Alcatraz is not island

I had never heard of the Indian takeover of Alcatraz before, and I thought the film we watched in class was very interesting. I thought their attempt was noble and worthwhile. It's always seemed to me that American Indians are the forgotten minority in America- the real "Americans" who got screwed by European settlers. Kicked out of their homeland and stuck in remote reservations, American Indians need to fight back whenever possible. I thought the takeover of Alcatraz was awesome because it's one of those ideas that people think would be good but don't actually follow through on. I found it amazing that they went through with the Alcatraz take over and actually pulled it off. Sadly, their objective was not accomplished, but all was not lost. They did bring the concerns of the Native Americans to the foreground and got people interested in it. I thought it was amazing how many people actually went out to Alcatraz and protested, and this was all due to the enthusiasm. The follow through of an idea. 

We need more ideas of this scale to come to fruition in our society today. I think we can all learn from what happened on Alcatraz and take it as an example of what is possible. You may not get what you came for, but you will make a difference on some level- for the world or just for yourself.  

            

Brautigan

I wish we could have spent more time in class on Richard Brautigan because I think his poetry is absolutely beautiful. THis might have something to do with the fact that he seems influenced by the French Surrealist poets (Rimbaud, Baudelaire etc.), who I have always kept in highest regard. I want to talk about some of my favorite poems from The Pill Versus the Springhill Mining Disaster collection because I think they deserve more attention. 

We look to any poet or author to discuss things that are  relatable. If it is not relatable in some way, the piece does not often spark our interest as much. This is why we all have favorite authors and poets- we gravitate towards the ones who we feel most connected to for whatever personal reason. Since all of life is a story, when writers choose the most relevant and the most relatable, these are usually the best works. Brautigan does this often with his poetry. He brings out the fantasy of everyday events, keeping them simple, easy, beautiful. I find this especially in his love poetry. 

In his poem, It's Raining in Love (p 61) Brautigan discusses his feelings upon first falling in love with a girl. I was moved by his spot on depiction of this sudden intense self-doubt:

If I say, "Do you think it's going to rain?"

and she says, "I don't know,"

I start thinking: Does she really like me?

In other words

I get a little creepy 

How many times have we felt this way? I know I certainly have.  I love this poem for it's simple brilliance. I love this poem because Brautigan was actually able to put this feeling to words. 

 Another one of my favorites is Boo, Forever (p 108). In my opinion this is certainly one of the most beautiful poems in the collection. Deeply emotional, and again spot on in pinpointing emotions with beautiful language, this poem probably moved me the most. 

Spinning like a ghost

on the bottom of a

  top

If you think about what this is saying, and about this space he is describing, it is terribly sad. 

I'm definitely biased in my opinion of Brautigan because I have always been a romantic- but, I think it's hard to deny the intelligence of the simple beauty, especially in his love poems

The best minds of my generation

The best minds of my generation today are those who are creative and not lost in an abyss of corporation and corruption. 

Those who write, who paint, who dance

Who want to know more and who ask questions

Who question the government or religion or anything anyone is asked to follow blindly.

Who do not fall blindly into the ideals of the previous generation

Who are aware of the world around them

Who want to change the world

Who live in the present but don't forget about the future. 

I meet a lot of these people in Santa Cruz, and this why I love this town so much. I think the majority of people in the Bay Area are open to new ideas and different opinions. Watching TV and seeing how narrow people in other parts of the country often are, I have to stop and think about how lucky I am to live here. 

And how lucky I am to have the best minds of my generation all around me. Hopefully, we don't get lost and turn out like the generation described in Howl. 

response: " On the Beat Generation and San Francisco's Culture of Dissent"

I enjoyed Nancy Peters's essay, The Beat generation and San Francisco's Culture of Dissent. Because I grew up in San Francisco, I know I take it for granted. I always forget how much history the city has. 

In the essay,  Peters talks about how a great deal of the Beat era took place in North Beach. The only obvious trace of this now is City Lights Bookstore, unless you know where to look. In the present day,  that neighborhood is all bars and overpriced Italian restaurants. At night, North Beach crawls with drunk college students, and not intellectuals discussing literature in cafes. 

The Beat era was short lived ( it only lasted until the late 1950s) so the fact that there are few tangible elements left is not surprising. There is a quote from the Examiner in the essay that says: "The Beat attitude is integral to the Bay Area's identity (210)." This is very true, and I think it's interesting because the Beat period was so short. The Bay Area, and San Francisco especially, really is a "culture of dissent". San Francisco is one of the most (if not the most) liberal city in the United States. 

There is a quote on page 214 that talks about how "... high rents make the marginalized life of the independent writer and artist almost impossible." Despite all the wealth in the city, there is a strong aversion to corporations and a tendency to support local art and business. There is always an uproar when a corporation tries to set up in a neighborhood. When a Gap opened in my neighborhood, it was constantly graffitied and occasionally rocks were thrown in the windows. Eventually it moved out. Whether this was due to the corporation's decline in sales or not, I can't be sure.