I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by wedding planners...

May 4, 2017 8:05 PM

Amy Newman's "Howl" is at once an homage to and feminist critique of Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem. You can listen to Newman read part of her poem here, and you can hear a recording of Ginsberg reading the original poem here.
posted by Gymnopedist (16 comments total)

I love Howl, acknowledging all the problematic parts, and it can use a good parody. Thank you!

Although I'm a bit disappointed on first skim. No parts II and III?
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 9:01 PM on May 4, 2017

I'm guessing this is Toni Keller
posted by Gorgik at 9:31 PM on May 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh, this is amazing. Thank you.
posted by jokeefe at 11:52 PM on May 4, 2017

gluten-free!
posted by fredludd at 12:49 AM on May 5, 2017

No parts II and III?

I'm with you in Rockports?
posted by absalom at 5:36 AM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

I like it!

I'm told I recited "Howl" in the ambulance after collapsing from insulin shock, because I had been telling the attendant about the insulin shock therapy Carl Solomon had in the mental hospital.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:25 AM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

...allusions to Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Blake, and Plath (and Ginsberg's "Sunflower Sutra" at the end), but no beat rhythm...a little too intellectually dense and not loose enough to be even slightly Ginsbergian...But nice solid feminist critique!
posted by kozad at 6:49 AM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Damn.

Thank you.
posted by allthinky at 7:02 AM on May 5, 2017

Gaaaaah...Kreplach!!!
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 8:09 AM on May 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

That's nice, kozad; I love reading patronizing summaries and dismissals of women's writing by men.
posted by jokeefe at 1:25 PM on May 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

I love Howl, acknowledging all the problematic parts, and it can use a good parody.

This isn't a parody. It's as serious as a heart attack.
posted by jokeefe at 1:28 PM on May 5, 2017 [3 favorites]

Bad choice of words. My apologies.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 1:53 PM on May 5, 2017

> too intellectually dense

?
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:37 PM on May 5, 2017

Bad choice of words. My apologies.

No worries, CBrachyrhynchos.
posted by jokeefe at 4:56 PM on May 5, 2017

>This isn't a parody. It's as serious as a heart attack.

And scans about as easily. I defy anyone to read this in rhythm (and yes I listened to the recording).
posted by tirutiru at 8:19 AM on May 6, 2017

This is perfect. The problems of the artists and the affordances they benefit from deserve as thoughtful and in tune a critique as this. And as full of genuine love but an iron unwillingness to overlook the casual misogyny of the era.

Thanks.
posted by abulafa at 10:56 AM on May 7, 2017 [1 favorite]