Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Howl vs. Leafs of Grass 5/18/11
The major shocking similarity I see almost immediately is that the formatting is very much the same in both of these works. It gives an initial idea, and then lists sentence-long blurbs to give examples. That's pretty standard for both of them. However, the ideas contained within are very different. Leaves of Grass speaks of a good America (I think), an America that is becoming a world leader. While in Howl, the perspective has changed immensely; now, the idea is that America is falling apart. The new generation is a failure. they are to busy with sex and drugs to understand anything, and America suffers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I must admit to always having had trouble with the Beat writers. I guess that I have never understood the idea of constantly having to look for something when I think that what we do is build what we need. This idea is why I get somewhat tired of the constantly searching folks. We are not passive receivers as human beings; we are creators. That idea is what these guys seem not to have understood -- at least not at the stage of development that we see here represented. Whitman is the more interesting of the two so far as I am concerned.
ReplyDelete