The Rucksack Revolution: the Beat Generation's Views of Nature Christopher Clarke A Thesis in The Department of History Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada March 2008 © Christopher Clarke, 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-40812-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-40812-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada This work was completed in hope for what this astonishing blue rock could be. This work is dedicated to the most precious Pearl without whose unrelenting help, attention and patience this would never have been written. To the other family members who made this possible and something I wanted to do, I quote Edward Abbey, "You know who you are, and so do I." IV Table of Contents INTRODUCING THE BEATS AND DEEP ECOLOGY 1 Environmental History 2 Deep Ecology 6 Beat Generation 10 The Plan 15 JACK KEROUAC: CITIZEN OF NATURE 19 Gerard 22 The Town and the City 31 Decline 44 The Dharma Bums 45 GARY SNYDER: BEFORE TURTLE ISLAND 58 His Analysis 60 An Ecological Way To Live 72 Why listen to Snyder? 79 MICHAEL MCCLURE, LEW WELCH, AND THE NEED FOR FREEDOM 84 FINAL WORDS 110 APPENDIX A 117 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING 119 1 INTRODUCING THE BEATS AND DEEP ECOLOGY Ever since man became a numerous species he has affected his environment notably... The history ofecologic change is still so rudimentary that we know little about what really happened, or what the results were... I cannot discover that the questions have ever been asked, much less answered. Lynn White1 "Deep Ecology" is not a philosophy in any proper academic sense, nor is it institutionalized as a religion or an ideology. Rather, what happens is that various persons come together in campaigns and direct actions. Arne Naess2 Humankind has irrevocably altered the natural world. When Bill McKibben forwarded this thesis in The End of Nature (1989) it was a novel idea. It is now gaining adherents as books concerning eating locally, driving less, and sustainable living are selling well. The strong sales of such books depict a growing interest amongst the general public in the topic of our relationship to nature perhaps because people are beginning to realize the gravity of the situation.3 New and worrisome statistics flood over North Americans everyday as newscasts and newspapers discuss "Climate Change," "Peak oil" and "Global Warming." As advocacy groups such as Greenpeace and The David Suzuki Foundation attempt to raise environmental awareness, governments of all stripes, pushed by Green parties and opinion polls, are discussing what the changes are and what is to be 1 Lynn White Jr., "The roots of our ecological crisis," Science, no. 155 (1967). 2 Arne Naess, "The Deep Ecological Movement. Some philosophical Aspects," in Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, ed. George Sessions (London: Shambala, 1986), p.71. 3 Bill McKibben, The end of nature (New York: Random House, 1989). Alisa Dawn Smith and J. B. MacKinnon, The 100-mile diet: a year of local eating (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2007). James Howard Kunstler, The geography of nowhere: the rise and decline of America's man-made landscape (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), Bill McKibben, Deep Economy: the wealth of communities and the durable future, 1 st ed. (New York: Times Books, 2007). 2 blamed for them while simultaneously creating plans of adaptation to their long term effects. That people are presently seeking methods of living more sustainably is demonstrative of insecurity in our days. The environmental issues we face have, in part, been caused by the solutions to nuclear insecurity described by historian Elaine Tyler May in Homeward Bound.4 May explained the rise of the suburbs, "The self-contained home held out the promise of security in an insecure world."5 The Beat Generation writers failed to find that promised security and, as such, sought out alternative ways of coping with an anxious world. The time has come for our society to change in order to preserve the earth and relieve our anxiety. A reconsideration of other cultures that have wrestled with the same question is a wise step. I forward the culture of the Beat Generation and its interpretations of humankind's role within nature because their words can serve us to formulate a new cultural way of life in the face of the ecological issues presently confronting us. By treating them in their own terms, we can come to understand the alternative they offered and in doing so reintegrate them into the literature of environmental history. I will use this introduction to briefly describe environmental history, Deep Ecology and the Beat Generation to show how this thesis is relevant to three distinct fields of intellectual thought. Environmental History By the 1960s, pollution was on the rise and we were destroying our surroundings at ever-increasing rates. Since then, American historians have devoted a significant portion Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound American Families in the Cold War Era (BasicBooks, 1988). 5 Ibid., p.3. 3 of their energy to understanding humankind's interpretations of nature and its role within it. Historian Lynn White Jr. writing in 1966 came to the realization that human action had compounded into a destruction of the very things upon which we depend and recommended that we begin to consider this relationship more deeply.6 He sought to understand the cultural and intellectual assumptions that had allowed mankind to degrade the land and, in so doing, began what would become environmental history. He concluded that Christian ethics were to blame for much of the destruction. This outlook has remained central to environmental history. White Jr. sought to promote action in response to his analysis of how mankind fouled its nest. He proposed a re-evaluation of the ideas of Saint Francis of Assisi who argued that animals could praise God and had souls. The argument was based on White's notion that Assisi promoted "An alternative Christian view." An assumption in this argument is the need for change in our ways and views and, by incorporating a Christian figure into the solution, he would be more effective than others who had previously sought to change our anthropocentric beliefs. The only attempt to initiate such change that White Jr. notes is the Beat Generation's effort to use Zen Buddhism to influence others. White Jr. argued that Americans would find it difficult to accept Zen because it employed unfamiliar concepts from foreign cultures. With this, White quickly White Jr., "The roots of our ecological crisis." I begin with this work because it is among the earliest academic discussions of the topic at the time when the topic itself was becoming a major field of study. His discussion with its arguments regarding the level of pollution being its catalyst represented a new type of history. Many historians have since begun their work with the same premise, and many still do. It has been referred to by many other authors, and (I believe) defined the discussion regarding the role of the Beat Generation in ecological history and is therefore a reasonable starting point. 7 This may explain why the Catholic Church declared him the patron saint of ecologists in 1980. o White Jr., "The roots of our ecological crisis," p. 1206. 4 concluded his discussion of the Beat Generation. The weakness of this argument is that it fails to recognize the Beat Zen model as an American phenomenon, developed by typical educated Americans: a high school football star, some fire lookouts, a few trail workers, a logger, and a couple of wartime merchant marines. In the 1970s, environmental history became an important field of study. With the oil crisis and mounting pollution problems in many cities, several adventurous scholars pursued the type of deeper studies White Jr. had called for. One of the distinguished historians to engage in the conversation was Roderick Nash who presided over what he believed to be the first university course on the subject by 1970.9 In developing the course, Nash faced considerable difficulties.