It was a literary movement originated in the mid-1950s by a group of young intellectuals who were tired of the square model of order established in the US after World War II. With the aim of expressing themselves freely and telling their vision of the world and their stories, these writers began to produce wildly, often fueled by drugs, alcohol, free sex and jazz – the musical genre that most inspired the beats. More than writing, this group of friends was interested in always being together, composing, traveling, drinking and, sometimes, having sex in a group.
Beat made its way into other art forms, but with less impact. In literature, it lasted between 1944 and 1959
How was…
The characteristics of the movement:
– Intensity in everything: in the narrative style, in the themes, in the characters
– compulsive writing
– Disorganized, sometimes chaotic, flow of thought
– Informal language, full of slang and profanity, or with the so-called “hip talk” (a typical vocabulary of the marginal underworld of New York City)
– Great appreciation of oral transmission
– Support for ethnic equality, miscegenation and cultural exchanges between races
– The 10 most curious quirks of famous writers
– Who are the richest writers in the world?
the icon
JACK KEROUAC (1922-1969)
Main work: On the Road (1957)
His most important book, which would become the “hippie bible”, talks about his seven-year journey across the US, with frequent descents to Mexico. Kerouac wrote it in just three weeks, with a typewriter and two rolls of paper (so he didn’t have to stop to put new sheets in the typewriter). His “avalanche style”, with no concern for punctuation and paragraphing, was stimulated by the use of amphetamine, a type of amphetamine.
The poet
ALLEN GINSBERG (1926-1997)
Main work: Howl and Other Poems (1955-1956)
Ideologist, thinker and agitator of the movement, he was also responsible for the so-called “extension” of beat to future generations. It is even said that it was his long hair, his beard and his colorful robes (acquired on a trip to India) that would have inspired the typical look of the hippies. To compose his poems, he tried all kinds of drugs (he even distributed LSD on the streets!), But later he “got hooked” on yoga and meditation.
the junkie
WILLIAM BURROUGHS (1914-1997)
Main work: Naked Lunch (1959)
He was the one who suffered the most from drugs – he went through several rehabilitations and treatments. On a trip to Mexico, he tried to shoot a glass balanced over the head of his wife, Joan Vollmer, but ended up killing her. He came to South America to study the plant hallucinogen ayahuasca and also started (but did not complete) several manuscripts on homosexuality.
the editor
LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI (1919-)
Main work: An Amusement Park of the Head (1958)
He is the greatest living exponent of beat, perhaps because he never led the same wild lifestyle as the others. Without his courage, we would never know the follies of his colleagues: his publisher, City Lights, published the main works of the movement. Some gave him a lot of headaches – he was even arrested after releasing Howl, accused of obscenity.
The rebel
GREGORY CORSO (1930-2001)
Main work: Bomb (1960)
Abandoned by his mother as a newborn, he went through several foster homes and orphanages until he was arrested, in his teens, for theft. In jail, he became self-taught and discovered literature. He was the youngest of the Beats and, like his friend Ginsberg, who introduced him to the group, he became a poet. Revolted and insubordinate, he was also committed to a mental institution more than once.
…and how it turned out:
Where do you find their influence:
– In student movements and the hippie wave of the 60s, which inherited causes such as ecology and free love;
– In feminist liberation and in the homosexual movement, in part consequences of the fight of the beats for sexual freedom;
– In songs by Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison and in films by Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch;
– In punk rock, considered a return to the beat spirit due to its wild, spontaneous and contesting verve
“On the Road” will become a movie in the hands of Brazilian Walter Salles, with Kristen Stewart (Twilight) and Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man)
“Beatnik” is not a synonym, but a derogatory term created by the media at the time to designate young people who copied the beat style
To know more: The craziest stories of Kerouac and his gang were adapted by great comic artists in the graphic novel “The Beats”, released in 2010.