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GENERATING_BEAT

                                              Early in 2003
                                 Additions:   June 01, 2006



                                             Early in 2003,
                                             I wrote this
                                             for the
   Calling this relatively small group       wikipedia "Beat
   of struggling writers, artists,           Generation"
   hustlers and drug addicts a               page.
   "generation" was to make the claim
   that they were representative and
   important -- the beginnings of a new
   trend, analogous to the influential
   Lost Generation. This is the kind of
   bold move that could be seen as
   delusions of grandeur, aggressive
   salesmanship or perhaps a display of
   perceptive insight. History shows it      The form of this
   was clearly not just a delusion, but      statement is
   possibly a real insight into some         mutating around
   real trends that became                   out in wikipedia
   self-reinforcing: the label helped        land, and perhaps
   to create what it described.              for some good
                                             reasons, but
                                             still I want it
                                             preserved in some
                                             form...  so maybe
                                             it belongs here.
   GENESIS_OF_THE_CYBER-PUNKS

                                             But one might wonder if
                                             it is "neutral" to
   The quaint Damon Runyan New               repeat the press
   York of boozey gamblers starts            agentry of Kerouac
   getting interested in some                and Holmes uncritically.
   heavier drugs (maybe an
   interest in opiates is spread                I'm afraid the
   by wounded ex-GIs at the close               wikipedia answer
   of WWII: "Sister Morphine");                 would have to be
                                                "yes, it is",
   What honor there is                          because everyone
   among the thieves gets                       who studies the
   increasingly strained;                       the subject buys
                                                into that point
   The Broadway scene starts to                 of view.
   develop a nastier edge...
                                                  It's the consensus
   Kerouac and Holmes pick up on                  opinion, therefore
   an adjective from this                         that is what should
   underground: "beat".                           be written about.
      
       They put their                                 It doesn't have    
       own spin on it.                                to be right.       
                                                                         
                                                          (Though it     
                                                           helps if      
 Maybe this is typical:                                    it's difficult
                                                           to prove      
 The behavioral change                                     wrong.)       
 happens first.                                                          
                                                                         
 Someone notices, dimly, that                          
 things are a little different,
 and invents an adjective years
 later.

 Then the existence of the
 new terminology changes
 people's perception, and
 creates further behavioral
 changes.


     That third phase can
     be so striking that
     it's now pretty common
     for people to try to
     manufacture a term,
     to put over a new
     scene change.

        This rarely works,
        if ever: the new
        terminology has
        such a reek of
        inauthenticity
        about it that
        even if it does
        catch on, the
        usage seems very
        half-hearted,
        and it soon fades.

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