Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the poem "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg which led to a widely publicized court case dividing readers between a view of art and obscenity. This paper discusses how "Howl" is not obscene or socially deviant writings, but instead, a valuable social critique of Ginsberg's time. By teasing out the parts that are labeled obscene, it picks the most controversial topics and explores the meanings behind them, also showing how it is more of a social critique than plan obscenity for no reason.

From the Paper:

"The topic of homosexuality and blatant crudeness towards heterosexuality makes itself visible in the text, a topic that society at the time tried to shy away from and viewed as indecent. The most obvious is the image of one having anal intercourse and not feeling ashamed to enjoy it, "who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy" (128), writing in this way without holding back literally shoves the idea of homosexuality in the face of the reader, without hiding from it, and makes the reader interpret it in the poem. The character does not care where the sex comes from, jumping into passing limousines "seeking jazz or sex or soup" (127), he or she seems to not care where or how they receive this sex they are looking for, comparing it to something as little as soup or jazz."

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