Catharsis and Ginsberg and Hack Poetry: Anon Meme
I've been in a rather nasty mood all week. Can't exactly say why, there's a number of factors that contributed and frankly, I've already dedicated enough words and thoughts to most of them. So today I decided to take a break. Sit back. Watch a movie.
On a whim, I picked Howl. Possibly because I never mind spending an hour or so staring at James Franco. The film is sort of a biography of the poem and of Ginsberg and of the obscenity trial in 1957 that Ginsburg chose to ignore but won nonetheless. It's all a bit confusing, but that may have been the point: after all, as the trial transcript read, "One cannot translate poetry into prose." I think this may be a poem of a movie and as I often tell JJ, I simply don't understand poetry. I'm prosaic, what can I say.
Ginsberg has long been the main exception, but not the famous ones - not "Howl" or "Kaddish". My favorite poem longer than fourteen lines has always been Ginsberg's "America." I finally found the reading of it that's my favorite - it's an earlier version of the poem and varies in places than the final published text. Ginsberg's recitals of the final poem always sound dry, regretful, and serious. But in this recording Ginsberg sounds drunk and delighted - he's reading it in a club and the audience shouts back and laughs, because what this poem is about is pointing out the absurd for exactly what it is, and to recall that we can't take ourselves too seriously.
And I felt better for hearing that poem and drunken riotous laughter once more. So, to come to peace with Supernatural and fandom and that which shook me and put the fear into me but which should never control me, I'm posting something I wrote long ago (on October 12, 2010, as it says) but never took credit for. I thought of it and looked it over and yeah, I think it still works (or works as well as it ever did). My apologies to Allen Ginsberg once again, but his queer shoulder has been and remains one I can lay my head upon and find great comfort.
( Anon Meme (With all apologies to Allen Ginsberg) )
On a whim, I picked Howl. Possibly because I never mind spending an hour or so staring at James Franco. The film is sort of a biography of the poem and of Ginsberg and of the obscenity trial in 1957 that Ginsburg chose to ignore but won nonetheless. It's all a bit confusing, but that may have been the point: after all, as the trial transcript read, "One cannot translate poetry into prose." I think this may be a poem of a movie and as I often tell JJ, I simply don't understand poetry. I'm prosaic, what can I say.
Ginsberg has long been the main exception, but not the famous ones - not "Howl" or "Kaddish". My favorite poem longer than fourteen lines has always been Ginsberg's "America." I finally found the reading of it that's my favorite - it's an earlier version of the poem and varies in places than the final published text. Ginsberg's recitals of the final poem always sound dry, regretful, and serious. But in this recording Ginsberg sounds drunk and delighted - he's reading it in a club and the audience shouts back and laughs, because what this poem is about is pointing out the absurd for exactly what it is, and to recall that we can't take ourselves too seriously.
And I felt better for hearing that poem and drunken riotous laughter once more. So, to come to peace with Supernatural and fandom and that which shook me and put the fear into me but which should never control me, I'm posting something I wrote long ago (on October 12, 2010, as it says) but never took credit for. I thought of it and looked it over and yeah, I think it still works (or works as well as it ever did). My apologies to Allen Ginsberg once again, but his queer shoulder has been and remains one I can lay my head upon and find great comfort.
( Anon Meme (With all apologies to Allen Ginsberg) )