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Buddhism and the Production of American Cool

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Buddhism and the Production of American Cool BUDDHISM AND THE PRODUCTION OF AMERICAN COOL By JAMES F. ROYAL A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2009 © 2009 James F. Royal 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the chair and members of my committee for their assistance on this dissertation. They provided thoughtful and considered feedback, and challenged my thinking in creative and constructive ways. I‘d also like to thank my wife, Maranatha Joy Hayes. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 3 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE DISCOURSE OF COOL AND BUDDHISM ......................... 8 The Discourse of Cool and the Protestant Ethnic ................................................... 11 Buddhism Meets Cold War Consumerism .............................................................. 22 Green as a Capitalist Analog .................................................................................. 29 Buddhism and the Post Cold War Era .................................................................... 32 2 BUDDHISM GETS FRAMED .................................................................................. 36 Emerson‘s Morgenlandfahrt: Reading Eastern Religion via Europe ....................... 37 Buddhism and Manifest Destiny? ........................................................................... 46 Buddhism as a Capitalist Ideology? ........................................................................ 48 19th Century Interest in Buddhism ........................................................................... 49 Buddhism Twice Told.............................................................................................. 52 3 KEROUAC AND GINSBERG: THE SUPERMARKET OF BUDDHIST IDENTITY .. 61 Buddhist Style Saves America ................................................................................ 74 Ginsberg: Eclectic Affinities .................................................................................... 85 Satori in Paris: Americans (and French-Canadians) as Ethnics ............................. 97 Buddhism as Justification for the Beat Style ......................................................... 107 Kerouac and Ginsberg as Avant-garde Capitalists? ............................................. 112 4 GARY SNYDER: BUDDHISM AS ECOLOGY AS COUNTERCAPITALISM ......... 117 Snyder and Sustainability ..................................................................................... 121 Endless Streams and Mountains .......................................................................... 125 Buddhism and Protest........................................................................................... 142 The Market ............................................................................................................ 144 Essays of the 1960s: Earth House Hold ............................................................... 151 The Etiquette of Freedom ..................................................................................... 159 The Renunciation of Control as True Freedom ..................................................... 162 5 CHARLES JOHNSON: BUDDHISM AND THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK ........... 164 Johnson and Buddhism ........................................................................................ 165 Black Identity ........................................................................................................ 168 Buddhism as Protest ............................................................................................. 174 Turning the Wheel: Essays on Buddhism ............................................................. 175 Buddhism Battles Capitalism, or Meditation Instead of Mediation ........................ 179 4 Reading Black Experience as Buddhist ................................................................ 182 Middle Passage as the Middle Way ...................................................................... 190 Cool as a State of Mind......................................................................................... 208 6 COOL PROJECTIONS: THE ART OF FILMING BUDDHISM .............................. 209 Representing the China-Tibet Conflict .................................................................. 213 Cool and the Representation of Tibet ................................................................... 217 Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet: Americana in Shangri-La ............................... 219 The Dalai Lama and Western Technology ............................................................ 229 The West as Protector of the Innocent East ......................................................... 235 The West as Producer of Knowledge ................................................................... 244 Keanu Reeves: the Buddha from Zen to Now ....................................................... 246 America Protects the Little Buddha, or the Conrads Go into the Heart of Darkness ........................................................................................................... 247 Slumming with the Buddhists ................................................................................ 252 The Matrix: ―Buddhist‖ Critique as Cool ................................................................ 253 Buddhism as Ultimate Control .............................................................................. 266 Attention-Energy as Fuel for the Matrix / The Matrix ............................................. 270 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 274 7 ADVERTISING BUDDHISM: CONSUMING THE EXOTIC AT HOME.................. 276 China and the Post-Cold War World ..................................................................... 280 Advertisement as Opiate ....................................................................................... 285 Marketing the Commodity as Ethnic ..................................................................... 286 ―New Luxury‖ and the Luxe Life ............................................................................ 288 Buddhism Made Me Cool ...................................................................................... 294 Meditating for Profit ............................................................................................... 297 Luxury Leisure ...................................................................................................... 299 Protecting Asia‘s Others ....................................................................................... 302 Luxury Soul Food .................................................................................................. 309 Cool Hybridity ....................................................................................................... 311 Buddhism as Control............................................................................................. 313 The End(s) of Cool Buddhism ............................................................................... 314 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 316 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 331 5 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy BUDDHISM AND THE PRODUCTION OF AMERICAN COOL By James F. Royal May 2010 Chair: Malini Schueller Major: English One of the most remarkable facets of capitalism is its ability to incorporate disparate – even antithetical – systems into its ever-enlarging sphere of influence, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries as technology makes the world interconnected. To make such a transformation, consumer capitalism has employed a discourse of ―cool‖ to rein in potentially threatening figures and ideologies and bring them back into the circuits of consumption. Especially ripe for analysis is the incorporation of Buddhism, since the creed is the fastest-growing of the world religions in the U.S. They key moment for its mobilization – the 1950s – occurred during a period of escalating tensions with communism, in which a flourishing consumer capitalism was touted as the way to defeat the U.S.S.R. During this period, representations of Buddhism entered pop culture as a challenge to mainstream consumerism. Yet, now representations of Buddhism support consumer capitalism, for instance, in ads and films. Thus, this dissertation seeks to understand how seemingly antithetical discourses can promote the proliferation of capitalism, and how political and capitalist imperatives can motivate representations of a foreign religion. 6 This dissertation examines postwar figures who have used Buddhism in their cultural productions, although it highlights writers from earlier periods who framed Buddhism for later adoption. Such antecedents include Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose use of Buddhism for capitalist-imperialist ends set the stage for the work of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. While the Beats deployed Buddhism in a way that perpetuated capitalist individualism, Gary Snyder seriously challenges the capitalist paradigm by incorporating the experience of Buddhist enlightenment in his
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