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‘Mad to Live, Mad to Talk:’ Madness as Blessing in Howl and On the Road
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to
be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a
commonplace thing."
In a term coined by Jack Kerouac, the “Beat Generation” represented the disaffected
young intellectuals of 1950s America.1 The term represented the duality of the culture it
named. Formed not only of downbeat and outcast writers, they were also the beatified
generation; blessedly happy, exalted writers who portrayed the reality of the culture they
championed. Kerouac’s play on words showed both sides to the movement, celebrating both
aspects of the era they defined. The beats rejected the materialist culture of the mainstream,
instead embracing a more hedonistic lifestyle; experimenting with drugs, religion and
sexuality. Representing the best of Beat poetry and prose, Ginsberg and Kerouac’s works are
summed up perfectly by Kerouac’s most famous quotation and his ‘mad ones’. In both texts,
the catchall term “madness” is ascribed to those who do not fit the ideals of society, or who
choose to live outside its confines, and are therefore not welcomed into the mainstream.
Celebration of the individual self is weighed far more heavily in the opinions of these writers
than celebration of the collective self. Those who are “mad to live, mad to talk…desirous of
everything at the same time” are the ones who are not necessarily renowned elsewhere, but
whom the Beat Generation heralded as those who were able to bypass the regulations
enforced on them by society. This rebellion against authority created a new ideal, which was
an attractive movement to many, and the Beat Generation began to gain popularity. To this
end, for the intellectuals of the Beat movement, madness, and all of its associated
11 Christopher Gair, The Beat Generation. (Oxford, Oneworld: 2008), 24
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connotations, was symptomatic of spiritual and mental freedom, despite the risk of forfeit of
the body.
First delivered in full at the Six Gallery in early October 1955, Howl was a force
unleashed on a mostly unsuspecting audience. Further to this reading, and after publication
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, it became the focus of an obscenity trial in 1957. Following the
trial, both Ferlinghetti and the published Howl and other Poems were exonerated, with the
judge declaring the poem to be of “redeeming social importance”.2 With the trial generating a
huge amount of interest in his poetry, Howl became Ginsberg’s best known work.
Christopher Gair writes that “in retrospect, the night [at the Six Gallery] can be seen as the
moment that initiated the Beat Generation’s transformation from a small underground
network of writers to an internationally recognizable ‘Generation’.”3 In his introduction to
the poem, William Carlos Williams describes Howl as proving that “the spirit of love survives
to ennoble our lives if we have the wit and the courage and the faith – and the art! to persist.”4
Ginsberg’s howl is not one of defeat, but rather, it is a triumphant howl; a primal scream, a
therapy endeavouring to vent the emotions which cannot usually be conveyed by words. The
spontaneity of the poem carries a sense of urgency as Ginsberg explains that he “saw the best
minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked”.5 It also carries
biblical comparisons in its composition; the continual repetitions in each section of the poem
22 THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Plaintiff VS. LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
Defendant <http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/363-s02/horn-howl.htm>
33 Christopher Gair, The Beat Generation. (Oxford, Oneworld: 2008), 66
44 William Carlos Williams, “introduction” in Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems (London, Penguin:
2009), vii
55 Allen Ginsberg, Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems (London, Penguin: 2009), 1
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(of “who”, “Moloch”, “I’m with you in Rockland” and “holy” respectively) not only add an
epic quality to the poem, but also create almost a mantra-like style throughout, further
compounded by the overt biblical imagery in the second and fourth parts. The nature of
Ginsberg’s writing leads directly to the centre of what it is questioning. What is madness?
and who decides who is mad and who is sane? Howl, together with its Footnote, explores the
nature of madness itself, in relation to the surrounding world, as well as responses to madness
and sanity. The importance of madness in the poem is also reflected in the fact that it is
dedicated to Carl Solomon, whom Ginsberg met at a psychiatric institution and remained
lifelong friends with. Gair notes that Ginsberg “used many of the phrases uttered by
Solomon as he recovered from electric shock treatment” in Howl.6
The first part of Howl explores the behaviours of those “who lounged hungry or
lonesome…seeking jazz or sex or soup”; “who broke down crying in white gymnasiums”; or
“who created great suicidal dramas on the apartment cliff-banks of the Hudson.” 7 By listing
the actions of a generation ruined by society and it’s capitalist obsessions, the poem continues
to challenge the conceptions of the reader/listener, bombarding them with metaphors and
images. This first part pushes the boundaries of acceptable behaviour, and invites
questioning as to the mental state of those who choose to deviate from the restrictions of
society. Ginsberg’s assault forces the sane to query their own sanity, as well as the nature of a
collective sanity, and this is further probed in part two of the poem. It also asks the reader to
question the perception of freedom. Are the ‘mad ones’ more free than the sane? They
certainly seem to display a far greater array of emotion. In the second part of Howl, Ginsberg
focuses on the nature of society itself, calling it “Moloch”. By using the name of a pagan
66 Christopher Gair, The Beat Generation. (Oxford, Oneworld: 2008), 26
77 Allen Ginsberg, Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems (London, Penguin: 2009), 3
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deity depicted in the Old Testament to whom children were sacrificed, Ginsberg depicts the
nature of American culture, and its effects on the innocent.8 The masses of society are shown
as being inside an “incomprehensible prison”.9 Those who are incarcerated are not even
aware of it. Importantly, it is the sane that are in this prison, and the ‘mad ones’ who
recognise it. It is the American culture which has caused the destruction of Ginsberg’s “best
minds”, by “[eating] up their brains and imagination”.10 Ginsberg’s vision of the industrial
America is one which has come about through the sacrifice of these “angelheaded hipsters”.
His list of oppressive forces gives a hugely political focus, harshly judging the values of
conformity as a means of domination:
Moloch! Moloch! Robot apartments! invisible suburbs!
skeleton treasuries! blind capitals! demonic industries!
spectral nations! invincible mad houses! granite cocks!
monstrous bombs!11
Using Moloch as a metaphor also offers a religious aspect to the ‘wealth culture’ of America,
whilst “they [break] their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven”, they are also worshipping a god
“whose blood is running money”.12 The destruction caused by this creates insanity in those
who do not wish to conform to the worship of industry. Those who deviate are understood to
88 “Psalm 106:38” Biblos.com <http://bible.cc/psalms/106-38.htm>
99 Allen Ginsberg, Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems (London, Penguin: 2009), 8
1 Ibid. 9
10
1 Ibid. 9
11
1 Ibid. 8
12
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be mad, but Ginsberg offers that these ‘mad ones’ may be the only ones living a true life.
After exploring this idea, Ginsberg moves on to the treatment of those who do not fit the
values of American society, who “bade farewell!” to Moloch. However, these are the ‘mad
ones’, confined to mental institutions and given electric shock treatments in order to fix them
into society’s ideals. They are also the ones lauded as the “best minds”. Though it is
destructive by default, madness, it seems, is not necessarily negative. Those “destroyed by
madness” are no less brilliant for it. In fact, they are the ones who are the more emotive, as
they “shrieked with delight” and “howled on their knees in the subway”.13 If anything, the
‘mad ones’ are the ones who truly experience life, who embrace it, rather than simply abiding
by societal rules, as the sane do. The idea of the individual as a shifting, temporary identity is
hugely apparent in Ginsberg’s poem, and especially with regards to the institutionalised. The
‘mad ones’ have achieved the ability to practise true freedom, rather than to abide by rules set
by those with seemingly more power. In this way, the power demonstrated through social
constraints is undermined, and those deemed ‘mad’ are able to exercise their own power; the
power over themselves. In the third part of the poem, directly addressed to Carl Solomon,
Ginsberg’s statement that “the soul is innocent and immortal it should never die ungodly in
an armed madhouse” asks again whether diagnosing madness is not simply a means to quiet
the nonconforming.14 The deviants are subjected to the physical violence of shock treatments
in attempts to quell the mind, however, Ginsberg points out that they are unsuccessful: “fifty
more shocks will never return your soul to its body.”15 This idea of a segregation of physical
1 Ibid. 3
13
1 Ibid. 10
14
1 Ibid. 10
15
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and mental states is one which, once again, is testament to the norms of society. The body is
forfeited, either imprisoned or killed, in order for the innocent soul to be forced into
conformity. In Footnote to Howl, Ginsberg returns to the religious language of the second
part of Howl, using the refrain of “holy” as an alternate vision to that of Moloch.
Reminsicent of Whitman, Ginsberg uses physical descriptions throughout his poem.
Whitman’s celebration of the body uses similar religious language, as in Part 24 of Song of
Myself:
Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I
touch or am touched from; The scent of these arm-pits is
aroma finer than prayer, This head is more than churches or
bibles or creeds.16
As with Whitman’s arm-pit, Ginsberg similarly draws attention to the parts of the body
usually overlooked; “The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and
asshole holy!”17 Footnote to Howl celebrates the insanity behind the destruction of the earlier
parts of Howl. Ginsberg’s emphasis on the innocence of the soul in part three of Howl is
reflected at the very end of Footnote to Howl, with the line “Holy the supernatural extra
brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!” This ending to the poem allows the reader/listener
a view of salvation in the form of madness which celebrates the freedom of the soul, as
opposed to a destructive force.
Not only applied to poetic writing, the Beat movement also redefined writing style in
the form of the novel. Jack Kerouac’s best-known work, On the Road explores the nature of
madness as seen from the outside. Kerouac’s ‘spontaneous prose’ showed huge deviation in
1
16
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition (London, Penguin: 1986), 49
1 Allen Ginsberg, Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems (London, Penguin: 2009), 12
17
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writing norms of the time; with traditional plot and narrative techniques largely ignored.
Narrated by Kerouac’s fictional alter-ego, Salvatore ‘Sal’ Paradise, the reader is swept along
as he “shambl[es] after” Dean Moriarty (whom it is generally accepted was modelled on
fellow Beat, Neal Cassady) back and forth across America.18 Broken into five parts, the novel
tells the story of their madcap trips across the vast plains of America, and the freedom they
attempt to find in doing so. The rejection of all authority and responsibility is the main
motivation for Dean, and as Sal follows him, he begins to find meaning in life on the road. In
On the Road, as in Howl, there is the link between madness and freedom. Gair writes that
“the success of On the Road took the notoriety of the Beat Generation to a level that even the
‘Howl’ trial could not have achieved alone.”19 Though Sal Paradise narrates the novel, it is
written from a point of view akin to that of The Great Gatsby’s Nick Carraway, as it is Dean
Moriarty, not Sal Paradise, who is the main protagonist of the novel. Sal is drawn to the
madness in Dean’s character, and in the beginning almost hero-worships him, though he is
ultimately unable to completely understand him. Madness is attractive to Sal, as evidenced in
the relationships with almost all of his friends, though he classes himself as sane. As Dean
descends further into his insanity, he becomes manic, reaching a level of almost ecstasy. Sal
admires Dean’s attitude toward life, whilst still being somewhat wary of it. Barry Miles notes
that “Sal idolises Dean for being everything that he is not: ebullient, unselfconscious,
unreserved, filled with the joys of life and possessing an easy confidence with women.”20 On
a political level, Kerouac’s On the Road “captured an era of middle-class youth striving for
1 Christopher Gair, The Beat Generation. (Oxford, Oneworld: 2008), 25
18
1 Christopher Gair, The Beat Generation. (Oxford, Oneworld: 2008), 76
19
2 Barry Miles, Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats, a Portrait (London, Virgin: 1999), 180
20
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freedom from the dreadful conformity of the suburbs”, says Miles.21 This quote sums up the
attitudes of the characters in On the Road perfectly. Dean’s main motivation for being
constantly on the move is to escape being settled. By the end of the novel, the qualities
which Sal so admired in him are all but gone, he is not only no longer as skilfully eloquent as
he was, but can barely articulate his thoughts. Sal notices when Dean arrives at his apartment
that “he couldn’t talk anymore…we listened, all ears. But he forgot what he wanted to say.”22
This is a huge change from Sal’s initial introduction of Dean, who is described as “a youth
tremendously excited with life…he wanted to much to live and to get involved with people
who would otherwise pay no attention to him.”23 By the final section of the novel, Dean’s
frenetic energy has been expended, and he is a forlorn character, left alone on the sidewalk by
Sal, who watches as “he got back on the train and rode over three thousand miles over that
awful land, and never knew why he had come anyway, except to see me.”24
Though Kerouac’s writing was fictional, its characters and situations had more than a
mere basis in reality. On the Road sought to explain the motives of The Beat Generation, its
visions of America and American-ness. The madness of Sal Paradise, Dean Moriarty, Carlo
Marx and Old Bull Lee, among others, had its roots in the real lives of the Beat Generation,
and many of Sal’s experiences were fictionalised accounts of Kerouac’s own experiences.
However, like Ginsberg’s Howl, Kerouac’s novel also used these experiences as metaphor.
2 Ibid. 183
21
2 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (London, Penguin: 1972), 288
22
2 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (London, Penguin: 1972), 10
23
2 Ibid. 291
24
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Although both texts referenced specific people and places, both writers used their fictitious
versions of reality as a metaphor for all reality, their friends as a metaphor for everyone. As
in Howl, modern America is portrayed as soulless, with Kerouac’s cities mirroring Ginsberg’s
Moloch. There are numerous biblical references, most notably in Sal’s visions. Kerouac’s
reaction to the confines of post-World War II America is to seek freedom. Much as for
Ginsberg, for Kerouac, the ‘mad ones’ are those who choose to live outside society’s cultural
norms. Many of the characters in On the Road do not abide by the rules of society, they are
(like the Beats they imitate) experimental with alcohol, drugs and sexuality, some are antimonogamous and at times misogynistic, they are exploratory of spiritual and religious
awareness.
Sal himself is also seeking something other than what society expects of him.
Recently divorced and having been seriously ill, he sets out to meet Dean Moriarty and find
something to write about. In this light, Sal is successful in his intentions. The fact that he
agrees to accompany Dean, and that he cannot give reason or explanation for their trip when
asked, points to an attempt to join in the madness, the recklessness of not following the rules.
Sal embarks on a trip which marks a significant shift in his life, and his understanding of
himself. He achieves a new consideration of himself whilst travelling, finding meaning
which leads him again back to New York, but this time to Laura, and plans for migrating to
San Francisco. The portrait of Dean as being “settled with his most constant, most
embittered, and best-knowing wife Camille,”25 does not fit with Sal’s last encounter with him,
and the reader is left not knowing whether he has finally settled into normal society, albeit a
skewed vision of normal society, or whether he has continued his life on the road.
2 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (London, Penguin: 1972), 290
25
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Both Ginsberg and Kerouac display Whitmanian overtones in their works, in the focus
on the individual and in the embrace of the natural. In both texts, the physical indulgences of
sex, drugs or violence are celebrated as natural. Especially in the case of Ginsberg, it is this
celebration of the physical which is still sometimes seen as shocking or offensive, and
especially would have been scandalous to a 1950s audience. Descriptions of homosexual acts
and encounters are part of what deemed Howl “obscene”, and though it was exonerated, the
fact remains that for the time it was written, Howl pushed the boundaries of what was viewed
as tasteful. Though there is significant violence toward the body, both texts ultimately note
the idea that a segregation of the body, mind and soul is one which is not necessarily based in
truth. Dean Moriarty tests this in On the Road and the reader can see that his level of sanity
does not much fluctuate when he is sober as compared to when he is when he is not. Indeed,
Sal is only able to reach something akin to Dean’s level of madness during the visions and
hallucinations he experiences which are brought on by his experimenting with drugs. This,
accompanied by the description of Carl Solomon’s shock treatments in Howl, questions the
widely-held, Western beliefs of the soul and body. The mythic qualities in both Howl and On
the Road depict the freedom of the mad as preferable to the mindless conformity of the sane.
Vastly critical of modernisation, technology and industry, these two texts are almost nostalgic
of a simpler age, one not dominated by commercialism, but by spirituality and mysticism. It
must also be noted, however, that as post-World War II writers, both Ginsberg and Kerouac
take their perceived freedom quite for granted. In On the Road, Sal and Dean’s exploits into
Mexico are not restricted, and Ginsberg constantly blurs the lines of Northern and Southern
borders and boundaries, confusing them into one and the same.
Though originally a response to post-World War II societal values, something within
the Beat movement clearly still resonates in western cultures. Beat literature is more popular
and widely-read now than it was when originally published in the 1950s. Having disturbed
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the traditionally accepted styles of poetry and prose, the artistic rebellion of the Beat
Generation successfully redefined what should, or could, be classified as literature.
Rebellion against authority is a fight which continues across generations, and with popular
culture continuing the acclaim of Ginsberg and Kerouac’s works, clearly the “mad ones…
desirous of everything at the same time… [the] ones who never yawn or say a commonplace
thing” are still at the forefront of the collective psyche. Ginsberg and Kerouac’s work does
not necessarily answer more questions than it asks, but it offers an insight into the
revolutionary exploration of literature and lifestyle which these writers developed, and a
means by which to question the viewpoints of those considered “mad.”
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Bibliography
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. London, UK. Penguin, 1994.
Gair, Christopher. The Beat Generation. Oneworld. Oxford, 2008.
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl, Kaddish and Other Poems. Penguin. London, 2009.
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. Penguin. London, 1972.
Miles, Barry. Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats, a Portrait. Virgin. London, 1999.
Stanton, Domna C. “Language and Revolution: The Franco:American Disconnection” in The
Future of Difference. Ed. Hester Eisenstein. Rutgers University Press. New Brunswick,
1987.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition. Penguin. London, 1986.
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