Writer's Block: Poetry

[evile]

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Honestly, I don't think my generation has any 'best minds'... I mean, come on, Curt Fricken Cobain, Mr. "I ate a shotgun once" was called "The Voice of Our Generation"...and I'm sorry but the man was an idiot.

No one in my generation has the attention span, the breadth or depth of education, or the moral wherewithal to compose or be reached by great poetry (or fine literature of any kind). And I'm as shallow, stupid, lazy, apathetic, selfish, and attention-deficient as the rest of the people I talk about, though perhaps marginally more self-aware.

To the people before and after my generation, who depend on us, or WILL depend on us for anything: I am deeply and thoroughly apologetic and embarassed. (But far too lazy and self-involved to do anything about it.)

Comments

[angryneo.livejournal.com]

I love to read "Howl" to the kiddos when they go to bed.

[rei-kun.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't think my generation has any 'best minds'... I mean, come on, Curt Fricken Cobain, Mr. "I ate a shotgun once" was called "The Voice of Our Generation"...and I'm sorry but the man was an idiot.

*applause* Finally someone else who will say this in public. I'll take you a step further and say he was a hack musician who caught lightning in a bottle.

No one in my generation has the attention span, the breadth or depth of education, or the moral wherewithal to compose or be reached by great poetry (or fine literature of any kind). And I'm as shallow, stupid, lazy, apathetic, selfish, and attention-deficient as the rest of the people I talk about, though perhaps marginally more self-aware.

I must beg to differ on this point. Dylan Thomas' "Do no go Gentle into that Good Night" has always had a profound effect on me, and has become part of my philosophy on life. Maya Angelou has always been very influential in my life, especially the poem "Still I Rise".

These poems that I kept in my heart have helped me through some very difficult times in my life. So yeah, good poetry has had an effect on me.

Ja

Rei

Point taken.

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

OK, I'll grant you that poetry and literature can be very emotionally effective, even to the witless wonders of most of our peer group...but please name me one person in our age bracket who has written anything even close to Dylan Thomas or Maya Angelou's work.

Being an appreciative consumer of a fine product is an OK thing to be, but being a talented artist is another question altogether. We're not all philistines...but still.

Re: Point taken.

[rei-kun.livejournal.com]

Well, I cannot as I am not a particular follower of poetry. I am a musician as you know so I tend to listen to more musical artists than poets. Now it can be argued that music is lyrical poetry, and in that case I can say that bands like Rage against the Machine wrote very poignant and moving "poetry", while also being revolutionary and controversial as well. System of a Down as well, and to a lesser extent Good Charlotte. Now they may not have have the literary "street cred" that Maya Angelou and Dylan Thomas have, but I can assure you that their music touched the masses that would never consider reading Dylan Thomas.

ja

Rei

Re: Point taken.

[angryneo.livejournal.com]

Ginsberg's generation gave us the beat poets, which gave rise to lyrics combined with a jazz as the backdrop. I view that generation as the forerunner to what is now called rap and hip-hop and an indirect influence on rock and roll. With its rythmic cadence and dark tone, the beatniks' words set the literary world on fire. It was igneous and incendiary. It meant something. There may be similar minds today. The difference is our generation no longer innovates. And I agree that most of our age group have never read any Dylan Thomas or Jack Kerouac. Yet their influence is felt to this day. "On the Road" is one of the grittiest books I have ever read. No musical act or otherwise live a harder life than the beat generation. OK, maybe The Rolling Stones. But I digress.

I should also mention Allen Ginsberg is/was a huge influnce on one of my favorite bands, U2. In fact, on Achtung Baby Charles Bukowski's "Bar Fly" inspired the song "The Fly".

Re: Point taken.

[thax.livejournal.com]

hold up there.

U2's lyrics are the same drivel as anywhere else. Listening, I'm compelled to stop and say, "these lyrics are stupid." Now, maybe I just haven't run across the songs you found best, having really only listened to their radio play. But maybe that is the root of the problem.
What makes it to radio or Empty-vee is the not the finest that the cream of our generation has to offer. The "really good stuff" is not readily available and suffering from a word of mouth sort of advertising. And that system is reinforced every time we buy from the big distributors...

Re: Point taken.

[angryneo.livejournal.com]

Yes. Thank you. You have hit the nail on the head. Most of U2's better stuff has never been radio friendly, only controversial even. However, I used U2 as an example of the Beat Generation's influence. The music is what sells records not the lyrics. Hell. Listen to any musical "act" today. What garbage, right? It needs to be catchy. Most of it IS drivel, I agree. And yes, some of U2's electronica/pop-infused stuff made me cringe.

Now in U2's defense, here is a band that emerged from the late 70s punk scene. Punk (not that neo-punk shit either) was raw and real and angry. There was a message. That's the point to this thread. The influence that resonates in unlikely places few and far between as they might be. U2 came from that. When an artist "gets it", he or she becomes relevant.

As you mentioned, the good stuff suffers because no one knows about it. We are to blame for that for buying from the big distributors. All packaging and merchandising. Music (and art) are no longer personal. It's sold in bulk to us, the masses of comsumerist sheep. Which is what "Howl" was predicting.

[buckeyebrain.livejournal.com]

There was a young man from Nantucket...

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

go on, I think you've got the makings of an Epic Poem right there... :p

[blissfish.livejournal.com]

I'll regret this right after I post, I know I will.

"No one in my generation has the attention span, the breadth or depth of education, or the moral wherewithal to compose or be reached by great poetry (or fine literature of any kind)."
Wow, really? Well fuck you too.

We don't know if there are any great, history-changing minds in our generation because no one has written the history yet. Until someone saw a profit in it, saw some motivation for themselves to publish, publicize, and hype the Beats, they were just someone else reading at a mic. Same as happens every week, in every city, with thousands of different voices you haven't heard, but whom you have seen fit to swipe with your judgment.

What about the people, of our generation, right now in their studios, at their notebooks, in their labs - making history that we haven't heard of yet? The voices that define a generation are always heard in hindsight.

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

No worries.

I was, perhaps, writing a bit hyperbolically.

I just can't say that I'm much impressed by my peers, most of 'em, as of yet.

Maybe, as you say, it's all in history and marketing and we're no more mediocre than any of our ancestors.

But to me it sure feels like we're living in the doldrums, as far as achievements go.

Maybe I'm taking this quote out of context...

[angryneo.livejournal.com]

"Until someone saw a profit in it, saw some motivation for themselves to publish, publicize, and hype the Beats, they were just someone else reading at a mic."

I doubt The Poets intended to capitalize on their art. Someone else profitted from it perhaps, but the point to the Beat Movememnt was the opposite of that grain, against consumerism. The message and the point have been lost, IMHO. It's what killed the appreciation for spoken word, what killed radio, what killed art. What killed Kurt Cobain. The appreciation of our roots was lost. Purism was lost. Original thought and innovation no longer exist.

Re: Maybe I'm taking this quote out of context...

[blissfish.livejournal.com]

That's kind of the point. I doubt the Beat poets intended to be the voice of their generation, either. No one decides to be the voice of their generation - that is a label and a status bequeathed by other people - the artists themselves have no say in the matter.

As far as there being no no original thought and innovation - bullshit. If you are defining "originality" by a work or movement not being based on the work of past works or by the words of other people, there has never been innovation.

Part of being moved by literature, or music, or art is being changed by it. A person absorbs that experience, that work, into themselves and their own worldview. So of course all art, all music, all writing, all human creativity is based on, and derivative of past works. Innovation isn't creating something completely new, independent of all creations that came before it - really, that's impossible. A writer cannot learn to write without reading - and thus absorbing - words written by other people. The rhythm of poetry, the syncopations of jazz, those aren't invented, whole cloth, by each new generation. They are expanded, made relevant to new times and new technologies, they grow and change, like language itself. Because art is language, whatever media a person works in.

This whole lamenting about how all of the good stuff has already been done, and all artists now are just copiers and layabouts is just another long-winded version of "It's pretty, but is it Art?" One of the most tired questions, ans one of the worst excuses for ignoring something you (general you) may not like that has ever been coined.

I really do think that nostalgia is just a form of fatalism dressed up in pastel colors. It's a way of giving up, on yourself and everyone around you.

Re: Maybe I'm taking this quote out of context...

[angryneo.livejournal.com]

I was refering more to fresh originality. Without giving credit to "paying tribute", most artists have liitle say in what they produce. We are expected to buy into the mainstream and eat the leftovers. Yes, "everything comes from something". That's stating the obvious.

The question is what influence do our peers have on us? Ginsberg and the Beats influenced art, music, activism and social awareness directly in the 50s and 60s. Haight-Ashbury was a direct product of that with all of its derivatives. We don't have that kind of voice. We have no Cause. No Pride. No Kerouac or Williams. There is a war on right now which we mildly if anything protest. I just swicth the channel. The Vietnam War divided the nation but it was the voices of that time that brought that same generation together. That's innovation and originality IMO.