DOCSLIB.ORG

A Review of Diane Di Prima's the Poetry Deal

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Review of Diane Di Prima's the Poetry Deal P BOOK REVIEW 3 B o The Great Feminist Beat Poet’s o k e n First Book in Decades: A Review of d Diane di Prima’s The Poetry Deal s Title: The Poetry Deal, by Diane di Prima. Poet Laureate Series Number what wd you be willing 5. City Lights Foundation, San . Francisco. 109 pages. to pay? Reviewed by: Stephanie McKenzie to see them eminist beat poet Diane di . Prima's latest collection, The walk out of there Poetry Deal, is a refreshing whole F critique and celebration of life. not widowed This is di Prima's “first volume of or orphaned (71) new poetry in decades” (back blurb). “Haiti, Chile, Tibet,” the book's strongest poem, reminds one that the spirit Born in New York, di Prima moved to San that drove the beats was not-for di Prima--a Francisco in 1968. She has “published more fleeting trend. “LET'S STOP FOR A MOMENT than 40 books. With Amiri Baraka, she TO REMEMBER WHAT WE ARE” (73), the co-edited the literary magazine The Floating poem begins, and, then, reflects, “ALL Bear from 1961 to 1969. She co-founded the BORDERS DISAPPEAR IN CATASTROPHE” Poets Press and the New York Poets Theatre (74). Di Prima commands “GIVE UP and founded Eidolon Editions and the Poets CONFUSING YR PROPERTY WITH YOUR LIFE” Institute. A follower of Buddhism, she also (75). co-founded the San Francisco Institute of The Poetry Deal is a polished, raw Magical and Healing Arts. Di Prima was tribute to voices that remain revolutionary. named Poet Laureate of San Francisco in This verse smacks of the unapologetic 2009. (http://www.poetryfoundation.org). wisdom of Marley, the vision of Blake and Having come to San Francisco for the first Yeats, the stylistics of Langston Hughes. I time, I headed to City Lights Bookstore - the wondered, for a second, if di Prima should iconic symbol of the beat poetry movement - maybe move to Jamaica, the real cutting almost immediately. This was the land of edge of talent where, in di Prima's words, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, and, of true artists course, di Prima, and City Lights was the . keep harbinger of revolution and risk. I couldn't a hair wait to hit the stacks. ahead How strange it was, after all the stories, to of the wander through North Beach onto Columbus beat (from “The Poetry Reading” 80) Ave. amongst money and privilege. This is Then I reflected on those poems dedicated not to denigrate the area: North Beach, to di Prima's friends who died of AIDS, and I J where City Lights is located, is, like the rest a remembered the rights, including gay rights, n of city, amazingly friendly. For all its money, for which di Prima and her friends fought and u San Francisco is remarkably kind. But it's just will. That's why the hunger for poetry grows few new songs (from “City Lights 1961”) a how they sought inspiration from Civil Rights that, well . To go into City Lights amidst when the world grows dark” (di Prima 107). However, beginning with her introduction--a r activists. I recalled this generation's new y the wealth and rumours of what it would Di Prima speaks the truth in a spare, transcription of her inaugural address as poet Jamaican visionary Kei Miller and his portrait 1 cost these days to live in the neighbourhood sparse style reminiscent of modernist verse laureate--until the very end of the book, di of homophobia in Jamaica, housed in his 1 - or anywhere else in San Francisco, for that but pounding with the heartbeat of the San Prima protests. She praises the San , powerful collection of essays Writing Down matter - made me wonder how this place Francisco di Prima recalls with nostalgia: “I Francisco she came to but laments what, for 2 the Vision: Essays and Prophecies. I couldn't 0 could ever have given birth to the came here” from New York, di Prima explains her, the city has lost and become: “How did 1 shake knowing that Jamaica's laws would “angelheaded hipsters” (Ginsberg “Howl”) in the book's introduction, “to work in new we allow ourselves to be derailed? So badly 5 have condemned a large chunk of friends whom Ginsberg wrote about; today's ways for change: the grace of possibility that derailed that I read in the Chronicle last week with whom di Prima locked her voice in a T hipsters seem to pay a fortune to look had opened on this coast” (2). For di Prima, that if you can't pay your rent in this town H struggle for all human rights. E ironically akin to the “poverty and tatters” San Francisco, back in the day, embodied the and you have school-age kids, you won't be That's the deal with poetry, I guess. S (“Howl”) of the sixties, and I couldn't imagine resolute desire to fight for these things: “I evicted until the school year ends - how U It makes you unable to lie. N Ginsberg or any of his crew dining in North came to new dreams . [b]ecause in the stupid is that?” (15) “Remember,” di Prima D The Poetry Deal ends with a poetic A Beach or being let in to many of the New York of the 1950s, where I came of age cautions in “Memorial Day, 2003,” “life Y anecdote remindful of the riddles Marley and establishments for that matter. as a poet, one wrote one's dreams, but didn't hangs by a thread . Remember it's not a O Miss Lou often relied upon: “At a reading for B However, I did find a vestige of that past: try to make them happen” (2). Notably, di safe time & all the more reason / To do S the Sandinistas long ago, my son Rudi said: E that daring devotion to ideals that typified Prima makes clear that City Lights housed whole-heartedly what you have to do” (64). R All artists are warriors, aren't they, Mom? V that generation who ceaselessly fought for the hope people still search for: Di Prima's honesty and convictions E That's because there's so many parts to art.” R human rights. It is found in di Prima's The How many late nights did remain firm. One of the strongest pieces in (109) Poetry Deal. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, we haunt the Store this collection, “& About Obama,” shapes the w This is a collection well worth w the book is, above everything, a love letter to buying scads of new president not as a politician rendered getting, though it is obvious di Prima's voice w . poetry itself - an art form many have poems from all corners of the compliant and constricted by a Senate but as j a can't really be bought. m associated for centuries with a quest for a human being overpowered by love - what a i truth. The collection begins, “[i]t is the poem earth The Poetry Deal suggests is the greatest c a I serve” (from “First Draft: Poet Laureate o then head to the all-night human condition: b Stephanie McKenzie is an associate s Oath of Office” 17), and, in “Some Words Tower Records full of if you were living e professor, English Programme, Memorial r v About the Poem,” di Prima suggests that to in the enemy's house e University of Newfoundland (Grenfell r . serve the poem means to tell the truth: drag-queens wife & kids there too c Campus), Canada. o “Poets speak truth when no one else can or & revolutionaries, to get a . m.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • “Howl”—Allen Ginsberg (1959) Added to the National Registry: 2006 Essay by David Wills (Guest Post)*
    “Howl”—Allen Ginsberg (1959) Added to the National Registry: 2006 Essay by David Wills (guest post)* Allen Ginsberg, c. 1959 The Poem That Changed America It is hard nowadays to imagine a poem having the sort of impact that Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” had after its publication in 1956. It was a seismic event on the landscape of Western culture, shaping the counterculture and influencing artists for generations to come. Even now, more than 60 years later, its opening line is perhaps the most recognizable in American literature: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…” Certainly, in the 20h century, only T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” can rival Ginsberg’s masterpiece in terms of literary significance, and even then, it is less frequently imitated. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Allen Ginsberg must be the most revered writer since Hemingway. He was certainly the most recognizable poet on the planet until his death in 1997. His bushy black beard and shining bald head were frequently seen at protests, on posters, in newspapers, and on television, as he told anyone who would listen his views on poetry and politics. Alongside Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel, “On the Road,” “Howl” helped launch the Beat Generation into the public consciousness. It was the first major post-WWII cultural movement in the United States and it later spawned the hippies of the 1960s, and influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to John Lennon. Later, Ginsberg and his Beat friends remained an influence on the punk and grunge movements, along with most other musical genres.
    [Show full text]
  • Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet Who Nurtured the Beats, Dies At
    Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet Who Nurtured the Beats, Dies at 101 An unapologetic proponent of “poetry as insurgent art,” he was also a publisher and the owner of the celebrated San Francisco bookstore City Lights. By Jesse McKinley Feb. 23, 2021 Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a poet, publisher and political iconoclast who inspired and nurtured generations of San Francisco artists and writers from City Lights, his famed bookstore, died on Monday at his home in San Francisco. He was 101. The cause was interstitial lung disease, his daughter, Julie Sasser, said. The spiritual godfather of the Beat movement, Mr. Ferlinghetti made his home base in the modest independent book haven now formally known as City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. A self-described “literary meeting place” founded in 1953 and located on the border of the city’s sometimes swank, sometimes seedy North Beach neighborhood, City Lights, on Columbus Avenue, soon became as much a part of the San Francisco scene as the Golden Gate Bridge or Fisherman’s Wharf. (The city’s board of supervisors designated it a historic landmark in 2001.) While older and not a practitioner of their freewheeling personal style, Mr. Ferlinghetti befriended, published and championed many of the major Beat poets, among them Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Michael McClure, who died in May. His connection to their work was exemplified — and cemented — in 1956 with his publication of Ginsberg’s most famous poem, the ribald and revolutionary “Howl,” an act that led to Mr. Ferlinghetti’s arrest on charges of “willfully and lewdly” printing “indecent writings.” In a significant First Amendment decision, he was acquitted, and “Howl” became one of the 20th century’s best-known poems.
    [Show full text]
  • The 1957 Howl Obscenity Trial and Sexual Liberation
    Portland State University PDXScholar Young Historians Conference Young Historians Conference 2015 Apr 28th, 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM A Howl of Free Expression: the 1957 Howl Obscenity Trial and Sexual Liberation Jamie L. Rehlaender Lakeridge High School Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/younghistorians Part of the Cultural History Commons, Legal Commons, and the United States History Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Rehlaender, Jamie L., "A Howl of Free Expression: the 1957 Howl Obscenity Trial and Sexual Liberation" (2015). Young Historians Conference. 1. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/younghistorians/2015/oralpres/1 This Event is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Young Historians Conference by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. A HOWL OF FREE EXPRESSION: THE 1957 HOWL OBSCENITY TRIAL AND SEXUAL LIBERATION Jamie L. Rehlaender Dr. Karen Hoppes HST 201: History of the US Portland State University March 19, 2015 2 A HOWL OF FREE EXPRESSION: THE 1957 HOWL OBSCENITY TRIAL AND SEXUAL LIBERATION Allen Ginsberg’s first recitation of his poem Howl , on October 13, 1955, at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, ended in tears, both from himself and from members of the audience. “The people gasped and laughed and swayed,” One Six Gallery gatherer explained, “they were psychologically had, it was an orgiastic occasion.”1 Ironically, Ginsberg, upon initially writing Howl , had not intended for it to be a publicly shared piece, due in part to its sexual explicitness and personal references.
    [Show full text]
  • City Lights Pocket Poets Series 1955-2005: from the Collection of Donald A
    CITY LIGHTS POCKET POETS SERIES 1955-2005: FROM THE COLLECTION OF DONALD A. HENNEGHAN October 2005 – January 2006 1. Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Pictures of the Gone World. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1955. Number One 2. Kenneth Rexroth, translator. Thirty Spanish Poems of Love and Exile. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. Number Two 3. Kenneth Patchen. Poems of Humor & Protest. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. Number Three 4. Allen Ginsberg. Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. Number Four 5. Marie Ponsot. True Minds. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1956. Number Five 6. Denise Levertov. Here and Now. San Francisco: City Lights Pocket Bookshop, 1957. Number Six 7. William Carlos Williams. Kora In Hell: Improvisations. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1957. Number Seven 8. Gregory Corso. Gasoline. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1958. Number Eight 9. Jacques Prévert. Selections from Paroles. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1958. Number Nine 10. Robert Duncan. Selected Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1959. Number Ten 11. Jerome Rothenberg, translator. New Young German Poets. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1959. Number Eleven 12. Nicanor Parra. Anti-Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1960. Number Twelve 13. Kenneth Patchen. The Love Poems of Kenneth Patchen. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1961. Number Thirteen 14. Allen Ginsberg. Kaddish and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1961. Number Fourteen OUT OF SERIES Alain Jouffroy. Déclaration d’Indépendance. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1961. Out of Series 15. Robert Nichols. Slow Newsreel of Man Riding Train. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1962.
    [Show full text]
  • So I Married an Axe Murderer 1993
    ,. so I married an axe murderer SO I MARRIED AN AXE-MURDERER FADE IN: OPEN ON: 1 MONTAGE OF VARIOUS SHOTS OF SAN FRANCISCO - DUSK Over this we hear a recording of Jack Kerouac's poem,~ Francisco which is accompanied by a BE-BOP trio. Kerouac's poetry coincides with the various shots of San Francisco. We come to a sign for Jack Kerouac Street. We PAN OVER to "THE CITY LIGHTS" BOOKSTORE" and continue along to the ALLEYWAY where there is a large high-contrast black and white sign depicting Jack Kerouac in his famous "I'm looking into the distance, having a brilliant thought" pose .. CHARLIE MACKENZIE, in his late twenties, wearing a flannel shirt and torn jeans, walks INTO THE FRAME, right in front of the picture of Jack Kerouac and inadverten~ly strikes the exact same pose. We PULL BACK to reveal that Charlie has a bag of garbage in his right hand, which he deposits in, the alleyway. We FOLLOW Charlie into ... 2 INT. "CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE" We FOLLOW him through the store. By day he is the Assiscant Manager, by night he is a poec. A MAN in his fifties, wearing a beret·. and a goatee is reading, Charles Bukowski's, Playing Ibe Piano Like a Percussive Instrument, until Xour Fingers Bec;io Io Bleed A Bit. Charlie takes his place behind the cash register and resumes writing in his handsome leather-bound poetry journal. CHARLIE (sotto) O' SCOTLAND YOUR SUCKLED TEET OF SHAME 3 A CUSTOMER approaches CUSTOMER Do you have the book on Ibe Road by Jack Kerouac? Every day there is a steady stream of tourists who come in to get copies of on The Road.
    [Show full text]
  • Ramesh Srinivasan Twitter: @Rameshmedia Associate Professor, UCLA - Dept
    Ramesh Srinivasan http://rameshsrinivasan.org, twitter: @rameshmedia Associate Professor, UCLA - Dept. of Information Studies and Design|Media Arts 222 GSEIS Building – Los Angeles, CA 90095-1520 Tel: (310) 206-8320; Fax: (310) 206-4460 [email protected] Academic Employment 2018-Present: Professor, University of California, Los Angeles 2015-Present: Director, UC Center For Global Digital Cultures (http://globaldigitalcultures.org) 2012-2018: Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Information Studies and Design|Media Arts (affiliated), and American Indian Studies (affiliated) 2012 (September – December): Visiting Professor, Official Appointment, Stanford University - Freeman-Spoegli Institute 2012 (September – December): Visiting Professor, Official Appointment, UC Santa Cruz – Department of Digital Arts/New Media 2005-2012: Assistant Professor, Department of Information Studies (courtesy: Department of Design|Media Arts), University of California, Los Angeles. 2005: Lecturer - University of California at San Diego - Winter, 2004-2005: Designing Digital Environments for Culture and Community, Department of Ethnic Studies and College of Art, Culture and Technology. 2002–2005: Doctoral Research Fellow, Harvard University - Graduate School of Design 2004: Teaching Fellow, Harvard University - Dept. of Visual and Environmental Studies 61r: Physical Computing, Spring 2004 2003: Teaching Fellow, Harvard University - Dept. of Visual and Environmental Studies 60r: Digital Arts: Digital Expression, Fall 2003 2003: Teaching Fellow, Harvard University - Graduate School of Design 7301: Internet and Architecture, Spring 2003 2002: MIT Media Lab Asia Fellow 2000-2002: Research Fellow - MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA. 1998: Research Assistant – Organizational Ecology and Social Movement Analyses – Professors Susan Olzak and Michael Hannan – Stanford University, Department of Sociology and Graduate School of Business. 1997-1998: Research Assistant - Social Network Analysis, Stanford University.
    [Show full text]
  • City Lights Books Records, 1953-1970
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5489q50w Online items available Finding Aid to City Lights Books Records, 1953-1970 Finding Aid written by Bancroft Library staff; revised by Tanya Hollis and Holly Fox. The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ © 2005 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Finding Aid to City Lights Books BANC MSS 72/107 c 1 Records, 1953-1970 Finding Aid to City Lights Books Records, 1953-1970 Collection number: BANC MSS 72/107 c The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ Finding Aid Author(s): Finding Aid written by Bancroft Library staff; revised by Tanya Hollis and Holly Fox. Finding Aid Encoded By: GenX © 2014 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Collection Summary Collection Title: City Lights Books records Date (inclusive): 1953-1970 Collection Number: BANC MSS 72/107 c Creator: City Lights Books Extent: 15 boxes, 4 cartons, 1 oversize box, 1 portfolio, and 4 oversize folders(circa 13 linear feet)7 digital objects (9 images) Repository: The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ Abstract: Consists of correspondence, editorial and administrative files. Correspondents include Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S.
    [Show full text]
  • Books & Mortar
    SMITH “ Lord! when you sell a man a book you don’t sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humor and ships at sea by night— there’s all heaven and earth in a book, a real book.” ooks & Morta —CHRISTOPHER MORLEY B r BOOKS & MORTAR BOOKS A CELEBRATIONu OF THE LOCAL BOOKSTORE GIBBS M. SMITH $16.99 U.S. Jacketless Hardcover 6 x 7.25in, 128 Pages 75+ Color Illustrations Pub Date: September 2018 Contents Bank Street Bookstore City Lights Books Kramerbooks & Afterwords El Ateneo Grand Splendid Powell’s Books Builders Booksource New York, New York San Francisco, California Washington, D.C. Buenos Aires, Argentina Portland, Oregon Berkeley, California Barnes & Noble Cody’s Books Kroch’s & Brentano’s Ken Sanders Rare Books Changing Hands Bookstore St. Mark’s Bookshop at Union Square Berkeley, California Chicago, Illinois Salt Lake City, Utah Tempe, Arizona New York, New York New York, New York Collected Works Lenox Hill Bookstore Prairie Avenue Bookshop Prairie Lights Books Tecolote Book Shop Blue Hill Santa Fe, New Mexico New York, New York Chicago, Illinois Iowa City, Iowa Santa Barbara, California Blue Hill, Maine The Corner Bookstore Dutton’s Beverly Hills Kepler’s Books Rizzoli Bookstore That Bookstore in Blytheville Book Court, New York, New York Books Menlo Park, California New York, New York Blytheville, Arkansas Brooklyn, New York Beverly Hills, California The Cottage Book Shop Madison Avenue Bookshop R.J. Julia Independent Three Lives & Company Book Soup Glen Arbor, Michigan The Elliott Bay Book New York, New York Booksellers New York, New York Los Angeles, California Company Madison, Connecticut The Depot Bookstore Seattle, Washington Maria’s Bookshop Village Books Books & Co.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of the Press Coverage of the Beat Generation During the 1950S Anna Lou Jessmer [email protected]
    Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 2012 Containing the Beat: An Analysis of the Press Coverage of the Beat Generation During the 1950s Anna Lou Jessmer [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Journalism Studies Commons, and the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Jessmer, Anna Lou, "Containing the Beat: An Analysis of the Press Coverage of the Beat Generation During the 1950s" (2012). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 427. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONTAINING THE BEAT: AN ANALYSIS OF THE PRESS COVERAGE OF THE BEAT GENERATION DURING THE 1950S A thesis submitted to the Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Journalism by Anna Lou Jessmer Approved by Robert A. Rabe, Committee Chairperson Professor Janet Dooley Dr. Terry Hapney Marshall University December 2012 ii Dedication I would like to dedicate my research to my grandfather, James D. Lee. His personal experiences during the Cold War at home and abroad inspired in me a fascination of the era at an early age. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take a moment to acknowledge in writing, a few individuals without whom this paper would not be complete. I am incredibly and eternally grateful for Professor Robert A.
    [Show full text]
  • File No. 190258 Resolution No. 131-19 1
    FILE NO. 190258 RESOLUTION NO. 131-19 1 [Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day - March 24, 2019] 2 3 Resolution declaring March 24, 2019, as Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day in the City and 4 County of San Francisco. 5 6 WHEREAS, Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a poet, playwright, painter, internationally- ? acclaimed publisher and activist, who is best known for his prominent voice in the "wide-open" 8 poetry movement and as a foundational figure in the establishment of the Beat movement; 9 and 10 WHEREAS, Mr. Ferlinghetti was born in Bronxville, New York, on March 24, 1919, to 11 Carlo Ferlinghetti, an immigrant from Brescia, Italy, and Clemence Mendes-Monsanto; and 12 WHEREAS, While serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Mr. Ferlinghetti 13 adopted a lifelong commitment to pacifism and anti-war activism after witnessing first-hand 14 the action at the Normandy invasion and, later, the horrific aftermath of the atomic bomb that 15 obliterated Nagasaki; and 16 WHEREAS, After returning from his service, Mr. Ferlinghetti continued his academic 17 career and, in 1947, received a Master's degree in English Literature from Columbia 18 University and, in 1950, a Doctorate de I'Universite de Paris (Sorbonne ); and 19 WHEREAS, Mr. Ferlinghetti pursued his passion in literature and moved to San 20 Francisco where he co-founded City Lights Bookstore in 1953, the first all-paperback 21 bookstore in the country that later became an international literary gathering place for writers, 22 readers, artists, and intellectuals; and 23 WHEREAS, In 1956, after the sale of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl and Other Poems" to an 24 undercover police officer, Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas Merton and the Beat Generation: a Subterranean Monastic Community
    79 Thomas Merton and the Beat Generation: A Subterranean Monastic Community D AVID B ELCASTRO Y FEBRUARY OF 1967 Merton's concerns regarding monasticism in B the modern world had come to the point where he believed significant change was necessary. A journal entry dated the sixth of that month reads: Monasticism. I see more and more the danger of identifying the monastic vocation and spirit with a particular kind of monastic consciousness-a particular tradition, h owever authen ti c. A monasticism limited to the medieval western - or worse still Byzantine - tradition cannot survive. It is utterly finished. I very much wonder how much the Rule of St Benedict can survive in practice. This is a very serious question. Maybe monasticism needs to be stated all over again in a new way. I have no knowing how to tackle this idea. It is just beginning to dawn on me.1 After reading Lewis Hyde's Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art,2 I began to explore the possibility of understanding Merton's efforts to redefine monasticism in light of the trickster tradition. In 'An Inquiry into Merton as Trickster,' 3 I demonstrated that the primary characteristics of the trickster are present in Merton, not as marginal but as essential qualities of his person, in particular, the inclination to redefine established institutions. At the end of that paper, I suggested several lines of inquiry for further study, one of which was his place within the American tradition of tricksters, specifically, his relation to Beat writers, a connection that has long been recognized but not as yet fully explored.4 A study of Merton's relationship to the Beat generation provides insight into his effort to find ways to redefine monasticism in and for the modern world.
    [Show full text]
  • A Paratextual and Bibliographical Study of ​Howl​ by Allen Ginsberg
    A Paratextual and Bibliographical Study of Howl by Allen Ginsberg ​ ​ Gina Baber August 2018 Contents Page 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 The ‘Mimeograph’ 2 3.0 Howl and Other Poems: Censorship and its Effect 4 ​ ​ 4.0 Cover Design and Format 6 ​ 5.0 Typesetting 8 6.0 Dedications 9 7.0 Final Thoughts 12 Images 14 Image Credits 23 References 26 Gina Baber - August 2018 1 ‘The priestly ex-book-thief arrived and thrust a small black and white book into my hand...I took it and flipped it open...and found myself in the middle of ‘Howl’...turned to the beginning and was caught up immediately in that sad, powerful opening...I knew that this Allen Ginsberg...had broken ground for all of us - simply by getting this published.’ (1) 1.0 Introduction The following essay is a paratextual and bibliographical study of Howl by Allen Ginsberg. It will ​ ​ mainly focus on the original version of the poem Howl for Carl Solomon, printed in Spring 1956; ​ ​ and Howl, included as part of Howl and Other Poems; first published in November 1956 by ​ ​ ​ ​ Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Books. 2.0 The ‘Mimeograph’ The first version of Howl exists as a mimeograph, entitled Howl for Carl Solomon. The poem in ​ ​ ​ ​ a partially finished form, was performed by Ginsberg at a poetry reading held at The Six Gallery on October 7 1955. The performance was a catalyst in the publication of the poem, and received ​ positive reviews ‘...The reading was delivered by the poet...driving forward with a strange ecstatic intensity, delivering a spiritual confession to an astounded audience…’ (2) In May 1956, approximately 25 copies of the poem were printed by Marthe Rexroth and Robert Creeley at San Francisco State College.
    [Show full text]