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BEATGEN_ANGRYMEN

                                     March 18, 2004

"The Beat Generation and
the Angry Young Men" (1958)
ed. Gene Felman and Max Gartenberg

This book is an amazing document.
I've got the 1959 Dell Paperback
edition: an old yellowing                  It has a yellowed
paperback, shorter than the ones           dot matrix reciept
we're used to now (6 3/8 inches, vs        slipped inside it
the standard 7).  A cheap edition          from the ISU bookstore
cranked out in the wake of the             dated Jan 21, 1983.
phenomenal success of "On the Road"        I don't remember this
(1957).                                    bookstore at all,
                                           though I hung out at
This is an anthology of essays,            Idaho State in
poems and novel excerpts from              Pocatello on occasion.
all sorts of interesting
writers, but fundamentally it's
a Beatnik Exploitation book.

The chapters all lead off with
pieces of introductory hype
that are all truly great
examples of their genre, even
cheesier than Bruce Sterling's
introductions in the
"Mirrorshades" anthology.

Try to imagine Rod Sterling doing this one:

  "... he gave it also its Creed -- DIG EVERYTHING --
  and its Trinity: Poet, Hoodlum and Junkie -- an
  interlocked trio fused by a continuing dialogue.
  Kerouac's characters are not impinged upon by the
  society around them: they have fully succeeded in
  making their own world, with places to go to,
  things to do.  And when they're not on the move,
  there's always the big kick: the jazz combo whose
  beat is beyond mind or reason, the hell-bent party
  that promises there'll be no end, or the stick of
  tea that will bring one back to the lap of God."


One interesting peculiarity is
that it covers two different
scenes/cultures, the "Beats"                   Though, what it
and also the British "Angry                    suggests to me is
Young Men", suggesting that                    that they couldn't
there's some kind of                           find enough "beat"
connection between the two.                    material to do a
                                               book.


  There's a blurb on the back
  cover:

    "Defying society... convention...
     the world -- the BEATNIKS and the            Note: Herb Caen
     ANGRIES speak their minds."                  coined "Beatnik"
                                                  in '58, here in
  The "angries"?                                  '59 it's cover
  Well, okay.                                     blurb material.

                    Some examples:
                    Kingsly Amis,
                    Colin Wilson,
                    John Osborne...


   "The Angry Young Men" is one of
   those literary movements that no
   one seems to think every really
   existed... but maybe that's always
   the case with these things.

            Success for a movement can
            be defined as that point when
            everyone must deny that they
            are members.


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