Undergraduate Research: A Collaborative "Howl" in the 21st Century
This dispatch comes from Dr. Randy Lewis, whose upper-division American Studies course, "Main Currents in U.S. Culture Since 1865," participated in an experimental poetic exercise during class yesterday that yielded fascinating results:
I was teaching Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" yesterday and asked 60 undergrads to write one line each for 'their generation's Howl' on a card, which my TA Carrie Andersen rapidly assembled into a rough order that I read to the class 20 minutes after they scribbled their thoughts. No one knew what anyone else was writing, but the results are somehow coherent. So here is our instant crowd-sourced poem, a collective howl of twenty-somethings thinking creatively about their world. I found it to be really heartening.
The as-yet untitled poem is reprinted in its entirety below.
Fishes above water pretending they don’t have gillsspewing “passion” without a thought on every corner of the airwaveslife’s mystery is our best bet, our only truth, the answers are all around uspromiscuously dancing with beliefsimpulsive chaotic limitlessdefying the conventionalembracing life’s challengesbe the person you hide from the world.be fearlessupstairs and downstairs in the bathroom Brittany’s hair is impossible to groomin front of the mirror she trembles with fear her braid resembles a broom.running away from fearrandom acts of horrorthe future is terrifyinglike a llama in outer spacea golden trumpet farts into the voidburning pyre of insanityorganized chaos intensity haunted raving weirdwords carry SO MUCH WEIGHT.people wandering the streets at night like so many fireflies looking to be the sun.free, confused, and lonely at the same timea whole generation joined in watching their fathers ruin their home.Struggle to sleep sitting in darknessclicking clicking refreshBuzzfeed. Sleep.instant communication (gossip)numb shallow detached disconnected complacentDISTRACTIONSfor the subversive scholar using CIA sabotage to create the tension for revolutionfailure is the only way to succeed.tech zombieswho stared into the faces of their iPhones more than each others’who preferred to view the world through an artificial screenShame! Shame to the hate we show each other. Differences, similarities, color, gender, age, class, sexuality, all people at the core to fight this life together, but so far apart in our minds.perpetual rat racemass cyclingmass psych-ling. To gain.Kanye! Down with Yeezus, we want College Dropout.Verbiage notwithstanding, you is cray.Those that are shackled by neoliberalism, screamingBreak free, break free!positivity and negativitythere is no final judgment.