#6

Wittman Ah Sing is a young playwright living in 1960s San Francisco. As a Chinese American, Wittman struggles to find a place for himself in American culture as well as battles to understand his Chinese heritage. The reader is first introduced to Maxine Hong Kingston's hero Wittman Ah Sing as a character who "consider[s] suicide every day". Within the first page of the book, Wittman contemplates shooting himself in the mouth because "Hemingway had done it in the mouth". The fact that the narrator brings up Hemingway's suicide in comparison with Wittman's suicidal thoughts implies that they are merely fantasies. Kingston even writes, after describing her main character as suicidal, that he merely "entertained" the idea. The word "entertained" as well as the reference to Hemingway's suicide romanticizes the whole notion of suicide. Kingston's word choice and dramatic description of being shot in the head work together to build a first impression of Tripmaster Monkey's hero.

Paper Proposal

a) What is the topic you are interested in pursuing and why?
I would like to explore San Francisco's cultural influence on the psychedelic rock music movement of the 1960s. Music is something that I am very interested in and I think that the rock movement of the 1960s was a very important part of music history and would make an interesting paper topic.
b) How does this topic relate to San Francisco materials or frameworks read for the course? Which of the readings are particularly relevant to this topic?
Many of the bands that came out of the San Francisco Sound movement were inspired by and followed the example of the Beat poets. The musicians liked their music to have a free flow to them similar to the free flow poetry of Allen Ginsberg.
c) What are some of the other materials you will need or want to read and/or inter-connect to cover this topic?
I will need to gather more texts on the psychedelic music movement. I also need to go over the Beat texts we have read in class (such as Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Brautigan, and Kerouac) and find textual evidence to back up my claim that the musicians were inspired by them.
d) What is your provisional “thesis” (hypothesis) at this point concerning this topic and these materials?
Following the example of the Beat poets and the counter culture movement, musicians used the city of San Francisco and all that it had to offer as a playground to explore new ways to change the sound of rock-n-roll music during the 1960s.
e) What problems or limitations do you anticipate in pursuing, framing, researching, and writing on this topic?
I'm afraid I might not be able to find enough textual information to write about for 8-10 pages. I'm also having a little bit of difficulty sculpting my ideas and information into a thorough and coherent paper.

#5

"I really believed in the reality of charity and kindness and humility and zeal and neutral tranquillity and wisdom and ecstasy, and I believed that I was an oldtime bhikku in modern clothes wandering the world, [...] in order to turn the wheel of the True Meaning, or the Dharma, and gain merit for myself as a future Buddha (Awakener) and as a future Hero in Paradise"
This quote, taken from Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums, is a great summary of what a Dharma Bum is. Both Ray Smith and Japhy Ryder, along with their buddies, aspire to find the Zen (peace) in life through nature and simplicity. "Dharma" is an Indian spiritual term that incorporates the meaning of higher truth and one's belief or religion. However, according to the narrator, Ray Smith, in order to be considered a Dharma Bum does not specify on a person's religious beliefs. As long as the "bum" follows and truly believes in the truth and goodness of their religion Smith defines them as a Dharma Bum such as the old bum he encounters on the train to Santa Barbara: "The little bum in the gondola solidified all my beliefs by warming up to the wine and talking and finally whipping out a tiny slip of paper which contained a prayer by Saint Teresa announcing that after he death she will return to the earth by showering it with roses from heaven, forever, for all living creatures. [...] "I cut it out of a reading-room magazine in LA couple of years ago. I always carry it with me."" Smith becomes impressed with the old man's devotion to his beliefs and later refers to him as "the little Saint Teresa bum" and "the first genuine Dharma Bum [he'd] met."
Based on this understanding of Dharma Bum, the term can be easily related to the Beats/beatitude. The Beats derived their name from 'beatitude', meaning the ones who are blessed. The Beats, like the Dharma Bums, attempted to live simple 'beat' down lifestyles just as Ray Smith and his buddies bummed around the country. Also like the Dharma Bums, the Beats had a a zen like attitude and view of the world.


Question: The terms Beat and Dharma seem almost interchangeable based on Kerouac's descriptions. Have you ever heard of the term Dharma Bum before or is it just Kerouac's "code word" to talk about his adventures as a part of the Beat Generation?