second-wave of the Womens Liberation Movement. Another great effect the Beats had had on society, which subsequently gave people of the following generations greater freedom was the freedom of censorship. This indeed links up to the liberation of free speech, but what makes freedom from censorship more significant is two specific aspects; that of the individual from censorship. No longer would a person suffer the issues those of the Beats did under the pressure of censorship. Future counter-cultures were able to get away with doing so, because the Beat generation had already laid the foundations of escaping from persecution for the use of words and images. Second is the liberation of the word from censorship, because of the actions of the 1950s people discovered that so much more could be said in the 1960s, there were ever more people who were deciding to rebel against the right-wing institution that was America and the censor. Thus, not only had the individual been liberated so had the use of the word, expression of a belief or of an understanding had reached a higher level in the 60s and 70s. As previously mentioned, the Beat generation had eventually transformed into the hippie movement, where rejection of institution or establishment and their values had extended to a greater extent than that of the Beats. Of course this new youth movement would soon be widely infamous, not for their opposition to the establishment, but more so for their excessive use of drugs and specifically marijuana, a likeness which derived very much so from the decriminalization of drugs and marijuana campaigns which were held by prominent Beat writers like Ginsberg. Ginsberg, in his prologue went on to discuss and accredit the revelation of the foolishness of the law, particularly anti-drugs legislation to the Beat generation.
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Furthermore, a key impact from the Beats unto the 1960s onward was the power of their influential poems and prose. By incorporating a significant level of bebop jazz rhythms into the way they verbally performed their works, as well as their expression toward different things has been portrayed in both art and visual art, the Beats paved the way for future genres of music, whilst also inspiring other writers and poems. Ginsberg believed that the works of the best minds of his generation, had eventually come to evolve into what the youths of the 1960s called rock and roll, blues, and of course rhythm and blues which then went on to evolve into the genre we call today RnB. Over the years, we have been able to sit back and watch Ginsbergs belief turn into reality, in the way we have seen the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Doors from the 1960s go onto inspire the youths of the next generation such as The Clash, R.E.M and U2. Naturally Beat works went onto hold a literary legacy and manage to influence many other authors and poets in the following years of the generation. For instance, the likes of Ken Kesey of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Thomas Pynchon of Gravitys Rainbow were two rather significant writers who became highly influenced by the works of the Beats, as well as the Postbeat Poets from Anne Waldman to Antler, all of them were Beat. They were the ones who would take Beat out of the fifties and into the future. And the Beats had refused to accept the militarization, industrialisation and regimentation of their works, their culture and their civilisation. Rather they went on to promote the likes of spirituality, where one would be able to experience the same visual experiences they had experienced, the youths of the future would go on to speak with William Blake, they would go on to see the ecstatic vision of God, and want to feel the sense of individuality, another glorifying experience the Beats wished to promote. They enjoyed the idea of not being held down or pressured by a government or a censorship establishment rather they be who they want to be. They also intended on promoting the respect the world around us deserved, they promoted the respect the native people had deserved as opposed to killing the planet and our environment with the likes of wars and the nuclear bomb tests, and to look up to those who were once pushed away from where they had lived. The Beats were hip, they were cool. This effectively made society look to them as unconventional, though thankfully this lack of conventionalism became celebrated for decades after them. Like the native people of North America, the Beat generation has been looked to for spiritual guidance, as a standard of literary technique and genius, and for the pushing forward of the society we all live in. From the Beats, we have learned to live life, and to love life.
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Chapter 7 Criticism of the Beat Generation

Over the course of this essay, it has briefly been discussed that the majority of literary critics within the 1950s and the 1960s unanimously opposed the position and the ideals that were being held by the Beat generation. Naturally, after taking into consideration that the Beat generation were a generation of left-wing perspectives, these critics were mainly conservative or Christian right in their own perspectives. One of the most significant and vehement critics of the Beats was a former Columbia graduate himself Columbia being the university Kerouac and Ginsberg had attended Norman Podhoretz. Throughout the same period as when the Beat generation became popular, Podhoretz had been writing as a literary critic in the now defunct literary magazine the Partisan Review. Of which he was able to publish a series of critical essays and articles targeted toward the generation. Although, there has been one particular essay of his, which has been able to accumulate a critical account of almost the entirety of the Beat generation, with specific focus on Kerouacs On the Road and The Subterraneans; The Know-Nothing Bohemians. Even though the perspective of his essay is indeed the perspective of one critic, after reading other critical essays, old and new, it is clear that the majority of critics have taken a similar stance on the Beats.
Podhoretz begins his essay by providing the reader with a general roundup of news regarding the Beat writers i.e. Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs and then opens up to target the idea or concept of Bohemianism. He pairs this up with his analysis of both Kerouac works at the time, but goes on to compare the Bohemia of the past, the 1920s and the Bohemia of the now, the 1950s.
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Haydn Green In what ways did the Beat Generation influence Western Culture? (EPQ) 2010/11 The Bohemianism of the 1920 s represented a repudiation of the provinciality, philistinism, and moral hypocrisy of American life.... Bohemia in other words, was a movement created in the name of civilization.... The Bohemianism of the 1950 s is another kettle of fish altogether. It is hostile to civilization; it worships primitivism, instinct, energy, blood .
In some way, it is almost as if Podhoretz has condescended the Beat generation as a whole in his essay, especially in how he ridicules them all for using words like Wow and arguing that they have no intellect, that they are know-nothings who pretend as if they are know-italls. He extends this concentration by critically talking of how the writers managed to provide their readers with such works as On the Road and even Howl, taking note of the unnecessary enthusiasm expressed by Kerouac or the repetitiveness of what Podhoretz calls the only way they know how to describe something by using the same words over and over again, and even using the word really when what they are describing is happening at an even greater extent. He goes on to highlight the spontaneity of the Beat canon, in fact he makes this the centre of his criticism. The critic claims that the Beat embrace of spontaneity, to write the first thoughts, rather than planning what they are going to write or to go back and edit what they have written, is the direct link and reasoning as to why this generation is far more primitive in the way they write when in comparison with other classic writers. Thus, making them less of an intellectual, thus leading them to a lack of moral understanding, thus leading them to violence. Therefore, the critic places himself in the common conservative argument that the Beats are connected to criminality, in fact he argues that not only are the individuals themselves living lifestyles which condone criminal behaviour, whether that be homosexual intercourse or drug abuse, they manage to portray such behaviour in their works. This of course has been discussed in some depth above, but Podhoretz takes the argument a step further by outlining the connection between said works and juvenile delinquency. Through this argument, he explains how the Beats are connected to the young savages in leather jackets. The argument referring to juvenile delinquency and crime has stemmed off of the understanding that the Beat generation thrive when it comes to knowing your instinct. Podhoretz explains that it is this idea of instinct that allows those of the Beat generation to feel as though juvenile delinquency is okay.
To tell the truth, whenever I hear someone talking about instinct and being and secrets of human energy, I get nervous; next thing you know he ll be say that violence is fine.... What does Mailer think of those wretched kids? What does he think of the gang that stoned a nine-year old
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Haydn Green In what ways did the Beat Generation influence Western Culture? (EPQ) 2010/11 boy to death in Central Park? Is that means by the liberation of instinct and the mysteries of being? Maybe so.
Although, Allen Ginsberg made the decision to counter-attack what Podhoretz had been discussing in his critical essay. When responding in a 1958 interview with The Village Voice, Ginsberg attacked the claim that the Beats were destroying the connection between life and literature by arguing that members of the Beat generation, himself included have already been to college and they have their education and that people generally know the difference between an intellectual and an intellectual that referring to the true intellectual and fake intellectual and adding that Podhoretz as a literary critic is simply out of touch with the newly emerging literature of mid-20th century, instead he is targeting Beat works in an eighteenth century mindset .
Podhoretz goes on in the essay to target the issue of promiscuity and sex within the works of the Beat generation, particularly Kerouac. Again he makes the comparison with the use of sex in literary works, between the Bohemianism of the 1920s and the Beat generation Bohemianism. He explains that in the real Bohemia, the Bohemia of the then had the tendency to use the technique of sex for only social and personal means, whereas with the Beats he makes a distinct contrast, by stating that there is a fair amount of sex included within their works, particularly within Kerouacs most prominent pieces. Though, there is a slight confusion as to where the idea of sex is going, or taking them per se. Podhoretz explains that even though Dean Moriarty is made out to be some type of saint in On the Road, mainly for his sexual powers to stimulate women anytime, anywhere. On the other hand, there is Sal Paradise, the narrator of the novel, who undergoes a fair amount of sexual encounters within the book also, just not as much as Moriarty. As a result, there is the great deal of talk surrounding Kerouacs works about permanent relationships. Although, in the case of Sal Paradise there is also the question of whether the character is frightened to have sex, which may symbolise the average hipster, especially when we take into consideration the fact that the majority of Kerouacs books were in some way or another autobiographical. But there is also the issue of homosexuality within the Beat canon, specifically regarding Howl and Other Poems or even Naked Lunch. Podhoretz, writing from a conservative 1950s perspective, naturally connects the overuse of homosexual sex and references within said Beat works with the intention to delve into criminality.
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Finally the advocacy of miscegenation and interracial liaisons included in many beat works Podhoretz presents his critical argument on the said subject. Taking into consideration the fact that being black in America was not a crime, even though an interracial relationship was look down upon and there was still a significant level of racism within the American society, Podhoretz did not and quite frankly was not allowed to connect this infatuation to AfricanAmericans with criminality. Although, keeping to the 1950s conservative way, he did create the connection with African-Americans and miscegenation with the Beat worship of primitivism. He subsequently goes on to quote fellow Beat critic Ned Polsky, that by making the Negro elemental to the white man was the inverted form of keeping the nigger in his place. In fact by the end of his point regarding the beat love of African-Americans, Podhoretz attacks their credibility, by arguing that the only real African-American character in any of Kerouacs books was Mardou Fox, and she was as primitive as Wilhelm Reich himself. Going back to previous sections of this essay, it is easy to see how Norman Podhoretz has tackled the Beat generation on the majority of the key fronts, which effectively makes his essay The Know-Nothing Bohemians particularly useful because it is able to amalgamate the common criticism which the Beats had faced at that time. Since almost every literary critic, who was not Beat, had the tendency to fall into the same categories of belief and understanding. They all managed to disagree with the Beat generation in the same way.
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Chapter 8 Today s Beats

As has already been discussed, the Beat legacy has stood the test of time, influencing many across the past half a century. Their poems and prose, and fight for liberation of all kinds, has expanded into the various counter-cultures, great novels and most memorable songs to have ever exist in our cultural history. Ultimately they have become one of the very few great points in literature that has during its period been a driving force, a driving force that has eventually led and still inspires artists of all mediums to this very day. They are the Beats of today. Now in some cases, these Beats of today have unfortunately passed away, but what makes them a Beat of today is the social and indeed cultural significance they still hold today. Anyone who had been influenced by the Beats of the 1950s and their art still resonates, were or are the driving force for the interest and likeness to the Beat generation. Jerry Aronson in 2007 produced a documentary film about the life and the times of Allen Ginsberg, arguably one of the most famous and influential of the Beats. Consisting of a series of interviews of those who have been influenced by Ginsberg, and very much so the rest of the generation, we are able to get a glimpse at the stories and memories and reasons of how or why the Beats of today actually became the Beats of today. Andy Warhol, a man who most notably became famous for his leading role in the 1960s movement of pop art. During the film, the artist reveals that those who were in the Warhol social circles, as well as himself were always interested in Allen Ginsberg. Although, to understand how Warhol was physically able to stand as a Beat of today, despite the fact that he had died in 1987, one has to understand his artistic roots. Pop art, in many ways is the 1960s answer or manifestation of Dadaism, in the way that it had accepted beauty in its own
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way, and had acted as a beacon of anti-war art and anti-war politics. Taking into consideration that Dada had played a significant role in influencing the Beat generation at least twenty years after the Beats had started to come together, it becomes clear how Warhol and the pop art movement was able to connect very well with the Beat generation. They both artistically performed in the ways they knew how, for their own, but very same reasons. Furthermore, not only had Warhols artistic techniques and skills linked him with the likes of the Beat generation, the social circles, - something Warhol became a fan of very early into his success had also. After moving between places within American such as Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and New York, Warhol was able to socialise with extreme bohemian communities, of which the evolution of the Beat generation had existed. A more recent Beat of today, one who has already briefly been mentioned earlier in this essay is Johnny Depp; Depp being an actor, who has become widely known for his rather eccentric roles in films and on the television. During the Aronson documentary, Depp fondly recollects a moment when he got to meet with Ginsberg and was able to discuss his love and fascination with the prominent Beat works, and the lifestyles of the prominent Beat writers. By simply looking at Depp and the way he presents himself to the world, he tends to give off the impression of the style of bohemianism. A look that had been stereotyped as a very lazy or poor dress and appearance, one who looks as if he has not shaved in a while or is still wearing the same clothes he wore the other day even though we know this is not true it resembles what members of the Beat generation looked like in the 1950s. Some may say, he therefore forces this look and interest of Beat into the modern world, however, when one takes notice of his artistic adaptations on screen, one is able to understand his connection with the Beat generation on a deeper level. His eccentricity as characters such as Edward Scissorhands, the Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland or even the more gothic looking Sweeney Todd, Depp is able to present the new form or the lasts evolution of the Beat generation. Taking note of the fact that the Beat generation, poetry in particular had depended on its oral performance in order to be understood to the greatest extent, Depp is injecting this intention, this drama, and this performance into the 21 st century. Two rather significant drivers of the Beat generation were Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Both of them come from the earliest evolution of the Beat generation, since they were able to present the new ideals to the 1960s, hand in hand with the original Beats. Baez mentions in her interview that the Beats brought this sense of liberation to the sixties, it is what made things fun, colourful and crazy, although there was much more to both Baez and Dylan that were from the Beats. For instance, the entire genre of what they were a part of folk and rock and
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roll two musical genres that had been inspired and born from the poems and the visual experiences of the Beat generation, so much so, that Dylan had befriended Ginsberg to seek additional inspiration and guidance. Furthermore their connection with the Beats extends farther than any other Beat of today, especially when the topics civil rights and Vietnam are taken into consideration. Both Dylan and Baez were at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement, even to the extent of where both of them had performed at the Great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which has become most notable for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jrs I have a dream speech. Likewise to Dylan and Baez, the Beats and particularly speaking Ginsberg were also at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement, especially when we remember that the Beats were very significant in the battle for African-American and ethnic minority liberation in the 1950s. What makes these two so significant today, as regards to the Beats, is the fact that even though either of them may not be as famous as they were from the 1960s through to the late 1970s, both of them have had a great inspiration on younger generations, effectively passing along the Beat torch, thus creating one long line of Beat. Artists from Beck, Jack Johnson, Bono, Paul McCartney have owed their inspiration to either Dylan or Baez. A perfect example of the evolution of the Beat generation in the form of literature is found in Ken Kesey and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Kesey famously said in an interview with journalist Robert K. Elder that he felt as though he was a connection between the Beat generation and the hippies in the 1960s, I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie, he in fact went on to say in the Aronson interview that Ginsberg and indeed the rest of the generation were his heroes. When we take into consideration the content of the said novel, one finds it easier to understand why there is a connection between Kesey and the Beats, and why the members of the generation would be his heroes. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest was one in a series of novels, the first one having not been published. This first novel Zoo was in fact based on the lives of a group of San Francisco beatniks, of which in some way Kesey could associate himself with, and following the Beat canon of writing went and took stories from his own life as a new evolution of Beat, and placed them all in a book. However, as mentioned this book would not be the book to go and make Kesey such a success. Instead, the said novel, the last of the series would, having been based on a group of people within a psychiatric asylum, where we the reader are able to play witness the institutional process and of course the human mind. However, what lays a significant theme within the book is the sense of non conventionalism and the concept of people being insane or of hallucinogenic drugs, which in effect display the direct connection with the Beat
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generation. Furthermore it becomes important to note that the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is rather reminiscent of Ginsbergs Howl, which had been dedicated and based around the life of Carl Solomon, Ginsbergs friend who was by Ginsbergs account perfectly sane but confined in a psychiatric asylum.
In summary, it is clear to us how the line of Beat has been extended and driven forward into the 21st century, where the Beat generation is still relevant in so many ways. In fact the generation has been evolved so many times, that people sometimes are unaware of how old their ideals of individuality are, even when they think they are setting trend. As a result of this mass evolution, and so many becoming inspired by the works of the Beat generation, since the early 1990s many more people have found themselves having much more of an interest in their poems and prose, so much so that Naked Lunch, Howl and On the Road have be adapted into films. The writers, artists, film makers and poets of the Beat generation have effectively been transformed into celebrities, their works have been described as American classics and thus accepted into the American canon of literature, in fact their works are now taught in universities and other educational institutions right across the English speaking world. The great tragedy and paradox of this recognition is that the Beats have now been historicized and categorised in a way they all worked so hard to avoid.
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Conclusion
In summary, the Beat Generation over the past six decades have taught individuals that nonconformity is not as bad as people thought it would be, and that experimentation in the sexual sense of the word as well is okay. Through their writing and display of antiestablishment Beat culture has initiated a new culture, or even a new society, one where we are no longer bound down by oppression or inequality, but rather a society that is now more liberal and accepting than it ever was. The influence that they hold over Western culture has forced us into becoming a child of the Beat Generation, whether we enjoy it or not. We all yearn to be free and be able to say what we want, when we want to say it; principles that have been displayed over the years by not only artists and writers but social subcultures such as second-wave Feminists or the Civil Rights Movement. This essay has been able to outline how they have managed to do so, and why Beat writers were so significant and revolutionary to Western culture in its entirety. It could therefore be deduced that the Beat Generation right from the very beginning contained some of the most important writers of the twentieth century. Even though to many they can be unknown and not exactly considered to be in with the greats like Gertrude Stein or Ernest Hemingway. This project acts as proof that they were without a doubt in with the greats, if it wasnt for the Beats there may never have been such masterpieces as the Lennon-McCartney songbook, or the sudden spread of Zen Buddhism in the West, or the forever reviving fashion trends: the Hipster or Hippies. But despite being one of the main causes to so much change throughout the twentieth century, it is amazing as to how many still dont know the likes of Ginsberg, Kerouac or Burroughs; that being the very limitation to the essay. How is one meant to write about how the Beat Generation influenced Western culture, when there are still millions of people unaware of who the Beats even were? Admittedly it was difficult; however the size of this limitation was diminished by the fact that this is exactly what the Beats intended on happening. They did not seek fame for their work, or even to be recognised on the street, rather to create a change within society and Western culture. This seems to be the greatest part of the Beat influence over the past century that those who have never heard of the Beat Generation have still been affected by what they have caused. From what has been discussed throughout this essay, it is right to argue that the works of the Beat Generation will have a strong affect for many years to come. To this very day, they have played a part in every decade since the day they started. The interest in their works and indeed their influence has been revived over and over again, and even the subcultures which
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were born under the influence of their work has been revived. Further research into their works is likely to rise over the next few decades, as the surviving Beat poets and writers begin to age, and when we consider that the three most prominent writers have now passed away sudden interest will begin to spike, as does always when an influential person dies, further speculation and research begins to increase. Therefore Beat culture will continue to exist in the future until society begins to decide that freedom and nonconformity is wrong. Though, if this does ever become the case, then their works will simply remain dormant until someone discovers them again.
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Bibliography
Ginsberg, A. (2006). Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books Howl and Other Poems was in fact the book which inspired me to work on the Beat Generation more academically, and to research more information on the group of poets. Being one of the more prominent pieces of writing from the Beats and being almost autobiographical of the life they had to live and about those who inspired the likes of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, provided me with a great insight into how they worked, and how these influences were carried through and revived in later Western cultures. However, there are some limitations, yes, Howl and Other Poems can be considered reliable as it is practically a first-hand account of the Beat Generation, but because it is in the form of verse and poetry it becomes a more exaggerated reliability, bordering on the lines of being bias as it involves a lot of personal expression from Ginsberg himself.
Burroughs, W. (2005). Naked Lunch. London: Harper Collins Again another one of the texts which had inspired me to base my extended project around the Beat Generation. Burroughs presents an insight into what things the group of poets stood for, such as kicking the system. He portrays this system via drugs and addiction something of which he was into personally therefore the book is indeed a primary source and a first-hand account of the underground society of drug addicts in America. However, regardless of Burroughs saying in his prologue that he was clean from drugs or junk whilst writing Naked Lunch, he was very likely to on drugs at parts throughout the book.
Kerouac, J. (2008). On The Road. London: Penguin Books The final text which inspired me to undergo this extended project. Kerouac, like Ginsberg and Burroughs, provides his reader with an insight into the life that he had led, considering that this novel has been written in the form of an autobiography. Of course the source is primary, due to the fact that it has been written by the writer or indeed protagonist himself. Furthermore, it acts as a partly reliable source since it presents the life stories of those who surrounded Kerouac at the time, who were more or less the Beat Generation. However, there are some possible limitations to this text. Kerouac had written the novel in one sitting, without going back to modify or edit the work. Therefore, we have to question whether the writer had been intoxicated in any way, to be able to write it all in one go. Furthermore, we could question that at some points in the book the writer may have indeed been tired, and where he refused to edit the work, the reliability of the source could be jeopardized.
Kerouac, J. (1959). The Origins of The Beat Generation in: Playboy June 59 This source provided me with great insight into the true influences of the Beat Generation and how the term came to popularity. Kerouac is asked to outline what he
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believes is the Beat Generation since he was dubbed the face, or the voice of the Generation. Due to this, the source stands as an extremely reliable source; it is the thoughts and beliefs of what the Beat Generation was, by a Beat writer. There were hardly any limitations with this source, apart from the fact that it may be a little biased of what the Beat Generation was, I say this, because over the years different Beat writers and poets such as Ginsberg and Burroughs have all had conflicting definitions. Also, how the public perceive the Beat Generation could stand as a definition. Aronson, J. (2007). The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg. [DVD]. USA: New Yorker Films Aronsons documentary about Allen Ginsberg gave me a more profound understanding of the influence he has had over various generations of musicians, artists, writers and subcultures since the 1950s. It seemed to give off the impression that it was the Beat Generation or Allen Ginsberg for Dummies, showing what different things Ginsberg and his associates got up to. Of course it is a secondary source, which looks back with expertise of the Beats, but what was limiting about it, is that it presented the positivism surrounding the group of poets and tended to lack in the criticism. Giving off the illusion that Ginsberg had become a saint over night through his poetry.
Horowitz, H. (1986). The 1960s and the Transformation of Campus Cultures in: History of Education Quarterly 26, No.1 A rather large source, which is essentially self-explanatory. It helps outline the changes within society and of course campus life style throughout the majority of the 20th Century, with particular focus on the 1960s. Being an essay written by a historian, the source is therefore secondary information, a retrospective observation. This making it considerably reliable, due to the fact that the source was from an expert in his field and that it delivers a huge range of information which can be taken into use. However, the most limiting part of the text was the focus it had on the Beat Generation. Horowitz briefly touches the topic of the Beats, whilst he talks about the transformations within the 1950s. All in all as regards to information on the Beats, the text is rather useless, but as regards to the influence and the changes within 1960s society and onwards, the source is more than adequate.
Tamony, P. (1969). Western Words: Beat Generation: Beat: Beatniks in: Western Folklore 28, No.4 Being a source which has been written around the topic of words, phrases and folklore of Western society, it comes across as a rather obscure piece of text, particularly with regard to the project or the works of the Beat Generation. However, it does help outline the significance of the word beat and the term beat generation. It is very much like other sources such as The Origins of The Beat Generation in Playboy Magazine which in effect prove its reliability. What seemed to help me the most was the fact that the source emphasized the importance of spirituality and religion within the beat generation, and how specific subcultures prior to the 1950s were and
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how they helped mould the beat generation into the legend it became. The limitations on this source would firstly be how obscure it is, and then how towards the end of the source the author went off on a tangent and began to talk about information which was irrelevant to my project. Coffey, M. (1984). Those Beats in: Social Text 9/10: pp 238-241 Coffey outlines her own personal experience of the Beats. Thus, being a first-hand experience it creates the slightest amount of reliability, I say this, mainly because it is a personal experience, which adds to the idea of the source being biased. Although, it is the influence that the Beats had on society, that I wish to base my project around. Whether this influence is a personal inspiration within one individual or a national or even international effect on society, it doesnt matter, the fact is, it is an influence an effect that the Beats have created. There are very few limitations with this particular text, because it really comes to grips with how she was inspired to change her life and continue to write. Furthermore, she outlines the system in which American literature has taken moving between subcultures, the Bohemians/Hipsters to the Beats to the Beatniks to the Hippies. The only real issue is that it could be considered biased, and that she doesnt back up her claim of the massive effect Ginsberg and Kerouac had on society, with real experts in the field.
Rex, R. (1975). The Origin of Beatnik in: American Speech 50, No.3: pp 329-331 This source proves to be more than reliable as it assesses the different definitions and stories given to the word Beatnik even from the man who coined the word in San Francisco. I found it useful to my project, for the word beatnik refers to a completely new stem of beat generation in the late 1950s and earl 60s which effectively became popular culture that was influenced by the original beat generation sorts Ginsberg, Kerouac et al. The only limitations that I found with the source is that it didnt elaborate enough on the word and what it really meant, but simply assumed that it was common knowledge of what beatnik meant. Instead the author focused on the sheer origins of the word which I suppose is to the point however, it would have been particularly helpful if he didnt just snub the idea of people not knowing what the definition of beatnik was.
Smith, H. (1959). A Time to Separate the Men and the Boys in: Village Voice 4, No. 15 The source is a record of first-hand experience of Ginsberg in the late 1950s making readings of some of his poems including Kaddish. This is quintessentially what makes the source reliable, the fact that it was written in aid or publicity of the Beat Generation. However, because of the very obvious fact that the source is a newspaper/magazine/journal article, it can be considered biased, especially when it is featured in The Village Voice, a famously recognized advocate of any Village scene bohemianism. But, what the source does do which makes it useful to my project is that it presents the effect Ginsberg had on people, society and culture from his works and his readings, particularly when the source mentions People are talking about a
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poetry renaissance. The limitations of the source would be that it very much focuses on the readings themselves and the majority of the article excerpt is about Paul Goodman rather than Ginsberg. Di Prima, D. (1958) The Scene in: Village Voice 3, No. 31 Di Palma, in this source explains the values taken on by the next generation, the succession to the Beat Generation; what she describes as Hipness which can most likely be categorized to either the Beatniks or the Hippies as these were the two prominent subcultures after the Beats. It became useful to me, as it represented a conflicting argument to many of my other sources, showing us that the Beat Generation was the uncoolest thing gives off the sense of extremism and antiBeatism. Therefore, we are able to see a pocket of society not highly influenced by the likes of Ginsberg. However, this source can be quite confusing and limiting in a way, because those categories in which Di Palma would most likely fall under were very much pro-Beat, and the use of the word Hipness is derived from the subculture hipsters, a group of people the Beat Generation greatly admired. Thus, it seems to give off the sense that Di Palma belonged to new subculture, a new generation that could very much have just been invented around her own anti-Beat feelings.
Fles, J. (1960). Beyond the Beat Generation in: Village Voice 6, No. 7 In this source, we can see that the author is trying to defend the Beat Generation in every way possible, and explain to those who do not know about them the Beats that it is important to know, even describing those who are unknowledgeable as blind and impotent. What was most useful about Fles account of Beyond the Beat Generation was that this argument is technically praising their works, but showing us that their movement, or indeed their generation is dying out, and becoming ever more obsolete. He presents the facts like Ginsberg over the years has created an air of mysticism about him and been surrounded with glamour like James Dean. It therefore proves to be a very reliable source as it comes across as a one of a kind argument not to give off the impression that Fles was the only person thinking this but it is different to what everyone else was saying about the Beats. The only limitations that I found, was that he summarized everything he needed to say in relation to the title of his article in one paragraph, and seemed to focus on his appraisal of the generation in the majority of the text.
Hopkins, J. (1959). The Beat Generation in: Village Voice 4, No. 14 In general this source surrounds the relation between the Beats and politics, Hopkins outlines his belief that the Beat Generation was formed because of the Cold War, and the sense that the world could end any day. Now, this is indeed a very different approach to explaining the Beats, which makes it all the more confusing but interesting, when it comes to reliability. There is no question as to whether the source is biased, especially when we consider that the author was a socialist, and in the height of anti-Kremlin attitudes sweeping America, it is easy to understand that
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Hopkins shows some anger towards the American government and some sympathy to the Beat Generation. Furthermore, the source goes onto explain how Beat fever has spread across the world, particularly within Europe. The main limitations that had struck me whilst reading the source was the fact that it was very personal to the author, thus lacking in reliability, and that it shifts most of its focus on how political the Beats were, and he then goes on to inform us the reader that they arent all that political after all, creating contradiction. Street, J. (1958). Which Definition of Beat? in: Village Voice 3, No. 17 The source is quite self-explanatory in its attempt to question the definition of the term The Beat Generation. It is through her analysis of different peoples explanations of the term, which becomes useful to me and my project. She explains to us that there are conflicting definitions, some even the conflicting definitions from the same person for instance Jack Kerouac. The source is more than reliable as it really assesses the answers and definitions of those who are to be considered knowledgeable of the Beat Generation. The main limitation of this source is the fact that the author didnt really do her own research into the generation nor the definition of the term. Rather she just explores what other people have said and asks questions.
Ginsberg, A. (1958). The Dharma Bums in: Village Voice 4, No. 3 Ginsberg effectively creates his own review of not only The Dharma Bums but Kerouacs work in general. He manages to outline a reliable source of information, telling us of how On The Road a prominent text of the Beat Generation was hacked and broken by the literary critics and publishing houses of the day. Showing the struggle such poets and authors like himself and Kerouac had to endeavor in order to be published and make a success. Furthermore, considering the fact that Ginsberg was himself a Beat writer and good friend of Kerouac the reliability of this source is extended, he is able to talk and write about things in relation to Kerouac that no other person can. Of course this review is an applause to what Kerouac has done through the years, but it is also an attack on the critics of the Beat Generation. This in fact was the only limitation with the source, the critical comments aimed at Kerouac were indeed personal to Ginsberg, making the source quite bias.
Wilensky, S. (1960). Village Sunday. [DVD]. USA: Independent. (Narrated by Shepherd, J.) Unfortunately this source was not what I expected to be, it was more focused on advertising the Greenwich Village of New York to tourists rather than focusing on the Beat Generation or the Beatniks. Although, some information could be salvaged, being a film made in the very early sixties, it was able to present primary videofootage of the area in which the Beats once lived and then where the more influenced synthesized subgroups of poets resided. From this I was able to recognize the society in which they were surrounded by and could take inspiration from, giving somewhat of an insight to the Beat and more specifically the Beatnik works.
53
Podhoretz, N. (1958). The Know-Nothing Bohemians. University of North Carolina Thankfully this source of information proved to be a reliable source. Not only for the reason that it was from the same period as the Beat generation, but also the fact that it had been written by an actual critic of the Beats. However, I have to take into consideration the level of bias that may be involved in the source, considering that it had been written by a well known oppose of the Beat generation, information and expression of opinion may be present within. Although this does not mean that the source should be dismissed and not taken seriously, in fact it presents a decent case against the Beat generation, as opposed to other sources that I have read which tend to be in favor of the Beat. Nevertheless the weigh up of against and in favor for, is balanced out due to the large range of information this source has covered.
Carr, R. (1986). The Hip: Hipsters, Jazz and the Beat Generation. London: Faber & Faber Unfortunately, this source was only able to provide me with a limited amount of information that was relevant to my essay. However, the information that had been presented was in some way helpful, but only slightly. The source is indeed a secondary source of information, therefore, perspective of the content within the source may be swayed by the gradual likeness towards the beat generation and of course the Hipster culture. The reasoning as to why the information that was presented was only limited, is rather than going in depth to the origins of the Beat generation it had only provided a very small amount of information, which admittedly proved to be disappointing, especially when the Beat generation had been features in the title of the source.
Holmes, J.C. (1988). Passionate Opinions: The Cultural Essays. University of Arkansas Press Clellon Holmes is able to present a rather significant source of information, in the way that it is a secondary source of information but hold information as though it were a primary source, due to the fact that Clellon Holmes had been within the Beat circles of the 1950s so the majority of the information that has been presented in said source is almost reliable. Of course there is the question of bias that could be involved in the source since the information may be swayed from the truth due to the perspective of the writer. Fortunately, the source had given me a large sample of information to work from and had been a great help when writing the essay. Thankfully, I did not find any limitation sin the way that Clellon Holmes had presented the information, nor did I find any other issues other than the possible question of the information being biased.
Aldridge, J. (1951). After the Lost Generation: A Critical Study of Two Wars. New York: McGraw-Hill In Aldridges secondary source of information, considering that it had been written after any of the events within had occurred, manages to present a reasonable to
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reliable source of information. The main reasoning behind this is the fact that Aldridge is an expert in this particular field of study and provides his readers with a critical study of the post-modern era of literature. By bearing in mind that it is a critical study, one of logical reasoning, the question of whether the source of information is bias or not is diminished. The writer even though writing critically is able to weigh up both sides of an argument and present reasons both for and against any piece of information that had been presented in this source. As a result I found it difficult to locate any limitations within. Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965. Whitney Museum of American Art: Flammarion Extremely significant source of information and used thoroughly this essay. The reason as to why it had been used thoroughly is due to the fact that it was able to cover a large range of information about the Beat generation. To be quite frank about this particular book, it has been the most helpful, in the way that it increased my knowledge about the Beat generation on several fronts. Furthermore, considering that the source of information has been developed and adapted from an exhibition which had been on display in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the question of the sources reliability and whether it is bias or not, is hugely diminished, because it is very unlikely that bias information or indeed unreliable information .
Epstein, R. and Friedman, J. (2010). Howl. USA: Werc Werc Works The film/documentary of the life led by Allen Ginsberg, as portrayed by James Franco, provides us the audience n exaggerated insight into the writing of Howl, and specifically the performance showing us how significant performance was to the Beats and the meaning of the poem itself. Indeed the majority of the information has been taken from what the real Allen Ginsberg had said in regard to the poem. Although, this source is in fact secondary, when we consider the fact that it was made in 2010, more than half a century after the poem itself was written. The reliability could be questioned on the basis that as a film, some features have to be dramatized to please the modern audience. However, after studying the Beats for some time now, after watching the film, I would agree that a lot of the film presents the significance the man and the poem in question had had on society at the time. This therefore makes the source ideal for this project.
Lawlor, W. (2005). Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons and Impact. California: ABC-CLIO. Inc With this final source of information, I only made use of the information that had been presented for oe particular chapter Beat Influence and Legacy. Although, the information that had been made use of, I believe was rather reliable on the basis that the author generally quoted form other well known critical information, even though he had presented some of his very own critical information this may have stemmed from the information that had been quoted, but I did not worry due to the fact that the writer is a considerably well known critic of the Beat generation and American
55
literature himself. The fact that the source of information is a secondary source, may highlight the question of whether it is biased, due to the gradually likeness toward the Beats which has been displayed in the post-Beat era.
56
Appendix
ll
: i
57
Hay
Green In what ways
the Beat Generation influence Western Culture (EPQ) 2010 11
Appendi 2
Life magazine September 1959 Squaresville, USA vs. Beatsville
58
Evaluation
In general I feel as though the extended project above had been quite the success on my part, considering that I have been able to write a sixty page essay, on a topic I initially thought would not require so much information to write about or consider for such a question as my own, within the space of three months. When I started planning and researching the essay, I had a firm knowledge of what I wanted to base my project on, and how I was going to go about it. Luckily I was able to plan about such a project having known a little about it before I started the course in September. The research section of the project had begun very successfully, although having looked back at the way I had gone about researching I believe that it would be a better idea to either plan a lower maintenance project to start with or not take so long in researching. For instance, I had set myself the period of one month to research all the information for the extended project, unfortunately I had not researched for the entire month, rather I separated the research over a few days, which meant that I had to keep going back to check what information I had already read. Furthermore another improvement I would make, if I was to re-write this extended project would be to find the books that are needed first, rather than buy them at the end of the set research month and then move over into the time I had set to start writing the project, whilst waiting for the said books to arrive. Another feature that I would possibly change if I was to write the project over again would be to concentrate the subject of the question; in the way that it would not be such a broad subject to cover, thus giving me more information to both research and discuss. Instead, I feel as though it would be better to find a specific topic within the subject of the question, for instance The Beats and the Law had I simply focused on this one topic, then the length of the extended project may not have been so daunting. Finally, another point o improvement would be add a final chapter discussing where the beats are going in the future, or even it may be better to have simply added this information onto the end of the last chapter, since it is in some way quite relevant.
With regard to anything that I am additionally proud of with this extended project is the idea of my time keeping skills. Having initially set out time periods of when I was going to do what, I have been successful in completing the entire project on time. Furthermore, I admire the way I have been able to structure this essay, in the way it has been written and the way it
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has been designed. Presentation is key when it comes to my work, thus it was important to make the essay look as good as it was.
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Word Count
Introduction: 980 Whole Te t: 16, 347 Conclusion: 619 Bibliography: 3, 756
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In What Ways Did The Beat Generation Influence Western Culture? - Haydn Green

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In What Ways Did The Beat Generation Influence Western Culture? - Haydn Green

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Part One Origins of the Beat Generation

Chapter 1 Before the Beat

Chapter 2 This is a Beat Generation

Holmes, J.C. (1988). P. 75

Part Two The Beat Generation

Chapter 3 Three Pillars of Beat

Chapter 4 Beat Culture

Phillips, L. (1996). Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965. P. 38

Chapter 5 The Beats and the Law

Part Three Beat Legacy & Criticism

Chapter 6 Beat Influence and Legacy

Chapter 7 Criticism of the Beat Generation

Chapter 8 Today s Beats

Green In what ways

the Beat Generation influence Western Culture (EPQ) 2010 11

Life magazine September 1959 Squaresville, USA vs. Beatsville

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