The Counterculture Canon

[novella]

Does a counterculture canon exist? What’s in it and what purpose does it serve? What I mean is, what is the overall message and is it still relevant?

For me, it exists. For me it served a purpose, which was to open up my perspective about emotional, social, and spiritual possibilities beyond the known and done and to validate true individualism.

Are these books dated or do they still resonate with people? Do they seem like a load of hippie-dippie drug-addled conformist nonsense?

Some books I would put in such a canon:

On the Road
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Naked Lunch
Ken Kesey’s books, incl. One Flew Over . . .
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Be Here Now
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Catch-22


Some I might include:

Catcher in the Rye
The Bell Jar
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
A Clockwork Orange


What is your experience with these?

 

[jenn]

i really don't have much experiance with any of these, save one flew over the cuckoo's nest and the others that have been made into movies. what does that say? i was born in 74 and i think a lot of these books are my age, and or older. while i have of course know of them, i haven't really been exposed to them. would there be any books that may have been published in the past 10 years that you would add?

 

[novella]

would there be any books that may have been published in the past 10 years that you would add?

Well, it’s hard for me to find what I think of as counterculture in today’s literature. On the one hand, you have the confessional memoirs by whacked-out individuals like James Frey, which I see as egotistical, boring, shock-my-mommy junk. On the other hand, you have political thinkers, environmentalists, etc., writers with clearly defined agendas, big organizations, and lofty goals.

Counterculture has always existed, from Socrates to Bloomsbury and Oscar Wilde to Walt Whitman, but these days I think it exists in the unpublicized, unmarketed spaces. It exists in indie film and music and blogs. But I’m not sure it’s present in published books anymore.

The problem is, IMO, that big media is always looking for market share and popularity and it is difficult to participate in that big machine and retain a countercultural perspective. Also, every little niche market (gay, feminist, environmentalist, Wired guru, punk) has been sewn up tight, pigeon-holed, and raped for its last dime.

Just my opinion. Others may find “shock fiction” writers like Chuck Palahniuk and jaded memoirists like Eggers and Nick Flynn to have a counterculture message. What is the difference between them and, say, Kerouac? I think it’s that Kerouac, for example, was trying new things, finding new ways to look at America, and writing in a new style. You could say the same of Walt Whitman. They were striving for something outside themselves and you can feel their struggle. They’re looking for the edge of something and the heart of something, and they really believe it’s there.

I guess once something is trend-marketed to death I cease to believe in its integrity.

 

[funes]

An interesting question: It almost seems like the idea of a counter-culture canon is oxymoronic. If for no other reason than that which you propose, Novella (i.e. the minute anything looks to be popular or successful, it is promoted, imitated, spun, etc. until it no longer has any meaning).
Having said that, though, I do think that such a canon exists. I would add writers like Charles Bukowski and John Fante to your list, possibly Mark Twain. I'm sure there are others.
I think that the key thing to remember here is that "counter-culture" is, of necessity, defined by the prevalent culture. I think the biggest problem with defining such a genre today is that American culture, at least, isn't cohesive enough to be opposed in a clear direction.

 

[JimMorrison]

Novella, I am intrigued by that genre of books or that era of literature. These books are def not dated and absolutely affect and move people nowadays.

The hardest part is exposure. I feel like people shy away from these type of books due to the perceived notion of hippie/druggie non conformist branching.

These type of books offer the most blunt, honest and emotional writing. The writing is superb and the symbolism and messages delivered is astonishing.

I always read a book by an author from that time frame/mentality from time to time to remind me about how raw life used to be.

 

[SFG75]

Does a counterculture canon exist? What’s in it and what purpose does it serve? What I mean is, what is the overall message and is it still relevant?

For me, it exists. For me it served a purpose, which was to open up my perspective about emotional, social, and spiritual possibilities beyond the known and done and to validate true individualism.

I'd argue that such a canon exists. You outlined perfectly why it was relevant. I'd argue that they are relevant today in that we have people who write upon basic themes of social justice and anti-war activism based on the aggressive and fact-finding nature that previous works were.

Some books I would put in such a canon:

On the Road
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Naked Lunch
Ken Kesey’s books, incl. One Flew Over . . .
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Be Here Now
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Catch-22


Some I might include:

Catcher in the Rye
The Bell Jar
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
A Clockwork Orange

I'm not certain if I'd include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in such a canon. While Thompson was not a big fan of Nixon or the war, the work is definitely a critique on the drug culture and the hippy lifestyle in general. Other books I'd include would be The Autobiography of Malcolm X, How the Other Half Lives, The Port Huron Statement, not to mention other books that I need to go and look up again in my collection.

 

[Tom]

Whoa, this thread is old.

Anway, I would say that the such a canon does indeed exist but rather just as an era or another evolution of the western canon.

 

[novella]

Whoa, this thread is old.

But the question isn't old. And I'm glad to see some replies here, rather than in a new thread that just brings up these books. I subscribed to the thread, which is what I do when I really would like the discussion to emerge.

Nothing wrong with old threads if they're still fodder for good discussion.

I'm not certain if I'd include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in such a canon. While Thompson was not a big fan of Nixon or the war, the work is definitely a critique on the drug culture and the hippy lifestyle in general. Other books I'd include would be The Autobiography of Malcolm X, How the Other Half Lives, The Port Huron Statement, not to mention other books that I need to go and look up again in my collection.

Interesting you should say this, because the reason I would include Thompson is because he is such a nonconformist, so whether he critiques hippie culture or not is beside the point, IMO. But I guess it depends how you define the canon.

Like I would NOT include Go Ask Alice because it is manipulative and false and written as a cautionary tale and a commodity. But if it was real, I might reconsider.

I would not include Chandler Brossard (not widely read, but considered Beat by some) because he was dabbling with the notion and writing from a position of, I think, fear. But he's interesting fringe for those reasons.

Be interested to hear who you might and might not include.

Also, JimM., I'm glad you resurrected this. I'm sure life is still very raw for a lot of people, but maybe they don't happen to be publishing (or writing?) books at the moment. Also, times are so different. Poverty and despair are the new counterculture, perhaps. There's no room for self-indulgent introspection.

 

[Shade]

I would have said that any book which is an established classic, or at least has been in print for 30, 40, 50 years, has a hard time supporting any claim to be 'countercultural.' Counter what culture? Can a book which was contrary to the accepted mores of the time half a century ago still claim to be countercultural? Haven't a lot of writers always been on the bohemian fringes of society? Or maybe I am confusing countercultural with underground.

It's no doubt a question of personal taste - I like things orderly or at least carefully composed, including book structure and prose - but I haven't been able to get on very well with the likes of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Burroughs. Similarly just yesterday I gave up on Walker Percy's The Moviegoer. Does this story of a young man who doesn't know where he's going in life qualify as countercultural?

Having said that I am a big fan of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, which didn't seem to me countercultural at all. So everyone in the book questions their position, their work/life balance etc. Hasn't everyone since the beginning of civilisation done that?

 

[Dogmatix]

This is a very interesting discussion.

 

[novella]

Shade, it's these definitions that are at the heart of my question.

For instance, absurdity has existed for as long as man has existed, but the French Absurdist movement is a specific literary genre, with its own canon.

The question is not whether one can define counterculture in general, but whether a canon exists for the literary 'movement', if there was one. Clearly, to me, Walt Whitman is the grandfather of the sort of introspection and radicalisation of the individual that you see later in Kerouac and Ginsberg and Langston Hughes, but Tom Wolfe is doing reportage to a large extent throughout the 60s and would be more of a chronicler than a participant.

The reason I would include The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is because of its core exploration of the broken, troubled postwar man behind the facade and the expansion of human possibility. Maybe that's very general, but the timing is also important, and it's distinct from the suburban malaise of Cheever and Yates and even Carver.

Shade, I would also say that though some writers through history have been on the 'bohemian fringe' they tended to write in conventional modes about conventional things. Oscar Wilde might be an obvious exception. Who would you include here?

Also, let me throw a couple of more names into the mix for discussion: Herman Hesse (Siddhartha, in particular), Ayn Rand (radical individualism of a different stripe) . . .

 

[blurricus]

Interesting you should say this, because the reason I would include Thompson is because he is such a nonconformist, so whether he critiques hippie culture or not is beside the point, IMO. But I guess it depends how you define the canon.

I think another thing to understand is not WHAT Thompson wrote about, but how he wrote it. Gonzo journalism is a relatively new and novel idea, and 95% of journalists still would never do it. He didn't just write a story, he LIVED it. He was a catalyst in quite a few cases. When he was riding with the Hell's Angels, he would instigate have the shit they did. I think his style was more counter-culture than his story.

Like I would NOT include Go Ask Alice because it is manipulative and false and written as a cautionary tale and a commodity. But if it was real, I might reconsider.

How do you know Go Ask Alice isn't real? What makes it so false? There are certainly unbelieable parts of it, but I get the feeling that you don't really know what the underground culture is really like.

I think that the books you picked out originally are more premanently counter-culture than books like Hermann Hesse and Ayn Rand.

 

[JimMorrison]

Also, JimM., I'm glad you resurrected this. I'm sure life is still very raw for a lot of people, but maybe they don't happen to be publishing (or writing?) books at the moment. Also, times are so different. Poverty and despair are the new counterculture, perhaps. There's no room for self-indulgent introspection.

Despair, blindness and oblivion can be the new countercultures. People nowadays would rather watch someone else live their life on tv than live their own. People dont stay still for long enough to know what the hell they are. More people vote for an american idol than they do for the president.

Self indulgent introspection, self exploration is exactly what we need.

I say evolution not revolution.

 

[bren]

My hippiest friends and I were reading Carlos Castaneda, Lord of the Rings, even Kurt Vonnegut, besides some of the books you've already discussed. Autobiography of Malcolm X was one I was fond of. Of course we were a mere twelve years old in 1970, so does it count?! Hardly arbiters of literary trends, except to those all important marketers.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

There used to be a counter-culture or alternative reading section in the big Borders on charring Cross Road in London (the one opposite Foyles). I was in there today and the section has gone. If I remember correctly it included people like:
Charles Bukowski
Fante (John and Dan)
Nelson Algren
Jack Kerouac
William Burrows
Richard Brautigan

Basically the guys you've already mentioned. I might have picked up some other stuff like The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists or Zazie in the Metro from there too, I forget now.

Of course, this is very much a western take on counter-culture, and at times a rather self indulgant one. I'd guess Soviet era counter-culture writing would be something else altogether.

Regards,

K-S

 

[curiouswonder]

Are we only talking about fiction works?

For a more recent work, what about a novel like Fight Club? The ideas and message are very anti / post consumer.

Thoughts?

 

[cabbagescribe]

Problem with a Counterculture Canon is that it is CANON. That is, it is accepted. Stuff like On The Road and A Clockwork Orange are standard, but you have to read them remembering that they weren't at the time.

What about going against the grain of canon writing? Hemingway, from what I heard, would count then, since his simple writing style is very different from the 2-page sentences of a few decades before him. James Joyce would be revolutionary for Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

Problem is those two are practically canon authors now. People imitate them.

 

[novella]

How do you know Go Ask Alice isn't real? What makes it so false? There are certainly unbelieable parts of it, but I get the feeling that you don't really know what the underground culture is really like.

I.

Look at Wiki for details on what I'm talking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Ask_Alice

As for questioning my bona fides re counterculture, I'll tell you what: I'm 45 and spent most of high school on acid, pot, and ludes. I spent 1979 living rough in California. I then lived in the East Village for about 7 years, doing whatever at the Pyramid and places. In '77 I hitched out to Red Rocks for a show and ran into about 10 people from NYC in front of the stage. Should I go on? BTW, I don't consider this any kind of accomplishment, just stuff people did when and where I was growing up.

 

[novella]

Problem with a Counterculture Canon is that it is CANON. That is, it is accepted. Stuff like On The Road and A Clockwork Orange are standard, but you have to read them remembering that they weren't at the time.

What about going against the grain of canon writing? Hemingway, from what I heard, would count then, since his simple writing style is very different from the 2-page sentences of a few decades before him. James Joyce would be revolutionary for Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

Problem is those two are practically canon authors now. People imitate them.

There is NO question that Joyce and Hemingway are part of the literary canon. They, for some, are at its center.

 

[SFG75]

I believe that the criteria should be along the lines of being something that runs against the grain, and most importantly, had a great influence; through high sales or oft-mentioning in the media. Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. Obviously, this work launched feminism and the book was a best seller. Malcolm X's book would be included as it has also sold a ton of copies and many famous athletes and politicians cite it as an important influence upon them. I definitely agree with On the Road, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and Slaughterhouse Five being included. You also have to include The Anarchst cookbook.