Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and Allen Ginsberg.
I thought it fitting to summarize the lives of these men in the same way they may have if their fate wasn’t an
“early death, as a public romance…the ultimate renunciation of the future tense.” (Leland 141)
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Hip-History-Mr-John-Leland/?isbn=9780060528188
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Hip-History-Mr-John-Leland/?isbn=9780060528188
You may know this technique by a number of different terms:
Spontaneous return of perceptual distortions…
Increased susceptibility to spontaneous imagery….
Recurrent unbidden images…..
Flashbacks……
Columbia Neither happy nor sad bop musicians made exile a lifestyle choice gone at early age license to ill speed of innovation state of forgiveness for being incorrect admire for the blamelessness of his flaws connection between meaning and transience perpetual reinvention of the now lives in the present rationing time into microfine slices of the present Walt Whitman-patron saint of Beats shared each others’ isolation and intent Great Depression of childhood devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasakie Cold War white Negro virtue of improvisation distinct perfections of composition Herbert Hoover sands of their own erasure absolute freedom at all times schizoid angel tendencies naked and raving mother delinquent youth untamed primitive holy goofs mind had disgorged its contents all at once uninhibited by propriety cavils of form and grammar vigilant intolerance to new or different ideas rational world turned on itself earning and spending antidote was radical individualism beat human condition Civil War drug underworld beat down ragged whipped outside the game postwar circle Lost Generation come together in similar dissatisfaction directionless men despised minority spiritual quest will to believe despite the valueless abyss of modern life society margins held more value dislodge from Eisenhower era Kid, it was tasty not overtly political immediacy of pleasure and motion the Beat circus knife Mexico male whorehouse Tangier blacks caught in a square world that wasn’t enough for us dreary analysis speed-writing bop improvisation unfiltered gush of the musical subconscious approach primitive state of grace white romance obscenity surefire marketing campaign ethos of lifestyle change San Remo low-fi uncombed unpolished assumption of forgiveness Buddhism not above it but of it marinated in his disappointment more free than rebellion
Two qualities in the Beat generation artists:
#1. “aesthetic of imperfection” (Leland 140)
#2. “license of living in the present tense” (Leland 155)
How might the celebration of the eternal present tense
cultivate or shape
the celebration of imperfection?
Leland describes multitudes of explanations for this occurrence…I have chosen two of my favorites to adorn this blog:
#1. Diane di Parma explains it to her daughter:
“Honey, you see,
we all thought experience itself was good. Any experience.
That it could only be good to experience as much as possible.’…[A]nything that took us outside---
that gave us the dimensions of the box we were caught in,
an aerial view, as it were---
showed us the exact arrangement of the maze we were walking,
was a blessing.
A small satori.
Because we knew we were caught…”(Leland 149)
#2. “When Walt Whitman sang of containing multitudes,
he did not mean they were all admirable.
Yet they were all implicitly forgiven.
To live in the present tense is to claim forgiveness as you go,
making peace with your flaws even as you erupt in new ones.
It is to live outside of judgment---
and to allow others the same grace.
There are no wounds left by one’s flaws, only new flaws to replace the old ones.” (Leland 158)
These two statements represent three human traits that I believe are best exercised in the present tense:
Honesty, forgiveness, and the ability to live outside of judgment.
To experience
the now
is to carry these tools with you and use them maniacally.
Jack Kerouac (above)
Poet Allen Ginsberg took thousands of photos of fellow Beats.
He said these pictures are
“meant more for a public in heaven than one here on earth—and that’s why they’re charming...
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/22/allen-ginsbergs-phot.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/22/allen-ginsbergs-phot.html
What do you think about this so-call Beat aesthetic?
Isn’t art an act that strives for perfection in some sense,
or is making mistakes in the process of creation
actually more important
than trying to be perfect?
I will now demonstrate the answer to these questions in my interpretation of
“speed-writing” and art as an act for perfection…and possibly profit too.
The Beat aesthetic (Maniacal process of creation)
I just took a poop for 42 hours, yes, 42 fucking hours. No need for food, it was coming out of me faster than I could chew! The porcelain underneath my ass revealed a hot sticky stinky splattered pile of shit that all came out of my being. Me. I did that. All of it. I am the master creator of my garbage dump fairytale forest.
(This is an honest, forgiving, and non-judgmental statement with no revisions.)
Editing (Striving for Perfection)
Perfection (From smut to Disney Pixar)
I am the creator of Fairytale Forest
Insert current artist who exemplifies the Beat aesthetic CHARLIE SHEEN__
Charlie Sheen Interview On The Alex Jones Show 2/24/11 - Talks addiction and more!
“You either love or you hate. And you must do so violently.” Charlie Sheen
If someone can tell me how many times he said the words
“winning” and “winners”
in terms of his….ummm…cleansing,
I’ll send you my personal VHS copy of
Hot Shots Part Duex.
Poo Poo Cachoo.
Excuse me, I’m allergic to bull-shit.
*The only substances that would be found in my system when I assembled this masterpiece would be
a mild stimulant brought on by English breakfast tea, a multivitamin for HER, one no-baby pill, fish oil, and tortilla chips with mango salsa.
There is no need for drugs to create authentic smut.
That is hip.
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