Through the readings we have done, I have found the elephant in the room to be Walt Whitman. He is so often alluded to, but so rarely discussed in lectures. Indubitably those who have a passing knowledge of Whitman will have a better understanding of him than I. I have only been exposed to him through aforementioned allusion. From a cursory search of Whitman I understand that he is one of the most important, pivotal American poets in our short history, but I lose the connection between him and San Francisco. Yet, it is there. Lawrence Ferlinghetti references Whitman with "Starting from San Francisco," alluding to "Starting from Paumanok." Allen Ginsberg places Whitman's ghost in his "Supermarket in California." Here, I can see the lineage between Ginsberg and Whitman. Because of his sexual content, especially the homoerotic brand, Whitman got into trouble. His seminal work "Leaves of Grass" was deemed obscene, and the charge of obscenity would plague Ginsberg as well.
Ginsberg unambiguously references Whitman, subverting Whitman's praise of "America" with his own poem of the same name. Instead of praise, however, Ginsberg condemns the capitalist war machine of the United States. In poems like "I Sing the Body Electric" by Walt Whitman, we see the connections between the unabashed celebration of the body and sexuality that Ginsberg embraces with Howl, and some of his other works. The connection between Whitman and San Francisco Literature cannot be written off as a connection between sexual, homoerotic white men (despite the prevalence of this in Beat Literature).
We encounter Wittman Ah Sing in Tripmaster Monkey, who is named for Walt Whitman. He struggles to cope with his Asian American identity in San Francisco. The blurb for the novel juxtaposes Wittman's American-ness in being connected to "America's quintessential poet, (Whitman)" and Wittman's Asian identity. James TF Tanner, in his article "Walt Whitman's presence in Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book," notes various connections between Wittman's exploits and Whitman's poetry. Tanner notes that when Wittman stands atop Coit Tower, trying to tie together the East and West, this draws upon Whitman's poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." I'm certainly curious about other connections to Whitman's poetry that exist in the San Francisco reading we've encountered, outside of the obvious examples I have examined.
Whitman's Presence in Tripmaster Monkey
I Sing the Body Electric - Walt Whitman
A few lines from "I Sing the Body Electric" by Walt Whitman reminds me of something Rob Wilson said in lecture the other day:
ReplyDelete"Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?"
He was saying that living like the yuppies in Palo Alto, like zombies, was a sin unto itself. They're not really alive and are wasting their lives like the living dead.
I guess this was only tangentially related, but I feel that Whitman's presence in all of these texts has a good deal to do with his lust for life and experience. All of these poets and authors we've been reading connect to San Francisco because it is such a lush city full of life and energy that connects them to nature. Whitman embodies that connection to life, nature, and experience that all of these writers laud.
I feel the same way about the many Whitman references, having not read any of his books myself. I understand that he is considered "the first poet of democracy" or the quintessential "American poet," and Leaves of Grass is supposed to be a cornerstone of American literature. I like the paralleled you drew between the censorship of this book and Ginsberg's "Howl" because I find it interesting that these works are now both considered so crucial and revolutionary in literature, it makes me wonder what great writings we've missed out on because they were successfully banned for obscenity.
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