HOWL

Today we get to rehearse the HOWL scene for the very first time and, in preparation for this, I've been doing a lot of research on Ginsberg's poem and on the impact it had on the generation it addressed. Emily was kind enough to forward me a couple of links to articles that may prove useful for us to take a look at when thinking of the poem. I found a couple of others and I've posted the links to all of them below for us to browse and learn about the importance that this poem had, not only on American poetry, but more importantly on those people like Harold and Edith who see this text as a landmark of their youths.

http://www.rooknet.com/beatpage/writers/ginsberg.html#howl ... 'The Beat Page' provides you a short profile on Ginsberg and a copy of HOWL along with some of his other important poems.

http://www.usm.maine.edu/%7Ejkuenz/391/howl.htm ... This link provides us with a bunch of reviews/reactions to HOWL. I've always been very interested in what Williams Carlos Williams says in the introduction to Ginsberg's poem, so make sure you check that one out.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/perloff/ ... Follow the sixth link on this page for a more comprehensive study of HOWL. If you don't have much time to read through the whole thing, head over page 7 where Perloff begins her in-depth discussion of the poem. I'd also pay special attention to her discussion of speech and rhythm in page 10 and of madness in page 13.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/04/DDGKPF12031.DTL ... This short article gives us a good sense of the power that Ginsberg's performances of HOWL had on its audience. It is going to be particularly important for us in this production to understand the rhythm of the poem and, not necessarily by imitating Gingsberg himself, recreate the same narrative strength for this scene.

And if nothing else, at least check out the Wikipedia articles on Ginsberg, the Beats, and/or HOWL. Through all this research, what we should be moving towards is an exploration of the idea of an alternate community that the poem draws out for us. Out of the negligence and the indifference of our world, as Harold and Edith point out in the play, we get HOWL. Out of the same sense of alienation from this negligence that the characters in the play experience, we get a celebration of a community that stands out of the mainstream. More on this tonight at our rehearsal!