Summary Of Howl By William Ginsberg

The Beats & Sexuality

Introduction

During the period of 1950s, America was trying to recover after the war. There were a lot of issues, from economical to political. There were activist movements for black people , for women and obviously, for LGTBQ rights.

The general population, found it troubling to be on either side of these movements, if you were somewhat different, it was a deviant behaviour. Black people were still being discriminated and killed. Women had few rights over their own body and had a set role in society and LGTBQ people were outcasts, people thought that homosexuality could be cured through conversion theraphy as it wsa seen as a mental illness and men and women were imprisoneted if they were found guilty of such

In their works it is shown that the practice of homosexuality was common and not frowened upon in their circle.

Allen Ginsberg was one of the most well known Beat writers and the most known homosexual in the Beat Generation. In his poem “ Howl” , he destroyed some of the gay sterotypes and made it a celebration of this sexual oriention. The poem proved his homoerotic imaginary and it dealt with a lot of censorship battles.

„..who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manuscripts, / who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy . . . „

Before Gingsberg adjusted to his sexuality he indentified as a bisexual, but later on, he just accepted himself. He was seen as an author that opened the door to gay literature, his work were frank, realistic. He his life-long partener was Peter Orlovsky.

One of his first romantic interests was Neal Cassidy and they often exchanged letters. Cassady and Ginsberg were together in Denver June through August 1947, before Ginsberg went to Dakar and Cassady went to New york. Ginsberg went to New York hoping to meet with Cassady, but Cassady had returned to San Francisco a couple of days earlier to get married. There was a painful separation

Queerness was part of the San Francisco life, North Beach had several gay and lesbian bars, like Black Cat . There was always conflinct with the police, harassment of the forces triggered a reaction from the patrons of The Black Cat. Due to legal fees the patron of the bar was always in trouble with law as he did not want to pay to the goverment, the bar soon became a political stage for LGTBQ rights.

The Beats and the gays managed to challange the beliefs of that period. As they became a sensation, they managed to shake the ambience of a dull period, started a movement that spread through the country and later on inspiered a new generation . It was the Beat writers who managed to stimulate the need to stand out, to be vocal about your needs and fight for what you believe.