The deformed product of literature
The "Beat Generation" began in the late 1940s and early 1950s. At that time, just after the Second World War, the tragic disaster caused by the war still haunted people's minds like a nightmare. At the same time, due to the confrontation between the two groups headed by the United States and the Soviet Union, the hot war just stopped and the "Cold War" began again. The anti-McCarthyism in the United States is rampant, persecuting progressives in the field of culture and thought, which makes the American literary world in a depression and silence. This situation has prompted many Americans, especially the younger generation, to doubt the American social system, moral standards and values, and to vent their dissatisfaction and struggle in different ways. This situation is reflected in literature, that is, the emergence of the "Beat Generation" as an anti-traditional mainstream cultural phenomenon.
The initiator of the "Beat Generation" literature is a group of young students. They are either in college or just entering the society, and they are extremely dissatisfied with the reality, but they can't see a way out. They are cynical, dressed in strange clothes and untidy; They are dissolute, promiscuous and even gay; They seek excitement, drink and take drugs, and indulge in fantasy all day long. In doing so, they still feel that it is not enough to vent their accumulated anger, so they regard howling as a song, graffiti as a painting, and words describing their bizarre experiences as novels. The representative of this group of young artists was originally Barros. After graduating from Harvard University, he came to new york and met Kerouac, Ginsburg and Lucian, students of Columbia University. Carl and Neil? Casady and others gathered together to advocate sexual liberation and "open life", and to break the shackles of traditional literary forms and express their personal thoughts freely. They put forward that their lives are their works and their works are their lives. Their lives and works are challenges and reflections on social orthodoxy and social taboos.
From 65438 to 0956, Ginsburg's poetry collection Howling and Others was published in San Francisco. The following year, Kerouac's novel On the Road was published. Two years later, Barros' novel Naked Lunch came out. These three works, from form to content, all have distinctive anti-traditional characteristics, which shocked the American literary world. Perhaps people call this new group of writers "the beat Generation" because of the unique rhythm of their poems or the ideological tendency to look at their works comprehensively (the English word beat also has this meaning).
Ginsberg, a literary freak.
In terms of achievement and influence, Ginsburg is the leader of the "Beat Generation". Ginsberg was born in June 1926 to a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey. My father, Louis, is a middle school English teacher. He advocates traditional culture and sometimes writes some poems. Mother Noam Levi is a Russian immigrant who believes in Marxism and suffers from hysteria. Parents influenced their son's later radical thoughts and love for literature to varying degrees. From 65438 to 0943, Ginsberg entered new york Columbia University for the first time to study economics, aiming to "speak for the labor movement" in the future. But he became more and more interested in poetry and soon turned to literature. When my father learned that, he was worried that he would go to the wrong door and warned him never to write any "experimental" poems. However, he has his own opinions and doesn't listen to his father's advice. He soon met Kerouac and Barros, senior students from Harvard. They are congenial and gay, so they shared an apartment in Greenwich Village and talked about new literary creation all day. He later recalled: "After getting to know Kerouac and Barros, I realized that I used to speak with an empty skull, not thinking about what I should think or writing what I thought." From 65438 to 0945, he was forced to drop out of school because of a murder involving Carl. He worked as a welder, a kitchen worker, a porter and a boatman, and had extensive contacts with the lower classes. 1947 In the spring, he returned to Columbia University and began to write novels based on his own experience. His father was very angry when he saw some chapters of the novel, and thought that what the hero did was too immoral. Ginsberg believes that the whole American society is corrupt and there is no need to cover it up. 1948, graduated from college, couldn't find an ideal job, and came.
Do odd jobs. He was imprisoned for a car accident and received psychiatric treatment for his abnormal words and deeds. No matter what kind of difficulties and embarrassment he encountered, he never gave up his exploration of the art of poetry and his writing of poetry.
1955, Ginsberg resigned from his job in an advertising company in new york, leaving the eastern region where the Orthodox Church had a great influence, and went to the west coast to "breathe freer air". He met some young artists with similar ideological tendencies in San Francisco. They drank and took drugs together, from which they found the "inspiration of new poetry". One of his poems, which is 13 pages long, was praised by the Italian poet Lawrence at a party. The publication of Foehlinger's city lights bookstore caused an immediate sensation. This poem entitled "Howl" begins with the following words:
I saw the most outstanding minds of this generation destroyed by madness, hunger and hysteria.
At dawn, I trudged through the dark streets looking for a powerful anesthetic.
Hippies with angelic brains long for an ancient heavenly relationship with the starry sky generator in the night machine. ......
In a loose form and crude language without any modification, this poem mercilessly satirizes and exposes everything that American society regards as sacred. As soon as the book was published, it caused an uproar in the American literary world. Some people denounced it as "obscene works" and even reported it to the judicial organs. San Francisco police and customs detained the work. Publisher Fringer was arraigned. However, some enlightened critics hold different views and think that Howl is a "severe criticism of society and has the value of saving society". A year later, the court dismissed the case and declared Foehlinger innocent. In this way, this sensational copy in the United States not only made the little-known Ginsburg suddenly famous, but also legalized him and his friends to publish similar works. This is tantamount to officially announcing that the "Beat Generation" writers have officially entered the American literary world.
Howling was later called by some critics as "the classic of the new American literary school' Beat Generation'", and it was printed and popular in the United States and Western Europe for nearly 400,000 copies. Ginsburg was greatly encouraged, and his poetry was in full swing. 196 1 published a long poem "Prayer". It is said that this poem dedicated to his mother was written in his dreamland of morphine. In his poems, he recalled his childhood, described his mother's illness, expressed his family's helplessness, and implied a condemnation of Hitler's evil persecution of Jews during World War II. This poem, written with the technique of stream of consciousness, is called "the best poem" by Ginsburg. From then on, he jumped out of himself, expanded the scope of activities and further broadened the world of poetry. He roamed the United States and around the world, reading his works everywhere. Sometimes, in order to show his frankness, he recited naked at thousands of people's gatherings. He took an active part in the civil rights movement and the demonstrations against the Vietnam War and became an active figure in the mass movement in the United States. At the same time, he believed in Buddhism and Zen, indulged in fantasy and meditation, advocated sexual liberation and preached homosexuality. He said that he "poured all his experiences, all his beliefs, all his disappointments and all his anger into his creation". He has published several books of poetry, such as Real Sandwich (1967), Planet News (1968) and Dream on the Plane (1968). The Fall of America published by 1973 contains many poems against the American invasion of Vietnam. The following year, this book won the National Book Award of the United States, and he himself became a member of the American Academy of Literature and Arts. Through these works, Ginsburg further established his position as the spokesman of the "Beat Generation", which attracted wide attention from American and international literary and art circles.
"Broken" Kerouac
Another "Beat Generation" writer who is widely concerned by literary and art circles is Kerouac. He was born in March 1922 in a family of printers in Lowell, Massachusetts. After his father went bankrupt, he fell ill for a long time, his brother died, and his mother was forced to work in a shoe factory to support her family. All this left an incurable wound on his young mind. He loved literature since he was a child and was infatuated with the works of Goethe and Hugo. 65438-0939 entered Columbia University to study literature. However, he was tired of the university-style teaching there and left the school before graduation. He works as a refueling agent and a sports reporter, imitating Irish stream-of-consciousness writer James Joyce to write novels. Soon, he worked as a cook in a merchant ship and then signed up for the US Navy. It wasn't long before he was fired for disobeying military discipline. He was admitted to the hospital for mental illness three times. 1944 In the spring, he returned to Columbia University and soon traveled across the United States to hang out with Casady. His experience increased and his creative passion broke out. 1950 published the first novel "villages and towns", but it did not attract the attention of the world.
Since then, he has wandered in the United States and Mexico many times, taking drugs, drinking, stealing, whoring, gambling and engaging in homosexuality along the way. 195 1, he typed his experiences and conversations with his peers on a 250-foot-long paper roll line by line, leaving no spaces and almost no punctuation marks. He believes that only by "naturally" writing down what he sees, hears, thinks and feels can he reflect the true face of things. Any modification is a disguise and a loss of sincerity. Ginsburg later praised him, saying it was a new attempt to record real thoughts in the form of novels. Kerouac finished his new book in only three weeks and sent it to Pirate Publishing House as a novel. The manuscript was suppressed for six years. Finally, after editing, abridgement and punctuation, it was published in the autumn of 1957 under the title On the Road. The works objectively reflect the dissatisfaction and depression of some young people in the United States after the war. Like Ginsburg's Howl, it has become a classic of the "Beat Generation" literature. At first, the critics had different opinions on this work, and there were great differences. Some people think that it has no plot, does not pay attention to structure, and appears chaotic. It's not a novel at all, just a scribbled travel note. However, some people hold it very high, and think that the author is a "master of new novels", and his works are "natural in letter", and both the content and the form are "the results of bold innovation".
There were different opinions, and Kerouac became famous. Encouraged, he wrote 17 more novels. Among them, The Wanderer of Dharma (1958) was written after he devoted himself to studying Buddhism in the frustrated years, describing the course of the protagonist's pursuit of Zen and his search for Dharma jurisprudence in the deep forests of the northwest United States. Underground Man (1958) is another work that describes the wandering life of the "beat" youth. Enlightenment in Paris (1966) tells an anecdote about the protagonist's enlightenment in Paris. These works are all autobiographical, with similar content and style. All this shows that Kerouac gradually dried up after writing. However, he always thinks highly of himself, which is in sharp contrast with the general view of critics. Therefore, he felt depressed and resentful and died of alcoholism on 1969.
Barros, the Godfather of "Beat" Literature
Among the "Beat Generation" writers, Barros has the oldest qualification and the longest life span. He was born in a gardening family in St. Louis in 19 14. My father grows flowers, and my mother likes drama. She has published three books on growing flowers. Influenced by his mother since childhood, Barros likes reading the works of French writers Mo Bosang, France, Gide and Baudelaire. From 65438 to 0936, he received a doctorate in English from Harvard University, and later studied race and anthropology. After the outbreak of World War II, he was not interested in research and joined the army. Soon, he was forced to leave the army because of his poor psychological quality. He came to Chicago, worked as a bartender, a private investigator, wandered at the bottom of society, and sometimes accompanied thieves. /kloc-moved to new york in 0/943, got to know Kerouac and Ginsburg, advocated "experimental" literature, became the enlightener of their thoughts and creations, and became the godfather of the "Beat Generation". 1946, he took his mistress Joan? Wal-Mart moved to Texas and set up a farm there. He believes that the war has made the boundary between legality and criminality disappear. So he not only took drugs, but also planted them openly. 1949 was warned by the local police and had to move to Mexico. 195 1 year, Barros, who always liked to play with guns, indulged in fantasy after taking drugs and killed Voldemort by mistake. He was accused and tried and declared an "evil foreigner". He later recalled in his autobiography "Literary Rogue" that this incident was "a turning point in my life, which prompted me to relax and start literary creation seriously".
From 65438 to 0953, Barros wrote the novel Drug Addicts in a "beat" style based on his drug abuse experience, which began to attract the attention of American literary circles. After that, he first went to a brothel in Tangier, Morocco, and soon went to several countries in South America to search for drugs. 1955, he returned to Tangier, rented a private house, didn't take a shower or change clothes for a year, and settled down to write novels. He wrote and threw, threw and wrote. Four years later, he handed over a box of messy manuscripts to Paris Olympia Publishing House for publication. The original name of the work is Naked Passion. When reading the manuscript, Ginsberg misread it as a naked lunch because of his scrawl. They both thought the topic was "more enjoyable" and decided. This novel mainly tells the author's experiences of vagrancy, drug abuse, sex and homosexuality, and is full of descriptions of physical abuse, obscene details and vulgar language. Some critics denounced it as "a pile of inexplicable rubbish" and "a piece of crazy nonsense" Cities such as Boston once banned the publication and sale of this book in the name of "obscenity". However, some people think that this book "attacked the hypocrisy of society in the form of humor and explored the absurd side of people's hearts", "has profound moral connotation" and "is an eccentric work of genius". In this way, after nearly two years of debate, this novel was published in the United States in 1962, and was later translated into 16 languages for publication.
Barros has since become famous. Some popular periodicals and cheap tabloids in the United States and western Europe have contributed to him. He took advantage of the trend, "creating without plan and preparation" and "leisurely, writing wherever he thinks". He sometimes uses the so-called "splicing method", that is, while writing, he cuts out large paragraphs from newspapers, periodicals and books at hand, disrupts the order, recombines them and inserts them into his own works at will. He believes that only by "breaking the boundaries between individuals, society and politics can the truth of things be expressed". The novel Nova Express, published in 1964, describes the struggle of various factions in the galaxy to control the earth and the universe. There is no complete story, just "a bunch of weird associations". Later published novels, such as Soft Machine (1966) and Explosive Train Ticket (1967), use a mixture of reality and fantasy to express the author's dislike of society, and the context is quite chaotic. Barros said at this moment that he had written down everything in his heart, and Jiang Lang was exhausted.
The aftertaste of the "Beat Generation"
The "Beat Generation" is a short and unique literary phenomenon in the history of American literature. It originated from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, and flourished in the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, only for more than 30 years. After 1970s, with the change of American social life, Kerouac died, Barros moved to London, and the "Beat Generation" gradually declined. 198 1 year, Barros returned to the United States and wrote the novels dead end (1984), the western regions (1987) and the chance is slim (199/kloc-0. In his later years, he and Ginsberg devoted their main energy to the entertainment industry, and cooperated with some American pop musicians and singers to create many popular songs that were deeply loved by teenagers, which promoted the popularization and development of the whole pop music. Barros also acted in movies and sold paintings in his later years, which showed his artistic talent in many aspects.
The "Beat Generation" is called "a distorted literary phenomenon, which reflects a distorted world with a distorted mind" by literary historians. Writers in this community are dissatisfied with American society and fight in different ways. However, due to the lack of positive ideals, their dissatisfaction can only be an unrestrained emotional vent, and their struggle is only some arbitrary and irresponsible behaviors of individuals. Because of this, their works contain many negative and unhealthy things. However, their works boldly expose the dark side of American society and still have certain cognitive value. They dare to break through the fetters of all traditions and make bold innovations in art, which still has some enlightenment for future generations. As a generation of writers, they still have a certain influence in American literature. 1995, Ginsburg's last book of poetry, Welcome to the World, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. 1996, his poems, 1947? 1995, which was well received by book critics.
It is reported that Ginsburg did not forget his readers until three days before his death, and wrote 10 poems in one breath. Among them, a poem named "Name and Death" became the swan song of his extraordinary life creation. After learning of his death, many readers went to Manhattan to offer their condolences. In a temple there, the abbot followed his wishes, burned incense and rang bells, and held a funeral for him according to Buddhist etiquette. Barros didn't forget his readers. On the day before his death, he wrote the last lines of his life:
Love? what is love ? Pure natural painkiller.
What's in the world? Love.
At Lawrence's funeral in Kansas, his lifelong friend William? Silverberg distributed these lines to more than 250 mourners. He lamented, "After Barros' death, there is no writer in America who can be called' great' any more. "The mourners applauded when they heard this. Of course, there are many emotional elements in his words, but it does reflect Americans' yearning for Barros and his "Beat Generation" to some extent.