What's the deal with the hating!

This week in Poetry class we dove deeper into the Beat Movement, and talked in greater detail about the overall cultural reform. We also undertook a very famous poet, Bob Dylan. Growing up in Minnesota, he was very keen with the creative arts, specifically music and poetry. With music, multiple rock stars inspired him during his teenage years; he adored Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, respectfully. Bob Dylan looked for inspiration in poetry from American legend Dylan Thomas. Although the more famous pieces of his manuscript are seen in his song lyrics, he did not fail in being a prominent poet. His poem, “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” is one of his more recognized poems even though it is also performed with music. Here are the lines to this magnificent poem:

The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll

William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll
With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger
At a Baltimore hotel society’
And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him
As they rode him in custody down to the station
And booked William Zanzinger for first-degree murder
But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain’t the time for your tears

William Zanzinger, who at twenty-four years
Owns a tobacco farm of six hundred acres
With rich wealthy parents who provide and protect him
And high office relations in the politics of Maryland
Reacted to his deed with a shrug of his shoulders
And swear words and sneering, and his tongue it was snarling
In a matter of minutes on bail was out walking
But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain’t the time for your tears

Hattie Carroll was a maid of the kitchen
She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children
Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage
And never sat once at the head of the table
And didn’t even talk to the people at the table
Who just cleaned up all the food from the table
And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level
Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane
That sailed through the air and came down through the room
Doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle
And she never done nothing to William Zanzinger
But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain’t the time for your tears

In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel
To show that all’s equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain’t pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled
Once that the cops have chased after and caught ’em
And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom
Stared at the person who killed for no reason
Who just happened to be feelin’ that way without warnin’
And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished
And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance
William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence
Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now’s the time for your tears








After analyzing the Beat movement and Bob Dylan’s prose, a mind blowing question hit me; what was trying to be said through all of these literary and cultural reforms? Both styles of poetry were very critical of cultural reform, specifically wars, bigotry, consumerism, etc. They would also support the ideas of Walt Whitman in his poem, “America”, with having a strong, structured America. Dylan loved to talk about the government in his pieces and show the overall corruption inside government through realistic events(well he did exaggerate a little…). The Beats criticized the cultural movements going on in the mid-twentieth century with an anti-establishment approach. They denounced the ideas of conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society.
As I dug a little further, I stumbled across other pieces of literature that criticized government. In George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm, he establishes a farm and makes all of the animals equal, but some animals are more equal than the others. Overall, Orwell was satirically foreshadowing the communistic threat in the Cold War. Another novel which has a similar idea is Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers(1959). In this novel, everything is earned through military service, and the government in this book is overall fascist.

So overall, what’s up with all of this reform? Think about it though. After years of death and destruction in Europe from both of the World Wars, dozens of nations, excluding the United States, significantly lost power and wealth. Luckily, the United States came up on top economically, and it was to an extent “ruling the world.” Keeping this idea in mind, I think that these intelligent reformists understood what the long term effects of another war, communism, and corruption would have on the government. Now, I may just be giving some “daddios” too much credit, but think about it really. The government is intentionally for the people; nonetheless, the government often does not support the ideas of the common folk. Therefore, the only way to address concerns in the government on a national or international level is through literature and clear evidence for a cause, which is exactly what all of these intelligent individuals did.


Unfortunately, a lot of pictures and videos that I tried to put into my blog this week could not go in because of some technical difficulties (Image Uploads will be disabled for two hours due to maintenance at 5:00 PM PDT Wednesday, Oct. 20th)


HERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL LINKS THAT I THOUGHT WERE RELEVANT AND FASCINATING:

http://www.biography.com/articles/Bob-Dylan-9283052?part=1

http://www.lukemastin.com/utopia/mid20th.html

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/argentina/



-Permitpat