The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats : The Beat Generation and the American Culture

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Summary: Wonderful Look At The "Beats" Incredible Cultural Influence
Review: For me, this book represented both a challenge and a labor of love, for it was a real culture shock for someone who has enough life experience (and is therefore old enough) to look back some forty years to recall and appreciate, in all its too-predictable homogeneity, the suffocating conformity of America in the 1950s, and how the growth and flowering of the so-called "beat" consciousness rose to challenge the politics, economics, and social life of the contemporary society. This is indeed a definitive collection of writings, photographs, and etchings that faithfully recalls the nature of beat society. The first impressions we had were silly stereotypes offered in TV series like Dragnet, where the beats were pictured as psychopathic con men trying to fleece the general public with their esoteric jargon. But then again, how would one expect someone as conventional and strait-laced as Jack Webb to "grok" onto the nature of the beats or what they were trying to say?

Everyone who was someone in the beat movement is represented here, from poet and Citylights bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti to Allen Ginsberg, from William Burroughs to Graham Parker, from Annie Leibovitz to Hunter Thompson. And what they have to say is most revealing, both about themselves as individuals as well as for the beat movement as a whole. For this was a movement that cried out for a new and more human-oriented perspective in the midst of the dawn of the technocratic society. In many ways the writings are more meaningful and better understood in that sense, as being representative of a profoundly reactive voice howling out against the pities of modern life. And in many things, the beat movement and the accompanying humanistic-oriented ethos it developed was the nurturing force that allowed the flowering of the sixties counterculture. However, as even a cursory reading of these materials will attest, the beat movement was much more than that.

The book traces the movement through four essential stages; first, the birth and growth of the movement with the rise of poets like Allen Ginsberg and the fabled Poetry Renaissance in San Francisco as well as the emergence of beat forms of Jazz music. Then, the three major icons of the beat culture are introduced and surveyed: Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg, whose combined legacy to the beat culture and to modern popular culture are each in turn examined. This is a wonderful book, one full of singular prose and absolutely historic literary pieces. This is one you will want to own, to browse and prowl through, and to read in spurts and starts. There are a myriad of great bits contained here, all of which are cobbled together beautifully by the editors of Rolling Stone. I heartily recommend this book, one that offers the reader a delightfully real and vibrant glimpse into a brief shining moment in popular American culture, once upon a time when ordinary men and women thought and wrote and played with extraordinary thoughts and observations about the nature of life in contemporary America. Enjoy!

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Summary: Good overview in retrospect
Review: I have a fascination with the Beats so I was receptive to what may be called some of the low points. What was of real interest to me was reading the aftermath (children of beats) of their adventures and Bohemian lifestyle. Most of their family lives (their offspring) were beyond dysfunctional but disasterous. If you're going to live this lifestyle use contraceptives.

The book offers an insider view of the personalities and why things came together so brilliantly and why they fell apart. The Beats (Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, Cassady) were the Beatles (Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr) of the 50's. Their personalities jelled into the same kind of perfect symmetry and synergy that exploded into something bigger than any of the parts. And the book does an excellent reporting of the times and undercurrents that brought it all together. The illusion of a united mindset was revealed as very different personalities and backgrounds who had a common thread which they spun into a glorious tapestry.

People seem to need myth and magic, and like the Beatles they supplied it. But beneath the illusion was, nonetheless, the real thing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book from cover to cover. And yes I too don't care how this screwed up Johnny Depp's life (though he is an incredible actor). The editors wanted some big name splashes that, unfortunately, detracted from the subject but that is a minor complaint. If you're at all interested in the Beats or of some really thinking human beings this is a great start.

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Summary: Beat Overload
Review: The Book of the Beats has some great high points (Brian Hassett and John Swenson's pieces on how the Beats impacted and were impacted by pop culture), and some utterly ridiculous low-points (Mike McClure's seven page tribute to himself). All of it taken together is an interesting read, but there can be too much of a good thing. For instance, I could care less about how the Beats "ruined" Johnny Depp's life. And Graham Parker? It seems that George-Warren solicited contributions from anyone who had ever read On the Road or felt "transformed" upon their first reading of Howl.

Having said that, the book does possess many good qualities. As in, the first section that attempts to establish the Beats as a cultural phenomenon that continues to have a lasting impact. Some of the assertions are a stretch, such as McClure identifying the Beats as the "literary arm of the Environmentalist movement." Laugh at that statement, then move on to Joyce Johnson and Hettie Jones's strong pieces about the roles of the Beat women. The section is rounded off with John Tytell's piece which gives a solid historical context for the Beat movement.

The sections devoted to Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs border on overkill--especially the faithful reprinting of Rolling Stone's transcript of a conversation between Burroughs and David Bowie. But these sections do have some gems--Burrough's piece on Kerouac firmly dismisses the myth that Kerouac's books are just autobiographies with the names changed, Barry Alfonso's 1994 interview with Ginsberg, and Robert Palmer's interview with Burroughs and Brion Gysin. There are really no revelations about Kerouac or Burroughs here. And for anyone who has studied much about Ginsberg, the egocentrism displayed in his interviews is certainly not a surprise. What is shocking, though, is how some of these contributers seem to worship their subject--as in Mikal Gilmore writing on the effects of Ginsberg's poems: "Perhaps only Martin Luther King Jr.'s brave and costly quest had a more genuinely liberating impact upon the realities of modern history..." Comparing Ginsberg to MLK? Come on.

Perhaps the most poignant piece in the collection was written by Daniel Pinchbeck, the son of Joyce Johnson. His "Children of the Beats" is a startling look at the descendants of some of the core figures in Beat lore. He delves into the pressure of being a Beat child with a journalistic tone. The reader might feel more pain for these people if Pinchbeck hadn't presented them as average people attempting to live their own lives, distinct from their famous parents.

Other strong and unexpected contributions are Stephen Davis's piece on Brion Gysin and both pieces devoted to Robert Frank--these men were key figures in the Beat sub-strata and are often overlooked.

Perhaps my biggest criticism of this book is that is does not focus enough on the true impact of the Beats on culture. There is a half-hearted attempt to link the Beats to the Hippies of the late sixties, but I've never been one to buy into that notion--other than acknowledging Ginsberg's role in advancing the Hippie cause. This collection would have been well-served by a few pieces from sociology experts--people who could actually draw clear lines from the Beat movement to today's world by citing more examples than "Ginsberg recorded with Paul McCartney" and "Kurt Cobain and Patti Smith count Burroughs as a strong influence." (What do you expect from Rolling Stone, right?) No doubt the Beats impacted artists like Bob Dylan, but what does that mean to the rest of us?

In the closing paragraph of Joyce Johnson's quid pro quo with Daniel Pinchbeck (pg. 394), Pinchbeck states "...it is necessary to resist nostalgia to a certain extent. The cultural situation changes constantly, and suddenly out of what seems like a total void, who knows if a surprising Renaissance won't bloom?" While this is a valid observation, it also points out a glaring contradiction: This collection is 90% glorified nostalgia. Let's hope those who are truly interested in both preserving the Beat legacy and sparking a new Renaissance will find sources more substantial to fill the void.