The 1950s were a decade of conformity. Every household in the rapidly expanding middle class owned the same refrigerator, the same washing machine, the same brand of china and silverware. In the midst of all this a new breed of youth was developing in the ‘Beat’ generation. A rebel this time with a cause, Allen Ginbserg, born in 1926, was their poetic leader. Although he had some difficulties at first in finding his own voice and self-confidence, he went on to write one of the most important pieces of modern American literature: the poem ‘Howl.’ In writing it, a man who could never fit into the normative conditions, or consensus, of the 1950s created a contentious work of literature that challenged the conformity of both the decade and of American society.
Leading up to his writing ‘Howl,’ Ginsberg led a life plagued by difficulties regarding his parents, his sexuality, and his self-esteem. His mother, Naomi, suffered from mental instability and paranoia, and it often fell to young Allen to “soothe her hysteria.” His father, Louis, provided some stability in the household, but their relationship was hardly easy. In a 1945 letter Louis wrote to his son regarding Allen’s attempts to rationalize what his father saw as abnormal behavior, he wrote, " Your clever verbal solutions are incongruous with reality of life. You are developed intellectually; but, emotionally, you lag."[1] Louis’ criticism made a large contribution to the lack of confidence that Allen experienced.
For much of his youth, Ginsberg was tormented by his homosexual tendencies. His motivation for applying to Columbia (where he started classes at age 17) was an “unrequited infatuation for a former schoolmate who had enrolled there.”[2] Because of this and other emotional struggles, Ginsberg underwent a large amount of psychoanalysis, from which emerged primarily sentiments of self-hate and both personal and literary incompetence.
In 1955, Ginsberg went into therapy “‘to overcome a block in his writing’”[3] with psychoanalyst Dr. Philip Hicks. Among other personal issues, such as his traumatic childhood and fear of falling into schizophrenia as his mother had[4], he also said that is “‘mind [was] crazed by homosexuality.’” [5] When Dr. Hicks replied with the question, “‘What would you like to do?’ Ginsberg admitted that what he wanted to do was…to give up his job in advertising and to write poems.”[6] This was a pivotal conversation in Ginsberg’s life and career as it influenced him to bring his desires to fruition. As Adam Kirsch said in his essay, ‘Starving Hysterical Naked,’ "It was the longing for ecstasy…that motivated [Ginsberg’s] early poetry."[7]
A year later, ‘Howl’ was published. Ginsberg stopped therapy four days after he performed the famous first public reading of it at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. This represented a massive shift for Ginsberg: the homoeroticism in the poem, exemplified by such lines as “who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy”[8], signified “the end of Ginsberg’s sexual ambivalence.”[9] Kirsch continued, "Ginsberg knew his true subject long before he was able to treat it appropriately and originally in verse. That subject was a genuine longing for transcendence, a conviction that space and time are merely the disguises of a more fundamental reality."[10]Dr. Hicks had certainly helped him over not only his writing block but also his emotional one. He “gave his patient the permission he seems to have needed to feel proud of himself as a poet, and to explore, without shame, his own homosexuality."[11]
‘Howl’ also provided a major innovation in literature. Kirsch wrote,
What made 'Howl' a revolution…was [Ginsberg’s] discovery of a form that makes longing genuinely dramatic...Second is the verbal recklessness...the magically felicitous combination of seemingly unrelated words...in 'Howl,' Ginsberg achieves a telescoping of ideas and images of which Donne would be proud.[12]
Also, his style of reading the poem was very particular. Instead of putting traditional emphasis on certain words, Ginsberg read it in a monotone moan-like voice[13] so that the title of the poem seemed in fact to originate in its sound or vice versa. This consistency continued despite blaringly vulgar or offensive language, possibly highlighting a comparison to the silent consensus of the 50s.
‘Howl’ is a scathing remark on some of the norms of society. The second section starts almost each of its strophes crying “Moloch!” Moloch was a cruel deity of ancient Babylon who required sacrifices. Lines such as “Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen!” and “Moloch whose blood is running money!”[14] comment on the improper values of society. After achieving his own sexual liberation, Ginsberg advocated the abolition of sexual repression, and of course “hydrogen” refers to the bomb—Ginsberg and his fellow members of the beat generation grew up in a time when the consequences of World War II were coming into realization. According to Kirsch, that section was a “formal curse against that materialism considered as ‘Moloch’…to whom the young casualties of the poem’s first part are sacrificed.”[15]
Some critics picked up on this storming condemnation and criticized Ginsberg for trying to stir up anger amongst the Youth. John Hollander said in a review that he wrote right after ‘Howl’s’ publication,
Allen Ginsberg has a real talent and a marvelous ear...even without knowing his profound and carefully organized earlier writing, one might suspect a good poet lurking behind the modish facade of a frantic and talentlos avant-garde.[16]
When editors asked to publish this review, Hollander wrote an addendum expressing his later regrets at having judged the piece in such a closed-minded way.
The poem’s obscenity and commentary had such an effect on the establishment that copies of ‘Howl and Other Poems’ were seized at customs when they were shipped in from London, and an obscenity trial ensued. City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, beat poet and friend of Ginsberg Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was closed for a brief period of time. However, Judge Clayton Horn cleared the charges, saying, “[‘Howl’] contains a matter of 'redeeming social importance...a picture of a nightmare world.' He said it identified 'materialism [and] conformity’…as factors destructive to modern society."[17]
Despite the result of the trial, many still protested against the generation that ‘Howl’ represented. "What [members of the beat generation] all have in common is the conviction that any form of rebellion against American culture...is admirable,” complained Norman Podhoretz in ‘A Howl of Protest in San Francisco. “They seem to regard homosexuality, jazz, dope-addiction, and vagrancy as outstanding examples of such rebellion…they talk endlessly about love,” he continued.[18] Later, though, Podhoretz admitted,
Ginsberg gets away with it…because his assault on America is a personal cry that rings true…his hysteria is tempered with humor, and…the dope-addicts, perverts, and maniacs he celebrates are not finally glamorized,[19]
contradicting his own accusation of using pleasure for an idealistic and uncalled for rebellion in distinguishing his response to the ‘beats’ from his reaction to the poem.
Members of that rebellion responded to ‘Howl’ with enormous enthusiasm. Kenneth Rexroth boldly defended the poem by turning the tables on Ginsberg’s critics, saying in his ‘San Francisco Letter,’ "It is your violence it is talking about. It is…the censors who are obscene. It is Dulles and Khrushchev who are childishly defiant.”[20]
Ginsberg came to define the beat generation, which was the premier counter-culture that went against the 50s consensus. "It is impossible to separate the influence of the text from that of the period it inspired and came to symbolize, the Beat fifties and hippie sixties,”[21] wrote Kirsch in his essay. Ginsberg was not the only person to see problems in American society, but he was able to put together a cultural work that emphasized those issues. The effects of his poem last until today and surely will into the future. Its endurance comes from the fact the root causes of society’s problems rarely change. As Bob Rosenthal said in his essay ‘A Witness’, “The [societies] we have known relentlessly resemble Moloch, embody Moloch, and out-Moloch Moloch. Invariably Moloch has been renewed, and so the poem 'Howl' is made new."[22]
[1] Allen Ginsberg, Louis Ginsberg, and Michael Schumacher, Family Business: Selected Letters between a Father and Son (New York: Bloomsbury, 2001) 6, Book Search, Web, 27 May 2011, <http://books.google.com/>.
[3] Jonah Raskin, American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation (N.p.: U of California, 2004) Google Book Search, Web, 26 May 2011, <http://books.google.com/>.
[7] Adam Kirsch, “Starving Hysterical Naked,” The Poem That Changed America: “Howl” Fifty Years Later, Ed. Jason Shinder (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006) 444.
[8] Allen Ginsberg, Howl: 50th Anniversary Edition, Ed. Barry Miles (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006).
[9] Tytell, 102.
[10] Kirsch, 444.
[11] Raskin, 154.
[12] Kirsch, 445.
[13] Allen Ginsberg, “Howl,” 1959, PennSound (U of Pennsylvania, 2006) Web, 23 May 2011, <http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Ginsberg/>.
[14] Allen Ginsberg, Howl: 50th Anniversary Edition, Ed. Barry Miles (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006) .
[15] Kirsch, 446
[16] John Hollander, “Review of ‘Howl and Other Poems,’” 1957, On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg, Ed. Lewis Hyde (N.p.: U of Michigan, 1984) 26-27.
[17] “Municipal Judge Holds Book Not Lewd,” Oregonian 4 Oct. 1957: n. pag. NewsBank Academic Library Edition, Web, 20 May 2011, <http://infoweb.newsbank.com/>.
[18] Norman Podhoretz, “A Howl of Protest in San Francisco,” 1957, On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg, Ed. Lewis Hyde (N.p.: U of Michigan, 1984) 34-35.
[20] Kenneth Rexroth, “San Francisco Letter,” 1957, On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg, Ed. Lewis Hyde (N.p.: U of Michigan, 1984) 32.
[21] Kirsch, 447
[22] Bob Rosenthal, “A Witness,” The Poem That Changed America: “Howl” Fifty Years Later, Ed. Jason Shinder (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006) 46.
