While both of their poetry is populated with “extremes”, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poetry deals with the issue of fighting against conformity. Despite their different tastes in language, Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti warn against losing the “old” San Francisco to a more industrial city that lacks artists. Ferlinghetti bluntly addresses this fear in “The Poetic City That Was”: “Fifty years ago the city seemed an ideal place for a poet and artist to live […] Fifty years later, […] Corporate monoculture had wiped out any unique sense of place, turning the “island city” into an artistic theme-park, without artists.” Ferlinghetti’s choice of diction is perfect in describing his views of San Francisco, then and now. Once described as an “island city” because of its unique distinction of residents from the rest of America; Ferlinghetti writes of San Francisco as now an “artistic theme-park” where tourists can visit and see the once thriving artistic community. His writing suggests that he still believes that San Francisco is still an artistic and unique city, however it lacks the unique people that once thrived there (“without artists”). Just as Ginsberg accuses America for giving itself over to the worship of oil and industries in Part II of “Howl”, Ferlinghetti agrees that contemporary artists and poets only create for the industry and not the love of it. Sharing in Ferlinghetti’s fear of “corporate monoculture,” Ginsberg’s “Howl,” written in what many consider blunt and profane language, clearly displays the poet’s frustration with America’s commercialism. His use of exclamation marks at the end of every statement overwhelms the reader with his emotion. Despite different uses of language, Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti write about a similar topic: the conflict of loosing the unique American artist/poet.
Question: What caused Ferlinghetti to think that “corporate monoculture” had taken over San Francisco’s artists? What was his reasoning, other than the age of Beat Poetry to be over with? Is he just a stubborn old man stuck in his ways? (which is what is sounds like to me from Professor Wilson’s encounter with him…)
4 comments:
It is interesting that you point out the different voices of the poets. I felt like Ferlinghetti had to be softer with his work and more didactic with his messages for the sake of the audience. Ginsberg, on the other hand, slaps his audience in the face with his words and ideas. Both of the poets evoke emotion but do so in seriously different ways. I think Ferlinghetti poems like "The Artist" kind of explain how he feels about the art "corporate monoculture" in San Francisco. It is not outrage like Ginsberg's, just a calm disappointment.
I like how you show that, although the two books are different, they convey the same message. Both books are talking about how art is selling out to money and industry, which means that it is not really art anymore. Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "The Poetic City that Was" was a metaphor for that. It talked about how 5o years ago a man was drawn to San Francisco to do his art and live for cheap, but now "Their buildings weren't owned by San Franciscans anymore, but by faceless investors..." He described it as "an artistic theme park without artists."
Something else interesting was that he said that the "inner-self" was under attack in this consumer society. I take this to mean that the ways of the soul or spirit run counter to consumerism and the will to acquire more.
Rhiaaa...your piece is hitting on one of the big tensions in the Beat works (if LF's counts as Beat work) - how does the artist defend the artistic scene/artistic culture when things change so quickly in SF? LF and the Beats were writing at a very politically-charged, unique time; of course, nothing stays the same. But as you point out, there's a really strong sense of what a literary scene ought to be...and for better or worse, the Beats made such an impact, they themselves became cool and popular. The flip side of revolutionary, perhaps? In any case, it's really interesting to trace what LF/AG's visions of an ideal artistic scene is...shows their best ideals. What would it look like now?
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