The Beat Generation
Allen Ginsberg came to Rosset’s party, with his digusting black straggly beard, a white T-shirt beneath a dark, double-breasted suit, and tennis shoes. With him there was a whole crowd of beatniks who were even more bearded and filthy. They have all moved from San Francisco to New York, including Kerouac, who did not come tonight, however.
Arrabal’s Adventure
The beatniks naturally fraternize with Arrabal, wo is also bearded (his Parisian under-the-chin beard and their unkempt beatnik beards), and invite him to their to listen to his poetry readings. Ginsberg lives with another bearded man as man and wife and would like Arrabal to be present at their bearded couplings. When I got back to the hotel, I found Arrabal looking frightened and scandalized because they wanted to seduce him. This Teddy Boy who had come to America to scandalize others is totally terrified at his first encounter with the American avant-garde and suddenly is revealed as the poor Spanish boy who up until a few years ago was still studying to become a priest.
He says that at home the beatniks are very clean, they have a beautiful house complete with fridge and television, and they live a quiet bourgeois ménage and dress up in dirty clothes only to go out.
From the frequently hilarious, occasionally questionable American Diary 1959-1960 by Italo Calvino published in Hermit in Paris.
The Beat Generation
Allen Ginsberg came to Rosset’s party, with his digusting black straggly beard, a white T-shirt beneath a dark, double-breasted suit, and tennis shoes. With him there was a whole crowd of beatniks who were even more bearded and filthy. They have all moved from San Francisco to New York, including Kerouac, who did not come tonight, however.
Arrabal’s Adventure
The beatniks naturally fraternize with Arrabal, wo is also bearded (his Parisian under-the-chin beard and their unkempt beatnik beards), and invite him to their to listen to his poetry readings. Ginsberg lives with another bearded man as man and wife and would like Arrabal to be present at their bearded couplings. When I got back to the hotel, I found Arrabal looking frightened and scandalized because they wanted to seduce him. This Teddy Boy who had come to America to scandalize others is totally terrified at his first encounter with the American avant-garde and suddenly is revealed as the poor Spanish boy who up until a few years ago was still studying to become a priest.
He says that at home the beatniks are very clean, they have a beautiful house complete with fridge and television, and they live a quiet bourgeois ménage and dress up in dirty clothes only to go out.
From the frequently hilarious, occasionally questionable American Diary 1959-1960 by Italo Calvino published in Hermit in Paris.
Posted 1 month ago & Filed under Italo Calvino, American Diary, Hermit in Paris, lit, literature, beatniks, Allen Ginsberg, New York, 3 notes
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