It may have been a minor discussion in class, but I also was unsure of what a beat poet was, so I did more research into it. Some of what I found was covered in class, but I figured I would just relay all the information that I got.
Beat poets originated in the 1940s in NYC and on the west coast, but San Francisco became the heart of it in the 1950s. The purpose of this new form of writing was to "changing consciousness and defying convention." It turns out that drugs, hallucinogenic ones, were often used by beat poets, and we know how our class enjoys discussing poets and drugs. Buddhism was also followed by many members of the beat generation.
One of the beat generations most famous works, Howl and Other Poems, was brought to court for its obscenity, though the judge ruled that the book was not obscene (upholding freedom of speech) and brought a lot of attention to the beat poets.
(http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5646)
It seems that many of the different periods of poetry, like the beat generation or the Harlem Renaissance etc, were in response to social turmoil and the writing was supposed to represent a defying of conventions.
This is definitely good for poetry. With all these writers continually "defying convention" we are sure to continue to get something new out of writing and poetry, not just the same old structure and topics. Good thing all (well, most) artists want to be different, we, the readers/viewers get something new every time. :)
2 comments:
Very interesting that they used drugs. I guess that gives the "he wrote this when he was high" argument a little more validity since it has at least happened in one instance (although I still don't buy it).
Funnily enough, I have a friend who gets, sort to say, very "inspirational" when she's high and although she never writes her "insights" down at that particular moment, she often records it the next day when she's more lucid. But I digress! I still don't buy the drug-induced interpretations as a cop out to actually analyzing the poems.
The drug use in the beat generation would probably help to fan the flames for the "he wrote this when he was high" argument, but on the other hand, I would have to agree that that argument doesn't really have much grounds for support. We can't always just brush off creative thinking as under the influence thinking (not all the time at least).
But anyway, thanks for the post!
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