Who was your favorite BEAT GENERATION WRITER?

[NightTrain]

Poll question: Who was your favorite BEAT GENERATION WRITER?

[Saudade]

1. Burroughs

I think that Burroughs and Ginsberg were the only ones with genuine talent.

I think that Burroughs had a bit of genius with the english language.

Ginsberg wrote lots of crap, but several of his poems (esp. Kaddish) are very beautiful and powerful.

The rest of them don't mean much to me.

Is Paul Bowles considered "Beat"? I like his work.

[NightTrain]

3. Kerouac's "On The Road" changed the way I looked at the world

Though the conservative Kerouac undoubtedly would have disapproved, his signature book was another step toward my becoming the raving leftist that I am today.

Merci beaucoup, Ti Jean!

[HEyHEY]

6. But he was a scumbag

Used people, cars, women. Visited Prostitues how could...oh wait he must have been right wing.

[mitchum]

18. and ended up a fat, drunken reactionary conservative Catholic...

on his mother's couch.

[NightTrain]

29. Well, I didn't know any of that at the time

Besides, sometimes you have to separate the art from the person who created it. Otherwise, I'd never listen to an Ike Turner record!

[Philostopher]

2. Don't entirely disagree with Saudade

But I guess I just like Ginsberg's stuff a tad better. It's all a matter of degree, and I admire both.

[HEyHEY]

4. I had to go Kerouac

Only because I've never read any of the others...wait, I think I read Burroughs...not sure

[mlawson]

5. I read "On The Road" over 30 years ago,

but I still remember it perfectly. I can't say that for anything else I read back then.

It was absolutely and finally hypnotic.... :-)

[HEyHEY]

8. Is it true on the road was written in 36 hours straight?

[NightTrain]

14. I don't know about that, but...

...Kerouac wrote the book on a continuous sheet of Telex paper.

When Kerouac took the manuscript to his editor, he was asked how he'd be able to edit it. A hurt-looking Kerouac replied, "I'm not changing a word!"

[HEyHEY]

16. haha

A writer's dream phrase

[mitchum]

21. "That's not writing...that's typing" Truman Capote on Kerouac

[dolo amber]

7. Is Bukowski

considered *beat generation*? :shrug:

[NightTrain]

12. Not that I'm aware of.

Certainly, the Beats influenced Bukowski, but he came along too late to really be considered one of them.

[electricmonk]

15. Yes and no

A lot of people put him with the beats but I don't think he liked that too much and he didn't start getting published until after the beat phase had pretty much passed.

I'm a huge Bukowski fan myself and I don't consider him a Beat writer.

[Rowdyboy]

9. Voted other for Carlos Castaneda....

Back in the early 70's drug culture, Castaneda was required reading for enlightened mushroom hunters/peyote eaters.

Burroughs is another one that twisted me around. I'm still thinking about Naked Lunch.

On edit: Thinking about it, Castaneda probably is too late to be considered a "Beat Generation" writer. Sorry....Never mind...

[Laughing Mirror]

10. Burroughs -- that voice, that diction, that control, that bunker

and for that record he did a few years before he died and for that stimulating old junkie he played in the movie "Drugstore Cowboy"

[jenm]

11. Ken Kesey

Cukoo's Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion. I mean, that was back in the days when college professors assigned that kind of stuff.

[NightTrain]

13. Great writer, but he wasn't a true "Beat"...

...even if Neil Cassady did drive his bus for a while! :-)

[jenm]

17. hah ha

[OneBlueSky]

23. funny Kesey story . . .

when I was a senior in college, Kesey was scheduled to speak there and then attend an outdoor reception . . . he was assigned a freshman to accompany him around campus, and the kid was a bit of a jerk . . . anyhow, I struck up a conversation with him at the reception (turns out we had a mutual friend), and at one point he said he needed to take a leak and headed over to a nearby tree, behind which he relieved himself . . . just as he was finishing up, his freshman guide appeared, apparently afraid that he'd lost his charge, and stood right where Kesey has just pissed . . . so Kesey says "Geez, dude, I just pissed there!" . . . so the kid jumps back and, in all seriousness, asks "Is it acid?" . . . Kesey just rolled his eyes and walked away . . . :)

[SOteric]

19. Snyder.

Love the quiet, earthy nature of his work.

[MrBenchley]

30. He continues to write great poetry

I agree.

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

--Gary Snyder

[mitchum]

20. Easily William S. Burroughs...

his work still stands (unlike the adolescent passion of Kerouac or the overall silliness of Ginsberg)

I still enjoy the work of some "beat associated writers"
John Clellan Holmes (the man who coined the term "beat")
Paul Bowles
Hubert Selby
Leroi Jones

[soupkitchen]

31. To criticize "On the Road" for its adolescent passion is like criticizing

"The Grapes of Wrath," for its politics. (Which many people do)
Quite simply no book I have ever read captures the passion and energy of youth, better than "On the Road." And that it is precisely why it is a great book, in the sense of a being a book that will live forever. It captures an unbounded sense of possibility that exists in life just at the time when the boundries are closing in. And I don't think, capturing this energy is a small or unimportant accomplishment.

[Spider Jerusalem]

22. Burroughs.

Without Burroughs, there IS no "Beat Generation". Kerouac and Ginsberg were somewhat inspired to do wild and crazy shit and write about it after spending a good deal of time hanging out with old Bill and letting his monologues work strange changes on their grey matter.

I would also argue that Burroughs' literary brilliance places him in the first rank of American authors, and on a global level he belongs in the company of someone like Joyce. His use of language against itself to uncover hidden underlying meanings, the political and psychological themes that run through his works...Burroughs was the dark prophet of our modern age.

[NightTrain]

38. Interestingly, Burroughs insisted that he was never a Beat.

Burroughs acknowledged that he had many good friends in that crowd, but he never truly felt that he was one of them. I can understand what he meant, but I also understand why Burroughs will forever be considered part of the Beat Generation.

[Susang]

24. Diane DiPrima all the way, baby!

One of the few women writers who got some recognition in that genre. I think she's fantastic!

[Iverson]

25. What peaches! What penumbras!

Ginsberg gets my vote. There were several good writers, but his poems "America" and "A Supermarket in California" stand at the top for me. "Howl" was also a landmark.

[Search Party]

26. Other

I have to go with the guy in my sig. Lew Welch attended Reed College and roomed with Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen. He drove Kerouac to New York once along with Albert Saijo. Lew is "Dave Wain" in Big Sur.
When he worked in advertising, before he dropped out and committed his life to writing, he was responsible for coining the brilliant, "Raid! It kills bugs dead!" Gertrude Stein was his major influence. IMO, he was the finest of all the beat poets, he had a superior ear.

[Bossy Monkey]

27. Adrian Belew (just kidding)

Does anybody else remember Burroughs reading his Dr Benway monologues from Naked Lunch on the early years of Saturday Night Live? Fascinating, wildly funny, impossible to imagine happening today.

[peekaloo]

28. YES!

Hell I even bought the X-Files soundtrack to hear him do r.e.m.'s '**** Me Kitten'.

I think it was the X-Files soundtrack.....:dunce:

[theemu]

32. Would y'all consider Philip Lamantia?

He's a surrealist technically, but he's connected with a lot of the beats, especially Gary Snyder.

[newyawker99]

35. Congrats theemu!! 400 posts

:toast:

[NightTrain]

39. Oh, yeah! Forgot all about Lamantia

Thanks for the reminder!

[Jack Rabbit]

33. A brief critical view of Beat literature

I tend to view prose and poetry seperately; it would be wrong to compare Naked Lunch to Howl.

For fiction, I like both Kerouac and Burroughs. Of the two, I think Burroughs will be read by more people years from now. I give him the nod for his surrealistic imagination. Naked Lunch is an unusal novel and well worth the reading experience.

A note on Kerouac: My favorite Kerouac novel is neither On the Road nor The Dharma Bums, but The Subterranians. This tells of a brief romance Kerouac had with a black woman. It is modeled on the second part of Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground. For those who haven't read it, treat yourself.

The two leading beat poets in my view are Allen Ginsberg and Lawerence Ferlinghetti. Ginsberg's best poetry is better than Ferlighetti's best; however, his worst poetry is also worse than Ferlighetti's worst. Nevertheless, Howl should rank as the most remarkable American poetic work in the second half of the twentieth century. In addition to Howl, one should also read Ginsberg's Vietnam era epics, such as The Witchita Vortex Sutra, and Kaddish, his poem on the passing of his mother. Ferlighetti has written many slim volumes; I like Coney Island of the Mind.

Gary Snyder also ranks highly, but beneath the other two. Of Snyder's poetry, my favorite is contained in Myths and Texts.

[NightTrain]

40. I found "The Subterraneans" very hard to read

It was chapterless, and the sentences went on quite literally for page after page.

By the time he wrote "The Subterraneans," Kerouac had entered his "spontaneous Beat prosidy" (sp?) stage, when he tried to create prose that duplicated the rhythm of a Charlie Parker solo. Frankly, that stage of Kerouac's writing career has always turned me off.

[rbnyc]

34. William S. Burroughs

I love his work that compares words spoken from the death bed with writing done by chance systems.

[veganwitch]

36. dont wanna be a hater...

but i read on the road because all my friends in college where appalled that i never read it. i did and wasnt impressed.

i totally admit that beat is not my favourite (give me the victorian ladies!!!) but i just dont see the attraction.

[NightTrain]

37. Your comments hardly make you a hater!

You were simply expressing your opinion, and in quite a diplomatic way at that. Nothing wrong with that! :hi:

[soupkitchen]

41. How about a Who is Your Favorit Victorian Writer Poll

I do know that Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books.
But then again I love Wuthering Heights too.

[NightTrain]

42. Feel free to start one, if you like!

By the way, I too thought "Jane Eyre" was a wonderful novel. Did you ever read the prequel, "Wide Sargasso Sea?" (Sorry, can't remember the author's name right now.)

[MGKrebs]

43. Ummm, Maynard G. Krebs!

W-W-W-O-O-O-O-R-R-R-R--K-K-K-K-K-K!