So, for the sake of feeling like I've done something productive today, other than watch too many episodes of the French version of Real Housewives, here is the current outline for my thesis. I only have 6 pages and its due by mid-June and is supposed to be 60 pages by that point, so perhaps this will help me at least start writing at a more...rapid pace. For some reason, I'm having alot more trouble writing this time around than I did with my undergraduate thesis. I was thinking yesterday that perhaps this is because I started with a single text analysis ( Patti Smith's "Because the Night") with the first one and with this one, I don't have any one single place that I'm starting at. So maybe that's what I'll do next, find either one Ginsberg interview or one Smith song/interview/performance and sort of start in the middle and see where things go. But for now, a more elaborate outline with some key words and such. If any fellow writers/academics want to give advice or set up an exchange schedule together, that might be nice. Oh and I guess the subject would help. Basically its about the moral and social vision put forth by the life and work of Patti Smith and Allen Ginsberg, particularly their embrace of dualism and often seemingly contradictory ideals.
Intro
Why I want to write this thesis, how I got to this point, my past research, why Smith and Ginsberg are important
Theoretical Lens
For this part I'm going to use my old favorite, Bakhtin ( Is there any possible thesis subject that Bakhtin can't be used for? If so, I haven't found it yet because I seriously used him in about 80 percent of my junior and senior papers). In particular, I'll be using his concepts of dialogism- the idea that something special happens when multiple voices have a dialogue with each other. I'll apply this to how Smith and Ginsberg borrow from multiple and often seemingly contradicting positions in formulating and expressing their views of morality and the good society. And just to make this part more awesome, apart from Bakhtin, I'm going to that "I contain multitudes" Whitman quote in the title somehow. Yep, Bakhtin, Whitman, Patti Smith and Allen Ginsberg. Pretty cool.
Contemporary Sources/ Other Lens of Analysis
This is where I'll bring in other research that I feel is valuable and/or is a lens through which to better understand what Smith and Ginsberg are up to. Its made up of three parts/authors.
- Theodore Roszak's The Making of a Counterculture: The Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition . This text is particularly valuable for several reasons. First of all it was written in 1969, at the tail end of the counterculture movement and serves therefore as a time capsule of sorts. Secondly, it has an interesting chapter on Allen Ginsberg. Interesting because Roszak is quite fond of Ginsberg and his style and demeanor, but in an earlier chapter was very ( and I mean VERY) critical of the counterculture's use of psychedelic drugs. This seems like quite the contradiction to be being as Ginsberg has never been the least bit shy about advocating the use of such drugs. So I'll talk about that. And also about how Roszak sees in the counterculture an expression of joy, of openness, and a rejection of the ruling scientifically, technologically based society in favor of a more expressive, spiritual and creative sort of structure. The link between this source and the following one will be the idea of decency ( that expressed by the counterculture and how it might apply on a larger scale).
- Avishai Margalit's The Decent Society is actually the text that I have read the least of ( but we'll fix that soon....) It was recommended to me by a former professor and friend who I greatly respect, so I know it will be useful, its just getting around to finishing it that's the problem right now. From what I currently understand, Margalit's idea of the good society is one that is centered around the concept that no member of that society should be humiliated, either on purpose or through humiliating laws. The absence of humiliation, rather than ideas of rights or justice or fairness, is how he measures a society's morality. I think this will be especially helpful in regards to Ginsberg and his embrace of non-confrontation in dealing with those who he disagrees with, as well as the issue of his homosexuality. In particular, I'm thinking of using this piece when I analyze his interview with John Lofton, which, believe me, is all sorts of crazy. If for some reason you don't believe me, take a look here . Actually, even if you do believe, just read it. It will make you all love Ginsberg even more than I'm sure you already do. What I'm struggling a bit with is how to relate Margalit's concept to Patti Smith. This source will be connected to the next one by the idea that our treatment of others in a large society is linked to our view of and expression of our personal self.
- Curtis White's The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption and the Culture of Total Work is one of my favorite books ( as is his other work, The Middle Mind). Few authors have as much....tenacity is a nice way to put it perhaps, as White does. He's not shy about naming his targets and firing away at them. What is both inspiring and frustrating however is how he never quite manages to offer a concrete solution to the problems that he names with contemporary society. This is where I think Ginsberg and Smith come in handy though, as they are living examples of what it might look like to live out the ideals that White writes about, namely the embrace of a spirituality that acknowledges the humanity inherent in us all, of a way of life that functions outside of the parasitic nature of capitalism and of a creativity that finds constant and ever-changing expression as just a fact of everyday life, not something that must exist outside of "work". Also helpful is White's emphasis that, politically speaking, society must get out of the left/right dichotomy that it seems stuck in. Neither side is pure and spotless ( although, granted, he argues, forcefully and convincingly -although I needed little convincing, commie pinko that I am- that the modern Republican party is an atrocity in all sorts of nasty and damaging ways). Ginsberg has lent his support to a variety of political and social movements but its hard to say that he's a card-carrying member of any party (even leftist ones in actual practice as seen in his forced expulsion from Cuba and the Soviet Union in the late 1960s). Especially the two that dominate U.S. politics at this point and time. Smith too has campaigned in support of Ralph Nader but has, especially at the beginning of her career, strongly resisted being labelled or claimed by either political or social movements ( her....contentious views on feminism being a prime example).
Actual Examples in Smith and Ginsberg
And here is where I get even more stuck. This is the part where I want to identify specific values that I feel Smith and Ginsberg exemplify and find specific times/performances/works in which they've shown these values. I'd like to focus on four values: the freedom to exist/create, joy, the spiritual and the body, and gentleness/decency. I'm just not exactly sure what acts or poems or songs I want to use for each section or whether its best to discuss Ginsberg and then Smith or sort of mish-mash them together with my other sources or what. Perhaps it might be best to try and find one example from each that covers multiple values? I'm sure I'll use the Lofton interview here, definitely for decency and maybe for more than that. But Smith is proving to be a hard dog to make hunt here. If all else fails, I can use "Because the Night" again, at least partially.
Link Between Smith and Beat Philosophy/ Values
From here I would like to talk about why Smith is seen as a descendent of the Beats. In particular, why does she identify with Beat figures like Ginsberg ( and Burroughs) instead of the hippie generation that came between her and the beats? I think its the sense of independence, of the personal and of freedom that is not limited by a "movement". My former colleague recommended what appears to be an excellent book to me, Simon Warner's Text and Drugs and Rock n Roll, which I'll be purchasing soon and think will really help out here. But I'm still a bit hesitant as to whether this section needs to go at the beginning or at the end as I've mapped it out here.
Why It Matters Now
My favorite way to close is piece is by asking and attempting to answer Kerouac's " And what difference does it make?" I think Smith and Ginsberg's ideas matter very very much. Especially with the rightward push in the U.S. as well as the inability of the left to embrace any sort of spirituality and the general ability across the front to embrace a from of spirituality that is expansive and inclusive instead of non-existant, narrow-minded or exclusive. As regards the practices of the academy, I'm also an unabashed supporter of interdisciplinary studies ( Yay American Studies!) and of the need to talk about what we love, in Barthes words, without losing critical distance.
Whew, okay. Thats it for now. Let me know what you think! And excuse any typos please. :)
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