From the Beats to the Hippies: An Evolution
LIT9-10-Thu2
David Moskowitz
This course will take place in person at 60 Turner Street. The room will be equipped with a HEPA air purifier.
September 12 - November 21
(No Class October 3)
This course is designed for those sharing a fascination with the Beat Movement. For the SGL, this movement evokes the following images – a guitar-playing 3rd grade teacher in 1957-8 who frequently came to class dressed in all black and the TV character Maynard G. Krebs from Dobie Gillis. When one delves into the defining literature for this period two novels are always included so we will study these carefully: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. Burroughs appears as a character in Kerouac’s novel as does Allen Ginsberg; a class will be devoted to the latter’s two most famous works (Howl & Kaddish) while another class will study the poems of other well-known Beat poets.
Two or three weeks will be spent on various essays which will help us understand what this time was like and what writers were trying to convey, including Norman Mailer’s thought-provoking “White Negro,” a term he coined in 1957 to define/explain “Hipsters,” which term evolved into “Hippies.” The course concludes by examining Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test as he follows Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. This book was described by The New York Times as “not simply the best book on the hippies, it is the essential book.” The characters therein include some of the characters encountered in Kerouac’s classic, thereby taking us full circle as we connect the link between these two movements that for many of us define our growth from adolescence into early adulthood.
More facilitated discussion than lecture.
Need to obtain the three books below; the other material will be distributed by the SGL. On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (“The Restored Text” edited by James Grauerholz and Barry Miles would be best), The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe.
Probably 3-4 hours per week on average.
David Moskowitz is returning as an SGL after a year’s absence from leading courses. He holds a BS degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from Harvard. His legal career was spent predominantly as a general counsel, including 11 years as Brandeis’ initial general counsel. This is his 14th BOLLI-led course (28th time leading). David has led both fiction-based and non-fiction-based courses and this course has some of each. David encourages dynamic, vibrant class discussions and at times will play devil’s advocate to stimulate discussion. Be prepared to think.