Ginsberg

Carl Sandburg once said that, "I've written some poetry that even I don't understand". Howl is this poem that everyone knows about and that everyone thinks is great. Don't get me wrong, I like the poem a lot but what makes it so good? I don't want to be that one guy that everyone hates because he didn't enjoy Catcher in the Rye. I also don't want to be the one person who didn't enjoy Ginsberg.

Thinking about Howl, I am reminded of the controversy most of all. I think about GG Allin. A homeless hipster on Pacific once screamed at me coming out of Street light Records: "What do you know about GG Allin?". I know that he was a punk rock icon because he ate his own poop on stage. His music was mostly crap. People love him and saw him because of his on stage performance. I doubt he'd be even remotely as successful or famous if he didn't eat poop on stage. This isn't a question just for Ginsberg and the Howl trials but for all of literature. Susan Summer's Butt Buster 3 self help book probably will sell millions if she were on trial for double homicide. I know that Howl would have been successful regardless of the trials but it probably wouldn't have caused a lasting interest that it did. Howl broke boundaries and laid the road for future poetry both politically and artistically.

Sometimes I feel as if the greatest days of American literature are behind us. Maybe ipods and PS3s' have made books a lesser voice in contemporary society. Can literature break any more boundaries or explore anymore corners? I don't see another Howl or another author writing things is as big a historical context. Maybe today there is another great book or poem out there that could be great but doesn't have that historical breaking hysteria behind it. Howl is great but would it be as successful without the controversy?

My Dad told me that there hasn't be a Great American author since F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read that David Foster Wallace hung himself in his living room last month. Ann Rice is still Alive. Why?