THE BEATS

“The beat generation was one of the largest cultural movements of the twentieth century. What started off as a literary phenomenon soon progressed to a life-changing attitude for thousands of people around the world. It embraced originality and individuality in the way people thought and acted. The beat generation threw out the old rules of literature, music, sex and religion, and its effects are still felt in the world today.” (Crystal, 2003)

“The Beat Generation” is a term coined by Jack Kerouac in 1948 to describe his social circle, however, it was a movement that changed art (literary, musical, and visual) forever. The movement lasted from the mid 1950s- early 1960s and some of the most famous artists include Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. The Beat Generation was centered in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Greenwich Village, the artists would meet in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco (Parkins, 2005). The social circle held ideas of non-conformity, being anti-materialistic and used drugs and meditation; they rejected impersonal writing and believed that writing should be direct and frank. Their poetry was performance oriented, usually accompanied by jazz and they felt that the genre should not be just taught in classrooms, but brought to the people (Parkins, 2005). The Beats were very spiritual, they drew from Buddhism, Judaism and Catholicism; in the mid 1950s, Kerouac and Ginsberg (separately) began to read on Buddhism and invited the ideas of the religion into their life (Asher, 2001)

October 7, 1955 at The Six Gallery in San Francisco was the first time the beat poets held a reading. This reading is depicted loosely in Jack Kerouac’s ‘The Dharma Bums’. This was the first time Allen Ginsberg, who was 29 years old at the time, read his first part of the poem “Howl,” which launched his massive and influential career as a poet. (Asher, 6 gallery, 1994).
“In all of our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before -- we had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the gray, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellective void -- to the land without poetry -- to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision.” Michael McClure, 'Scratching The Beat Surface (Asher, 6 gallery, 1994)

This is when the beat generation took off in the mainstream, or rather, after the obscenity trials that Ginsberg among other poets won. This allowed for a more liberal style of writing, as I presented in the class, Allen Ginsberg wrote ‘Howl’ for his own personal experience- this inspired poets from there on out to write about their thoughts and feelings, in open format. It is funny, because even though the book could be published, it cannot be read aloud on the radio or TV- proving that there are still things that have not changed.

I believe that the Beat Generation changed the way we think, because before them no one questioned anything, they had to conform. I think that they opened up our minds to new ideas, new forms of writing, expression and acceptance of those who are different.

References:

Asher, L. (1994). Six Gallery. Retrieved October 2009, from Literary Kicks: http://www.litkicks.com/SixGallery/

Crystal, G. (2003). What Was the Beat Generation? Retrieved October 2009, from wisegeek: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-was-the-beat-generation.htm

Parkins. (2005, March). Beat Generation. Retrieved October 2009, from Beat Generation: http://home.clara.net/heureka/art/beat-generation.htm