Simplemente los poemarios no son para mi

4.5

The poems was dark and the illustration depict every stanza that Ginsberg wrote. I showcase the hardship and negativities that the poetry was expressing to the audience. Beautifully drawn and the theme is captivating to see.

The text, of course, is the beat poem, the granddaddy of them all, the one that inadvertently enforced a model of delivery down the throat of every "slam" poet of the next two generations. An unquestionable classic of modern American literature, no matter how many were left butthurt by its saintly motorcyclists.

As for the art, it adds a dimension, enhancing the text here and there, but not by much. Supposedly there is some connection between the graphics and the 2010 film, but apart from a handful of images of Ginsberg-the-poet-at-work, not having seen the movie, neither can I see the connection.

Note: This is a book adaptation of a movie based on the poem. I'll seek out the original poem to read it that way.

As a comic/graphic novel, this book is face-slapping in its basicness. As a poem, you don't get the full force of the words because they're broken up over several pages, so you lose the momentum.

An illustrated version of Allen Ginsberg's iconic Howl poem that captures parts of its essence really well, but misses out on others.



I'm not going to summarise the poem itself, which I have already covered to an extend here, but granted that I think of it as a fulminant and emotional piece, I was highly curious how it would translate into this format of a graphic novel. Illustrator Eric Drooker was actually a friend of Ginsberg and was asked personally to take on this demanding task.



The illustrations capture the loneliness and otherness of the characters Ginsberg describes well. It's interesting, because in the poem itself I don't think that being lonely is a world I'd attribute to the scenarios pictured in it, but since he does zoom in on what was publicly perceived as the freaks and the underdogs, it's reasonable to assume that they must have felt a sense of alienation. Drooker's images are dark and gloomy, creating an atmospheric world that particularly comes to life in the poem's second part, which is concerned with the state of industrial civilisation.



What these images lack is the sort of vibrancy and force that Ginsberg delivers with his words. To me it's essentially what makes the poem so great and powerful, meaning that I ultimately ended having mixed feelings about this way of visualising it. The 3D style leaves everything feeling very contained and clean, whereas Ginsberg's words are anything but: loose and free, they were way more jazz than Drooker chose to display.

It's definitely interesting to see this attempt at visualising the Beat generation, but I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to either the scene or Ginsberg specifically. You'd miss out on letting your imagination grasp the words full potential.

This is a pretty good way to revisit a classic poem.

For me, the illustrations serve to highlight the torrent of words. Which should not work but does so effortlessly. The poem speaks for itself, the white letters bright against the dark illustrations, demanding to be read aloud, declaimed. So I guess I did not really look at the pictures.

I could also hear the echoes of those who have referenced Ginsberg over the years. Dylan's mercury sound, Springsteen out of Asbury Park, and Patti Smith at Barcelona declaiming the Footnote as the prelude to her concert.

Alan Ginsburg
...who might be utterly insane
...who might be a genius
...who was the voice of the Beat generation, along with Jack and Hunter S
...who was most definitely completely off his face when he wrote his works
...who encapsulates the human experience, it's vitality, verve and vivacity
...who wrote some of the most controversial and daring poetry, perhaps ever
...who is the author of 'Howl', one of the most well-known works of 1950s America

The poem is like a rambling stream of consciousness that I didn’t quite know what I was getting into before I did, but also it’s too short not to just finish. I saw a list of books mentioned in Gilmore Girls and this poem was in it, so I thought why not! Not my type of poetry I guess: I read the ebook.

Howl - c'est l’Énéide des États Unis. C'est à lire absolument si on s'intéresse le moindrement à la littérature américaine. Ginsberg sous alias d'Alvah Goldbrook est la vedette de la lecture de poésie qui se trouve au debut des "Clochards célestes" de Jack Kerouac.

First time I read I did not get a thing, because this poem is full of the author's own experience and he did not write it to become mainstream. After a bit of research I started to get its importance. It is a an aggressive, raw, painful and sad howl. Ginsberg wrote it after passing some time in a psychiatric institute in 1955. He took drugs, was arrested and kicked out of school and for him madness is a symptom of brightness.

The poem is divided in 3 parts. One where he focus on the descriptions of the people who crossed his path. The second he described what happened to them and the 3rd part is was to a friend he made during the psychiatric institute: Carl Solomon.

This piece has a cultural and social importance. It starts the beat movement (sexual revolution, Woodstock, drugs liberation, and so on and so forth.)

At the risk of sounding like an uncultured schlemiel, I just do not get this poem. I worked my way through the whole poem, even reciting it aloud with feeling and prosody. OK, so there are some references to gay sex which were bold for their time. It's very stream-of-consciousness and it just didn't do it for me.

Howl has been published for decades so it's nothing new but the accompanying illustrations in this edition bring a visual element to the poetry. I could see this being used in a classroom, perhaps as a way of engaging reluctant readers.

I'm donating this to the friends of the local library for their book sale. (That is, as soon as they start accepting donations again. Damn you, COVID!)

OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO SHUT UP.