Blog 4, Prompt 1

Colette Weese

ENL3

585 words

Blog Post #4, Prompt 1

Diane DiPrima’s 1968 Revolutionary Letters are a partial response to the deep dissatisfaction in American culture and subsequent personal destruction in Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 Howl. However, DiPrima’s demand for conformity in order for systemic reform to succeed goes against Howl’s rigid commitment to individuality, so Revolutionary Letters cannot be a complete response.

DiPrima’s suggestion that it will take “a million earthworms/ tunneling under this structure/ till it falls” implies that in order for systematic change or government overthrow to succeed, there must still be conformity to the revolution, which doesn’t entirely fit with the hedonism and individuality presented in Ginsberg’s Howl. Still, the two writers agree on nearly everything else. Both doubt the value of universities, calling them “slum landlords, festering sinks of lies” and the “best minds of [Ginsberg’s] generation...were expelled from the academies for crazy” (DiPrima, Ginsberg). Ginsberg speaks of “battered bleak of brain all drained of brilliance,” and DiPrima laments “color TV, whose radiant energy/ kills brain cells, whose subliminal ads/ brainwash your children.” Howl expresses deep distrust and loathing for capitalism, suburbs, American greed, etc. by calling them “Moloch,” a false god that sacrificed children, and DiPrima says, “if you still want a piece/...of suburbia.../THEN YOU ARE STILL THE ENEMY.” The list of agreements goes on, making Revolutionary Letters initially seem like a good response to Howl.   

Where Ginsberg talks about being driven to suicide, DiPrima responds with suggesting that one should “be prepared/ at any time, to die,” presumably for the revolution that would allow others to live without feeling cornered into suicide. But again, part of the reason that it is difficult to provide suggestions for improvement in the Howl’s subjects’ lives is that much of their strife stems from fierce individuality, or “trying to conform to the rhythm of thought in his naked and endless head” instead of conforming to the rhythm of society. Really, the only people who can help them are themselves. DiPrima’s directive to join forces and take up arms isn’t necessarily the natural or best solution for Howl’s distraught subjects. The only hints at solidarity are for Carl Solomon and come in the repeated line “I’m with you in Rockland,” a mental institution “where there are twentyfive thousand mad comrades all together/ singing the final stanzas of the Internationale” (Ginsberg). The reference to the Internationale is important, because the final stanza translated from the original French reads, “Workers, peasants, we are.../ The earth belongs only to men;/ The idle will go to reside elsewhere./ How much of our flesh have they consumed?/ But if these ravens, these vultures/ Disappear one of these days,/ The sun will shine forever./|: This is the final struggle/ Let us group together, and tomorrow” (Eugene Pottier). This song mirrors DiPrima’s urges to take up arms, revolt, and unite, and it suggests that Carl and the other patients in the mental institution want to join together to fight against the ravenous society that rejected them for their either inability or refusal to conform. However, in the final stanzas Howl mentions, “the United States that coughs all night and won’t let us sleep,” highlighting that they are powerless to the forces that have institutionalized them.

While Ginsberg and DiPrima share a lot of opinions on American society, DiPrima’s violent notions do not seem applicable to Howl’s characters, who seem violent only toward themselves, and her call for unification is either undesirable or impossible for many of Howl’s subjects, making Revolutionary Letters and interesting but incomplete response to Howl.