Queer beats : how the beats turned America on to sex / edited by Regina Marler.

Format:

• Book

Contributor:

• Marler, Regina, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Homosexuality--Literary collections.
• Homosexuality.
• Sexual orientation.
• Authors, American--20th century--Biography.
• Authors, American.
• Homosexuality and literature--United States.
• Homosexuality and literature.
• United States.
• Sexual orientation--Literary collections.
• Beats (Persons)--Literary collections.
• Beats (Persons).
• Gay men--United States--Biography.
• Gay men.
• American literature--20th century.
• American literature.
• Beats (Persons)--Biography.
• Sex--Literary collections.
• Sex.
• Erotic literature, American.

Genre:

• Literary collections.
• Biographies.
• Literature.

Physical Description:

xxxvii, 209 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : Cleis Press, [2004]

Summary:

Blasting through the crew-cuts and conformism of their day, the Beat writers were queer in the fullest sense of the word: their fluid sexuality challenged all sexual and romantic conventions. Most shocking of their unconventional attitudes was their embrace of same-sex eroticism. At a time when gay people were considered mentally ill or criminal, the Beats celebrated spontaneity and freedom in thought, word, and action. Their highest value was nakedness -- even before Allen Ginsberg stripped bare at a poetry reading to silence a heckler. They would try anything once, then write about it. Queer Beats: How the Beats Turned America On to Sex traces, for the first time, the queer pulse that throbs throughout the Beats' writings -- from William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch and Allen Ginsberg's wistful, boy-loving sex poems to Jack Kerouac's hero-worship of Neal Cassady -- and Kerouac's denial of having sex with men, despite erotic encounters with Ginsberg and Gore Vidal: "Posterity will laugh at me if it thinks I was queer"

Contents:

• I. The Road of Excess (Or, Saintly Sinners) 1
• In Society / Allen Ginsberg 9
• On Meeting Kinsey / Herbert Huncke 11
• "Nobler, I thought, to die a man than live on, a sex monster..." / William Burroughs 15
• Dead Drunk / Alan Ansen 21
• Youth / Herbert Huncke 25
• "I don't mind being called queer..." / William Burroughs 31
• "Burroughs may be gay, but he's a man..." / Norman Mailer 33
• "We owed it to literary history..." / Gore Vidal 35
• "Norman wanted to know what had really happened..." / Gore Vidal 39
• "Something strange has happened..." / Allen Ginsberg 41
• "I sit naked in my room remembering..." / Allen Ginsberg 43
• "It was a strange, nondescript kind of orgy..." / Diane di Prima 47
• II. Male Muses (Or, Sex without Borders) 53
• "Oh, I love, love, love women!" / Jack Kerouac 63
• "I'm on a spree tonight..." / Neal Cassady 65
• "Love is not controllable..." / Allen Ginsberg 67
• Bradley the Buyer / William Burroughs 71
• "Posterity will laugh at me..." / Jack Kerouac 75
• Love Poem on Theme by Whitman / Allen Ginsberg 77
• Teacher
• Your Body My Kabbalah / Elise Cowen 79
• "Accept my soul with all its throbbings and sweetness..." / Allen Ginsberg, Allen Young 83
• "If like me you renounce love and the world..." / Jack Kerouac 87
• Malest Cornifici Tuo Catullo / Allen Ginsberg 89
• from Howl / Allen Ginsberg 91
• "I find myself getting jealous of Kiki..." / William Burroughs 95
• The Newport News has arrived in Venice for a week's stay... / Alan Ansen 97
• A. J.'s Annual Party / William Burroughs 99
• from Cut-ups: A Project for Disastrous Success / Brion Gysin 103
• "I Met Jack Kerouac in 1958 for One Glorious Moment..." / John Giorno 107
• A Poem for Cocksuckers / John Wieners 113
• from Memoirs of a Bastard Angel / Harold Norse 115
• III. Queer Shoulder to the Wheel 117
• Me & Allen / Peter Orlovsky 129
• Peter Jerking Allen Off (First Sex Experiment) / Peter Orlovsky 131
• Why Is God Love, Jack? / Allen Ginsberg 135
• Sexual Conditioning / William Burroughs 137
• Sweet Boy, Gimme Yr Ass / Allen Ginsberg 141
• Going to Massachusetts / Jane Bowles 143
• Horns / Harold Norse 155
• from The Place of Dead Roads / William Burroughs 159
• Pages from Cold Point / Paul Bowles 161
• Green Ballet / Harold Norse 185
• Hi Risque / John Giorno 187
• On Neal's Ashes / Allen Ginsberg 191
• "Sex as a biological weapon" / William Burroughs 193
• Rain-Wet Asphalt Heat, Garbage Curbed Cans Overflowing / Allen Ginsberg 195
• Now France / Harold Norse 197
• "Drag up your soul to its proper bliss..." / Allen Ginsberg 199
• "The gay state" / William Burroughs 201.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1573441880

OCLC:

54487660