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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" and also the British "Angry
Young Men", suggesting that there's some
kind of connection between the two. Though, what it suggests to
me is that they couldn't
find enough Beat 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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