Beats Exhibit

“Under The Influence” – Navneeth Perumal

Navneeth Perumal Leave a comment

I was interested in multiple exhibits, but after todays discussion in class I chose to focus on the installation “Under the Influence” by Williams Burroughs.  The installation contains many unique findings. Inside there is a quote by Burroughs. It states,“Language is a virus from outer space.” I thought this quote was particularly pertinent to our class discussion today on the subject of the impact of language.  We discussed the ever changing nature of the language and how it can impact us when we see it used in an unexpected manner. I believe this was in part what Burroughs was trying to do in the exhibit.  An envelope in the constellation has a random pieces of paper with text on them. These texts have no cohesive meaning, they seem nonsensical. This was very similar to the methods discussed in class.. The contrast in form from what we usually see makes us pause and question its purpose. The use of language engenders a feeling of confusion, which could be the author’s goal. The idea that the form in which words are presented matters just as much as the content is an idea I will try to put into my presentation. I will try to structure visuals in a way that they can create a feeling just as much  as any words can. A further question this raises is in regards to the title’s origins. Under the influence implies that the author is acting as a result of another’s agency. I wonder who or what this force could be.  Additionally, it calls into question how close the author believes what he has created and how much of it was not of his own will. In terms of additional research, I would further need to dig into the origins of the work. Additionally, I would have to research the authors past to see what influence it might of had.

 

Power of Language

Meng Zhao Leave a comment

Power of language

My  experience visiting the Beat Exhibit is intriguing. Among all the artifacts in the exhibit, two of the artifacts are particularly interesting to me. One is the propaganda ‘Black People Boycott’ and the other is a letter. Although the two artifacts display different focuses of the Beat generation, they are similar because both employ the power of language.

I will start with discussing the propaganda. The aim of the propaganda ‘Black People Boycott’ is to convince and urge the government to enrich the African-American population by providing them more education opportunities. The opening of the propaganda ‘Now Now Now’ immediately builds up a tone not only authoritatively didactic, but also an immediate urgency. The author then makes a juxtaposition between ‘Christmas and ‘Thanksgiving buying’ among American middle/high class society and ‘food and medicine’ in Philadelphia or suburbs. Christmas and Thanksgiving shopping represents American consumerism and capitalism—they are leisure activities which people do during holiday seasons. On the contrary, ‘food’ and ‘medicine’ are necessities for living. By indicating a ’No’ in front of holiday shopping, the author effectively denounces government’s ignorance, as it only cares to promote unnecessary bourgeois shopping but forgets what really matters: survival of low-class society. The action oriented verb ‘hit’ at the beginning of the last line parallels with the word ‘hurts’ in the end, which again effectively indicates the problem among black population: insufficient funds for education. I find this propaganda really effective in terms of promoting government action. Moreover, the use of word ‘hurts’ and the juxtaposition between the lives of middle to high class Americans and the black population consequently evoke a feeling of guilt/shame. Overall, the author’s usage of language and literary technique are really effective and powerful in promoting actions.

Another artifact is Richardson’s let to Laura Ulewicz. this is a letter about Ulewicz work being included in Penguin poetry anthology. However, Laura Ulewiz’s work did not make to publication because the editors concluded that a volume featuring female writers would not be sufficiently profitable. An offensive rejection to the female writers, it must be hard for Richardson to tell Laura Ulewicz that the rejection of her writings was merely because of her gender. However, Richardson still manages to deliver his implicit message considerably yet effectively to Laura without sounding offensive. The letter begins with using a numerical hyperbole ‘thirty million apologies’ which quantifies his feeling of guilt and apology for failing to respond her question within suitable time frame. The hyperbole effectively conveys Richardson’s guilt, and displays his full respect to Ulewicz. Richardson then states that he has to reject Ulewiz writing, but tried his best to accommodate the language so it sounds less offensive. He first generalizes the rejection, indicating that ‘all female volume has collapsed’, implying that it is not due to Ulewiz poor personal performance. He then indicates that he has to think in ‘mixed terms’, which involves a ‘larger’ number of male writers in the Penguine series. The words ‘mix’ and ‘larger’ are all terms which show some degree of inclusiveness. ‘Mix’ suggests a diverse state which involves two genders: although the proportions of male and female writers was not stated, he does imply that the writers they selected were a mixture of both genders. Similarly, the word ‘larger’ also indicates that he does not completely ignore them, thereby showing his respect to women and his efforts of being inclusive. What I want to argue is, although the basis of the rejection is offensive to female gender, Richardson makes the rejection sounds much less offensive and acceptable by his employment of language.

The two artifacts make me in awe of how powerful language could be. From the propaganda ‘Black People Boycott’, we get a glimpse of how language is a powerful tool in exposing the ugliness and ignorance and cruelty of inequality.  Yet, from the letter, we sense that language is equally powerful in disguising/undermining the potential discomforts fostered by inequality.

 

What a Rucksack Contains—Qinyan Shi

Qinyan Shi Leave a comment

Jack Kerouac is among the most famous Beat poets and his work On the Road is considered a defining work of Beat literature. Before my visit of The Dream Machine exhibit, items and objects of Kerouac are what I most want to see and know about.

Coincidentally, among all the books, paperwork and installations, the one came into my sight is a rucksack. It was an old military green rucksack belonged to Jack Kerouac. On the rucksack, “US” is printed on the folding flap. Compared with other paperwork arranged in order, the rucksack was presented in the clear glass alone. I chose it because it is a real object other than words, lines, and paragraphs which can be abstract; it evoked more genuine feeling when I looked at it and tried to understand its meaning in this exhibit. It seemed to be empty because it is still flat even with the support installation. But it is also not empty, it contains full of the beat generation spirits. This single item is titled with a great name “Rucksack revolution.”

This rucksack is an evidence of Kerouac’s travel, as it is introduced there was a note in the pocket of the rucksack that described a bad trip. But no matter how the trip is, to travel means to escape from their society of Beat poets and to explore other culture. The freedom that Beat poets perused seemed to all converge on this rucksack. This inspired me that not only words can be evidence, everything belonged to the poet can mean something and therefore can help explain poems and construct deeper understanding  of the poet.

Question left: Is the meaning of travel to Kerouac only about escaping and freedom? How is On the Road related to this rucksack? How to relate comment of critics of the beat generation to this rucksack?

I would read more of Jack Kerouac’s work and other beat poets who were close to Kerouac. Especially I will pay more attention to poem written during the period of his travel and his friends network.

Counting on Courts- Social Change through the Law – Laura Santangelo

Laura Santangelo Leave a comment

I chose the case on The Counterculture in Court, which features two different items. The first is the ninth and twentieth issue of The Floating Bear. This was a newsletter that published Beat writers and was edited by poets Diane di Prima and LeRoi Jones. The editors were briefly arrested but eventually won the battle in court to published the newsletter, which prompted the cover of the twentieth edition, saying “Hello Ma, I Glad I Win!” The second feature was of The Love Book by Lenore Kandel. This erotic collection of poetry was seized by police in 1966 for violating obscenity laws. This helped to sell the collection and eventually it was found not to violate obscenity laws, prompting Kandel to donate a portion of profits to the Police Retirement Association, as the lawsuit helped the book succeed. I picked this case because I have always found the role of the courts and law in cultural revolutions interesting, possibly because my father is a lawyer. The idea of defining what is obscene is a challenging question and it was legally decided in 1973 in Miller vs. California, meaning these cases against Beats writers are part of what set the stage for a formal definition. To me, this raises the question of how the Beats movement tied to the larger discussion of obscenity in America at that time. To answer this, I would need to do more legal research, possibly looking more specifically at the actual court cases of Beats writers, as well as cases outside of this movement. This connects with many of the poems we have looked at that focus on social change because at the root, the Beats Movement is challenging the mainstream culture. I was already interested in looking at Alice Walker’s activism through her work, so the entire exhibit was interesting to understand how to go about telling a story about activism, both by framing the social context and the long-term implications of such efforts. Although I will be focusing on one person, not an entire movement, it was a good reminder to try to show diverse examples that focus on various different themes. For the Beats exhibit, this came in the form of discussing topics like the courts, conscientious objection, and how many influential Beats writers came together.

The Sound of Poetry — Colleen Su

Kexin Su Leave a comment

The object that I chose is “Written on the Breath”. It is a collage of poetry reading poster of various artist and poets. The collage mentions that even though poetry reading is very common today, it, in fact, flourished only recently after World War II with the Beat Generation. I was drawn to this case because after I went to the literary event “‘Howl’ at Emory”, in which Emory faculties and students perform Ginsberg’s “Howl” and local poets read their own Beat-inspired poems, I truly felt the difference between reading poems and hearing them. Hearing the poem engenders more intense emotion than merely looking at them, and depend on the reader’s voice, the audience might pay attention to things that they did not notice when they were reading the poem.

This case reminded me of the guest speaker we had in class that performed Ted Berrigan’s poem which was accompanied by a film clip. We also watched many videos of poets reading their own poem, such as Ocean Vuong’s “Night Sky with Exit Wounds” and Marlene NourbeSe Philip’s “Discourse on the Logic of Language”. All these experiences made me think that reading is not the only way to appreciate and understand poems, sounds also matter.

This case gives me inspirations on my final project because I always thought one case of an exhibit can only contain one object, and I never thought of using the form of collage to include various materials that address similar topics. Furthermore, after looking at the exhibit, I realized that the materials included in an exhibit can be very different. It can range from actual poems and magazines published during that period to personal items like love letter and passport of the leading figure of the movement. A wide range of materials can be included as long as there is an overarching theme that ties all the pieces together.

After looking at the case, some questions I had are that why is poetry reading only started recently considering that poetry writing has such a long history, and what made poets start to realize the importance of poetry performing? To answer these questions, I would need to go search online or from the library the history of poetry. I also need to look up the beginning of the Beat movement to see what inspired the poets to start poetry reading.

Cutting Up to Building Up – Claudia Tung

Claudia Tung Leave a comment

The case that I chose is called “Writing with Scissors”, and the object on display is William Burroughs’s cut ups in a folder from circa 1960s. There are lots of different sizes of squares and rectangles of paper with words from many passages of texts. This case first drew me to it because it just looked strange and interesting because I wondered why someone would cut up passages and what they were planning to do with the squares.

Although this case talks about a technique called the cut-up writing technique, it reminded me of the works by Ted Berrigan and Medbh McGuckian. During one of our MARBL visits, we saw Ted Berrigan’s process of scratching out words from a book to create an entirely new work. During class, we also saw how Medbh McGuckian would choose bits and pieces from other poems/works to forge her own poem. Both of Berrigan’s and McGuckian’s work “borrow” words/phrases from other work, just like what Burroughs was doing with the cut-ups. These are all examples of intertextuality, which I think is a very creative and innovative way to create your own piece of work. This installation gives me ideas on how I might structure my own virtual exhibit because the Beats Exhibit allowed me to see how bits and pieces of artwork are insights to the artists’, poets’ or writers’ character and thoughts, and that they create these kinds of work for a reason. The exhibit gave me an idea on what types of materials I should be looking at for my poet to really get to know her and put together a meaningful virtual exhibit.

Some questions that came up after looking at this installation at the Beats Exhibit were: how did Burroughs choose which passages to cut from? How did he put the cut ups together? Did all the phrases on the square have to match with the other phrases from another square or did he only do one line at a time? I would love to read a collection of Burroughs’s work along with where and how he got his sources. I want to discover how he approached this intertextuality technique and what kind of new texts he liked to create. Through these examples of his work, I can look into this train of thought as he puts together the cut-up passages. I would most likely have to look at scholarly books if I want to also read about the sources of the texts. I am also aware that there were past exhibits in museums, such as the Irish Museum of Modern Art, that showcased Burroughs’s work. I would love to attend one of these exhibits to learn more about Burroughs’s creativity and ideas because it really is a unique approach to writing.

Cultural Connections in Beat Poetry)

Simon Brooke Leave a comment

I have chosen the Beat Hotel case, which feature a poem by Gregory Corso entitled “Bomb”, the notes of the poet Brion Gysin from his  time at the Beats Hotel, and a collection of poems by Allen Ginsberg in a book entitled Kaddish. These items are products of a unique culture that spring from a no-name hotel in Paris during the 1950s and 60s. These poems were written by poets who were inspired by their culture and the events around them.  Kaddish is a collection of poems inspired by the Jewish prayer for the dead. This was written as an elegy for his mother. The poem “Bomb” is a poem written in the shape of a mushroom cloud, written during the Cold War to highlight the threat of nuclear annihilation. I was drawn to the case because of the unique method in which the poetry was constructed.

The poems, as mentioned before, lack a conventional structure. This presents fascinating insight into the construction of the poem. The texts in this case provide a fascinating glimpse into the culture around which the Beats Generation was created which lead up to the Counterculture movement. Reading the poem “Bomb” and Gysin’s notes from the Beats Hotel remind me of the poem “Map of the Americas” by Qwo-Li Driskoll. In this poem, he creates an image of North and South Continents, displaying an inextricable link between the people living in the continent, and the land itself. Similarly, E.E. Cummings experiments with the format of his poem, creating a work that makes very little sense on its own. We are forced not to look at the words that are written on the page, but the meaning behind the format. Similarly, the notes by Gysin and the poem “Bomb” are written in free verse, putting emphasis on the meaning of the shape of the poem. The inspiration for the poem not only come from the culture of the poet was raised in, but also from the inspiration drawn from his fellow poets. Reading these poems, I think I have a good idea of how I can structure my essay. Using an overarching stylistic connection, I will examine how the poet’s works are connected across poems and the underlying cultural influences which lead the poet I have chosen for my final project to adopt the particular style and format for his poem. I will also examine the underlying cultural influences which lead my poet to publish his works as he did.

I am fascinated with the political and cultural influences on the Beat Generation at the time, and would love to explore how the Beat Generation has or has not affected the inhabitants of the Latin Quarter. I would collect information online about Paris in the middle of the 20th century and search documents online to determine whether these poets had an intellectual affect on Parisian culture.