Source Evaluation

Source: Ginsberg, Allen. Howl: original draft facsimile, transcript, and variant versions, fully annotated by author, with contemporaneous correspondence, account of first public reading, legal skirmishes, precursor texts, and bibliography. San Francisco: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.

I found this source really interesting from a reading of the title alone: “original draft facsimile” “and variant versions”. One thing that is commonly told about Allen Ginsberg is that he did very little editing, so I was instantly curious as to exactly how many changes the poem went through from its original form to its final. Flipping through the book, I saw that Ginsberg actually did edit ‘Howl’ quite a lot. For example, the poem’s very important opening generalisation of Ginsberg’s generation – “starving hysterical naked” – actually began as “starving, mystical, naked,” and continued to change in every following draft. Even more intriguingly, the commas were only removed in the final draft, and in my first reading of the poem, I noted the lack of commas as a highly important element.

Seeing that it wasn’t in the original version got me really interested to research Ginsberg’s intended purpose of this poem, and the individual lines. What about the mood or perceived reader interpretation did he shift when changing even something as small as a single word? And why, if he did make these changes with the clear intentions as I must assume he had, did he go on to let on that he didn’t edit? Did he ever actually say this, or simply imply it? I know from our class readings that in ‘Notes on Howl and Other Poems’ he did indeed say, “Let it be raw, there is beauty,” and it’s easy to infer from this that “raw” means simply letting the words fall where they may and not changing anything once they’re on the page.

I wanted to do an essay on Ginsberg, but I had no idea what to focus on. In looking at this source though, the questions it raised gave me a much clearer understanding of what I want to approach in this essay. I want to explore why it was important that Ginsberg’s readers/listeners think the poem they see/hear has been untouched since it was born. As a collection of not only Ginsberg’s drafts, but a source containing in-depth annotated notes on the poem and also accounts of the controversies the poem caused upon its introduction to society, I think it will be a highly useful and appropriate source in this assignment. I know I can incorporate quotes from the annotations into my essay to help with any discussion on interpretation and meaning, and also the included accounts of the poem’s reception will certainly help in providing evidence as to the values of the Beat movement – which I feel might shine some light on the whole ‘first thought, best thought’ belief – and perhaps misconception?

A specific quote I’d like to focus on involves, once again, the opening line’s “starving hysterical naked”. The annotation states, “Crucial revision: “Mystical is replaced by “hysterical,” a key to the tone of the poem. Tho the initial idealistic impulse of the line went one way, afterthought noticed bathos, and common sense dictated “hysteria.”” While this and the rest of the annotation explains the word change, it doesn’t explain the loss of commas, and I’ll therefore have to speculate about that. I feel that, however, the changes made to these three words alone are an excellent example of the type of changes that Ginsberg made to ‘Howl’ and therefore will be one of a few good focus points of the essay.