EMAIL<\/a> | SYLLABUS<\/a> | POLICIES<\/a> | QUESTIONS<\/a> | PRESENTATIONS<\/a> | JOURNALS<\/a> | PAPER<\/a> | EXAM<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Note: see Journals page for details on keeping your journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assigned: Ginsberg, Allen. \u201cHowl\u201d (Vol. E 492-500); \u201cFootnote to Howl\u201d (Norton Vol. E 500); \u201cA Supermarket in California\u201d (Vol. E 500-01); \u201cSunflower Sutra\u201d (Vol. E 501-03).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHowl\u201d (Vol. E 492-500) and \u201cFootnote to Howl\u201d (Norton Vol. E 500)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Section 1 (Vol. E 492-97)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. \u201cHowl\u201d begins with the words \u201cI saw\u201d and continues for more than 75 very long free-verse lines with a catalog of perceivers and experiencers mostly circumscribed by the pronoun \u201cwho.\u201d Reflect on Ginsberg\u2019s technique here: the first-person speaker immediately opens out to a third-person series of experiences, feelings, and visions. If we try to put all of these together, what emerges — what can you identify as at least a couple of key realizations and moments and what seems to be the direction and purpose of the collective consciousness described in the first section as a whole?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. The last several free-verse lines of the first section of \u201cHowl\u201d seem to comprise a sense of sacrifice on the part of all the perceivers mentioned in the section. To what end or with what success has that sacrifice been tendered, as you interpret the ending of this first part?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Section 2 (Vol. E 497-98)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. The second section of \u201cHowl\u201d is devoted to naming and further delineating the unholy social and political system that the first part of the poem references. The name that the poet gives this system is Moloch. You\u2019re Norton Anthology note tells you that Ginsberg himself annotated this figure as \u201cthe Canaanite fire God\u2026.\u201d Do a little research on the Internet and set down what you can about the history and significance of this god. What are some of the institutions and qualities referenced in both the first and second sections of \u201cHowl\u201d? Why does Moloch turn out to be perhaps the best possible characterization for these institutions and qualities: how do his nature and the actions of those who worshiped him in ancient times serve as a reference point for the modern age that Ginsberg is calling out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. The second section of \u201cHowl\u201d ends with a reference to many people heading down to a river. The purifying or salvational power of this traditional image should be obvious, but what is it doing here in the present poem? Does it indicate genuine liberation from the torments and bondage of Moloch? Explain your interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Section 3 (Vol. E 498-99)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. The third section of \u201cHowl\u201d is specifically addressed to a friend of Ginsberg, Carl Solomon, and thus it takes on a more personal and intimate cast than the first two sections (which are also dedicated more generally to Solomon). Check out the back story of hwo Ginsberg met Solomon and what their dealings were with mental institutions, and go on to discuss how this information affects your reading of this section of the poem, which deals at least partly with a sense of liberation and reconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Footnote (Vol. E 500)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. The Footnote to \u201cHowl\u201d begins with the word \u201cHoly!\u201d and then catalogs the things we should label as such. This part of the poem is surely inspired by William Blake\u2019s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,<\/em> with its grand conclusion, \u201cevery thing that lives is Holy\u201d (see Plate 27<\/em><\/a><\/strong>). The entire poem has been a vision, and if we register Blake\u2019s influence on Ginsberg, we may look for a conclusion that involves more than bearing witness to painful experience and un-denying what the age\u2019s official morality and \u201cstory\u201d has denied (though those accomplishments are important, too) but to a sense of redemption (for Blake \u201credemption\u201d would be a process, not a one-time event) or at least the possibility thereof. To what extent does Howl<\/em> gesture towards a redemption of or liberation from the repression and cruelty that it has been raging against? Do you find the poem\u2019s overall effect satisfying in that regard \u2013 i.e. by means of its diverse and multifarious perspectives, does it achieve clarity and purity of vision at the end? Explain your reasons for responding as you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA Supermarket in California\u201d (Vol. E 500-01)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. In \u201ca Supermarket in California,\u201d the speaker takes Walt Whitman as his inspiration, and has a dream wherein he goes \u201cshopping for images\u201d in a supermarket. What is the ghostly figure of Whitman doing in this grocery store, and how does the modern store serve as a metaphor of the elder poet\u2019s vision of America?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. In \u201cA Supermarket in California\u201d in what sense is the speaker comparing himself to Walt Whitman and measuring the difference between Whitman\u2019s America and the America of the 1950s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSunflower Sutra\u201d (Vol. E 501-03)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. In \u201cSunflower Sutra,\u201d when Jack Kerouac points out a dead sunflower surrounded by industrial blight, the dead flower becomes the object of the speaker\u2019s meditation. How does the speaker build up for us a sense of what the sunflower looks like and associate its appearance with its blighted surroundings? What insights about the flower and the human spirit emerge from this meditation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n