The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg (1994)
By Jerry Aronson
Profile of the enduring Beat poet Allen Ginsberg -- covering his youth in New Jersey, his college years at Columbia (where he established the Beat literary scene with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac), his political activism in the 1960s and 1970s, his relationship with poet Peter Orlovsky, and present status as poetry sage and professor. A highlight of the film is Ginsberg reading his masterpieces "Howl" and Kaddish." If you have an interest in American poetry or Beat culture, then The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg might serve a tasteful, if overly deferential, survey of one of the more colorful artists of the last half century. For all the prose that I've taught over the years, I've never been much for poetry. There are only a handful of poets that I can genuinely say I enjoy, or whose work I would even go out of my way to collect and read. On that short list is Allen Ginsberg. Part of his appeal, for me at least, is the sheer weight of his personality. Ginsberg always gave his poetry readings a passion and energy that brings the work off the page. His work is meant to be performed, as a prophetic call. He is the successor to William Blake, Walt Whitman, and William Carlo…
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