It could be that I’m missing something here. It could be that my English degree wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. It could be that Allen Ginsberg is making me feel stupid. But whatever the case, when I tried to piece together the imagery in Howl, all I could say to myself was…”What?!” Sometimes the imagery made sense to me and I could carry on with my reading. Sometimes I had to read it twice or three times and even then my ability to comprehend it was sketchy. The first poem in the book starts off with, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.” Ordinarily that would be an awesome way to start a poem. It certainly got me going. But then reading the rest of it, I began to wonder if Allen Ginsberg himself was being destroyed by madness. He does have a creative mind, I’ll give him that. He’s so creative that only he understands what the heck he’s talking about.

But for all of the times that he made sense to me, his poetry truly spoke from the heart. It’s depressing watching great minds descend into madness. It’s depressing to watch the almighty “Moloch” take over everything you love. It’s depressing to know that your best friend is wasting away in a mental hospital while the orderlies employ draconian techniques. I know how depressing these things are because I myself am a schizophrenic. There once was a time when I thought I was going to be institutionalized against my will. I even welcomed it at one point. But if I didn’t get the help I needed when I did, I could just as easily become another statistic a la Carl Solomon (Ginsberg’s insane friend). This book was published in the 1950’s, during a time when ignorance towards mental health was rampant. I’m not so sure I could have survived that era. Thank you, Allen Ginsberg, for bringing me back to reality.

It should be noted how important this book of poetry was to the free speech movement. The sexual imagery, the violence, and the constant swearing had conservative censorship groups up in arms. Despite me not understanding most of the content, I can appreciate the battles Allen Ginsberg went through to get Howl published. Freedom of speech was always a guaranteed right in the American constitution, but it still comes under fire to this day. Luckily, we’re a lot more open-minded as a society, but if not for people like Ginsberg putting their lives on the line for free speech, we would have stayed in the dark ages for a long time. When balancing the confusing imagery with the impact the words had on mental health and the free speech movement, I’ll give this book a respectable mixed grade. It wasn’t a perfect read, but maybe I’m not high enough on the educational food chain to appreciate it to the fullest extent. This is just my opinion. You’re always allowed to have your own, because that comes with the freedom of speech deal.

Every living poet(or poetry fan) should read it, learn it, and pass it on to the next generation.

3½ stars, rounded up for the great illustrations

I did not realize what I was getting into when I checked out this book. I started reading the poem and thought 'this is different'. It did not appeal to me and was not the poetry I usually am drawn towards. After finishing the poem I started reading the cover and look further into its history. It turns out this poem is a pretty big deal and there is a movie about it.

I only gave it three stars because it was not the poem for me. It is a good poem, but I did not find it appealing.

man he really was angry

সারাজীবন কাটিয়ে দিলাম শুধু এই কবিতাটার মতো হওয়ার চেষ্টায়।

Ahora entiendo porqué se considera una obra y un autor tan importante dentro d duna generación. Me generó muchos sentimientos encontrados y al final me di cuenta que la animación aunque parece increíble algo le hace falta y es que el poema fue presentado de manera incompleta. Aunque el esfuerzo por colaborar es grande y lo agradezco bastante. Ahora a leer el poema completo.

Howl was one of the most influential pieces of writing I've ever read. It's such a prominent piece of my personal history that I would probably enjoy any attempt at re-presenting it.

I also have a fascination with the Graphic Novel as a medium, and am particularly interested in how it can provide another point of access into material, or how it can penetrate material in a new and interesting way. So obviously, when I saw that there was a GN version of Howl, I had to read it.

I really enjoyed the use of Eric Drooker's illustrations. They provided one man's creative reaction to the poem, not a definitive visual representation of the poem's meaning, and I respected the Howl GN on that level. I particularly appreciated how the book broke down the poem to feature a line on each page. It really forced me to sit with each line, reflecting on its meaning and imagining how I would have visually represented it. And anything that prompts a fresh reading of a poem I have read a million times deserves credit.

All that being said, following my reading of the GN, I watched the film Howl (2010, w James Franco as Ginsberg) and I was blown away by the incorporations of Drooker's illustrations as the basis for animation sequences that accompany the performance of the poem Howl. Seeing the movement and flow of the images that were static on the page brought to the screen a heightened experience of the poem. The film brought Howl and Ginsberg and the historical context all to life in a magnificently artful way. And Franco's performance is phenomenal.

So the GN Howl gets 5/5 stars for offering a novel presentation of the poem. The film Howl (which uses the GN illustrations as a jumping off point for the animation sequences in the film) gets 6/5 stars for breathing life and vitality and direct historical relevance into one of my favorite works of art of all time.

Spoiler Alert: Hey Ginsberg, what the FU-

This graphic novel version of Howl was so beautifully illustrated! Definitely worth reading it this way.
The poem itself is so strange and gritty and the very definition of Beat Poetry.
I’m glad I read it after reading On the Road so that I already knew what the writers of the movement spent their time doing. And the free way they lived.

5 stars for the poem and 1 star for using stills from the movie animation add up to a 3 star review. See the movie, read the poem.

Just because it's a classic doesn't mean I have to like it.