AMCULT 100 Lecture 6: Lecture 6– Beats Becoming Icons
Document Summary
1956: snyder leaves for japan to study buddhism. Nyt book review began to pay attention to the sf literary scene: teeming with young poets . Sf state university opened an experimental poetry center. Tribal elders: kenneth rexroth (south bend, indiana 1905) Writer, essayist, philosopher, painter, poet, unionist, anarchist: helped found sf poetry. Godfather of the beats involvement with readings and events at jazz clubs. Read dante, homer, shakespeare, melville at age 12, attended university of wisconsin: robinson jeffers (pittsburgh 1887) Combined ancient tragedies with old testament; christ with absurdity of modern life. Called for poetry of dangerous images, reclaim substance and sense and psychological reality . Poetry is bound to concern itself chiefly with the permanent aspects of life : appreciate the ineffable, the capriciousness of life, the commonplace yet ignored (embracing paradox) 4 sections of howl seem to correspond with the 4 noble truths of buddhism. Howl as a holy scripture: outline for living, release people from suffering.
