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After walking along Western road to the beat of a strict and relentless 4/4 rhythm, I found myself in the flourescent aisles of the supermarket.
I navigate my way through crowds of office workers masquerading as rock musicians, seemingly panicked by a truckers blockade, a fuel crisis, or a BSE scare and stumble upon Allen Ginsberg: Childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the Wild Blueberry flavoured washing up liquid and eyeing scented candles.Where are we going Allen Ginsberg? Where a movement described by J. Edgar Hoover as the ‘third greatest threat to America’ now defines itself through elitism and aloof detachment? The beatniks and the hipsters lie hollow and crestfallen at the feet of Kerouac’s ‘beatitude’; reduced to defining individuality and creativity through notions of exclusion.
The ‘Dharma bums’ who waged war, when it appeared that there was a war that could be won, who fought tooth and nail for the advancement of society as a whole (rather than for an acknowledgment of their part in the battle) have been reduced through the passage of of history to little more than ineffectual dreamers. We on the other hand, as inheritors, strive to make our mark on a society that has stretched to a point in which its own curvature is as visible to the eye as it is to the mind.
Where are we going, Allen Ginsberg? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight? (I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd). Will we walk all night through solitary streets?
The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses. We’ll both be lonely.
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Comment by Michael Tim February 28, 2009 @ 5:32 pmExperiencing a slow PC recently? Fix it now!