As I read through the excepts from Lewis' magazine Blast, I was reminded of the tone that I attribute to the beatnik/anti-war activists of the late 1960's and early 1970's. Certainly, my impression of that time was shaped more from what I have since seen on television and read in magazines or books, rather than any real first hand knowledge of that time. But I can almost hear these pieces being read in a small coffee shop to an audience who shakes their head in agreement and snaps their fingers as applause.
"Blast sets out to be an avenue for all those vivid and violent ideas that could reach the Public in no other way" (p. 1082). This statement clearly articulates the author's dedication to providing a voice for the radical who seeks drastic change from the current state. Their position strikes me as rather arrogant in that they seem to belief that it is they, rather than some other type of medium, who should give voice to 'The Individual.'
The authors generally take the position that what they hold in contempt is to be blasted, cursed, or damned....and you can feel the hatred and vitriol in the language. In 5 BLAST HUMOR they write, "Quack ENGLISH drug for stupidty and sleepiness. Arch enemy of REAL, conventionalizing like / gunshot, freezing supple /REAL in ferocious chemistry of laughter" (p. 1087). Yet in 3 BLESS ENGLISH HUMOUR they seem to be contradicting their earlier admonisment of humor as they write "It is the great barbarous weapon of / the genius among races" (p. 1091). British humor is certainly different from American humor so maybe the blast to humor is directed at humor from other countries or cultures.
Overall, the Blasts, Curses, Damns, and Blessings and especially the Manifesto seem to be a call for change...a change from emphasis on collective thought to emphasis on Individual thought...and beyond just thought, there is the expectation that the individual should take action on their thoughts.
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2 comments:
Wanda,
Nice commentary on this chaotic and opaque text. You work through the text by focusing on a specific passage (on British humor) and thinking critically about what the words say. Your blog would be a model for others.
I like your comparison to the beatniks of the 60s. I remember the finger snapping and head bobbing. too funny! I can just see a guy with a goatee and bongos angrily reciting Manifesto. Blast was definitely full of attitude and representative of a digusted counterculture. I'm sure some people found it very frightening and I see why it was short-lived.
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