Saturday, 19 December 2015

Session Seven: Counterculture Howl by Allen Ginsberg

Drugs, sex, rock & roll, experimentation, freedom fighting, dark matter, the words that I would use to describe this poem in one sentence.
It is a riveting piece especially after I listened to Allen Ginsberg reading it on you tube.

This poem, like marmite —you either love it or hate it. I started to love it reading it the more I read it while attempting to make all the pieces slot in, much like doing a puzzle, starting with the outside pieces and working in.
It reminds me of Jim Morrison's music/lyrics what I listened to a great deal as a rebellious teenager.

Jim Morrison's Quote:
Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.
  

There is a YouTube video of Ginsberg' Howl mixed with Jim Morrison's music called the underworld superstars a rare unreleased piece. It's worth watching especially if you don't get Howl-

Allen Ginsberg writes about his personal experiences, his deepest fears too in the first part of the poem. You can't really relate to him and this writing unless you tired or lived like him or you have ever felt deeply depressed in your life. This message has been portrayed using the word 'who' throughout.

In the second part his focus is on the industrial civilization and the rejection of the modern world. He uses God Moloch as a reference to a person or thing demanding or requesting a very costly sacrifice.

In Part three he is writing to his friend Carl Solomon who is in the madhouse - saying his madness his rebellion against Moloch and I am with him, and extending my hand in union. Ginsberg gets emotional feels compassion towards his friend. He knows that capitalism is destructive and Society is ruthless. 

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