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The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats: The Beat Generation and American Culture by Holly George-Warren
c8_19's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Interesting in the sense that the Beats had/have a powerful impact on American culture (in particular). I just wish people would stop writing about regular men like they're minor gods or something.
I also think it's interesting to consider that the Beats wrote and created and performed out of this urge to push back against the very vanilla 1950s U.S.A. (and, to be fair, they did). But, as portrayed by this book, all the Beats themselves were rather vanilla, too?? everyone was doing the same thing. Doing the same drugs, sleeping with the same people, living the same lifestyle. It just looked very different from mainstream society. This so-called "Beat Generation" was white-washed and a boys' club. Only very briefly and off-handedly does this anthology mention people of color and/or women.
I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan of Beat work and the authors/creators highlighted here, but, again, I found this interesting as it pertains to historical significance.
I also think it's interesting to consider that the Beats wrote and created and performed out of this urge to push back against the very vanilla 1950s U.S.A. (and, to be fair, they did). But, as portrayed by this book, all the Beats themselves were rather vanilla, too?? everyone was doing the same thing. Doing the same drugs, sleeping with the same people, living the same lifestyle. It just looked very different from mainstream society. This so-called "Beat Generation" was white-washed and a boys' club. Only very briefly and off-handedly does this anthology mention people of color and/or women.
I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan of Beat work and the authors/creators highlighted here, but, again, I found this interesting as it pertains to historical significance.
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