The Beat Generation

Today I was lured into reading about the beat generation. Having lived the past two years with a couple of English majors, of course i learned a lot about different literary movements and such. This movement is very interesting to me even though i am very much "drug free." This is one movement that was truely "American", and young American at that, considering most of the authors and artists were young when the movement was born. And being in the early-mid twenties, i guess it is a bit fitting to be attracted to the wandering, traveling, testing, learning type of living. It is funny to think at one time in history, LSD and many hard drugs were legal. These drugs were being created around the fifties when really the only common toxicant used was alcohol. Just like the scene from "fear and loathing in las vegas" when Johnny Depp and Benecio Del Toro are in a public restroom tripping on acid; people simply mistake them as drunks; and everyone loves a good ol' drunk. Jack Kerouac is the name most associated with the beat generation, after all he coined the phrase. This summer I will hopefully make it around to reading his book titled "Dharma Bums", the follow-up to the popular "On the Road." Charlest Bukowski is another famed writer of this movement. He published a few works in the 40s and was thought to have stopped writing for twenty years, while wandering aimlessly and taking odd jobs. When he returned to publishing works twenty years later, it was revealed he had in deed been writing and publishing in this "off time." These works are now very limited and hard to find, but today Bukowski has a solid following. Two other Beat writers, Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey took a series of cross-country adventures, one being to the New York World's Fair. The two and others and traveled along called themselves the "Merry Pranksters" and drove a psychedelically painted bus named "Further." They recruited a struggling local band along to play while they filmed the travels. The band later became "The Greatful Dead." You can read about the bizarre events that took place during these travels and parties in the book titled "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe.

Even though i will never be involved in anything like this, nor do i desire to, these events amaze me.
The site that was most interesting and easiest to read was created by 1 guy named ken rumsey.
The link is: The Beat Page. Read about this time and the people involved. It is history after all.