How to Howl

I went to see this movie, Howl, about Allen Ginsberg’s trial after the release of his book Howl. Well, it actually wasn’t his trial, but the editor’s, who had been willing to publish his slightly controversial poem. Anyway, the problem of letting the Allen Ginsberg character read the whole thing through out the movie was solved by flowing images and background music. The images made me feel nauseous, although I can’t say for certain that this wasn’t emphasized by me sitting on the second row. Neck problems and dizziness must be quite common after sitting like that for two hours, all this time being bombarded with strong colours and fast moving objects. This movie wasn’t that long, nor was it filled to the brim with action, but in general these days it seems more important to make a film really long, than making it interesting. 

There were two things in particular that the Allen figure said during the reproduction of old interviews. He talked about poetry and how to make it; where it comes from. He described it as starting with a feeling in your stomach that moves upwards, through your throat, and then emerges from your mouth like a sound. This can be a groan, a sigh or whatever sound you connect with that certain feeling. To write poetry, you take a good look at what you have around you. What is happening, what you can see etc. Combine the words that come up with the feeling you have in your stomach and poetry drops down on the paper. So it’s as easy as that. 

Another thing he said, and also what I think is the most relevant for what I’m trying to say with this blog, was that if you want to write anything good, you have to give it the whole day and you can’t expect anything satisfying to come out of it before you’ve tried for several hours. (He didn’t mention how agonizing this can be to some of us.) To use words of Ginsberg when he had managed to write something that he felt completely satisfied with, this is true. And it reflects what I wrote earlier about permutations and finding the true name of God. Whatever you want to do, you have to go really deep into it to come out with something good. We want you to howl, to roar when you find something true. What we don’t want is for you to yap continuously, without anything real to say.