2024 the best of minds review
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(as of Dec 17, 2024 10:52:20 UTC - Details)
In 1977, twenty years after the publication of his landmark poem “Howl,” and Jack Kerouac’s seminal book On the Road, Allen Ginsberg decided it was time to teach a course on the literary history of the Beat Generation. Through the creation of this course, which he ended up teaching five times, first at the Naropa Institute and later at Brooklyn College, Ginsberg saw an opportunity to present the history of Beat Literature in his own inimitable way. Compiled and edited by renowned Beat scholar Bill Morgan, and with an introduction by Anne Waldman, The Best Minds of My Generation presents the lectures in edited form, complete with notes, and paints a portrait of the Beats as Ginsberg knew them: friends, confidantes, literary mentors, and fellow revolutionaries.
Ginsberg was seminal to the creation of a public perception of Beat writers and knew all of the major figures personally, making him uniquely qualified to be the historian of the movement. In The Best Minds of My Generation, Ginsberg shares anecdotes of meeting Kerouac, Burroughs, and other writers for the first time, explains his own poetics, elucidates the importance of music to Beat writing, discusses visual influences and the cut-up method, and paints a portrait of a group who were leading a literary revolution. For Beat aficionados and neophytes alike, The Best Minds of My Generation is a personal yet critical look at one of the most important literary movements of the twentieth century.
Publisher : Grove Press; Reprint edition (April 17, 2018)
Language : English
Paperback : 496 pages
ISBN-10 : 0802127983
ISBN-13 : 978-0802127983
Item Weight : 1.28 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
Reviewer: M. Palmieri
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An eyewitness account of the Beats and how they wrote
Review: This book came as a pleasant surprise, simply because I didnât know it existed. Itâs a series of transcribed lectures that Ginsberg gave at Naropa, wherein he gives us the closest look we may ever get at how certain important U.S. literary works came together.Allen Ginsberg was around Kerouac, William Burroughs, and others in the Beatsâ literary circle as they wrote the works theyâre remembered for; he knew what they were reading, what they were talking about, and what was going on in their lives at the time they wrote their best-known books. While the reader may not agree with every opinion or care about every writer mentioned, this book is still well worth reading if you value these writers and their work. Even when Ginsberg may over- or undercriticize (by my lights or yours), he tries to report both strengths and weaknesses as he sees them.One note re entertainment value: The book is not a long read, and can end up being even shorter if you donât care about most of the writers discussed.
Reviewer: Doreen Meyer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: 'Best Minds'????
Review: Really looked forward to this, but was startled by the text, which is not only unimpressive, but suggests that the 'Beats' were uniformly unimpressive as well. I did get some information on programs and education Beat members piloted, and was glad to hear Diane DiPrima's name a couple of times, since this is so white male centric...and she, of the eventual PhD, is to men (so far) the surviving genius of the group.May have to read 'on the road' once more to see if it held up, or was merely my adolescent fantasy.
Reviewer: Danny Shot
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I feel like I just took one of those "Great Courses" that ...
Review: Bill Morgan has done a masterful job of editing Allen Ginsberg's words. I feel like I just took one of those "Great Courses" that is advertised in the New Yorker, but I got to take it for the 14 dollar kindle price.I believed that I exhausted the Beat canon but there's a lot in here that I didn't know or hadn't heard. I wish there could be a sequel.
Reviewer: Norman and Mareen
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book!
Review: Get better with k for lovers and of the Beat Era.
Reviewer: Gary Bertone
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Beats, Bongos & Badasses
Review: What a history lesson! Fills in a lot of gaps between the lines of Kerouac, Ginsberg, & all the beats & the hippies yet to come.
Reviewer: Kelly Hendrix
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: and the love he had for those two especially is apparent
Review: This collection of Ginsberg's lectures is incredible. It probably won't appeal to anyone who isn't already a fan of the beats and their signature style. However, if you are, it's a wealth of information. It provides Ginsberg's insight into a movement that he was not only present for, but a key part of. It's fascinating to hear him talk about the works of Kerouac and Burroughs, and the love he had for those two especially is apparent. For aspiring writers, the book is also valuable as an insight into the thought process that these greats followed to create their works. It can ramble, but that was just Ginsberg and how he functioned. If you can read the works of the beats, you can read this and will likely enjoy it.
Reviewer: Louis Weltzer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Beats Go On
Review: This book is an edited collection of some lectures that Allen Ginsberg presented for some classes on Beat Literature at Naropa Institute in Boulder and at Brooklyn College in New York. Ginsberg was certainly in the middle of what was a limited Beat literature scene and he clearly thinks that all of his buddies were brilliant geniuses. Still, I can't help but wonder if Truman Capote may have been correct when he said their spontaneous prose style is typing, rather than writing.The Beat authors (whether you consider them deadBEAT or BEATific) produced what was essentially a voyeuristic literature that let the general public look into a lifestyle revolving around sex, drugs, jazz and road trips. These lectures by Allen Ginsberg are also essentially voyeurism, with extensive quotations from some of the major works mixed with even more stories about sex, drugs, jazz and road trips.After reading this book, I am not impressed with Ginsberg. It seems that he can talk for long periods of time without having any idea what he is saying - and he believes his audience wants to hear that. For instance, at one point he makes some references to the Bible in connection with Kerouac's writing and he completely confuses Genesis and John's Gospel, since both refer to the Beginning.At another point he goes into an extended discussion of Gregory Corso's poem, "How Happy I Used To Be," which ends:"I knew 1768 when all was patched eyes and wooden legsHow happy I was fingering pieces of eight, doubloons --Children, have you not heard of my meetingwith Israel Hans, Israel Hans --"As a kind of explanation, Ginsberg says:"'Who's Israel Hans?' I kept thinking, 'Who's Israel Hans?' because it's somehow interesting. Israel Hans was apparently some figure of the American Revolution. Oddly enough, Corso was quite learned in old, funny history."Even though I wasn't there and Ginsberg was, it seems that he has it all wrong. Clearly Corso was talking about pirates in the quoted language and Israel Hands was, in fiction, a character in "Treasure Island" and in real life the pirate Blackbeard's second in command. "Hands" was apparently changed to "Hans" because Corso was living in Amsterdam at the time. So, it was a joke.At yet another point Ginsberg explains the word "anthemion" from another of Corso's poems saying, "I forgot what anthemion is, it's a Greek god that did something awful." He is not even close on this one. Actually, anthemion is a floral motif used in Greek art.Is he any more accurate in the stories he tells about the authors and their lives at the time they were writing? I don't know, I wasn't there; but the inaccuracies that clearly exist indicate that other things may best be taken with a grain of salt.This review has focused on the negative, and that is not really fair. He does present a good history of the East Coast literary circle that created most of the early Beat writing. Of course, there were also West Coast Beat writers like Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen who are essentially ignored, but that seems purposeful and beyond the scope of these lectures.
Reviewer: Fuzzarilly
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Best Minds of My Generation: A Literary History of the Beats
Review: This was not exactly what I was expecting but I enjoyed it. I love reading anything and everything about Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs. They were the very best writers of their time!
Reviewer: Gary Brackett
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Squallida..imbarazzante! Se fossi un libro nuovo..e spettavo uno nuovo hardback (copertina rigida) come ho pagato per questo- il libro deve avere un sovra copertina piu deve arrivare in plastica. IL libro e' arrivato 'nudo' senza protezione, e dunque danneggiato. vergognatevi Amazon! Poi insultato su insultato devo spettare un altra settimana per il sostituzione.Per quanto riguardo il libro sono sicuro che e' un capo lavoro come e' stato scritto da Ginsberg che io avuto il onore e piacere ad incontrarlo a New York negli anno '90Update: arrivato il nuovo spedizione...quasi uguale al l'ultima! Vergognoso! Sembrava essere un libro tolto dal ripiano e spinto in una scatola. Forse è un nuovo libro ma non un involucro in plastica. Amazon è decisamente in declino! E sento che trattano i loro dipendenti riprovevoli. Ancora più c'è una macchia da danni all'acqua! Se vuoi un libro da collezionismo andare ad un altro rivenditore! Cerco sempre un venditore migliore!