Essential Beatnik Pad

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Original story here.
     Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 04, 2012
     Category: Interior Decorating | Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers | 1950s





Comments
The article is so over the top in it's scathing criticism of anything smacking of progressive philosophy it would be received as a hilarious humor piece if published today. It extolls the virtues of the "clean and peace-provoking H-bomb".

Imagine the reaction if such a statement were to come from Iran or North Korea today.
Posted by Miles on 03/04/12 at 12:38 PM
Smile, Miles and lighten up a man, your bad vibes are bringing me down, dude. (The preceding should be read with a 60's stoned hippie brogue)
Posted by hippie dude on 03/04/12 at 03:07 PM
Yeah dude, be cool man!
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 03/04/12 at 08:21 PM
Jack Kerouac was on over-rated hack. It's refreshing to read a contemporary description of him that is realistic, instead of the Vaseline-smudged lenses through which he is usually seen in modern literature classes. He is one of those people who gained notoriety primarily from an early death. If he had lived to be 70, nobody today would know his name.
Posted by Pile of Pooh on 03/05/12 at 03:14 PM
I'm with Miles on this one.

Very weird, but not untypical of Life Mag to rely solely on ad hominem arguement to dismiss people who don't share their point of view. And that view was a pretty narrow view.

To be sure, the Beats did give a lot that one could parody, but they were quite varied in their perspectives and internal contradictions, so taking up multiple pages to simply say they were smelly and should get jobs isn't my idea of great analysis or great writing. It takes a certain skill to spend that much time investigating and writing on a subject and emerge uncontaminated by insight on that subject. Bravo, American Taliban!
Posted by Harvey on 03/06/12 at 07:31 AM
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