My Beatnik Phase

My first introduction to Beatniks was the character Maynard G. Krebs from the television show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He was funny, had a goatee, spoke using the Beat vocabulary, played the bongos - in short, did the things Beatniks were supposed to do.



I was a little young to be a Beatnik myself. I was only 9 when Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl was published. I was sort of a Hippie and I've always had a curiosity about Beatniks. While perusing the MassCat catalog looking for things to fix, I noticed the book Women of the Beat Generation and promptly requested it. It contains 40 short biographies of women who wrote during the 50s and early 60s and excerpts of their poetry and prose. Some of the women were wives (e.g. Carolyn Cassady) or daughters (Jan Kerouac) of notorious Beatniks. One was Diane di Prima. I liked her writing style and was curious to learn more about her. I then requested Memoirs of a Beatnik. The book is fiction, though based on her life. It is also pornographic. I would not classify it as erotica as it's too blatant, but it is well written.

The main character, who has the same name as the author, dropped out of college at 18 and moved to Manhattan where she had a lot of sex, smoked a lot of marijuana, spoke using the Beat vocabulary, lived communally, had a lot of sex, sometimes lived on the streets, wrote poetry, and had a lot of sex. While the stereotype of the Beatnik is dressed in black, Diane usually word blue jeans.

As I was reading her book, I kept wondering about the difference between Beatniks and Hippies.They appear to have a lot in common. Both were anti-establishment, supported free speech and free love, listened to music and used a lot of drugs.

The differences, I think, are mainly in style. Color was important to Hippies, the more the better. And bell-bottomed pants, the wider the better. Music was important to both. Beatniks preferred jazz while Hippies liked rock. The instrument of choice was also different. Beats banged on bongo drums while Hippies played the guitar. The Beat movement was based around literature, both poetry and prose. Hippies  sometimes read the psychedelic literature of Carlos Castaneda, but writing didn't have the same importance.

To round out my recent Beatnik experience, I borrowed the DVD Howl. This docu-drama is about Ginsberg's poem, the obscenity trial that followed, and interviews with Ginsberg (played by James Franco). The scenes flip back and forth from one to the other.

I have never read On the Road by Jack Kerouac, but that's on my list. How can I consider my Beatnik phase complete without reading that Beat classic?

As I said earlier, I was sort of a Hippie. I wore the clothes and the long, straight hair, smoked my share of marijuana and participated in other Hippie doings. Sometimes I think "Those were amazing and exciting adventures" and other times I think "How could I have done that?" Overall, financial security and basic comfort was important to me; I always had a job and an apartment.

I remember in the early to mid 1970s going to see the musical Hair which was playing at UMass. The music was great as were the costumes. And the cast "dropped trou" at the end. I also remember afterward thinking the play felt very dated. The Hippie years were over.

Self-Help Books

It was the tagline "Letting go of bad habits, guilt, and anxiety around food" that led me to request the book Food Freedom Forever by Melissa Hartwig.

Like many people, I respond to life's stresses by eating. When I'm happy, I want to celebrate with a hot fudge sundae; when I'm upset, I want to console myself with a box of chocolates. And when I'm eating something that tastes good, I don't want to stop, even when I'm no longer hungry. Though I've been better in recent years, food cravings can be an issue for me.

I'm not sure I'm ready to undertake the Whole30 eating plan, but reading this book gave me a lot of insight and many ideas about approaching eating. On the Whole30 program, for 30 days you "reset" your metabolism by totally eliminating grains, legumes, soy, alcohol, dairy and added sugar. "Added sugar" includes honey, maple syrup, steevia, etc. but the sugar that is naturally included in fruit is okay. After 30 days (there is some flexibility in this plan; if you feel like you need 35 or 40 days, do it), you re-introduce one of the food groups (e.g. non-gluten grains) for a few days and observe how you feel. Did your skin break out? Do you have gas? A headache? More energy? If so, your body is reacting to this food. Take notes. Stop that food and re-introduce another, perhaps dairy, and observe your body and mood again. Keep doing this with all of the individual food groups - which will take another 30 days or so. Now you have a good idea of how your body reacts to different foods and to different amounts of a food. The author has a gluten sensitivity, but has found she can eat ONE cupcake. More than one does terrible things to her gut. Other foods may have no effect one way or another.

Once you know the effect different foods have on your body and mood, you can make wise decisions on what to eat and how much to eat because you know what will happen. And because you're eating mostly natural foods with no additives, food tastes different, tends to be more satisfying and there are fewer cravings for sugar. Sounds good, but does require at least a two month commitment.

As I said in the beginning of this post, I'm not ready for this program yet, but the book itself has a lot of good information and is actually fun to read!

I don't usually read two self-improvement books in a row, but I was caught off guard and the only other book in my "to read" pile was Spark Joy by Marie Kondo. There are several books at the library waiting for me, but given the limited library hours during the holidays, I haven't had a chance to pick them up.

I'm a pretty neat person and don't have a lot of clutter, but I'm always interested in other ideas to keep order in my life. Like Whole30, the KonMari method uses a specific approach. Most people start de-cluttering one room at a time. KonMari says to de-clutter by type of item and begin with clothes.

Bring all of your clothes into one place; then you can see exactly what you have. That makes sense. Most of my clothes are in the closet next to my bedroom, but I have off-season clothes in the closet in the spare bedroom and outer wear in the closet near the front door. Instead of looking for things to eliminate, focus on what you want to keep - which is anything that "brings joy". Take each piece of clothing (she recommends starting with tops), hold it, hug it if necessary, and feel if it brings you joy. If so, keep it. Maybe the article of clothing is worn, it brought you joy once but no longer. In that case, thank it for it's excellent service and let it go. I can truly say that most of my clothes bring me joy.

Like Whole30, there is flexibility in KonMari's program. She recommends hanging clothes in your closet going up from left to right (long stuff on the left, shorter stuff towards the right). I have found a way of hanging my clothes that works well for me. Certain types of clothes are hung together (e.g. long sleeved blouses, short sleeved blouses). When I wear an item and rehang it, or wash an item and rehang it, I put it on the left. That way I know I wore that item most recently. The next time I go to choose a short sleeve blouse, I first go to the right-hand side as that is the item that has been hanging there the longest. If I don't want to wear it, I work my my leftwards. The result is that if something stays on the right hand side and I keep passing it by, it no longer "brings joy" and I seriously consider finding a new home for it.

While Spark Joy was not quite as much fun to read as Food Freedom Forever, I found lots in both books to incorporate into my life. And I actually found the motivation to do a few things I've been putting off.

I think what I like best about both of these books is that 2 young women have found success doing something they like. Both are consultants or coaches of the methods they've developed and both have now written more than one book. I am not an entrepreneur, but I'm so happy when I learn what others have been able to accomplish.