eng 272: "this is the beat generation"

This week we spend time with the Beat Generation, a counter-culture literary movement poised between WWII and the more free-wheeling movement-laden era of the 1960s.


Writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs form the mythical triumvirate of the Generation, and readers, writers, and scholars have reacted to and emulated them throughout the decades since On the Road and Howl, those iconic works, were first published in the late 1950s.


However (in)famous these fellows were, they alone do not define the Beat Generation. An entire constellation of writers and "minor characters" surround them, and their personal stories and artistic creations are fascinating read alongside the more famous works and in their own right.


The internet is rife with Beat websites, videos, photos, and links. I've provided a few here to start your exploration of this often mythologized and misunderstood movement.


Literary Kicks is a great blog for literary conversation, including Beat specific info.


For a behind-the-scenes look at Jack Kerouac's myth, check out this NPR website.


Here's a video of Diane di Prima reading poetry at UC Berkeley

And here's a video of Gary Snyder talking about ecology and poetry.


Kerouac reading the ending of On the Road, set to a montage of photos from the BG.


For you indie music fans, check out Death Cab for Cutie's song "Bixby Canyon Bridge," a song obliquely about Jack Kerouac.