Modernism:
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Post-Modernism
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
2) How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
What does 'The Wasteland' mean?
1) how has it been interpreted? (cite examples)
2)what are some of the key features
3) In what way has it been influential
Post-Modernism
1) What common qualities do 'the beats' share? Why 'beats'?
2) How is beat poetry linked to rap?
3) How was Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War' involved in controversy during the Bush administration?
4) On what grounds was 'Howl' accused of being obscene - grounds for the defense?
5) What kind of protest song/rap other media have come out in the last decade? Is there a spirit of protest anymore?
For our last blog question I thought I would answer Post-Modernism question #4, as I found ‘Howl’ such an unusual, emotionally loaded, raw piece of writing exposing his opinions about the consumerism and conformism of the 1950’s. On further reading and investigation when I found out about the 1957 obscenity trial revolving the publication of this text, and broadcasting controversy even 50 years later in 2007, I became incredibly interested.
ReplyDelete‘Howl’ was accused of being obscene in the 1950’s, due to the references to illegal drug use and homosexuality, for example “purgatoried their torsos night after night with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls”, and “who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy.” It’s incredibly hard to imagine the impact this poem had not only on the literary scene of the 50’s, but also on society and culture.
It was deemed so obscene, in fact, over 500 copies of the poem being imported in to the US from London were seized in March 1957 by customs officials, and in San Fransisco, Shig Murao, a bookstore manarger, was arrested and imprisioned for selling the compilation Howl and Other Poems to an undercover police officer.
During the well-publicised obscenity trial in 1957, Ginsberg’s Howl was defended by nine literary experts, and eventually was deemed ‘not obscene’ by California Judge Clayton W. Horn, who concluded the poem had “redeeming social importance”.
What makes this story more interesting was the reactions to the celebration of this ruling half a century later in 2007. Free-speech advocates at radio station Pacifica Foundation wanted to celebrate the victory by broadcasting a reading of the poem on air had to re-think their decision, after being threatened by the FCC with fines for every single expletive included in the piece. Lawyers, authors and broadcasters were quick to air their disappointment in the rulings surrounding public broadcast, arguing anyone with a computer could look up much more offensive and obscene content in a heartbeat.
Eventually, the Pacifica Foundation chose not to air the broadcast, even between the more lenient hours of 6.00pm – 10.00pm in favour of sticking to a safer, online-only broadcast where the FCC legislation did not apply.
I think ‘Howl’ is such a fabulous piece of literature that still shocks me each time I read it, some 60 years after all the controversy. I can certainly see why it pushed boundaries in the literary, social and political world of the 1950’s, why it was labelled as ‘obscene’, and also why it was concluded that it had ‘redeeming social importance’.
References:
Garofoli, J. (2007) ‘Howl’ Too Hot To Hear. 50 years after poem ruled not obscene, radio fears to air it. Sourced from: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Howl-too-hot-to-hear-2499509.php
Ginserberg, A. (1995). On rap. US: Hibbet Radio.
Ginsberg, A. (1956). Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books
Kaplan, F. (2010). How ‘Howl’ Changed the World. Sourced from: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/life_and_art/2010/09/how_howl_changed_the_world.html
King, L.H. (2007) ‘Howl’ Obscenity Prosecution Still Echoes 50 Years Later. Speech. Sourced from: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/%E2%80%98howl%E2%80%99-obscenity-prosecution-still-echoes-50-years-later/
"The Wasteland" by T.S Eliot is a very unique piece of literature as it was one of the keystone pieces to the start of the modernist literature. Perhaps the most defining feature of the poem is the formatting style and structure, or lack of. This poem gives the reader a sense of discomfort and confusion; there are no clear conclusions and any theme is quite broad and very open to interpretation. To keep in mind, this was published in 1922 – 4 years after the first world war, the end of the war marked an Era of new discoveries, advanced technology and a the deconstruction of many previously rigid societal and political expectations. However Eliot was conveyed a pessimistic approach to this new world – one of darkness and confusion – there is a definite impression of the poem being purposefully inaccessible to the reader through the overwhelming number of allusions that have been made, often they are obscene. For example the bible is frequently referenced, even just very subtly with quotes such as “falling towers” – a reference to the city of Babylon. A peculiar feature that Eliot does is to incorporate sentences or phrases of other languages such as French or German with the intention of the reader not being able to fully grasp the meaning. The reader may be able to get some understanding through the context later in the poem but Eliot’s use of different languages was very deliberate to symbolizes the chaos of the new world – making the reader uncomfortable. This technique could also have been used to represent the start of the “modern” age where just after the First World War there was the start of a globalisation process and it was not always easy to understand one another. To summarise “The Wasteland” is a deeply complex and almost equally confusing to digest, however the significance of the poem on modernist literature has been unparalleled.
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