Howl

The value of art can be proven by time. The absence of balance makes people look for harmony. A crisis and a conflict are typical features of a creative outburst approach. There are thousands of people who write poems, compose music, or paint canvases cherishing a secret hope of becoming famous. However, only few works of art deserve the attraction and enjoy the popularity among the audiences in a course of time. A masterpiece should be a revelation. It is an energy outburst, which is embodied in some material forms. Talented people are often unhappy in their personal life and face various stressful situations and survive tragedies.

The poem “Howl” written in 1955 by Allen Ginsberg refers to a so-called Beaten Generation. In 1956, a publisher of the book Lawrence Ferlighetti was accused of releasing an obscene literary work. The lexicology, used in the poem, was out of the current literary norm and the prosecutors claimed that “Howl” voided any literary value. Moreover, the author of the poem did not conceal his gay sexual orientation. Nevertheless, the judge declared the publisher not guilty as the American democracy needed tolerance to any forms of self-representation. (Morgan, 2006) The trial drew much attention to the scandalous poem and led to an increase of sales. In 2010, an experimental half documentary screening version of Howl released to the public the debut reading the poem and succeeding a court trial. The film helps to understand the author’s extravagant vision of reality and the background of the postmodern poem. This essay focuses on a comparative analysis of the poem and its screen version.

The film Howl produced and directed by Jeffery Friedman and Rob Epstein made an experimental documentary. The producers used the specific graphics for the creation of images of the poem, the black and white record of reading the poem by the author at the Six Gallery and the drama of a dialogue with the author. The authentic reading of the text of the poem, accompanied by a drawn version of the poem’s images and signs, contributes to the understanding of Ginsberg’s despair and frustration at the moment of writing. His associations are blatant and full of terror as well as distress. A constant repetition of the beginning in every succeeding line reminds a schizophrenic persistence in speech. In fact, the author was treated in a psychiatric clinic for almost a year. His mother suffered from the symptoms of a mental disorder.

The reading of the poem’s passages gives a vague generalization of the sense of fighting, suspense, and horror. The first part reflects a subconscious vision of the author on the lost life of those infirm people. They could not find their place in the life in the post-war years. He used to live in such mega polices as New-York, San-Francisco and travelled a lot in his early years trying to find a job he could fulfill (Hemmer, 2009).
The first part lines start from the universalized who, which contributes to the creation of the spirit of the unity of suffered victims. The age of industrialization bore a special threat to the human psychic. It was reflected in Ginsberg’s poem as the image of Moloch. The author of the film presents the stone jungles of the city as a lively and fire-breathing iron monster. The problem of adaptation in the conditions of a large city makes people follow certain norms and restrictions. The next part addresses Carl Solomon, a patient of the psychiatric clinic, where Ginsberg had been treated for a definite period. Carl Solomon can be interpreted as a representative of the beaten generation: lost, mad, and forsaken, persecuted by evil images and being mentally ill. The next parts reflect the defeating of all the fears of the sick and frustrated mind. The author leads his readers to the overcoming of Moloch’s and Carl Solomon’s unconfident mentality (Hemmer, 2009).

The twentieth century presented a great variety of cases when outstanding people were suffering schizophrenia or some other brain illnesses. The problem of balance and firmness is raised by Ginsberg. The personal way of this author, his attempts to overcome his homosexual nature, and a final refusal to correspond with the social standards of morality has led him to success both in social and personal aspects.
Ginsberg himself explains his success by positivism and the acceptance of joy. In an interview, dramatized in the film, the poet says that “Howl” has become popular because he wrote it feeling joy but not pain. His adherence to the natural sexual orientation and an ability to recognize his real desires has made his poetry sound sincere and realistic. In the interview Ginsberg reveals that he does not promote homosexuals and such relationships. However, he explains that tenderness and sincerity to oneself are most valuable in gaining balance and success (Mitterer, 2008).
The name of the poem implies a refusal from pain. It is a lament for the lost peace of mind. The black and white scenes of the first reading of the poem show the excited and inspired faces of listeners. The response from hearers is obvious; and people like the blatant and obscene phrases spoken out openly and without a shame. The social tension and economic problems accompanied by the distractions of the war experience have contributed greatly to the development of numerous mental disorders. The latter ones needed a study and treatment. The “Howl” sounds like a chance for salvation of lost souls of the post-war time, for all those who experience sexual problems and disorders. It speaks that there is nothing impossible in the world; and everything existing has the right for life. Ginsberg’s success corresponds to the most cherished American dream of getting success for a person of any social status, income, or sexual orientation. It is the evidence that the success is possible even when one has nothing else but a howl.

The trial over the book’s publisher, exposed in the film, shows the social depreciation and negligence to the needs of the real art. The sales of the book and the interest of the public have proved a real position of the author and the implied ideas. The justification of the convicted publisher proclaims the adherence to the legal state to the fundamental American freedoms and rights (Morgan, 2006). The tolerance of the other people’s difference and respect to their right for joy and happiness are primary to the moral rules and dogmas. Numerous psychiatric researches of the twentieth century have proved the negative behavioral effects, caused by negligence to the once sexual needs. Freud’s theory reveals that Eros and Thanatos are the two primary energies which affect the human life. Ginsberg proclaims the victory of life, joy, and pleasure over the death, a restriction as well as self-deprecation. In the interview, he admits that he had to go through the course of psychoanalysis. It helped him to realize the genuine desires of his nature and not to reject them (Freud, 1959).

The film contributes greatly to the understanding of the poem as the associations born by the images being too abstract to create any static sense or a theme. The specific one-breathe length of the poem’s line and constant repetitions of the beginning of every succeeding line determine some signs of William Carlos Williams’ poetry in Ginsberg’s poem (Hemmer, 2009). The fact speaks for the literal literacy of Ginsberg. The poet uses the brutal lexica, using jargons in order to break the illusions of morals, which prevent people from being happy and enjoying their lives. The author who is also a superior essay professor experimented with a form of the spontaneous performance exposed in the film, in black-and-white scenes of the first reading of the poem.

An uncertain and blurry idea of “Howl” has survived many critiques and uncomplimentary publications. The schizophrenic interpretation of the reality, presented by Ginsberg in his poem, continued in succeeding ideas and philosophy of postmodernism. The liberalism and tolerance to any aspect of the human nature, an absence of a structure and logic of existence, the overcome of ruinous morals and dogmas have led the author of “Howl” as well as the American society to a new level of democracy.