Radical and Righteous Allen Ginsberg

On this Day, in 1965: Beat poet Allen Ginsberg paid a legendary impromptu visit to Prague

Allen Ginsberg, Prague, 1965

Link to my presentation:

https://lawrenceu-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/swansone_lawrence_edu/EQwAhjOV1ApNjBTjQqdwswwB6TD6mPHKhnJNeTEp-hBMgw?e=aeKxzr

I had a really great time researching Ginsberg. I was initially interested in him because he was a part of the Beat Generation, who were always interesting because they seemed like photo-hippies. But upon learning more about him, I realized what an incredible artist and person he was. Howl was especially meaningful to me, because of its righteous rage against parts of American society that still exist today. As a queer person, it was also wonderful to hear about a man who was able to be fairly openly gay in American society at that time. I'm sure he faced a lot of persecution, and it's amazing he was able to have the cultural impact he had. His poetry is also some of the best I've ever read, and is so incredibly emotional, which is why I chose to share so much of it in my presentation.

I related him to McLuhan because his style of poetry seemed really conducive to McLuhan's ideas of progress, how it can be good for us but also takes us away from our natural state (being initially in a "acoustic space"). Ginsberg's poetry brings us back to this acoustic space, a place of raw emotion. I have been thinking a lot about Professor Shimon's comment that Ginsberg was probably too radical for McLuhan, which makes me sad because they seem to be on the same page in regards to art. It is odd to think that someone as forward thinking as McLuhan would still be put off by other radicals.

Comments

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