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To: Gay State Conservative

I respectfully beg to differ. As a person, who is both a lover of poetry and a published poet myself, I consider Ginsberg to be one of the truly great poets that America has produced, and I am absolutely not ashamed to admit it.

I have always preferred to focus most of my regard for Ginsberg on his work rather than on the lifestyle that he chose to live. Conservative or liberal, many writers and artists make poor choices in their personal lives, and indeed some can be or have been quite repulsive in their own ways.

Al Capp and Ernest Hemingway immediately come to mind for examples of more conservative writers, who were nevertheless not exactly all sunshine and roses in their personal lives.


6 posted on 06/16/2013 5:20:20 PM PDT by Kriggerel ("All great truths are hard and bitter, but lies... are sweeter than wild honey" (Ragnar Redbeard))
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To: Kriggerel
Sorry...the stream of consciousness style of Ginsberg is jarring and without any song to it...it is barking, not writing...
8 posted on 06/16/2013 5:26:14 PM PDT by massatoosits
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To: Kriggerel
"Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics, witchhunting for profit, humorlessness, vanity, anger and ignorance ... I'm a member of NAMBLA because I love boys too -- everybody does, who has a little humanity."

~ Allen Ginsberg, poet.

10 posted on 06/16/2013 5:49:12 PM PDT by ansel12 (Social liberalism/libertarianism, empowers, creates and imports, and breeds, economic liberals.)
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To: Kriggerel

I’ve written some research work on Ginsberg, and while I find Howl to be a really incredible poem, much of Ginsbergs other work is not impressive. I tend to agree with Kerouak that “Beat” wasn’t what Ginsberg tried to craft it to be, but was really a New Romantism.

Howl is one hell of a poem though!


14 posted on 06/16/2013 6:20:48 PM PDT by struggle
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To: Kriggerel

I’ve read and written a lot of poetry. I lived around columbia U and went to school there and read poetry at the west end.

My friends from the period who knew nothing of poetry thought ginsberg was great. I though ginsberg was a babbling idiot. In prose I thought mailer was a babbling idiot too.

But that’s just me.


23 posted on 06/16/2013 7:24:52 PM PDT by ckilmer
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