Cultural Oddities of the Beat Generation Seminar in Green Hall, Yale University at 6:00p.m. on
September 4, 1963. Dr. Duke Macey
"Good evening, everyone.
Thank you for coming. If it’s all the same, I’d like to jump right into this
subject because I care to have time for much discussion. As I was able to
gather from my quick survey of the room, we have a lot of ‘Old Guard’ and ‘New
Guard’ representatives tonight. I’m glad you all came. So without further ado, let’s dig in. I
should start this by explaining the meaning of the title of this seminar. At
first glance, some have speculated this seminar was going to be a jeremiad on
this next generation’s lack of respect, Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic, and so
forth. But as I assured my students, this is more of an exploration of the Beat Generation's relationship with the new generation—the ‘New Guard’ as I refer to them—whilst within the reality
envisioned by past generations—the ‘Old Guard.’ To put it another way: the Beat
Generation appears to have imbedded itself in the New Guard, and seems to carry a significant weight
within the New Guard in terms of behavior and ideology, and this seminar
explores the oddities of said
generation—both in the way the generation behaves, and how the generation is
viewed. So I do not believe ‘oddities’ is being used in a pejorative sense as
some may have feared… or hoped. Many of you who know me know I study the American ethos and have an
affinity for literature, certainly fiction. Novelists, I believe, explore the
attitudes and behaviors of culture (more broadly man’s nature). Either past or
present, domestic or foreign, as they understand it, the good ones at least,
novelists help readers interpret the world around them. And my students can
attest that I enjoy introducing fiction in my course work as a tool for
understanding not just American culture, but man’s nature—again in a much
broader sense. For this seminar, I want to focus mainly on one book in
particular: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road:
to help us understand the Beat Generation’s cultural oddities. I want to turn
our attention to this book as a paragon of the generation for two reasons: One,
the book is constantly being referenced by my students and my peers, meaning it
seems to have struck a significant chord with the New Guard; and Two, Kerouac’s
influence on the Beat Generation, himself being likened to the primogenitor,
and ‘king of the Beats.’ Of course there are plenty of other materials—books,
writers, movements, so on and so on—that could have been referenced here, and
many more are implemented in both my dissertation and ongoing manuscript, but
since this seminar is only scheduled for an hour, I chose brevity. So here we go. Upon the book’s release just six years ago, Gilbert
Millstein wrote in The New York Times:
‘Just as, more than any other novel of the 20’s, The Sun Also Rises came to be regarded as the testament of the
‘Lost Generation,’ so it seems certain that On
the Road will come to be known as that of the ‘Beat Generation.’’ That’s
some praise from Millstein. And from what nascent empirical data I have been
able to collect, he’s right. On the Road
resonates with those in the New Guard. Why is that? What influence can be found
in the book? This leads me to my first point of behavior in the Beat
Generation. More specifically I am referring to ideology when I speak of Beat
behavior. After all, what is behavior if not action of thought? So what does On the Road teach us? What does it stand
for? Well… I’ll try to make this as short as possible for the sake of brevity.
A quick close reading of Kerouac’s novel shows us a penchant for iconoclasm, a
romanticization of autonomy both in the form of anti-authoritarianism and
sexual exploration, a rejection of materialism, an epistemological search
through the bowels of these United States heavily guided by a mixture of drugs
and Eastern religion—an interesting pairing. In short, the book is
more about an existential journey in search for a new self after rejecting
post-War affluence in the nation. And this seems to reflect the notions of
those who lionize the book. People, mainly younger people, are enthralled by
the concept of resisting the contemporary trends of our culture. Those who are
fond of the Beat Generation do not care for the Joneses, let alone keeping up
with them. They reject materialism; they are in favor of promiscuity; and have
a more Emersonian approach to politics and religion than anything else. In
fact, I think it is safe to assume that members of the Beats and New Guard are
more contra mundum than compliant with the Old Guard’s culture. In an aside:
one interesting point to consider when reading On the Road is the virtual absence of any father figure. Neither
Sal nor Dean has any fatherly influence in their lives, so they have to create
their own. They become the Founding Fathers of their own lives—so to speak. But
I digress. The ideology of the Beats is apparent in Kerouac’s novel: one of
freedom. Freedom from. Freedom to do. And this is where the cultural oddities
come in to play. The ideology of the Beat Generation, and that of the New
Guard, is quite different from coeval American culture. This brings me to my second
point: how this generation is viewed. To say the least, Beats and the New Guard
are met with disdain, and in some cases outright hostility, by the outside
world. Certainly the reaction from Old Guard critics warrants this claim. Look
no further than the rise in ‘beatnik’ stereotypes of this new generation in
cartoons and reviews of literature or music, and harsh criticisms witnessed in
films like The Beat Generation and The Beatniks. The oddities of the Beats
are not welcomed by the Old Guard precisely because their behavior is seen as
contra to that of the current American way of life. The iconoclasm and
anti-authoritarianism are interpreted as civil anarchism, the sexual
indiscrimination is met with accusations of depravity and lacking rectitude,
rejection of materialism is the promotion of Red state subversion, and finally:
experimentation with drug use and Eastern religion are signs of the coming
apocalypse. Quite simply put: the
Old Guard does not appreciate the lack of reverence for their beliefs and
traditions, their culture, and finds the behavior of the Beat Generation
actually very un-American. But is it? Does the Beat Generation actually represent the perceived separation
between Old and New Guard, this dichotomy of American and un-American
activities? Does this generation even belong to either Guard, or is it some
outlier, a signal of a coming shift in paradigms—from Old to New? Is this the
link between evolutionary cultural trends? Let’s examine the novel a little
further. Once more for the sake of
time, I will only be examining two parts of the novel: the sexual use of the
female characters, and Jack Kerouac himself. I realize examining the author in
a review of the novel maybe unfair, but in this context I think we can make an
exception. After all, there is no novel without of the author. Ladies first.
Reading this novel the sexual use of women is rather shocking. I use the term
‘use’ quite strategically here. The Old Guard is repulsed because they read two
men traveling the country having pre-marital and extra-marital affairs with
women almost at will. This ‘looseness’ disgusts them. Of course the New Guard
is in jubilee over this celebration of sexuality. They read the passages as
watermarks in revolts against (what they see as) a Victorian approach to sex.
Upon a closer reading, though, I believe both views miss a shocking fact. And
it is precisely the manner in which both men, especially Dean, use these women. There is also, of
course, a richness of bravado and male companionship within the text. Men and
women are represented in vastly different ways, and the behavior is much more
in line with traditional Old Guard ideology than anything else. Look at how the
women are portrayed or used. Marylou, Dean’s first ex-wife, is quote-unquote 'dumb.' Camille, Dean’s second, is obedient and does as she’s told. Rita and
Lucille are both sexual conquests for Sal. The use of sex in the novel is not
as much about freeing the persons from the cages of common day Victorianism,
but a cruder form of it. That is to say women are being portrayed to behave in
a certain subservient manner to that of men. And this is in direct conflict
with what many of the New Guard believes. This brings me to my second
observation about On the Road and
more specifically the author. Many critics, peers, friends, students have noted, even lauded, the anti-materialistic notions of this novel, Mr. Kerouac, and the Beat
Generation as a whole. If one takes a step back and observes the very
macro-level event happening, then one can witness a great irony. What I mean
is: Jack Kerouac has written his magnum opus about freedom from materialism and
constraints of our culture, but how are we receiving this information? We all bought his book. We
all participated in this act of materialism, and Kerouac is the direct
benefactor of it! What irony. And to return to the novel
very quickly, Sal seems so pleased in his challenging of social affluence. And
that’s great. But it’s very easy to make claims against materialism when you
are being propped up by a wealthy sponsor. This is not to suggest condemnation cannot come
from within, but it is to point out that if one is promoting an alternative way
of life, precisely contra to affluent living, then to make such claims and live
in such a way whilst being simultaneously propped up by the very affluence one
deposes is greatly hypocritical and deserving of critique. Which leads me to my
final point about Kerouac: this is a man who shows clear signs of what I will
call ‘traditionalism.’ That is: a classical understanding of how society
functions based off actions and ideologies of previous generations. I do not
think Kerouac belongs in the New Guard. He might very well be better placed in
the Old. However, his behavior implores a much more erratic Old Guard
understanding of society today. Therefore he is an outlier, and so too are the
Beats. They exist on the outskirts of our nation’s culture. Beyond the realms
of both New and Old Guards their behaviors often times are a confluence of many
different portions of combatting cultures within the body and time of the
nation—especially a state like the United States. This explains the oddities of
the Beat Generation—their actions and the way they are perceived. They behave
free of the actions of both Guards. With that being said, I believe we cannot
outright condemn or celebrate On the Road.
We must accept it for what it is: something ‘other’ that invokes the very basic, if not crude, aspects of United
States ideology. For all its merits, this is also a book rich with obdurate,
anti-intellectual, self-centeredness, and lacking the substance to justify many
of the actions revealed. The Old Guard is right in its criticism, but they are
also too myopic to be aware of their own flaws and likeness to the Beats. Just
as the New Guard is too quick to champion the book for its promotion of the
self over the forces of materialism and avarice, and ignores the blatantly
seedier side, the materialism, hedonism, and ethically questionable behavior
that the New Guard does not promote—at least ideally. What I believe On the Road, Kerouac, and the Beat
Generation represent is the most basic behavior of man’s nature. A behavior
that has lay dormant in the American ethos until recently being revived thanks
to this post-War affluence. Thank you.”
