How did their influences impact upon the form, techniques and style of the Beats’ writing?
The Beats’ writing style was fast-paced, energetic, emotional and confessional in tone, similar to jazz. Like the jazz musicians, the Beats experimented with improvisation. The process of writing can be related to that of a journey; the actual ride was as imperative as the arrival, that is, the completed work. A technique known as stream of consciousness was used by the Beats. Jack Kerouac aspired to consciousness on the page, which led to a form of writing which disregarded paragraphs, punctuation and sometimes linearity; it was a spontaneous, free-flowing writing practice, one that contemporary experimental writers have much to learn from. Indeed, the various forms, styles and techniques employed by the Beats – for example, free talking, free voices, freedom of expression, dream-like, random juxtaposition of dissociated images, cut-ups, non-linear texts, use of slang, confessional, passionate tone, hallucinatory atmosphere, stream of consciousness, hybrid forms of work that refuse rigidity, as well as political critique that drives the work – will be explored in the next section of this book, so that readers who wish to learn from the experimental forms and techniques of the Beats can do so; in addition, writers can utilize this rebellious, exciting and innovative practice within their own creative writing.
Beat/Music
This chapter illustrates how jazz was inspiring for the Beat movement, especially in terms of its improvisational element, so that readers can learn from this experimental technique and apply it to their own writing. In addition, it explores how the counter culture shift in terminology came about from beatnik to hippie.
How did jazz influence the Beat writers?
As the Beat movement was getting underway, the form of music known as Bebop was making a profound impact, especially in New York, where 5th Street was alive and buzzing with jazz clubs: The Open Door, Red Door and Minton’s were amongst the most famous and frequented. Bebop was an innovative style of jazz, focusing on virtuosity; it was associated with musicians such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie. Kerouac, Ginsberg and fellow Beats spent much of their time in clubs digging the jazz and shooting the breeze, enjoying listening to the music, socializing, smoking and drinking. They were known as ‘hipsters’, the ones who were ‘cool’ and adopted the jazz musician’s way of life. Jazz players were people who the Beats identified with as they sought to marginalize themselves from mainstream society; they considered them romantic figures: living on the margins, outcasts of white society, talented and tormented, but passionate about their art. And so, the Beats talked the talk of jazz, took the drugs the musicians took, drank heavily and had colourful sex lives like their secret heroes, who, in turn, modelled themselves on the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. Rimbaud had lived a decadent life but one that was nevertheless committed to his art, so much so that he burnt himself out whilst still very young. The Beats and jazz players lived their art and lived by their ideals; they collapsed the distance between life and art, but for some, for example, Jack Kerouac, that also meant burning out before he reached old age.
Many terms from the jazz culture were borrowed by the Beats and used in their writing, for example, dig and square; it is difficult to translate directly the obscure language of the jazz musicians adopted by the Beats. However, dig meant really like ‘hot jazz’ finding it ‘cool’, whereas square implied dull and conformist, in other words boring.
Jazz became the inspiration behind the Beats experimental writing in both form and content. Kerouac often referred to jazz as being the greatest discovery of his life. The connection with the improvisational jazz musicians became the impetus for the free-flowing, spontaneous prose he was trying to create. He endeavoured to follow the creative process behind jazz and apply it to his writing, namely free association of thought, abandonment of formal structures and spontaneity of composition; this brought writing closer to the spoken word.
And so, Bebop improvisation was the technique the Beats used to approach their creative process of writing. They used the principles of Bebop playing and applied it to prose and poetry, a style sometimes referred to as Bop Prosody, for example, in Book of Blues – which was considered by the publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti to be more prose than poetry – Kerouac copies the style of jazz by repeating phrases:
I got the San Francisco Blues
Bluer than misery
I got the San Francisco Blues
Bluer than eternity
I gotta go on home
Fine me
Another
Sanity
(Book of Blues, San Francisco Blues 36th chorus)
Just as the jazz player used the control and bursts of breath to play notes, the Beat writers employed the same technique with language, so steams of consciousness, gaps in the text, lack of punctuation became their distinctive writing style, and the rhythm and intensity of emotion within the writing mirrored that of jazz, as in Doctor Sax (Book 4, 117):
And not that tragic halo,
Half git, half hidden-
The night the man with
The watermelon died-should I
Tell-(Oh Ya Ya Yoi Yoi)
How he died
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Experiment with this: Learning to Create Writing that Mirrors Jazz
Write a novel extract
Imagine you are one of The Beats in a club listening to jazz and engaging in conversation. Use your senses and emotions to capture this experience in your writing, repeat phrases, incorporate bursts of language and then create gaps in the text, a text that tries to capture the spoken word. Now do further research into musicians, jazz clubs, fashion, language used during the 1950s. Rewrite your text, still retaining the form of the narrative, but inscribing it with authentic detail of the time.
* * *
What was a beatnik?
The term beatnik was coined by Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle on 2 April 1958 in response to the recent Russian satellite Sputnik and Beat Generation. This suggested that the beatniks were far out of the mainstream society and pro-Communist. The Beatniks were renowned for their distinctive look; they wore dark shades, sandals, black pants, turtleneck sweaters and sported goatee beards.
What is/was a hippie?
During the late 1950s, aspects of the Beat movement transformed into the sixties Counter Culture Movement: the hippies. The hippies shared the rebellious nature of the beatniks and were anti-establishment and defied middle-class values. They were also against the Vietnam War, believing strongly in love, peace, freedom and understanding. Allen Ginsberg was involved with the hippies and the anti-war movement. However, Jack Kerouac parted company with Ginsberg during this time and was openly critical of the protest movements.
Rather than jazz, the hippies were fans of the Beatles, in particular John Lennon, who wrote Give Peace a Chance, and George Harrison, who embraced Eastern spirituality; he wrote ‘My Sweet Lord’ and studied sitar in India with Ravi Shankar. Other musicians the hippies followed were The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. In contrast to the dark clothing worn by the beatniks, the hippie wore colourful psychedelic tops, scarves, jeans, beads and grew their hair long.
* * *
Experiment with this: Learning to Write Characters: The Beatnik and the Hippie
Write a novel extract in which two characters, a beatnik and a hippie, meet at a party. In your extract, give their first impressions of each other. Write a conversation in which they discuss their views on politics and taste in music. Draw on historical facts and cite specific music and musicians, ensuring you create credible voices for your characters by employing the appropriate language to render the text authentic.
* * *
Spirituality and the Beats
This chapter investigates the spiritual yearnings of the Beats, the profound influence Buddhism had on the writers, both in terms of content of their writing and their creative writing process, so that contemporary writers can experiment with these ideas and tech
niques too.
Which spiritual writers informed the Beats?
Aware of the spiritual bankruptcy of Europe, following the First World War, many writers turned to the wisdom of the East. Henry Miller, considered to be the great grandfather of the Beats, was such a writer. He was admired by the Beats and the hippies for his rebellious streak, his ‘Do what thou wilt’ philosophy. Miller had a fascination with the East, in particular Zen and Tao. This fascination manifested itself in his studies and in his writing. In 1942, he wrote his spiritual travelogue The Colossus of Maroussi.
English writer Aldous Huxley also turned to the East. His spiritual search was born out of his pacifism. Through his study of the factors leading up to the First World War, and influences preparing Europe for another one, he came to the conclusion that society would be worthless if there weren’t changes in people. He read Vedanta, the teachings of the Vedas, the earliest Indian scriptures, often referred to as the Upanishads; Bhagavad Gita; Tao Te Ching and Sufi writings. In 1932, Huxley wrote Brave New World, a novel set in the future. The theme of Brave New World was the advancement of science as it affects human beings; it explored developments in reproductive technology, psychological manipulation and the fear of loss of individual identity. As a result of further study of Eastern mysticism, and his experimentation with mescaline, Huxley published The Doors of Perception in 1954. The novel took its title from a phrase in the William Blake poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and was a documentation of his drug trip and the insights and visions he had. As a result of taking mescaline, Huxley understood the nature of reality from a Buddhist perspective: an individual was not independent and separate from the world nor was reality outside one’s self; God was to be found within, and our individual consciousness was only a small part of a vast psychic sea he called Mind at Large; in Buddhist terms everything is connected. The teachings of the East were both an inspiration and a comfort to Huxley; he turned to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a work of tantric Buddhism, as his wife, Maria, was dying of cancer.
German-born, Swiss poet, novelist and painter Herman Hess received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1946. He was like the Beats, a rebel, an outsider, a man who revolted against materialism and the decline of culture. Inspired by Buddha, he was concerned with the individual’s inner journey to discover one’s true self and overcome suffering, by listening to one’s inner voice. Consequently, his literary works were steeped with Eastern philosophy and were a record of this spiritual journey to a place within. The works of Hess, for example, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, all explored an individual’s search for self-knowledge and spirituality and informed the work of the Beats. Hess wrote one of the most influential works of European literature in the twentieth century: Siddhartha, the novel still has wide appeal. As mentioned, the focus of the novel was the spiritual development of the characters, altered states of consciousness and the mystical aspects. Hess was a pacifist who studied Eastern and Western philosophy, in particular the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, works that greatly informed Siddhartha, a novel which captured the quest of the Brahmin Siddhartha, a quest to conquer his fears and suffering, despite temptations of wealth, luxury and those of the flesh, in order to attain transcendental bliss, the purpose of human existence, a concept familiar to anyone who takes the Buddhist path and who is familiar with the Eastern texts.
The Upanishads are said to be divine revelations received by seers. Upanishad is a Sanskrit word suggesting ‘sitting down under’, that is, at the feet of an enlightened teacher. The Upanishads, therefore, are teachings received in this way; their purpose is more concerned with inspiration rather than instruction, but it is not known who composed them or when. The focus of the Upanishads is that the reality of God is not something separate from an individual, but it is the innermost part of one’s being, one’s highest self, known as Brahman, Self or Atman.
The Bhagavad Gita is one of the classic spiritual texts of the world which enshrines the essential values of the Upanishad. The story concerns the plight of Arjuna, the commander of an army, who after seeing his kith and kin on the opposing side of a pending war tells Krishna, his spiritual guide, that he will not fight, as he is overcome by pity. Krishna replies with concerns not just about the war, but the ones that concern humanity: Why do we exist? Why is there suffering? The structure of the narrative is question and answer, its intent enquiry and its goal self-discovery and enlightenment.
The spiritual development of the characters, the journey within, was the focus of the novel Siddhartha, not plot. As a consequence of reading the Eastern texts, Hess discovered the truth seeker rises above the temptations of the senses. This was a theme of his other influential work Steppenwolf too. In the Upanishads, the conflict of duality was described as that between the ‘higher’ and ‘lowers’ selves. The ‘lower self’ comprising the senses turns to the transient, sensual world of pleasure, known as sansara, whereas the mind can turn inward and discover the ‘higher self’ which is blissful, a realm where duality does not exist. Hess illustrated the theme of duality in the novel by the role of two friends of Siddhartha, firstly Govinda and later Vasudeva. The protagonist Siddhartha was said to represent Hess, and the friends were said to represent who he wished to become.
Another writer inspired by Hess was the poet T. S. Eliot who was born in the United States but moved to England and was made a British subject. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948. His most famous work is the poem The Waste Land. In May 1922 T. S. Eliot visited Hess in Montagnola. Hesse’s essay In Sight of Chaos (1919) was mentioned in the notes of The Waste Land, with references to the Occult, Tarot and Upanishads, and mystical symbols.
* * *
Experiment with this: Learning to Use a Spiritual Quest
Create a character who is making a journey to recover or find something of spiritual value. What is (s)he wanting to recover? Why? Write the journey including a series of obstacles and characters who help them overcome these obstacles along the way. Focus on the inner journey of the character and their spiritual development as well as the outer journey.
* * *
In what ways were the Beats spiritual?
The media, and indeed the FBI, saw the rebellious Beats as being a threat to middle-class, conservative society. However, despite their frenetic lifestyles, the writings of the Beats were profoundly spiritual and transcendental. The Beats’ philosophy was one of anti-materialism and stressed the importance of bettering one’s inner self over and above material possessions.
The German philosopher Oswald Spengler wrote The Decline of The West; this text discussed the rise and fall of civilization. In 1945 Burroughs gave Jack Kerouac a copy of this text. Spengler suggested that it was within the cultures of the East where a person may discover one’s spiritual path; this text no doubt inspired Jack to see beyond the consumer culture of 1950s. Spengler suggested that those who are downbeat will prevail when social structures collapse.
So, although, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road was about true-life stories, and made up ones, whilst making road trips and living out of a car, it was fundamentally a spiritual quest, a search for meaning. The spiritual quest which was the focus of the book was interior; however, the trials and tribulations faced actually on the road, coupled with the beauty of the landscape, accentuated the spiritual journey. On the Road, although a spiritual quest, was also considered to be about the search for the lost brother, father and also Kerouac himself, a book in which he was waiting for God to show himself, as he was known to say. Indeed, the Beats were asking big questions about human life and (wo)man’s place within the universe. They were on a spiritual quest: beat to beatitude; suffering to joy; misery and sin to enlightenment and blessedness.
Kerouac was very much aware of his own mortality and life’s impermanence, a concept he explored in Visions of Cody; he wrote that death was going to happen to us all sooner or later. Change and the impermanence of all things is the central teaching of Buddha. Buddhism, th
erefore, offers a method of practice that brings the individual into realization and alignment with the basic characteristic of reality, that is, its impermanence. Buddhism teaches that because we desire life to be permanent, death haunts us; fear of death has to be faced and integrated into our lives. It is imperative, according to Buddhism, that we come to terms with impermanence and free ourselves from the stress of what we are going to lose, because impermanence is our essence.
Buddhism teaches that one cannot avoid and ignore the darker parts of ourselves; this was something that the Beats were aware of, and indeed, to a certain extent, they celebrated this dark side of themselves and others in their writing. In addition, Buddhism emphasizes death in order to bring the urgency of life more vividly into focus, and the Beats too were concerned with the urgency of life which they expressed in their lifestyles and through their writing. They were also propelled on their spiritual journeys by their own suffering too. Most of the Beats were deeply troubled individuals. When he was four years old, Kerouac lost his brother, Gerald, as a result of a heart condition. He also lost his father when still young. William Burroughs’s father shot and killed his mother when he was a child; his father later died as a result of his alcoholism and drug addiction. Ginsberg, too, had a traumatic life and spent some time in a mental hospital. And yet, the Beats wrote honestly and freely about suffering, and in so doing, they showed empathy and compassion.
The Beats were possibly motivated by the suffering of those who lived on the margins of society, too, for example, drug addicts, prostitutes, the homeless. Jack Kerouac, in particular, spent time exploring African-American culture among the clubs of Harlem. The idea of suffering or dukkha is central to the Buddhist philosophy which acknowledges that suffering is inevitable and a universal human experience. However, according to the Buddhist worldview, individuals should not avoid experiencing suffering, rather it is to be seen as something to be entered into, and, by doing so, we deepen our understanding of it, and ourselves, eventually moving through it. Buddhism teaches compassion towards others and ourselves. The basis of compassion or metta is loving-kindness; compassion arises when it comes into contact with suffering. It is a loving-kindness that one seeks to develop through the practice of mindful meditation. And within compassion there is always the opportunity for creative action, which, according to Buddhism, is a meaningful and purposeful way to live one’s life.
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