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My problem with critics is epistemological. How do they know what they know? The latest example is with a critic who makes a strong connection between the impro

My problem with critics is epistemological. How do they know what they know? The latest example is with a critic who makes a strong connection between the improvisational style of African-American Bebop music and the expressive style of the Beat Generation. He draws a direct line of influence from Bebop to Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. It's a nice theory, but I can't verify it. It feels true, but is it? Can we say Bebop influenced Kerouac because "it was in the air" at the time and there are similarities when we compare them?

brudgers 5y ago
The connection is explicit in On the Road, e.g chapter four of part three. And implicit earlier such as when Bull Lee talks about the dullness of New Orleans bars and the prohibition of whites going into black neighborhoods (where presumably the jazz would be better). Ginsberg himself is generally believed to be the inspiration for the character Carlo Marx. But that’s something I read…generally accepted scholarship so to speak. But here is what purports to be a picture of Kerouac and Ginsberg. https://granta.com/kerouac-ginsberg-the-letters/ https://granta.com/kerouac-ginsberg-the-letters/ It helps to be a bit manic about these things…
- okareaman 5y ago
  I am often a bit manic about these things so I need to check my assumptions often. I get the Jazz connection for sure, but Bebop? Bebop was developed in Harlem in the early 1940's. Neal Cassady was a juvenile delinquent in Denver in the early 1940's. He enjoyed the ecstatic release of Jazz, but the fact that he was a speed freak (benzedrine inhalers) may had a far greater effect on his style than anything else. In fact, he may have been the one to introduce Kerouac to amphetamines, which is how he was able to write On The Road in three weeks on a roll of continuous paper. My critic doesn't talk about speed. I don't know much, but then again, it seems like a lot of critics don't either.

brudgers 5y ago

The connection is explicit in On the Road, e.g chapter four of part three. And implicit earlier such as when Bull Lee talks about the dullness of New Orleans bars and the prohibition of whites going into black neighborhoods (where presumably the jazz would be better). Ginsberg himself is generally believed to be the inspiration for the character Carlo Marx. But that’s something I read…generally accepted scholarship so to speak. But here is what purports to be a picture of Kerouac and Ginsberg. https://granta.com/kerouac-ginsberg-the-letters/ https://granta.com/kerouac-ginsberg-the-letters/ It helps to be a bit manic about these things…

okareaman 5y ago
I am often a bit manic about these things so I need to check my assumptions often. I get the Jazz connection for sure, but Bebop? Bebop was developed in Harlem in the early 1940's. Neal Cassady was a juvenile delinquent in Denver in the early 1940's. He enjoyed the ecstatic release of Jazz, but the fact that he was a speed freak (benzedrine inhalers) may had a far greater effect on his style than anything else. In fact, he may have been the one to introduce Kerouac to amphetamines, which is how he was able to write On The Road in three weeks on a roll of continuous paper. My critic doesn't talk about speed. I don't know much, but then again, it seems like a lot of critics don't either.