Beat Down, Beat Up, The Beat Goes On

[1] Mad Poets rage in smoke-filled coffeehouses beneath pure and silent stars. It is 1955, and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, like a possessed preacher, reads "Howl" in front of a frenzied audience. He says, "America, I’ve given you everything, and now I have nothing." Someone in the crowd begins chanting his name. Others begin to threaten and heckle him, calling out "You fag. You Goddamn Communist. We oughta kill you." Ginsberg makes no reply, reads louder, and nonchalantly begins to strip. The cops will take him away, and he will be back again reading tomorrow night. At this same time, Jack Kerouac hurtles though the American night in a beat-up, borrowed Cadillac on a trans-America drive to find "it." He cuts through the dense night like a metallic comet; a shadow between shadows. This is the Beat community, which is a collection of free-spirited poets and artists that began in early 1950.

[2] Allen Ginsberg ushered in the Beat community, which due to suppression became extremely popular. He wrote "Howl," an apocalyptic poem published in 1955 by a San Francisco publishing house known as City Lights. Shortly after its release, "Howl" was banned. The banning of "Howl" only increased its popularity, and copies began to sell out quicker than Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the owner of City Lights, could print them. Just as "Howl" was becoming a nation-wide bestseller, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, also published by City Lights, became a huge seller. William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, a disjointed novel about homosexuality and heroin use, was also banned about this time. Ginsberg testified in court on behalf of Burroughs and soon the American public began to purchase Burroughs’ work. The Beat movement exploded like a minefield.

[3]Throughout their history, the Beats have continually redefined words. For example, Ginsberg’s "Howl" means to howl as in pain, but his poem is also a triumphant howl of attack and perhaps even victory. Also, Herbert Huncke originated Beat, the name by which the movement is called. According to such Beat writers as Ginsberg, beat has two senses. In one sense, Beat signifies beaten down or beat upon. Many of the Beats felt as if they had been beaten down by their country and its (valueless) values. In another sense, Beat also means beautific, which means blissful in a spiritual kind of way. Thus, within the term Beat, the reader sees a tension between being beaten down and being raised up into the spiritual. Moreover, to describe one’s self as Beat means that one has been both beaten down and raised up into some spiritual realm far beyond the jaded misunderstandings and petty disturbances of this world.

[4] To understand the Beat movement, one needs a historical context. The 1950s were a great time; America had just won World War II, and was number one in both education and standard of living. However, there was a negative side to all of the success. For example, the only ones who enjoyed this prosperity were white, male Americans. If one was black, female, or lower class, one didn’t have access to a slice or even a crumb of the American pie. The threat of the atom bomb constantly loomed overhead. All of the economic success came with a price. As long as one was happy to work for the Man and not ask questions; life was pleasant. Enter the Beats.

[5]The Beats tended to be highly intellectual radicals who did not embrace 1950 American values. They felt that America was on top, but they asked on top of what? In order to be successful, one had, in their opinion, to give up one’s humanity. According to the Beats, America was supposed to be a land of freedom. However, there was no real personal or political freedom, which is supposed to be the essence of America. For example, America constantly started and maintained wars without our consent or approval. The Beats adjusted their lifestyle to fit their values. For example, the Beats believed that mainstream Christianity robbed the average American citizen of his or her spirituality. To them Christianity was a dead husk of something that had once been spiritually. As a result, the Beats sought other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, which both encourage constant reassessment of one’s own life and promote the divine spark residing inside of the human form.

[6]Also, The Beats observed that American freedom was always seen in terms of money. The Beats rejected this mindset and instead earned their living through artistic production, which was generally rejected by the status quo as a legitimate way to generate income. In general, Americans tend to stick to one area. For example, the average American buys a house that he or she will live in most, if not all, of their life. Most Americans also tend to work the same job or stay in the same field. This is not as true today, but in the 1950s Americans tended to work for a single company until they died. The Beats, however, lived in 1950s America, and it is this America that they sought to redefine.

[7]Just as the Beats used beat to mean several different things, they also redefined the concept of America. In one sense, America invokes a picture of a conservative county that is filled with hard-working, church-going citizens. This America thrives on stability and moral values. However, there is another America recognized by the Beats. This is an America—just as valid as the first—the continually reinvents itself and sheds its skin like a snake. The Beat America is an America built on change and originality.

[8]In fact, the Beats express this tension themselves. The idea of truly radical independence is not a new one. Early America resisted the throne of England. Nineteenth-century American writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the poet known as Walt Whitman also reacted against the values of their age. Whitman, for example, felt that America faced overindustrialization. The Beats drew off of these writers and their rejection of contemporary America. However, they expressed this rejection in terms applicable to their America. When Ginsberg howls, it is not just for Whitman’s rejection of Northern industrialization but also his, Ginsberg’s, America’s involvement in the Korean War.

[9] The Beat movement, however, also had its darker side. Like the America the Beats reacted against, the Beats were comprised mostly of white, male writers. In more recent decades, women writers have been added to the list of Beats. However, from 1950 to 1970, the Beats were exclusively white males. Also, many of the Beats lived extraordinarily chaotic lives. For example, Kerouac died a premature, lonely, alcoholic death in his mother’s apartment in Florida. Other writers seemed to betray their early rejection of status and money. Ginsberg, for example, accepted the National Book Award for his The Fall of America (1973). Perhaps this award indicated mainstream acceptance. Maybe it means Ginsberg sold out. Later, Ginsberg accepted a position teaching at Princeton University, which was quite a supporter of the American values Ginsberg reacted so sharply against.

[10]Whatever one’s take on the Beat movement, they did produce lasting changes. Such concepts as William Burrough's cut-up technique, which involves cutting up bits of film, music, or text and rearranging them, helped give birth to MTV. The Beats also helped generate interest in stopping the Vietnam War, and many of the protests were organized by the Beats. Also, few Eastern texts had come to America before 1955. The Beats helped generate interest and knowledge about these other cultures and religions. Finally, one can reasonably argue that there has not been a definable movement in American literature since the Beat movement. Not too bad for a bunch of dope-smoking, fornicating "dharma bums."