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Reader Feedback on "History of Single Life"
If anything, this shitstorm of feedback in "defense" of the Beats only goes to prove my point: That they were integral to establishing the image of the single, urban person in opposition to conventional society. Shame that the allegedly iconoclastic have themselves been made into idols to be zealously defended.
--KenM
07/10 |
Actually, neither Kerouac or Ginsberg came from affluence, as anyone who had even passing exposure to their work would know. But then again, at what Nerve pays per word, it's incredibly fortunate that the guy writes in complete sentences.
--RA
07/08 |
I’m not certain why the chin-stroking Mondschein feels that William Burroughs is responsible for the music he hears in Starbucks (though his description of said music appears more apt for Chinese restaurants), or why he claims that Jack Kerouac, a man who lived -- drunk, broke -- with his mother, should claim responsibility for recent New York City rent increases. As others have mentioned, the piece is riddled with errors of attribution, quotation and fact, though I assume that he is not responsible for the misleading headline. One might assert that Kerouac and Burroughs lacked extraordinary talent; I would think by now that one could not merely assert it – their importance to letters American and beyond, is pretty well-established. Has Mondschein spent much time reading them? Is he aware of the split between the Beats and the Bohemians? Sounds like his Ph.D is oriented more toward 19th Century France (though, if so, it’s weird that he doesn’t mention Flaubert in a study of Bohemia). Is he the friend of a Nerve editor? I don’t understand how this piece got past the gatekeepers. There isn’t even any sex in it, minus the claim that Kerouac was “unashamedly” bisexual -- even those with a passing knowledge of his work know that he was pretty conflicted about it. Certainly there is plenty to criticize concerning the politics, self-mythology and cultural/literary effect of the Beats and their work. To do so, one might have to know something about them, though.
--DS
07/08 |
As the arts become more and more specialized, institutionalized and academically entrenched, one of the signature traits of the modern putative intelligentsia is that they look upon artists such as the Beats—artists who actually took risks, who broke through the outmoded paradigms of their times, not only in their work, but in their lifestyle choices–with a kind of ironic sneer and an air of belittling contempt. Yes, the Bohemian ethos has been packaged and marketed, but this has been the result of mainstream culture’s ongoing efforts to assimilate the threats to its authority such outsider artists pose. Similarly, these kinds of reductive views, as expressed in this article, only attempt to dismiss a movement which was much more genuine in its intentions and culturally important than any factitious university sponsored PHD treatise today can pretend to be. In a world of corporate homogenization, gentrification and globalization, the creative individual finds him/herself more and more under attack. All the more reason to treasure those rare individuals who actually put their life into their art despite the mocking and scoffing of the socially privileged.
--CH
07/07 |
I wonder if you have read any other book of Kerouac at all.
All these "overrated" talk comes from the feeling of great impotence for life, that's really sad. And you can't overcome it by making some secretive look on te photo. Poor Ken...
--VB
06/30 |
FK: I was quoting Mahoney. AN: Thanks, fixed the quote. Sometimes you have something in your head so deep you don't feel you need to look it up, but it's off just a tad...
--KenM
06/19 |
I appreciate the article, and think the Beats have been over-rated for a while. Important? Sure. But can anyone really say that Kerouac was as talented as Hemingway, or Fitzgerald? Really, GVR? Can you actually stand to read ANY Kerouac novels besides OTR? In my opinion, the Beats' cultural importance is far greater than the actual quality of their art.
--dbb
06/15 |
This is what that asinine Time Out New York feature should've been.
--AML
06/12 |
MS-what exactly is "great American genius" supposed to be? And how does that differ from regular genius (which you are saying Hemingway had and the beats lacked)?
--FK
06/12 |
would have been a swell article if he hadn't misquoted ginsberg in the first sentence. Just a thought.
--an
06/12 |
So gorgeously insightful that I am completely, utterly and entirely beside myself.
--nd
06/12 |
My crushing reply: You can't learn to be beat from BOOKS, man.
--KenM
06/12 |
How on earth could this guy miss
Gregory Corso? One of the four "initators" along with Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs. What, no reference to the history. Just the broad sweep. Without Gregory Corso, you don't have the whole picture. Not even half of it.
I dare this writer to reply. I have the most extensive Beat Book collection and film in the country. Wow. This guy really didn't get his grounding.
And what about Keruoac's OTR, which was the first - first - depicting of young college kids having unmarried sex.
Generalites, and what you get if you don't have pros writing.
I dare this guy to respond. A public debate. The little he knows will be laid bare as a baby's ass while changing a diaper.
--GVR
06/12 |
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