America: not about the �real� but the Ideal of America�the possibility�equal daughters equal sons�true of the 1890s

Cosmic ideal/truly democratic/the idea of America�positive virtues we need to live up to�call to action/transformation

Freedom, Law and Love�three cardinal virtues for America to grow/develop (diff. than life, liberty and �pursuit of happiness�Whitman eschews/parts from the rationalist self-directed pov of the Enlightenment (Jefferson et al)

America as great mother in stone of Time�how does this differ as portrait of America?  Lady Liberty becomes the Great Mother, Goddess, Creator

Ginsberg sees poet as performer, prophet, seer, shaman, oral, writing spontaneously (we don�t need to go back and work over a poem), poet is like a jazz artist, improviser, rhythm not rhyme, sense of revealing the mind in the act of consciousness itself

Overpowering consciousness (�on the back of the fish truck that loads while my conscious explodes�)�he pushes you to brink of ordinary consciousness

�neon fruit supermarket� juxtaposition   (�Howl� � �hydrogen jukebox��how music is blowing apart old world)

Lorca�gay poet killed during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s (republican vs fascist)

�Never passing the cashier��all in the imagination (outside capitalist system that is killed American mother)

�absurd��crazy, unbelievable, out of the ordinary  Existential movement�which says that the ordinary condition of �awake� humanity is a sense of the absurd which we cannot escape

In the face of absurdity, the only meaning you can get is through your own imagination/values/experience

Walt�s final glimpse of America from banks of Lethe?  Not all it�s cracked up to be.  Especially if you�re gay.  Immigrants�what�s their lot?  Fa�ade like neon.  Half-assed dream.

�Strong, capable, fair, enduring, rich��does America live up to Whitman�s words?

�Subterranean Homesick Blues� 

Subterranean-underground

Man in trench-coat�corrupt�bad cough�needs drugs

Look out, kid�sense of absurd, paranoia, guilt

Man in coon-skin cap in pig pen�shark, dealer, American past (Davy Crockett) absurd image

Maggie�bugs, taps, paranoia, government out to get you (not Freedom)

Plain clothes�cops, but also ordinary people�estranged from the regular American life

�You don't need a weather man/To know which way the wind blows��your experience is a better guide than some external abstract uniform model  (Existential model)

Not a lot freedom for development (join the army if you fail)

Don't follow leaders/Watch the parkin' meters (Ginsberg-like juxtaposition)  put money in �em (just like politicians)�you only have so much time on the meter, so don�t waste it on superficial politics�focus on real not on false political hopes, watch where the money�s really going

Success?  Suck-cess success in traditional system sucks and also involves �sucking up�  not authentic success

Jump down manhole�go back to subterranean underground (go off the grid)�pump don�t work cause the vandals took the handle?  Meaningless chaos�destruction�that�s the upper world   if I can�t have it you can�t have it (American Dream)

Whitman�s America long gone

�All Along the Watch Tower�

Jimi Hendrix version: Joker and Thief (outside upper ground culture�subterraneans); businessmen/plowmen�exploiters�don�t know true value of things

Disintegration of society�wildcat and riders approach and wind howl�guitars  displacement