BOOKS
Insteau of making himself an instrument tuned to compl y to the
goa ls of a corporation, an instituti on, or the state, Dean challenges
any official authority with hi s radi ca l subj ectivity.
149
If
N aked Angels
ta kes the Bea ts' iconocl asm
LOO
much a t face
value, it is a t the same time the bes t study of Beat es thetics one w ill find .
In conn ecti on with Ginsberg and Kerouac much is made o f the
"aestheti c o f sponta neity" they shared and developed in one ano ther,
an ecstatic abandonment of conscious control of language, an
iIltuitive response
to
the inner voice. Such a heightened state usurps
normal consciousness with its filt ering processes, soars beyond the
intell ectual ca pabilities of reason and choice and selecti vity
to
achi eve what Kerouac ca ll ed "an undi sturbed flow from the mind " or
what Ginsberg termed in hi s own work an " undifferentiated con–
suousness.
This seems to be a di stant rela ti ve of th e Yea ts's automa ti c writing, a
nearer one o f Cha rli e Pa rker 's intri ca te doubl e- time outpou rings.
There is reason to ta ke seriou sly their fa ith in spo ntaneity. Kerouac's
prose still has power to keep th e eye moving a lo ng, skill s of rhythm
and pace and sound , eno ugh to justify J ohn Ty tell 's remon stra nce tha l
hi s long n eglect should end. Ginsberg's
The Fall of America,
winner o f
the Nati onal Book Awa rd , is a ma rvel o f sponta neous crea tivity. Its
method-j o ttin g down wh at p assed by, or came to mind, o r played on
the radio whil e travelling (on ce again ) across America-in no way
promised the interesting text tha t resulted .
It
is with the poetry o f Allen Gin sberg, in fact, tha t
Na ked Angels
achieves its mos t con sistent successes. There is an a ir o f legitimacy
about the assertio n o f Ginsberg's links to Bl a ke and Whitma n as it is
made here. An account o f his development as a poet renders it
convin cing tha t Gin sberg 's tran scendentalism is everywh ere strong ly
felt, and , esp ec iall y in su ch a poem as " Kaddish ," fo rged out of self–
knowledge. Mo reover, onl y in discu ssin g Ginsberg's poetry is th ere real
pertinence in T ytell 's hi sto rica l thesis, hi s po rtraya l of the Bea ts as
shock-troop s of sen sibility. The American a udi ence fo r poe try has not
SLOpped readin g " H owl " since its first appearance in pa rt becau se,
unlike Burrough s's routine na ughtiness o r Kerouac's " kicks," the
poem has reta ined its power to g ive significant offense.
The first h a lf o f
Nak ed Angels
is biography, a record o f the Bea ts'
"first conjuncti on s. " T ho ugh admirabl y detached ,
It
could h ardl y
prevent itself from reading like a potbo il er, full of crime (murder!) and
dope and angs t, g iven wha t the lives, ev identl y, were like. Among o th er
