ReThink Review: Howl -- Celebrating Banned Books Week

Saturday marked the beginning of Banned Book Week (Sept. 25-Oct. 2), which celebrates the wonderful freedom of being able to read whatever one likes, and reminding us that it's a freedom that must be fought for constantly. One need only look at lists of books that have been banned at one time or another to understand what's at risk (banned-books.com has good lists here and here, and Wikipedia has this list that includes books that have been banned in other countries).

That makes it a great time for the release of Howl, the new movie starring James Franco about Allen Ginsberg and the court case to determine if his poem, Howl, was obscene, and if anyone who published or sold it was guilty of a crime. See my ReThink Review of Howl and discussion about censorship with Cenk Uygur and Ben Mankiewicz of the Young Turks below.

As I mentioned in the review, I read Howl for the first time after seeing the movie, and it was a magical experience that I believe everyone should have. If you're interested in the poem and the case to ban it -- or want to find a fun way to celebrate Banned Books Week -- I recommend checking out the book Howl On Trial: the Battle for Free Expression by Bill Morgan and Nancy Joyce Peters. Below are some pages from Howl On Trial on Google Books, and if you scroll down to page 21, you'll find the complete poem of Howl, including the essential footnote.

Enjoy it, my angelheaded hipsters.

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Comments

[thebigbike]

04:06 PM on 09/28/2010

But I dont think I'll be seeing the movie. even after it goes to $6.98 on dvd

[thebigbike]

04:05 PM on 09/28/2010

I first read Howl in the 9th grade in a junior high school in California after the English teacher (who was fired at the end of the school year - connected?) had let us know about the lawsuit to ban it, and had read out loud several passages which had no sexual references or erotic content whatsoever.... I was able to buy a copy of the City Lights edition at the local bookstore without even a sidelong glance from the owner/salesclerk who knew every book in the place. I ha thatr copy for MANY years until I gave it to my godson in the 1990's It blew his mind too. It led me to a lifelong love of poetry which some might find unbelievable since there is so much modern poetry I can't abide. BUT not being an academic, I don't have to write a review or an essay about why I don't like it. I just have to read enough of it to figure out it's not a useful way to spend my time; there is a lot of writing out there that is a lot more rewarding to me. One rule, if I can't read it out loud and have it make even more impact on me, to me..... it is going to have a really tough go at drawing me in enough to finish... whatever, poem book story, even history. and in fact a lot of well written technical books read well aloud

[Number 6]

02:53 PM on 09/28/2010

Here's Allen Ginsberg, reading Howl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGoY9gom50&feature=related

[DrJackD]

06:43 PM on 09/27/2010

The FIRST book banned in America was "New English Canaan" by Thomas Morton of "Merrymount"---the New England colonies' first "criminal exile" and America's First Poet in English. Morton was an educated Renaissance man who grew up in England's wild West Country under Queen Elizabeth and came to America in 1624---prospering in every way because he loved it here, as opposed to his Pilgrim neighbors 40 miles away who were starving in a "howling wilderness." "Canaan" (1637) is three books: 10 chapters of closely observed Native American life (they made Morton's success possible); 10 chapters on the wonders of American nature; and the final third is his satiric attack on the Pilgrims and Boston Puritans, warning that if their "martialist" approach to America were followed, the continent would become a Christian labor camp. He calls Myles Standish "Captain Shrimp" and won his lawsuit against "New Israel" for having burned him out of house and home. 10 years to the month after Morton's May 1627 Maypole Revels for "all comers," the Puritans were trying to exterminate the Pequots of CT. No wonder Morton and his book were banned---after all, they were honest and positive-spirited. but we're going to make a feature film on Morton SOMEday and his story will change The story. Drink and Be Merry! ancientgreece-earlyamerica dot com, and AncientLights dot org ....

[3rdCitizen]

06:32 PM on 09/27/2010

Language either closes the mind or it opens it. The former is propaganda, the latter is poetry.
Thank you Allen Ginsberg and all the poets who have ever lived -- the world owes you more than it will ever know.

[normathumb]

09:17 AM on 09/27/2010

These pathetic guys don't have a clue. They clearly don't know the history or the personalities. Hard to believe they even read the poem.

[rrevolution]

05:33 AM on 09/27/2010

I am a bit shocked that it wasn't until after viewing this movie that Mr. Kim read "Howl" for the first time, especially with his background. Wow. I thought this was required reading in every undergraduate American literature class because of it's significance in 20th century American literature and history.

[Number 6]

02:47 PM on 09/28/2010

I had the same thought.

[tiaw578]

03:26 PM on 09/28/2010

I'd never heard of it until this moment (Yes, I went to college and paid attention too.), but I'll have to take a look this evening.

[lightist]

02:15 AM on 09/27/2010

Where's the emotional intelligence? Our society has gone insane and this is all the emotional content there is about a poem which pours it's heart out for us who live on? I'm quite tired of everyone here in these threads keeping their cool as though the very spirit of humanity is not at stake? Have you all gone mad?

I'm reading comments like: "I saw Howl last night. Liked it..."

Or: "Howl is amazing, and deserves all the accolades it gets,..."

Or: " Great poem, great blog, but mentioning Jon Hamm in the movie will garner clicks!"

What the bloody hell? Are you all milquetoast movie critics in a world of the half-dead?

Do you know what intensity of emotional content he actually put into this?

I guess we haven't decayed far enough to wake up even the so-called tuned in ones.

[longtimegone]

03:25 AM on 09/27/2010

Howl was the poem which shook me free of much of the conditioning foisted upon me in 1970 Midwest America, and then The Fall of America was published and, probably more than any other work, represents that time in my mind. It led me to Whitman, Rimbaud, then Blake and there was no turning back. I was fortunate to have met Ginsberg and conversed with him about Blake, in particular, meditation and consciousness in general. He held back nothing, ever; as he admired Pound's life work for displaying the development of the mind of a poet, so did his own work lay out naked, for all to see, the wild development of an alive and intensely searching poetic consciousness, plunged into the life of the world. I am thankful to Ginsberg to this day for his wild and fearless life in which he signaled many avenues of investigation to several generations of seekers and poets alike, and for his beautiful and fearless death, and I thank you for your passionate defense of him and his work.

[lightist]

03:44 PM on 09/27/2010

I also met the kind man on several occasions. Your comment intrigues me as I sense you searched for your heart like I did with Huxley's Doors Of Perception, in the world and found it in the hearts of those you mention. Our hearts are all so close together that I get sad/upset when others seem lazy, fearful, hesitant, etc. in searching for their hearts in others hearts, others who had no choice or perhaps did choose to find their hearts through words, images, deeds for others to know of. Life is so short and I want as many people as possible to feel their own burning heart in the works of those who did before the world loses sight of the extraordinary times that gave birth to them.

I think what pains me most is the sense that we are still within the wave of time that gave birth to what looks more and more to have been a renaissance of consciousness expansion and so much of the population ducked under the wave rather than surf it when the wave was relatively easy to surf for those who felt its presence. But the wave will not last forever and the lessons of it will crash leaving only those who did surf it to know of its awesome influence, of the intensity of its humanity, its heartfull visionary spontanaety.

[MolliBlum]

06:36 AM on 09/27/2010

I'm with you (in Rockland) on that

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

12:42 AM on 09/27/2010

I saw Howl last night. Liked it; put I was somewhat dissappointed by the reading of the poem in the movie, so this morniing I listened to my CD of Ginsberg reading it, no one does it as well as he does. The end of the movie with Allen Ginsberg singing was just great.

[thucy3]

10:24 PM on 09/26/2010

"Howl" is amazing, and deserves all the accolaides it gets, but in my very humble opinion "Kaddish" is Ginsberg's ultimate masterpiece, one of the most poignant, beautiful, and truthful poems in the English language. And his mid-50s journals are also well worth reading and reading again.

To paraphrase Allen, "The idea is: expand the area of consciousness."

Discovering Ginsberg is a joy, a revelation, a delight. Best wishes on your journey.

[wishfulslinking]

08:49 PM on 09/26/2010

Great poem, great blog, but mentioning Jon Hamm in the movie will garner clicks!