[lit-ideas] Re: Bum literature
- From: John Wager <johnwager@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 17:33:47 -0500
And then there's the great Orwell novel DOWN AND OUT IN LONDON AND PARIS.
Mike Geary wrote:
>Of course in poetry the field is much richer. Almost all of the beat poetry
>of the 50's and 60's is a kind of spiritual exaltation of bummery as well as
>the whole hippie thing through the middle 60's and 70's. Most often those
>apostles of poverty were upper/middle class Ivy-league converts, and often
>only temporary devotees, but devotees nonetheless. Santayana (?) says that
>the impulse to return to nature is a disease of civilzation. An aphorism I
>can appreciate -- there is no simpler age I'd like to return to, at the same
>time the America dream screams nightmare to me. But maybe I'm just spoiled
>by lack of toil.
>
>Mike Geary
>Middleboro, MA
>or thereabouts
>give or take
>half a continent
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2004 4:26 PM
>Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Bum literature
>
>
>
>
>>Yes, Carol, I've been trying to think of the name of that novel all day.
>>
>>Mike Geay
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "carol kirschenbaum" <cskir@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2004 3:56 PM
>>Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Bum literature
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>And from William Kennedy, _Ironweed_ .
>>>
>>>
>>>>ck
>>>>
>>>>
>>>***********************
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>andy amago wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>I was driving along the other day listening to oldies. The song was
>>>>>King of the Road by Roger Miller about the drifter. While neither
>>>>>demonizing nor glorifying the difter, the song nevertheless ascribed
>>>>>no redeeming qualities to him at all. In the many "traveling songs"
>>>>>or road literature such Kerouac (sp?) one gets the sense that these
>>>>>are young, ultimately upwardly mobile people going through a phase
>>>>>
>>>>>
>or
>
>
>>>>>searching for the perfect wave, etc.. Likewise in Don Quixote the
>>>>>protagonist is on a mission. Roger Miller, however, is singing
>>>>>about an out and out bum. I wondered at that point about other bum
>>>>>literature. Not the Joe Hill-type high minded working class but
>>>>>unredeemed bums. The only character I can think of is the Ratzo
>>>>>Rizzo character from Midnight Cowboy. Possibly Huckleberry Finn and
>>>>>Jim, who drift fairly aimlessly. Is there, in fact, a literature
>>>>>around the dregs of society? Trainspotting perhaps (the movie)?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Andy
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>>
>To
>
>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
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>
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