I remember Professor Rob mentioning in lecture about a week ago that he did not like the movie Howl. He said the cartoons made it silly and that they were the killing aspect for him. I, on the other hand, actually enjoyed the film. I found it very artistic and inventive. The cartoon depictions are related to the subject verse and are also done in the style of the era. It helps a lot that the viewer sees the animated episodes as James Franco reads excerpts from the poem, in a very Ginsber-y manner, per say.
Something i found particularly interesting about Howl was Ginsberg's promotion of liberal drug taking as a means of accessing a higher state. Throughout the poem Ginsberg links the experience of drugs to a heightened religious sensation and he and his friends are doing this night after night to access this sublime feeling. He and his friends are "angel headed hipsters looking for the ancient heavenly connection." This is certainly not a new obsession as people have been looking to connect with God for centuries through drugs and other fixes.
Here is an interview in which Ginsberg discusses how he composed part of Howl under the influence of Peyote and how this affects the poems style and delivery
As Lorne said, the liberal use of drugs and other intoxicants was one of the ideologies that the beats held. When this piece of information is looked at next to the opening words of Ginsberg's "Howl" which read: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked", it takes on a new meaning. We have seen many clips of Ginsberg in class, so for this assignment I decided to look up a video of Kerouac because we're starting "Dharma Bums". I was extremely surprised when I found this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0KluIXx6fI&feature=related
It's a clip of Kerouac towards the end of his life while he is drunk on the "William's Buckley Show". From what I understand of this period in time, Kerouac had decided to separate himself from the "left-wing" movement, and was disowning Ginsberg as a friend at the time. Due to his severe alcoholism Kerouac died when he was 47, on October 21, 1969. It's truly sad when someone with such great potential falls victim to their own vices and disowns their beliefs, their friends, and their health
I remember Professor Rob mentioning in lecture about a week ago that he did not like the movie Howl. He said the cartoons made it silly and that they were the killing aspect for him. I, on the other hand, actually enjoyed the film. I found it very artistic and inventive. The cartoon depictions are related to the subject verse and are also done in the style of the era. It helps a lot that the viewer sees the animated episodes as James Franco reads excerpts from the poem, in a very Ginsber-y manner, per say.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nonab6djMAA
Karina Garcia
Something i found particularly interesting about Howl was Ginsberg's promotion of liberal drug taking as a means of accessing a higher state. Throughout the poem Ginsberg links the experience of drugs to a heightened religious sensation and he and his friends are doing this night after night to access this sublime feeling. He and his friends are "angel headed hipsters looking for the ancient heavenly connection." This is certainly not a new obsession as people have been looking to connect with God for centuries through drugs and other fixes.
ReplyDeleteHere is an interview in which Ginsberg discusses how he composed part of Howl under the influence of Peyote and how this affects the poems style and delivery
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/ginsberg/interviews.htm
Lorne St Clair
As Lorne said, the liberal use of drugs and other intoxicants was one of the ideologies that the beats held. When this piece of information is looked at next to the opening words of Ginsberg's "Howl" which read: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked", it takes on a new meaning.
ReplyDeleteWe have seen many clips of Ginsberg in class, so for this assignment I decided to look up a video of Kerouac because we're starting "Dharma Bums". I was extremely surprised when I found this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0KluIXx6fI&feature=related
It's a clip of Kerouac towards the end of his life while he is drunk on the "William's Buckley Show". From what I understand of this period in time, Kerouac had decided to separate himself from the "left-wing" movement, and was disowning Ginsberg as a friend at the time.
Due to his severe alcoholism Kerouac died when he was 47, on October 21, 1969. It's truly sad when someone with such great potential falls victim to their own vices and disowns their beliefs, their friends, and their health