Ginsberg

What do you think of Allen Ginsberg? Personally, I really enjoy his poetry although his writing is sometimes "overly" or needlessly challenging IMO. But my favorite by him surprisingly isnt Howl, I really like Green Automobile, Song, and America.

 

Ginsberg is great; I recently started reading his work. So far, my favorite is probably the last part of Howl.

 

I LOVE Transciption of Organ Music. I also enjoy the first part of Kaddish a lot.

 

I love Ginsberg. I've got a picture of him on the wall over my fireplace! I think his best poem's "Kaddish" but there are little gems dotted about all over the place among his collected works, and when he spoke in defence of his under-appreciated friends--particularly Kerouac--his eloquence was fierce.

 

I'm sure he would have loved all you young boys, too. He was a notorious pederast who preferred barely adolescent boys. He was a drug-swilling demon. I saw the asshole around NYC in the late 60's. His long-time "partner" was a basically heterosexual mental patient named Peter Orlovsky who Ginsburg conned into being his reluctant "lover".

I saw Ginsburg in action in 1967-- he turned my stomach-- I guess I wasn't hip enough.

Fuck him.

 

Ginsberg as a man, as an icon of the 60's counter-culture etc I like. As to his poetry, I find a lot of it unreadable, although there are a few pieces I like - 'Lysergic Acid', 'Birdbrain' a few others.

The two qualities I like most are his candour and his humour. Since I'm not gay, I find some of his work irrelevant, and I don't go much on his drippy Buddhism.

 

I enjoyed his conversations on the many occasions I met him when I was younger,his poetry isn't exactly my thing. People's sexuality is their own thing, if it gives somebody else a problem maybe they should explore why before their defensiveness becomes violent.

 

Just to clarify what I said - I don't have a problem with Ginsberg's sexuality or gays in general. I just don't find his gay poems very stimulating. (actually I don't really go for hetrosexual love poetry either) However, I think they are important works from the angle of freedom of expression.

 

"America" is by far my favourite of his, but Howl, Kaddish, and the rest of them are very powerful books. He has inspired me much as a poet.

 

I'v only read Howl and I liked it. There are some funny things in it. I first thought it was a bit out of date but it isn't. It's a little bit crazy but I think it opens some doors in your mind and shows you how much you influence your image of reality by what you think. You make your own reality by what you think. Everybody has his own model of the "real reality" and this model is his personal reality he lives in. And this model is made up by your habits of thinking and informations of your senses. Man, I got almost crazy reading this book

 

to me this is the whole point of his poetry, half the time i dont know what he is refferring to, but it doesnt matter, i can feel his energy in his writing

 

'Howl' is a hoot!.

 

I don't know if you were referring to me as one of the "young boys" but many thanks if you were! It's been a long time since I was called that, now I'm in my forties...
Ginzy didn't really take that many drugs you know...if anything he was a bit of a poseur in that regard, as his own secretary Bob Rosenthal revealed even before Ginsberg popped his clogs. And it's really not nice to call Orlovsky a mental patient. He may have been tuned into a different radio to most of us, but he was a fascinating poet and thinker...only in later life did he supposedly become dangerous, though I know people close to Ginsberg who recommend we take that view of him with a pinch of salt.
Your view that Ginsberg "conned" him into being his lover is interesting considering their association lasted for forty years. And Peter was in a homosexual relationship with painter Robert Lavigne before he went to bed with Ginsberg, so it was hardly a case of the evil gay seducing the innocent straight...
Still. What a boring world it would be if we all agreed with each other.
Oh, hang on. It IS a boring world.

 

My daughter loves Ginsberg. For her minor project at uni she's analyzing Hydrogen Dukebox, a collaboration between Ginsberg and Phillip Glass, another of her heroes.
She's a music student.

 

SUPRIZE MIND!!
CATCH YOURSELF THINKING!
I always liked his mind writing slogans

Howl was great, but I'd have to say my favorites are CIA Dope Calypso and Fourth Floor, Dawn, Up all Night Writing Letters

http://poemhunter.com/allen-ginsberg/poet-6613/
has all his stuff

 

Just started getting into his poetry, so I don't have much of a collection yet. I really liked Wild Orphan, In Back of the Real, and Song.

 

one, it's Ginsberg. at least spell his name right if you're going to attack him. two, u'd be able to demolish as many valuable writers as you please if you judge art reported to personal life. i mean, wtf, you think oscar wilde was a perverted child molestor, so the picture of dorian gray has no value whatsoever do you read victorian literature?

 

Ginsberg, although some of his writing is interesting, he was a degenerate pedophile and a member of NMBLA! (National Man Boy Love Association) .
They should name a sewer manhole cover after him!

I agree Fuck Him.


Bustramp

 

i love beat poetry, but ginsberg is pretty much my favourite
i am noticing a tread though, alot of the younger people on here (and possibly more open mided?) tend to like his stuff where as the older people tend to not ...is that a trend i'm just seeing?
and as for his sexuality, man what the hell does that have to do with where or not he's a good writer?
i mean louis carroll, very famous for alice in wonderland and the likes and he was a pedophile, and he wrote his books to attract his nieghbour, a young girl...well of course that can be argued and argued....

i love ginsberg.....thats all

 

Well I'm not that young and I like Ginsberg. I think maybe we have some homophobes posting here who don't like him simply because of his sexuality.


BTW - MY own fave beat writer is William S. Burroughs. Streets ahead of the others IMO.