The Beat Generation

• From where does the word “Beat” in “Beat Generation” come? – In the drug culture of

the 50’s “Beat” referred to being robbed or cheated

Legendary Neal Cassidy was the

inspiration behind the beat

movement.

In addition to numerous women, Cassidy also had a relationship with Beat writer Alan Ginsberg

Kerouac met Cassidy through Ginsberg while living with Ginsberg at Columbia University.

Ginsberg was expelled for housing Kerouac. Together, along with

William Burroughs, they formed the original Beat

movement.

Jack Kerouac

Neil Cassidy’s Influence

• A free spirit who married numerous women and fathered numerous children, Cassidy was the inspiration for Kerouac’s On The Road and character Dean Moriarity.

• The Beats were attracted to his free spirit, disregard for the law, and his vivaciousness.

• He was a car thief and con-man who spent his childhood in detention centers.

Beat Characteristics

• Spiritual liberation, sexual "revolution" or "liberation," i.e., gay liberation, women's liberation, and black liberation,

• Liberation of the word from censorship.

• Demystification and/or decriminalization of some laws against marijuana and other drugs.

Beat characteristics cont.

• The evolution of rhythm and blues into rock and roll as a high art form, as evidenced by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other popular musicians influenced in the later fifties and sixties by Beat generation poets' and writers' works.

• The spread of ecological consciousness.

• Stream of consciousness, spontaneous.

Beat Characteristics cont.

• Opposition to the military-industrial machine civilization.

• Return to an appreciation of idiosyncrasy as against state regimentation.

• Respect for land and indigenous peoples and creatures, as proclaimed by Kerouac in his slogan from On the Road 'The Earth is an Indian thing.'

Beat Influences

• Henry David Thoreau

• Walt Whitman

• William Blake

Beat Generation influenced….

The Beatles Crosby, Stills, and Nash

Joan Baez

The Beats

• Best known for his drug culture novel Naked Lunch

• “Howl”

• “America”

• “Supermarket in California”

• “Sunflower Sutra”

• “Song”

Ginsberg cont.

• Denunciated America’s cultural temper during the Cold War (McLemee)

• Ginsberg has embodied varied aspects of the counterculture: pacifism, drug experimentation, sexual liberation, hostility to bureaucracy (both capitalist and Communist), and openness to Eastern religions. (McLemee)

• Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• Made into a movie staring Jack Nicholson

Ken Kesey

• “The Window”• “Chronology”• “First Snow,

Kerhonkson”

• One of a few women Beats. She focused on her relationships, female archetypes, and alchemy.