From the classroom: I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore...

 

om the classroom: 

By Doug Holder

So- I taught Ginsberg's Howl the other day--out of 36 students in two classes--only one knew who he was. So, I was glad to talk a bit about Ginsberg and the Beat Generation, and my experience with him in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1975. ( I tried to get him on my campus radio show " Idea Exchange"--to no avail) So, we read the first stanza of the poem, which is over three pages--discussed it, and then I asked students to 'howl.' There were only tepid Howls. I then let out a howl, that any wolf would be proud of. I told them that Ginsberg's Howl is a loud cry against the things that were going on in 1950s America--the conformity, the concept of the American dream, etc... So I wanted them to write their own Howl poem. I wanted them to write about things that pissed them off, that made them Howl. Before I started the exercise, I used a short clip from the movie " Network" in which a deranged anchor man screams to the screen, " I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore." He then goes into a litany of ills in society, and interesting-- they haven't much changed from today--even though the film is several decades old. The students did write about a number of things that indeed got them as mad as hell..