A “BEAT” GENERATION
The “Beat Generation” -- never really a group or
movement at all, but rather a confluence of
friends with common interests -- emerged in the
1940’s-60’s. Their poetry and writings were the
first expressions of a “counterculture.” They
criticized and rejected the standards and
conformity of postwar American life. “East Coast
Beats” like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and
William S. Burroughs came west in the 40’s and
50’s and mixed with the West Coast poetry and
jazz scene. They joined forces at the Six Gallery
in San Francisco in 1955 for a famous poetry
reading, where Allen Ginsberg debuted his poem
“Howl”, perhaps the most influential poem of the
20th century.
“BEAT” -- This term had several meanings to the
“Beats”: tired, weary, down and out, poor, on
the bum, sleeping in subways, beaten up by the
world; also: “beatific” (spiritual, holy,
sympathetic) -- Jack Kerouac’s definition.
BEAT ICONS
Jack Kerouac (On The Road, The Dharma Bums),
Allen Ginsberg (“Howl,” “Kaddish”), William S.
Burroughs (Naked Lunch), Gregory Corso
(“Marriage,” “Bomb”), Gary Snyder, Diane de
Prima
BEAT MUSE: Neal Cassady-- car thief, seducer,
early spellbinding rap artist, later a “Merry
Prankster” with Ken Kesey (author of One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), who conducted “acid
tests” in the 1960’s.
WHAT THE BEATS LIKED
“experience”, intellectual pursuits, jazz, blues,
drugs, pansexualism (some of them), alcohol,
creative spontaneity (“first thought, best
thought”--Kerouac), eastern religions, nature,
lowlifes, “subterranean” life
WHAT THE BEATS DISLIKED
the Cold War, nuclear bombs, conformity,
materialism, blandness, consumerism, politics
(although Ginsberg was later very political),
organized western religion (although Kerouac was
a “catholic/buddhist”), hypocrisy, monogamy,
intellectual laziness
BEAT DESCENDANTS
BOB DYLAN--fused beat iconoclasm and poetry
with social protest, noncomformity, folk protest.
In 1965 Dylan pioneered rock protest. Was
friends with Beat poets Allen Ginsberg and
Michael McClure.
Hippies of the 1960’s-70’s; Ken Kesey and the
Merry Pranksters, who rode around conducting
“acid tests” and “happenings” throughout the
land; Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas)
The “Beat Generation’s” impact is seen today in
the attitudes and music of countless performers.