[-dustin]

i'm taking a class on the the beat poets and we're reading a couple Ginsberg pieces. i picked up "Howl" last night and jumped in, since i had never read any of his work before. actually, i've never read any of the beat works.

****! this stuff is hard. any tips on how to read it? it obviously isn't big-word hard, but rather...it's just all over the place.

we'll also be diving into this guy's works:

(i looked for the Ginsberg ad but couldn't find it)

 

[wingman24]

Take 4 bong hits, 2 rails of meth, 1 rail of coke, drink a 5th of wiskey, an armload of heroin, an 10 hits of acid, kick back with your book and enjoy. It will be perfectly clear, I think it has something to do with headspace, and you might want to listen to a charlie parker album for good measure.

and Kerouac in a GAP ad is Blasfamy (sp?)

 

[wingman24]

rent fear and loathing in Las Vegas, it will help you understand the Beat writters to no end.

 

[TN]

^ what he said & the hot man love is optional I hear.

Kerouac rules. One thing I learned from him, speed + writing = no punctuation.

 

[greenchris]

just think how their minds worked while writing. on the road by Kerouac is amazing and try out the electric kool aid acid test by tom wolfe. and if you were to eat some acid and smoke a couple doobies it would put you in the correct mindset to really understand the books

 

[-dustin]

oh yeah, we're reading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, as well. another one we're reading is Naked Truth. i'm looking forward to that book.

i just went to the nearest Blockbuster to rent Fear and Loathing.... and was told they didn't carry it.

wingman, Ginsberg is in the same GAP ad campaign.

 

[greenchris]

have you read fear and loathing??? its better than the movie

 

[-dustin]

no, haven't read it. will before the end of the semester, though. have a stack of 10 books for that class.

 

[greenchris]

damn sounds like an awesome class...what movie you need to go watch is Easy Rider its the ****

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Just read it without worrying too much about how to read it. Understanding of one sort or another will come in time.

Take a pass on the suggestions to get addled before reading.

Reading Kerouac when I was in high school was an amazing flash of finding that there was at least one writer in the world who was latched onto magic.

 

[wingman24]

and he's a lunatic, I love it.

 

[wingman24]

have you read fear and loathing??? its better than the movie

the book is way better, but he's already having difficulty reading that kind of mayhem, and the movies only 2 hours.:love:

 

[-dustin]

damn sounds like an awesome class...what movie you need to go watch is Easy Rider its the ****

watched that in another class last semester. i'm really enjoying this time period. i wish i had more time to study it at school.

 

[Capt. Jack Sparrow]

As far as reading and feeling Ginsberg and Kerouc goes, just try to relax. It's not like reading 19th century Brit lit. It's about having a good time, really. That's what these writers were doing... documenting wild parties, road trips, hiking adventures, sex, and so forth. Try to forget all the conventions you know about poems rhyming, iambic pentameter, and so forth... and just let his poems flow through you, changing your cells slightly as it does.

***

If you're a pretty outdoorsey person, I'd highly recommend Kerouc's The Dharma Bums. It's mostly about backpacking and pleasure at the "little things."

There's a part about climbing a mountain and then running down it... the rush Kerouac describes reminds me of a nice descent on a mountain bike.

Kerouac would have been a mountain biker.

***

Writers like Kerouac and Ginsberg had a knack for documenting their epiphanies. I read their works in college and after... and even got to see a poetry reading by some of their contemporaries once. Ever since, I've expected amazing ideas to hit me in odd places like coffee shops and diners.

 

[Mackie]

****! this stuff is hard. any tips on how to read it? it obviously isn't big-word hard, but rather...it's just all over the place.

Saw Ginsberg do a reading at Brooklyn College when he was on faculty there, and I was a grad student. He was old, and fairly frail, but you could tell he enjoyed reading his own stuff, and he said something to the effect that his work was meant to be read out loud. I think lots of poetry takes on enhanced meaning when you hear it, rather than read it.

Side note - his students said he was a boring teacher & a prick when it came to grading.

 

[-dustin]

so here i am writing my final essay for this class. it's a short one on who i think (Kerouac, Ginsberg, or Burroughs) expressed society and culture best, and which "has retained the most social and cultural relevance from the 1960 - present". my paper will argue for Kerouac in both instances. there's no right or wrong, just what i think...totally open paper.

through the semester, i never got into Ginsberg. i just couldn't get a feel for him...i didn't enjoy his writing style, and to understand a lot of it required explanation of the inner meanings.

Kerouac, though. damn. i love this guy. his style is so awesome, so smooth. especially dig his relationship with jazz musicians from the time period. i've rarely if ever, not sold a book back to the bookstore. keeping all of Kerouac's stuff, though, and i hope to find a good copy of Mexico City Blues, in which Charlie Parker is printed.