Nuttall Jeff Bomb Culture Read 2

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M CULM JE F F M T U



c,\ty o f

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• •

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Ilnrn in 19 3 3, Je ff N utta ll is a po et, painter, and ex-jazz

' i impeter, who was for some years a pivotal force in thel.inidon U nd erg rou n d. A selection o f his poem s has appeared

11 the Penguin Modern Poets series. He was writer/publisher

1! My Own Magand is a regular contributor to , and one-

11 lie ca rto on ist fo r, International Times; is writer/producer of

lie PeopleShow, w hich has performe d all o ve r the cou ntry

luring the last three years.



Jeff Nuttall

Bomb Culture

P a l a d i n



G r a n a d a P u b l i s h i n g L i m i t e d

Pu bl is he d in 19 70 b y P a la d in3 U p p er Ja m e s S tre et, L o n d o n W i R 4 B P

R e p r in t e d 1 9 7 1 , 1 9 7 2

F i r s t p u b lis h ed b y M a c G ib b o n & K e e L t d . 1 96 8

C o p y r i g h t © J e f f N u t ta ll 19 68

Made and pr inted in Great Br i ta in by

R i ch a r d C l a y ( T h e C h a u c e r P r e s s) , L t d . ,B u n g a y , S u f f o l k

S e t i n M o n o t y p e F o u r n i e r

T h is bo ok i s so ld su bject to the con dit ion that it sha ll not ,

b y w a y o f tra de or o the rw is e , be le nt, re - s o l d , h ired out

or o the rwis e c i rc u l a te d wi thout the pub l i s he r ’ s p r ior

c ons e nt in a n y f orm o f b ind ing o r c o ve r o the r t itan thatin which i t i s publ i shed and without a s imi lar condit ion

inc luding this condit ion be ing imposed on the subsequent

purchaser.

T h is bo ok is pub l ished at a net pr ice and is suppl ied subject

to the Pub l is he rs A s s oc ia t ion S ta nda rd C on di t ion s o f Sa le

reg is te red unde r the R e s t r i c t ive T ra d e Pra c t ic e s Ac t , 19 56 .



Contents

| Preface: 7

Pop: 1 1

Protest: 37

A rt: 67

Sick: 105

T h e U n d e r g r o u n d : 1 3 7

Index: 247



PREFACE

11 Iti iin encouraging fact that die established press in England

nte perpetual ly inval idating their ow n contentions b y assum inglliiit whatever has not been articulated does not exist. They

mi', in any case, anxious to reduce the international student

revolt to the meager proportions normal ly encompassed by

(licit* discu ssion , and to assess the re vo lt on the ba sis o f its

declared political intentions is a read y instrum ent o f reduction,

ii telescope throu gh w hich the m onster can be view ed from the

w rong end, p ic ked up w ith the e y e b ro w tw eezers o f co d -nociology and c lapped, safe ly they hope, in the matchbox of

I ionic journal ist ic catego ry.

A c tu a lly the pla in and o b v io u s fact is th at betw een the

illltumn o f ’6 7 w hen I c om pleted this m anuscript, and die

Hummer o f ’68 w hen I am w rit ing this preface , yo u n g people ,

under various pretexts, made war on their elders, and their

c iders made war on them. The war continues .

The deta i l s a re common knowledge but i t i s worth re

constructing them here p erhaps, to establish the broad pattern

o f their deve lopm ent . T h ro u gh the sum m er and autumn o f ’67 ,

l ike lightning cra ckling behind the sunshine o f the psyched elic

movement, a series o f v iolen t episodes s ignalled the storm . A

bullet shattered the w ind o w o f the A m erican E m b assy in

L ondon. T h e Pe nta g on w a s mobbe d . D r Spoc k and Norm a n

Mailer were arrested am ong st others . A bom b exploded in

die American Off icers ’ Club in London. S imultaneously

explosions occurred in the premises o f r igh t-w ing p ow ers a ll

ove r Europe . Be nno O hn e s org w a s butche re d b y the W e s t

Berlin pol ice . A s w inter drew on C olum bia U n ivers i ty students

took o ve r their U nive rs i ty . Jap anese students w age d w ar in

the streets in support of the Viet Cong. Students in Czecho-

• lovakia , Poland and Moscow demonstrated, often violently .

7



A. «

I n M a rc h ’ 68 th e A m e ric a n E m b a s s y in L o n d o n w a s m o b b e d , I

aga in in su ppo r t o f th e V i e t Co n g . A t th e sam e tim e so m ebo dy I

sh o t R u d i D u t sch k e and th e Ber lin s tu den ts w en t to w ar ■against the Spr inger newspaper grou p. In M ay Par i s erupted I

fo l lo w i n g dem o n st ra tio n s o rgan ised by D an y C o h n - Ben di t. I

S tu d en ts e v e ry w h e r e t o ok o v e r t he t em p o r ar y r u n nin g o f I

t he ir co lleges , n o t ab ly a t E ssex U n i v ers it y and H o rn sey ■

S c h o o l o f A r t.

A n d all these rev o lts to o k place fo r d ifferent reasons acco rd - I

i n g t o th e s tu den ts ’ o w n accou n ts . T h e o n ly co m m o n e lem en t I

seems to have been a s t rong di spleasure w ith the Vietnam ■

w ar. L e ft -w in g attit udes w ere s ign ifican tly at varian ce w ith all I

establ ished so ciali st organisat ions, m ore m etaphysical than I

M a o T s e - t u n g w o u ld p e rm i t ( H o w d id the p r ed ic am e n t o f l

T i bet rest in th e psych ede lic th i n k in g o f th e Tra fa lgar Sq u are *

c o m b a ta n ts ?), m o re p er m is siv e th an C a s tr o ( H o w m a n y *

revo lu ti on ar ies w o u ld be barred f ro m Cu ba fo r th e ir h o m o - H

sexu a l pro pen s it ie s?) . I t w as in deed t he Fren ch C o m m u n i s t *

P a r t y th at em ascu la ted th e F ren ch rev o l t b y appro pr ia t in g I

the spontaneous genera l s tr ike , condem ning the ideas o f the I

So rbo n n e s tu den ts , an d sp li tt in g th e le f t -w i n g v o t e r i gh t do w n I

the middle . A n anon ym ous poster on the doors o f the Sor - 1

bonne said , ‘T h e revo lut ion w hich is beginning w il l call into I

quest ion not only capi ta l i s t soc iety but industr ia l soc iety . *

T h e c o n s um e r s o c ie t y m u st p e ris h o f a v i o le n t d ea th . T h e I

soc iety o f alienation m ust d i sappear f rom history . W e are I

invent ing a new and or ig inal w or ld . Im aginat ion has seized I

po w er . ’ I

T h e o b s e r ve r w h o sa id ‘ T h e s e enragesseem to l ive in a sort I

o f col lect ive dream ’ stated the case even m ore clear ly but he I

w a s la rg e ly ig n ored . T h e p olit ical effectiven ess o f co n tagio u s I

culture i s a subject abhorrent to orthodox thinking for

va rio u s reason s, n ot least am o n g w h ic h is th e threat em bod ied

in the em ergen t fact that the ro ot o f po lit ical dev elopm en t is

creative and irrational.

C ulture, be ing the broad effect o f art, is roo ted ly i rrat ional

and as such is perpe tual ly operat ing against the econ om ic w o rk a d a y stru ctu re o f so cie ty . T h e eco n o m ic structure w o rk s

tow ard s stasis centred around the static needs o f man. It is

8



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centripetal . Cu lture forces chang e centred around the ch ang ing

wppetites o f m an. I t is cen trifugal.

T h e ef fect o f culture has ne ver been so direct and widespread

1 as it is am on gst the international class o f disaffiliated yo u n g

people, the provotariat . Consequently art i tself has seldom

been closer to its violent and o rgiastic roo ts. W ha t has hap

pened is that the p ressure o f restriction prec eding nuclear

suicide has precipitated a biological reflex compelling the

leftist element in die young middle class to join with the

delinquent element in the young working class for the reaff irmation o f l ife by o rg y and violence. W hat is happening

is an evolutionary convulsion rather than a reformation.

Y o u n g people are n o t correctin g soc iety . T h e y are regu rg itat

ing it. It is the violen ce o f C he G u ev ara , his li fe, his rapacious

good looks, his fabulous death, which constitute his appeal.

N ob od y decorates their bed-sit ter with posters o f Bo l ivian

miners. Sim ilarly it is the violen ce ad vocated b y H erbertMarcuse and Regis Debray which has promoted the i r popu

larity, rather than the utopian socialism towards which they

V are aim ed.

Eve n in the ye ar that has passed in prod uction o f this bo ok

the key no te o f violence has becom e p redom inant in the

international subculture, invigorating tired and sentimental

forms o f pop ular m usic and overshad ow ing the pseudomystic ism o f the Joh n M ichel G lasto n bu ry/F lying saucer cult .

T o stand in a pop club in any o f the w o rld ’s larger c it ies in

these d ays is to ex perience a sensation rather like that o f be ing

suspended o ve r a vat o f bo i ling oi l. T h e ba ttery o f curdl ing

colours projected round the room, the brutal stroboscopes,

the ag gres sive g o b b ling o f the lead gu itars, the bell igerent

animal wails o f the singe rs, the threat and h ow ling h unge r

always present in the lyr ics— ‘ W h y can’ t w e reach the sun’—

‘ 1 want the w orld and I want it n ow ’— the throb bing danger

o f the abused am plifiers, the stunned trance o f the cro w d and

total bleak despair o f the registered junkies alw ays ho ve ring

around the door like predatory crows, all contribute to a ritual

that can be nothing i f not pro foun dly disrup tive o f most dt ings

that life has been about up till now.

A s a lw ays w ith the subcultu re, the A m erican n egro es w ere

a * 9



the initiators o f the m oo d. It w as in the free jazz o f C h arlie •

Mingus , Ornet te Coleman, A lber t Ay ler and Arch ie Shepp

diat the authentic pulse o f violence w as f irst felt . ‘T w o foursix eight ’ , sang M ingus, ‘ I w an t to teach yo u h ate. ’ T h e croaks,

angry squeals and aggressive lyrical runs even became trans-

lated into a concept o f pure m etaphysical enlightenm ent in

the last records o f Joh n Co ltrane. H ere, o f course, the v iolence

w as th e expression o f d irect and sim ple an ger in the face o f

racial discrimination. That this creat ive mood should have

prov ided the language fo r the wide r anger o f the provo tar iat is

entirely according to the pattern which has predominated

since the first rebell ious col lege bo y— B ix B eiderbecke?—

looke d towards the un derw orld o f jazz and hip. Translated

into the popu lar id iom through the mu sic o f gro up s l ike

Jo h n M aya ll’ s, A rth u r B ro w n ’s, the C ream , th e M o o d y B lu es,

the J im i H end rix Exper ience, and the Pink F loy d , th is m oodpro vide s the c learest inform ation abou t the force behind the

generat ion w ar . I t is ob viou sly not verbal informat ion. I rrat ion-

al in its nature, it can o n ly be irration ally unde rstood. W ha t

can be sa id in words about how the vat was brought to the

bo i l I hope to have put dow n in the fo l low ing pages.

J E F F N U T T A L L

July, 19 G 8

10



With tile post-Hiroshima teenagers* disaffiliation was always automatic rather• than deliberate. Being essentially passive,| J (.) D not decisive, in their way of life, the mass

A of young people would probably not haveregistered their insecurity so thoroughly,would not have divided themselves off socompletely as a cultural group, had theybeen conscious of the origins and content oftheir unease.

I I

'Hello Central, give me Doctor Jazz.

I le’s go t what I need, I’ ll say he has.

i When this world goes wrong,

And sides turn blue,

I He’s the gu y that makes yo u get out

I Both your dancin’ shoes.

Well the more I git the more I want it seems.

I’m pagin’ Doctor Jazz now in my dreams.

Got troubles, bound and mixed,

He’s the guy that’s got you fixed.

Hello Central, give me Doctor Jazz.’

JE LL Y ROLL MORTON, 1926.

W estern so c ie ty , w h ich the w o rld , fo r its sins, seeks to fo llo w ,

Is troubled by anxiety over indefinable guilt , bound by out

dated taboos, m ixed by the double standards o f ou r m aintain

ing these taboos because we can’t play any other games. Jazz

is exactly the appropriate remedy because it destroys the

double standard and the artificial anxiety through being, as it

Is, the eloq uen t articulation o f the inad m issible. I t ach ieves this

from two points o f its definition. It is an im prov ised art. A s

Hitch it speaks direct from the w ho le m etabolism like an y other

involun tary exp ression. It is , indeed, the high sk ill o f the in

vo lun tary. A s such it cou ld not take pla ce i f a cen sor, ou ter-

ollicial or inner-psychological, were present.

Secondly it is the music of the American, Negro, criminal

proletariat, who are comparatively untroubled by such

censors in any case, a far cry from the middle-class Viennese

Jew ry o f Freu d .

Underground, in the brothel and the speakeasy, jazz in

tubated for forty years . T h e established society k new abou t it

11



as it kn ew about sex. It confined m ention o f sex to the cur- I

tained room and the lava tory w all and there im prisoned it as a I

secret. It left jazz in the un de rw orld w here it occa siona lly wen t Islum m ing to col lect a l it tle seasoning for the mu sic o f com - |

m erce. In the un de rw orld jazz prod uced an ethos and a pattern I

o f beh aviour that the w o rld ’ s you n g w ere to grasp l ike I

d ro w n ing creatures, rushing tow ards hip as their parents w ere I

rush ing tow ards the m erciful obl ivion o f death.

Mezz Mezzrow, the veteran Chicago clarinett ist , g ives a

v iv id p icture o f jazz in fun ction in its secret ye ars : ‘ I kep t on 1

b low ing wi th m y eyes g lued shut, and then a s trange ti ling I

happened. A l l o f a sudden som ebo dy was scream ing in a I

choked, high-pitched voice, l ike she was being strangled, I

“ S top i t, yo u ’ re k i lling m e! S to p! I can ’ t s tand i t ! ” W hen I

I opened m y eyes it seemed like a ll the people on die dance I

f loo r were melted do w n into one sol id, m esmerized mass; it I w as an overstu ffed sard ine-can o f an audience, packed in an |

ol ive-o i l trance. T h e people w ere all pasted together, loo kin g j

up at the band w id i hy pn otic eyes and sw ay in g—at first I saw |

ju st a lo t o f sh in in g eyes b o b b in g laz ily on top o f a ro llin g sea I

o f f lesh. B ut o ff to one side there w as discord, breakin g the I

spel l. A n entertainer, one o f the g ir ls w h o did a couple o f I

vocals and specialized in su ggestive dance routin es, w as I

h av ing a ball all to herself . Sh e had cut loo se from he r partner I

and w as thro w ing he rsel f around l ike a snake w ith the hives. I

T h e rhyth m real ly had this queen; her eyes almo st jum ped ou t

their sockets and the cords on h er neck stoo d ou t stiff and

hard like ropes. W hat she w as d oin g w ith the rest o f her

anatomy isn’t discussed in mixed company.‘ “ D o n ’ t d o th at!” sh e y elle d . “ D o n ’ t d o th at to m e !”

W h en she w asn ’ t sh o u tin g her head o f f she ju st m oaned w a y

dow n in her sound b ox, l ike an ow l garg l ing .

‘Then with one f ly ing leap she sai led up on the bandstand,

pulled her dress up to her neck, and began to dance. I don’t

kn ow if dance is the r igh t w o rd fo r w ha t she did—she didn’ t

move her feet hardly at a l l , a l though she moved practical ly

everything e lse . She went through her whole rout ine , bumps

and grinds and shakes and breaks, making up new twists as

she w ent along , and I m ean twists. A bandstand w as sure die

12



— ■- - 1

w ro n g place to do w h at she w as try in g to do that n ig ht. A ll

(lie time she kept screaming, “ C ut it ou t ! I t ’ s m urd er!” but

her bod y w asn ’ t say ing no .

' l l was a frantic scene, l ike a nightmare walking, and it got

w ilder because all the excitem ent m ade us com e on lik e gan g -

busters to accompany this palsy-bug routine. Patrick and his

gan g o f vipers we re getting their kicks—the gauge they p icked

upon wa s re ally in there, and it had them treetop tall, m ellow as

a cello. M on ke y P ollack stoo d in the back, m ov ing a l ittle less

than a petrified tree, only his big lips shaking like meatballs

will) the ch ills , and the R ag tim e C o w b o y Je w w as starin g

through the clouds o f sm oke as though he wa s watch ing a

coyote do a toe dance. That gir l must have been powered

with D iesel en gin es, the w a y she kep t on g o in g . T h e sw eat w as

roll ing down her screwed up face l ike her pores were faucets,

leaving streaks o f m ascara in the thick rouge . Sh e w ould have

made a scarecrow do a nip up and fl ip. 1 ’

F or the w ord ‘ jazz’ was and is an A m erican slang expression

meaning ‘ fuck’ . Jazz music is therefore fuck music—‘Jazz Me

Blues’ , ‘Jazz in’ Bab ies Blues’- b u t it is the m usic o f a particu

lar kind o f fuck ing, no gracious dom estic coup ling o f dam and

sire, but the hot, intense act o f desperate m om ents, o f neces

sity , o f loneliness , o f sel f-aff irmation for people who g o alone,

w hose selves seem often to be w an d erin g som e w a y off.T h e h ipster, or hep-cat, was the first exem plary cit izen o f

the alternative society. He was the big-city twentieth century

descendant o f the post-em ancipation big-talkin ’ gam bler . Th e

mythical Stackolee, Sp o ’ t in ’ Li fe and indeed Jel ly R o l l M orton

himself , were prototypes of the Negro sophist icate who

achieved, through exquisite co-ordination, detached alertness

and very often l i teral l iaison with the Devil (Stackolee was a witch—M u d dy W aters ’ h o o chie-coo ch ie m an says, ‘I g o t a

black cat bone. I got a m ojo tooth. I got Joh n the C on qu eroo .

I'm gonna mess w i t ’ you . I ’m gon na m ake yo u pretty wom ens

lead me by the han’ . T h en the w o rl ’ is gonn a kn ow I ’m a

hooch ie-coochie man’—and Je lly R o ll has his w ho re sing ‘ I

think my man got a black cat bone, ’cos when I leave I gotta

run back hom e’) —w ho achieved success in action, w h o dan ced,1m e z z MEZZROW, Really the Blues, Seeker & Warburg.

13



blew , foug ht , gam bled and fucked w ith re lendess success, ■

never a bad orgasm, never a f luf fed note.

H ipsters became the gourm ets o f the mom ent, the athletes o f f lthe op po rtun ity. M ezzrow descr ibes the state o f m ind:

‘ I w as a ll jamm ed up fu ll o f en ergy, restless as a Mexican I

ju m p in g bean. S o m ed iin g w as all pu ffed up in m e, but I I

couldn’t d ig wh at it w as or g ive it a name. A l l the sights and I

sounds o f the Nor thw est S ide , the ba la la ika chords m y fa ther I

used to s trum , the tunes w e blew o n ou r mouth organ s , d ie I

ga n g f ights and the poo l roo m s, the gats we packed in ou r hip ■pockets and a imed at each other for fun, Bow Gistensohn I

and Murph Ste inberg and Em i l Burbacherand d ie co loured bo y I

Su l livan, d ie squeal ing g i r ls—they were a ll jum bled up in m y I

head. I w ent around hum m ing and w his tl ing a ll d ie r ime , I

try in g to stra ighten out this jum ble . W hen w e h ung ou t at f l

T h e C o r n e r , I ’ d k ee p w o r k i n g m y fin g e rs lik e I w a s p l a y in g f l

the p iano or the balalaika or mayb e a sax , anything d iat w ould I

m ake the r ight patterns o f sound when yo u w orked ov er it hard I

w id i p len ty o f fee ling. Som etim es I patted the pavem en t w ith f l

m y foot , o r beat the top o f a garbage can wi th a couple o f I

s ti cks , m aking r ime d ie w ay I ’d seen Su l l ivan do w hen the I

sp ir it h it h im . It go t me so bad m ost o f the rime I cou ldn ’t I

s it s till , I fe lt like I w anted to jump out o f m y sk in , hop o f f Iinto space on a C & A locom ot ive , anyth ing but s tay put .’ 1

T h e y w ore the ultra-fashionab le in clothes, but develope d ■ i

qu ickly a uni form w hich w as a h ighly sophisticated alternativeI

to the dictated trends o f haute couture. Soph istication w as, I

for d iem , a c lose point o f pr ide , the delicate w eapon o f defence 1 1

against subservience. Th eir und erw orld w ou ld be elaborate ]

and high ly dem anding in i ts ow n ski lls (jazz qu ickly became a

v irtu o so m usic), d istin ctive and audacious in its o w n clod ies

(pork-pie sombreros, zoot-suits , candystr ipe shirts , two-tone

shoes, later the goatee and beret), and would formulate a

language close to cockney rhyming s lang in i ts verbal s ide

stepping and cod e-signall ing , a langu age w hich die established

respectable world could not understand, f irstly because they

lacked the vocabulary which was, in any case, perpetually

chang ing, and second ly , because the rhythm o f w it, though t

1 MEZZ MEZZROW, Really the Blues, Seeker & Warburg.

14

' ■ 1 " L ML11 fl



[ In truth, i f Ch arl ie Pa rke r w as no t possessed b y supernatural

forces, then there’s nothing supernatural about genius. The

| com plete brilliant lou t, C h arlie P ar k er ate up his life and his

own system in an utter commitment to sensation and the

articulation o f that sensation. D ru g s, l iquor, w om en , action,

I hu m our, violen ce, passed thro ug h his m etabolism and the

music poured out. W hen he died, o f the m ost rew ard ing l ife-

■ long debauch in the history o f art, he w as a magical presence

w hose m usic w as the w o rd less bib le o f d ie an tiw orld . T h e re

almost seems som ething in com m on w ith the sacrificial deaths

I o f ancient k ings about die w ay in w hich the w ord o f his death

spread in Harlem so that, before twenty-four hours had

I elapsed, the inscription bir d l iv e s appeared scrawled in the

Harlem subways. There seems, a lso, a supernatural lack of

coincidence about the fact diat, in private jam sessions, under

ground, away f rom die spotl ights , Parker had been perfect ing

, his revo lution in the w a y jazz w as to be played , perfected

be-bop so that he could release it on the world at exactly the

I r ight time, when i t and he and his w ho le sub-culture we re so

I desperately needed, in 1945.

Norman Mailer again puts it neatly:

‘ . . .on th i s b leak scene . . . a phenomenon. . .appeared : the

Am erican exis tentialist th e h ipster, the m an w h o k n ow s that i f

our collective condition is to l ive with instant death by atomic

w ar, re la tively quick death b y the State as lunivers concentra- lionnaire, or by a s low death b y c onform ity with every rebe l

lious and creative instinct stif led (at what damage to the mind

mid the heart and the liver and the nerves no research founda

tion for cancer w ill disc ov er in a h u rry ), i f the fate o f twen tieth

Century man is to l ive w ith death fro m ado lescence to pre

mature senescence, why then the only l i fe-giving answer is

to accept the terms o f death, to l ive w ith d eath as im m ediate

danger, to divo rce on ese lf from society , to exist withou t roots,

to set out on that uncharted journey into the rebellious im

peratives o f the self . ’

1NOHMAN MAILER, The W hile N egro, City Lights.

I 17



II

V E N ig h t to o k place in one w o rld and V J N ig h t in another.

T h e w or l d o f th e E ur opea n v i c tor y w a s a b r ow n , sm el ly ,

fall ible, lovable place, an old-fashioned, earthy, stable place,

a place in which there was considerable sure and common

groun d between m en on i ssues o f m ora lity , w here go od w as

go od and bad w as bad, w here loy a l ty to coun try , c lass , fam ily

and fr iends could be taken for granted, where no one felt the

respo nsibi l i ty fo r pu blic evi ls rest ing on their ow n sh ou lders, w h ere p eople felt that i f tilin gs w e re w ro n g then h isto ry had

ample t ime remaining in which they could be rect i f ied, where

evo lut ion took place in the benevolent house o f nature,

w h ere soc ie ty to o k pla ce in the b en evo len t house o f e vo lu tio n ,

w h ere m an lived his sh ort life in the b en evolen t h ouse o f soc ie ty .

W e had su rv iv e d the w a r , exorcized th e B avarian p o ltergeist,

st ruck a posi t ive at the end o f the lon g, h ideous negat ive. W e

had found each other in our col lect ive suffering and tr iumph.

W e had reconfirm ed the ancie nt m erits o f h on ou r, se lf-sacrifice ,

courage, wi l l and companionship. The destruct ion was over .

W e k n ew die D e v il and had k illed him . T h e fu ture yaw n ed

ahead fo r il limitable construction and i f there was another w ar,

w e could su rv iv e again .T h e w or ld o f th e J apa n ese v i c t or y w a s a w or ld in w h i c h an

evi l had been precipitated whose scope was immeasurable, the

act being, in i tsel f , not an event, but a continuum, not an

occas ion but the beg inn ing o f a condi tion . W e knocked out

the second enemy (by no means such a discernible vi l la in as

H itler wh om w e could e asily condem n through the sensational

shock o f the concentration cam ps and the ob viou s poisono us

v io len c e o f h is rh etoric) b y a lien atin g all those values w e had

conf irmed in the f irst v icto ry . W e had espoused a cont inuum

that negated (run ning p arallel to) the continuum o f society.

18



W e had espou sed an ev il as g rea t as d ie N azi gen ocide, w e had

1 1 espoused die ins trument for the terminadon o f our benevo lent

institution, soc iety, and our certain ide ntity, hum an. W e had

espoused a m onstrous uncertainty both o f future and o f m oral-

ity. I f , besides die ‘narzi gangsters ’ , we were also wrong, who

was ever righ t? I f no one w as right, w hat w as righ t, and w as

right anyway relevant , and what could guide us dirough the

terrifying freedom such a concept offered? W ha teve r the

answer it had best be a good one for we could not rely on

ourselves any more than the little yellow man or the evil hun.

W e had d riven h on o u r aw ay a few short m onths after fin d in g

it . Neidier could we survive the next war, for the next wasn’t

go ing to be rem otely l ike the one w e had ‘show n w e could

take’ . The next war would certainly be more terrible than

anything we had known, was probably more terr ible dian

w e could calcu la te, w as p o ss ib ly g o in g to term in ate the entire

species.

I It T h e f irst v ictory was a v ictory conf irm ing ou r merits and

security . The second v ictory destroyed them irrevocably.

In the new world the l ight was harsh, a perpetual noon of

decisions, ev ery action crucial being po ssibly f inal. N o man w as

certain any more o f any thing but h is ow n vol i t ion so the only

valu e w as pragm atic. M oral va lu es, th ou ght absolute, w ere n o w

seen to be comparative, for all social entities around which

m orality had rev olved w ere n ow called into dou bt and nothing

o f m orali ty rem ained. T h e society for w hich w e had m ore or

! less ch ee rfully fou gh t and (som e o f us) m ore o r less ch eerfu lly

died had dropped its mask and in doing so had robbed all its

Institutions o f ch urch , political p arty , social class, h ap py

family, o f moral auth ority. N o long er could teacher, m agistrate,

polit ic ian, don, or even lovin g p arent , guide the you ng . T h eir

membership of the H-bomb society automatical ly cancelled

anything they m ight have to say on questions o f right and

I ' w rong. Ev en N ature had come to mean poisoned stratosphere,

contaminated rain, vegetables and milk that made men breed

monsters, instincts that threw creatures compulsively into

patterns that had little meaning but their own intrinsic in

tensities, and those intensities only assessed privately by the

Individual for the ind ividua l. It wa s difficult to share. W e, in



En gland , kn ew the h ipster on ly rem otely . F o r a wh i le w e made

o u r o w n w a y .

W h at w a y w e m ade in 1945 and in the fo llo w in g yearsdepended largely on our age, for right at that point, at the

point o f the drop ping o f the bom bs on H irosh ima and

Nagasaki , the generat ions became divided in a very crucial

w ay .

T h e people w ho had passed p uberty at the time o f the bom b

found that they w ere incapable o f con ceiv ing o f life withouta

future. T h e ir patterns o f habit had form ed, the steady job ,

the pension, the mortgage, die insurance pol icy, personal

sav ing s, sup po rt and respect for the protect ion o f the law,

all the paraphernalia o f con structive, secure fam ily l ife. T h e y

had learned their gam e and it w as the on ly gam e die y kn ew , i

T o ackn ow ledge the t ruth o f their predicament w ou ld be to

abandon the wh ole pattern o f their l ives . T h e y w ou ld diereforehave to pretend, much as they had pretended about ecstasy not

being there, and they proceeded to pretend as cheerfully as

ever . In any case, to look the danger in the eye might wreck

the chances o f that ultimate total secu rity their deepest selves

had contr ived , death by H-bomb.

T h e people w ho had not yet reached p uberty at the time o f

d ie bom b were incapable o f conceiv ing o f life with a future.

They might not have had any direct preoccupat ion with the

bom b. Th is depended largely on dieir sophist ication. But

diey neve r knew a sense o f future. T h e h ipster w as there.

Charl ie Parker ’s records began to be distr ibuted. The hipster

became increasingly present in popular music and young

people moved in his direct ion. They pretended too, but they

did not enter the pretence at al l cheerfully. In fact they

entered the pretence reluctantly, in pain and confusion, in

host i l i ty which they increasingly showed. Dad was a l iar . He

lied about the war and he l ied about sex. He l ied about the

bomb and he l ied about the future. He l ived his l i fe on an

elaborate system o f pretence that had been go ing on fo r hun

dreds o f years. T h e so-cal led ‘generat ion ga p ’ started then andhas been increasing ever since.

O u r first react ion, as I remem ber, w as o ne o f form alized

sto ic i sm which we borrowed f rom the sp ivs , f rom demobbed

20



m

noldiers , and from Hol lywood movies , which we took and

transmuted into a rom anticism o f tough ness and agg ression

and subseque ntly w ore l ike a suit o f armour.

Popular culture was, at that t ime, not ours . It was the

province o f the yo un g adult , con tr ived and m odified by die

promoters and impresarios and aimed at the mid-twenties

age grou p. In particular it w as aim ed at the w ork ing -class ,

for this was the h ey d ay o f the vast po pu lar dan ce-halls , the

Mecca and the Locarno; popular culture was utterly separate

from high bro w cul ture ; the avant-garde w as part o f h ighb row

culture and both were posh.

Po pu lar culture, then, w as the culture o f the jitterbug , o f

the snap-brim tri lby and the double-breasted, wasp-waisted,

w id e-tro u sered p instripe su it, o f the hand-pain ted s ilk tie and

the Bo ston haircut, o f cam iknickers and brigh t red l ipstick,

o f the bom bshel l b londe and the s tream lined busdine, o f

gilded pin-tables and l im e-green ice-cream , o f tw o-inch crepe

I l soles and black-m arket ny lons , o f Be tty G rable and V eron icaL a k e ; o f H u m p h r ey B o g a r t an d A l an L a d d , o f P e te r C h e y n e y

and Jam es H adley Ch ase , a culture o f brashness , raw colou rs ,

hard gloss , discord, cold eyes and cruel rouged l ips , a culture

o f the origina l com ic-boo k super-heroes , o f s pl a t and bam

and zo w ie , o f spotli t trumpet sect ions s tanding up in row s , o f

f exhibitionist, gu m -ch ew ing drum solos and bu ll-voice d tenor

saxes, fo r so m ew here in the middle o f it al l , this w as the cultureo f sw ing , and som ewh ere in the m iddle o f sw ing w as jazz .

W e fle w to th is cu lture not o u r o w n because at that tim e it

provided for tw o o f ou r needs; it protected and disguised ou r

vu ln erab ility and it p ro v id ed a form alized m ode o f be h av io u r

to com pensate fo r ou r ow n directional p ove rty . Th e face was

the f lat-eyed half-sneer; the voice was bel l igerent and thrust

ing; the syntax was monosyl labic and summary. ‘Oh yeah’ ,'So what’ , and ‘Go to hell ’ were ritual catchphrases . Girls were

‘dames’ , impersonalized as far as possible, called ‘ it ’ , worn on

the arm, treated with a modish brutal ity. There was a whole

row o f po pu lar heroes at that time w h o depicted the bruised

and whimpering chi ld- individual , machine-gunning desper

ate ly through a character armou r o f shel lac . R ichard A tten

borough p layed P inky in Brighton Rock. Gri f f i th Jones

21



hammered his dame around the screen in an epic of the blackmarket, Stewart Granger did likewise in Waterloo Road.

Lemmy Caution, Peter Cheyney’s hardmouth detective,specialized in the casual third-degree, bourbon in one hand,rubber-truncheon in the other; SlimCallaghan, Cheyney’sother hero, was given to weeks of alcoholic oblivion whilewomen grieved over his exemplary impotence. The example,the sanction and die prototype was there for us. The Allieswere using their popular culture to exorcize their envy of themythical Gestapo and we all joined in.

1 amtalkingto a friend in a pub. My friend is sixteen. His cigarette and pint arcinsignia. Thetrilby on theback of his head is distorted into a curious silhouette. Thehat is a shadowof theSS cheesecutter. Heis pale to thepoint of lookingill. His eyes I

arecalcu/atedly veiled—a contrived expression so formalized it almost suggests make-up.‘Hiya.’‘Hiya, son.’' ’Cha bin doin’ ?’'Bin around.’ Heexhales, admiringhis fine jet of smokein thebar mirror. |

‘Getcher finger away las’ night?’’Nah. Don bother with dames.’

I recall theother boy who kissed girls with thecigarette stub in his mouth—another who beat up his girl each timeshehad him,

for betrayingthedistorted purity for which shewas supposed to stand—and thecommon practice of walkingaway from girls on discoveringthat they weremenstruating, just getting up and walkingaway—theparadoxical idealization and objectification of thefemale...

‘ ’Cha do las’ night then?’‘T’rifficlaugh. Got pissed, mean Ginger. Got this R.A.F.

bloke, so pissed ’e couldn’t move, took ’imup an alley an’ beat ’imup.’

'Yeah?''Yeah. Face onemass o’ blood. Should ’a’ been with us Saturday though. Got threethen. Oneof ’emtried to report us to thecops. IVi’ll get ’imagain. Great.’

22



r — 1 1 n *

// group of us cometogether in a youth club. IFesignal with Cob! eyes, each oneof us, in his own mind, a cinema close-up. IFeimaginetheyouth club to bea pool-hall. IFedrift towards

■ thedoor. IFearegoing to get Bobby. Bobby is a mongo/ with ! wealthy parents. They own thePalmBeach Milk Bar. Some

times Bobby hides in thealley outsidetheyouth club and flashes I his cock at thegirls. I Pcaregoing to find himand punish him.

Theterriblefine point of drama in thesituation derives from theI irony that we areflagellating ourselves, or a scapegoat for

ourselves, attemptingto cauterizethedependencespringingfrom | our own desires. Our brutality towards Bobby is a brutality to

wards our own cringing, yearninghopelessness. IFecruisearound milk bars, piths, alleyways. IFefind him

Upthealley behind a cinema. Thebigboomingvoices arecomingthrough theprojection roomwindow. IFebeat himup with dead

I monosyllables and hard, flat littlesounds. Hecrouches on theground at our feet, head huddled between his knees, greasy hair

hanging, flash double-breasted overcoat hangingin theslime, lie is makingfunny noises likea frightened puppy and heis droolingblood down between his orange suedeshoes. IFefile past himformally. Each of us spits on his head and oneof us hicks hint. Heyelps. Then wego away. IFefeel cleansed and

■L hard and impregnable.

Itm it would be false to dismiss the culture and die role asbeing merely a mask. I t was a mask whose qual ity was

particularly ap propriate, being neither the im age o f our inward

terror no r the im age o f the ou tw ard l ie, but be ing, rather, the

Image o f the sour, dy nam ic discom fort i t w as to contain such

hypersensitive solitude. The raw ‘pastel ’ shades, the discordant

glitter, the metallic breasts, the military shoulders, the screech-

ing tenor saxoph ones w ere the ve ry aesthetic o f the severednerve, for our nerves were severed, severed from certainty,

wtvered from socia l and fam ily w arm th , and ab o v e all severed

from future. W e w ere stranded w ith our sensations, our

•Mtnsations scream ed and w e rec og niz ed the aesthetic o f the

I Kffeam.

I Sw ing m usic w as the art o f this sensibi li ty w ith its frantic

Inmpo, powerhouse volume, stratospheric brass, explosive

*3



- — ___________________ ■

discords and br illiant dynam ics . W oo d y H erman ’s ‘App le

H o n e y ’ o r D i z z y G i l ' e s p i e ’ s ‘ T h i n g s T o C o m e ’ a r e r e c o r d s

w h ich epitom ize all dtese qualities. F o r sw in g w as that

derivat ion c f jazz that had com e out o f the underground during

the war and proved to be the right music for the night before

the final op . B riefly it also pr ov ed to be the m usic for the night

after . In f ront o f ev ery shimm ering orchestra there wa s one

man, die soloist , writhing and grimacing towards his aural

cl im ax and that man w as a hipster. H is voice sounded l ike onefrom wh ich w e could learn a method o f l iv ing . I t w as and we

started to learn.

The l iars , the wil l ing pretenders who put the bomb next to

sex in die locked closet , could not hear jazz. They said it was

\ cacop ho ny and they m eant it. T h e y w ere rectangular , con-

* form ist, r ig id , s trictured. T h e y w ere square .

So w e kn ew w here we s tood . W e knew ho w it fe lt to stand

there but we also stuck to our masks and our artificialities.

W e k n ew h o w to k eep o u r noses clean, fo r n o t one o f u s, no

solitary one, had any serious polit ical preoccupation or any

b el ie f in the chang eabi li ty o f society and events . N o s ingle

sol itary on e am on gst us had the s lightest spark o f hope or

gave a damn about a thing except the crackl ing certa inty ofN o w .

24



I l l

I l ie fashionab le fem ale torso o f the forties w as not flesh but

metal, a cuirasse. I t w a s a r m o u r . T h e w h o l e p o p u la r m o d e w a sarm our. W e used it to conceal ou r distress and confu sion but

ourdistress and con fusion arose from ou r hatred o f l ies so the

shield, die m ask, had to dro p. It to ok a lon g time and the process

involved a run nin g f ight with the squares inso far as each t ime a

grou p o f yo u n g people created their ow n cu lture the squares

bought it up, streamlined it and sold it back on a large scale,

invalidating i t and m aking it necessary fo r yo u n g people to s idestep again. Thus, in current fashion, as soon as a style is in the

shop w in d o w s it’s v ir tu a lly dead unle ss the sh op w in d o w is that

ofa boutique w hich is, in the genuine sense, hip, run and ow ned

by people o f the r igh t and recogn izable c l im ate o f mind.

T h e f irst peep o v er the top o f the shield was the teenage

response to the earthy which began in the early fifties. In those

years certain records appeared on th e hit parade w h ich re fle cted.1 certain folksiness, an awareness o f A m erican cou n try m usic,

Hoe-down and blues. Ten nessee E rn ie ’s ‘Sh otgu n B oo gie ’ had

an ex plo sive sing in g style and a hard, r im -shot off-beat , a big-

sounding hil lbil ly electric guitar and even a ‘protest ’ lyr ic on

the reverse s ide , ‘S ixteen T o n ’ . I t s ignal led the w ay things were

going. Frankie Laine and Johnny Ray l i f ted their s ty les f rom

i gospel s ing ing . R a y , part icularly, introduced to po pu lar m usic

that m ode o f histr ionic self-exp osu re that had alw ay s been

natural to cou ntry blues singers and circuit preachers. T h e v o

calists w ith the h igh ly m echanized sw ing bands had alw ays been

curiously reserved in their spo tl igh ts. T h e se lf expo sure w as left

to the instrumental soloists whose orgies Ray now put into

w ords and actions. T h is , then, w as th e sty le o f an act w hich

I sanctified die ou tsider. A s far as the squa res kn ew P ar k er had

been a man m aking si lly noises on a saxoph one. B ut there w as

25



no escaping Ray. There he was , deaf , neurot ic , crying, camp,

cruc i fy ing h im se lf twice n igh t ly to every bo dy ’ s de light, dr iv ing

h im s e lf to p u b lic o rga sm in ‘ O h W h a t A N ig h t It W a s ’ , b e

gin nin g the dis integration o f that m icrom eter precision control

that had pu t the opaque ch rom e f inish on sw ing m usic.

A ls o in the early fifties, S av ile R o w attem pted a rev iva l in

Ed w ardian m en’s fashions . In Sav i le R o w it fa iled but quickly

succeeded in H am m ersm ith Palais . L ik e the hipsters ’ zoo t suit ,

it became, for English teenagers , the f irst uniform whichdist inguished the group from dieir f loppy-trousered fadiers .

The shield dropped a l itt le further. Teddy suits widt their

frock-coats , fancy waistcoats , moleskin col lars and drainpipe

trousers , and, for the girls , hobble skirts , black-seam nylons

and coolie hats , were die f irst public showing, in England at

an y rate , o f radical socia l d ivergence on the part o f yo un g

peop le. N o tedd y b o y , at diat t im e, w as suff iciently clear in

his own mind to know, or suff iciently art iculate to say, what

his deepest responses kn ew , that the established w orld w as the

emanat ion o f g igant ic fa lsehood and he wan ted out . H e a lso

w an ted to stop u sin g d ie sh ield o f the official p ok erface p opu lar

culture. O ne sw ift generat ion after m y o w n di is culture was

seen and rejected for its artificiality. The peroxide glitter and

the m ile-wide shoulders w ere a ll o f a p iece w ith D u n k irk

jin g o ism , h opes and p rom ises o f peace, n u d g in g p o rn o grap h ic

sex, the never-emergent nipple and the never-mentioned fuck.

Teenage culture had not dien started to formulate its own

fashion s but it is extre m ely sign ifican t that the style chosen w as

one des igned for a complete ly d i f ferent socia l group. There

w a s , in fact, n o sm all ele m ent o f deliberate iro n y ab ou t the

w a y in w h ich the s ty le w as lifted fro m un d er the v e r y noses

o f the adult , upper class w or ld , the w or ld o f A n d ion y Eden

and Duncan Sandys . The patronizing dungaree-and-tartan

fashions aimed at the teenage market were disdained. The

fashion designe r had n ot ex actly been spotted, but he had been

scented on die night air . Fro m dien on he w as due for an

increasing amount of sul len suspicion.

T h e violence and stoicism rem ained b ut form alized itself

into tribal routines, r ituals . Vast gangs formed in Soudi

London and began to hold pitched batt les , armed with

26



bicycle chains and f l ick-kn ives. So m e dance-halls banned ted dy

units but it made no difference. The separation had merely

been acknowledged by die squares. Certain police witnessesseemed, in cou rt, to gr o w m ore consciou s o f the dress than the

deeds o f dieir yo un g defendants . Th eir inst inct was true. T h e

new dress heralded a new kind o f cr im e and a new kind o f

| social problem for an yb od y wh o wa s anxious for the s tabili ty

of soc iety . Th e y ou ng people permitted open show o f emot ion

on ly to the public per former . Em ot ion w as on ly acknow ledged

In terms o f hard action, dance, f ight o r copulation. E xcitem ent w as set in the place w h ere e m otion had form erly been. T h e g ro u p

rituals we re con ducted not in the interest o f self-pu nishm ent,

of pow er-com petit ion, but in d ie interest o f excitement. W e,

immediately after the war, had been senselessly brutal but we

had not been insensitive. Ra the r had o u r brutal it ies perv ersely

I f w rung ou r overw rou gh t sens it iv i ties. W e needed the m ask. But

m any o f the teddy b oy s seemed to need no m ask. T h e s toicismfor them was not a mask but a blank. A new affectlessness was

becom ing comm onplace at an u n-nerving rate .

In 1953 a boy was s tabbed to death on Clapham Common,

l ie was no s lum boy, nor was his k i l ler . He came from a

seemingly happy family in a seemingly comfortable home.

The murder was not done for ga in or revenge or the hand of

agirl . It w as the first fatal casua lty in the excitem ent gam e, thefirst o f an u nen ding series o f teenage k ill ing s. S im ilar crimes

in Europe could have been put down to the occupation.

Sim ilar crimes in Am erica could be put do w n to Puerto Rican

immigrat ion. But in London the older people were as be-

| wildered as they w ere b y jazz. T h e excitem ent gam e w as

unrelated to ‘constructive’ l iv ing. Theft was understandable.

Re ven ge w as un derstandable but the principle o f excitem ent Was not. T h at on ly m ade sense in term s o f the m om ent, to the

people who were trapped within it .

I ' / was standingby thebus-stop. Just standingtherewaitingfor a 34 and this kid comes up and joins thequeue. There's meand this woman and this kid and 'e’s a bit breathless as though 'e's been

I playin’ tagan then this other kid comes round thecorner and stops runnin an walks towards thebus-stop an' 'e's gigglin'

I



an they’reboth gigglin’ an genin' ready to dodge oneanother as though they w w playin’ tag an then they comes real close together an’ they’restill gigglin’ an thesecond one’s got ’is ’and be’ind ’is bach an ’e whips out ’is ’and and stabs thefirst onein theguts an’ then runs away laughin’ ’is ’cad off. And wedidn’t knowwhat ’ad ’appened until wenoticed theblood...’

‘ ...Well wewas in this club sir, allplayin’ ping-pongan dancin’ sir an someof us was chattin up birds like, and this door comes

open an it’s about a doyn blokes from Muswell ’ill. Well they was always about like, after thebirds, so wedon’t takeno noticeand next thing1 noticed they was goin’ out an I thought “ Well that’s them, then” and then I noticed about twenty blokes about theclub was all doubled over groanin’. Twenty they got, clean as a whistle, ahtsidein themotors an off to go, back to Muswell ’ill.’

‘ ’Ey sir, killin’ up theRock-a-Cha las’ night. They gorrim

though. It was only my fella, theblokewot done it. Well, murder’s gear, innit...’

The teds were sparked into v io lence by any and every occa-

sion. I t became a means o f celebration and signature. T h e

smashed lamp standard or the lacerated train compartment

w as no gesture o f an ger against lo cal go vern m en t o r so c ie ty at

la rg e . T h e y w e r e s im p l y a m ean s o f s a y in g ‘ T o m , D i c k o r

Harry' was here.’E ar ly Brit ish performances o f the Bil l H aley band and the

f irst show ings o f E lv is Pres ley f ilms w ere ce lebrated b y row s

o f razored seats in the theatres conce rned. T h es e again did not

indicate dissatisfaction w ith the perform ance o r ang er with the

m anagem ent. T h e y w ere signatures . T h e y sa id , i f anything ,‘Thank you B i l l , E lv i s , for making your v io lence for us . N ow

w e ’ ll m ake ou rs fo r y o u . . . ’ T r ib a l gestures o f tribal s ign ific-

ance. Society , far from being an enemy, was not even a con-

sideration, outside the m ag ic . . .

R ay G os l ing : ‘T h at w as the ve ry f ir st time I come to L ive r -

poo l . M ust have been ’ 57 . 1re m e m b e r c o m i n g fr o m C r o s b y b y

train. Th ere w as som e m eeting at a c lub. I ’ d go t a m essage for

a b loke . G o t m y trains a ll m ixed up, that’ s w h y I was com ing

in fro m C r o s b y . D o n ’ t k n o w h o w I g o t to C r o s b y . G o t no

idea. I can’t remember much, but then I was on this train and

28



there w as blood all ov er, and a gash o n m y face, and there was

blood in m y m outh and there w as an old lady sitting op po site,

mul the train roc ke d, and she kep t sa yin g - dre adfu l, dreadful.

I stood up and there w as b lood all ov er, and all ov er m y suit,

mid I look ed in the m irro r; it w as just like m y face had been

used as a bit o f cheese in a cheese scraper there w as skin and

flesh and blood and grit and cuts and bruises and a great big

black eye, a real shiner. I looked at this old lady, and I said

I was sorry but I thought someone must have done me over ,

though I couldn’t remember a thing like—and she just sat

there with her l ittle gloved hands al l folded over her handbag

m uttering aw ay- dread ful , dreadful—and I w en t out to the

w .c . and I w as sick . A n d w h en I g o t back w e w ere co m in g

th ro u g h W id ne s and R u n c o r n o v e r th e r iv e r l ik e . . . ’ 1

Th e te d d y b o y s w e r e w a i t ing f o r E l v i s Pr e s l e y . Ev e r y b o d y

under twenty a l l over the world was wait ing . He was the

super-salesman o f m ass-distr ibution hip. U n fortun ately he

had to be wh ite . O therw ise one o f the C hicag o blues s ingers ,

M u d d y W a te rs , B u d d y G u y , H o w li n ’ W o l f, w o u l d h av e

done. H e had to play to large audiences in the south . H e had to

have the cowboy/Spanish element. He had to have die

A d o n is p rofile . H e had to have th e o v erto n es o f the queer-

boy’s pin-up, die packed jeans, the sullen long-lashed eyes,

the rosebud mouth, the lavish greasy hair and gilded drag.

Like Brando, he was a point at which separate att i tudes

could m erge. H e had all the f lash and glitter o f sho w biz bu t

m ost o f his repertoire w as sl igh tly m odified co un try blues.

He was smooth and greasy and sexy and yo un g but he p layed

. w ith the rhythm s o f bo og ie pianists and m ountain band s. H e

w as, like T enn essee W illiam s ’ ‘O rp h eu s D e sce n d in g ’ , a public

butch go d w idi the insolence o f a Gen et m urderer . M ost o f

all he w as u nvarnished sex taken and set w a y o ut in die open.

Fro m the first q u av erin g org astic stutter to the final bull

1 scream, from the first beads o f sweat on his uppe r lip to die

final frantic b low s o f his loins aga inst the cu rved fetish o f his

gu itar he w as the incarnate spirit o f the fast lay and his audience

o f adolescents responded, not o nly sexual ly but a lso w ith

some gratitude, for here was someone who was act ing out in

1r a y g o s l in g , Sum Total, Faber & Faber.

29



; J - ---........ -......................................................■

the open something tltat was stil l a secret from the adults.

H e broke the secret and made h im sel f a god a ll ov er the world .

‘G o d ’ is not too s trong a wo rd here. T h e P res ley r iots were

a revengefu l red iscovery o f the D ionys ian cerem ony. H e was

the idol in a literal sense, a deity incarnate on the old primitive

pattern, the catalyst o f a rediscovered appetite fo r com m unity

in its fundam ental form , org astic ritual. P re sle y ’s success had

implications far beyo nd the hopes o r intentions o f his managers

and promoters . He was awarded an identity far greater than

the one he intended fo r him self, an iden tity that invalidated the

brash comm ercia lism o f his prom otion. T h e P res ley r iots were

the fi rs t b ig spontaneous gatherings o f the com m un ity o f the

new sensibil it ies . Riots over previous idols had been senti

mental radier d ian sexual . The Pres ley r iots were temple

ceremon ials o f d ie futureless.

It was partly through such ceremonials that the disaffil iated

• teenager began to ident i fy h im sel f and his a ims. R a y G osl ing

launched a teenage club in Le icester that aimed at con siderab ly

m ore dian ‘keeping them o ff the s treets’ : ‘ I remem ber com ing

back one night f rom Oxford, and i t was around four in the

m orn ing, and as w e cam e in ov er the bridge to die C entral

Station I could see die l ights and the open doo r. W alking dow n

the street from die station and in through the door, and die

ju k e-b o x w as p la y in g and there w e re tw o d ancing coup les,

be au tiful ly and s low ly soft , and one behind the bar. T h ere had

been a good take-in from the til l , and die coffee was stil l good

and hot and fresh. There was blood on the f loor, and die dirt

from a fast nigh t. It had a wo nd erful used loo k ab out it. It was

an oasis in a c i ty o f the dead. T h e o n ly p lace open. T h at wasdie w a y I liked i t. Th at w as the w ay it could have been. I t

became that nigh t, both op en and ex clusiv e; the sort o f place

w h ere I could fe el p ro ud at b ein g a c u s to m e r.. . 1 saw som eth ing

happen. I saw in fact what I ’d only been able to dream about.

I t won ’ t d ie . Things l ike that , they don ’ t d ie . . .Nice and

n asty , nice and n au gh ty—and I sided w ith the nasty and the

na ug hty , painting a seedy picture o f tin p ot skiff le gro up s,

grubby lads and louts , a club no decent person would want to

be long to , romancing on the seamy s ide . . . ’ 1

1r a y c o s u n c , Sunt Total, Faber & Faber.

30



IV

It ’s worth noting that the brute-heroes, the hipster-heroes,

the pain-h ero es , J o h n n y Ray , M ar lo n Bran do , J am es D ean(whose death sparked o ff a fantastic o rg y o f identi ficatory

react ion) , Elv is Presley (whose softening image did not) ,

w ere the p rod u ct and, in turn, the catalysts o f a partic ular

sect ion o f the teenage gro up —the m otorcycle co w b oy s, the

'W ild O nes ’ . T h eir uni form , the second to em erge in En glan d,

po ssibly the first in A m erica, consisted, sti ll consists, o f skin

tight jeans and black leather jacket. Accessories could include*

leak ed cap ( further shades o f the ss) , cal f- length boots ,

neck bandanas, Nazi war relics, big brash colour transfers

and later, in England, where the ‘ ton-up boys’ became the

'rockers’ ( indicating a defensive adherence to the simple early

form s o f roc k ’n ’ roll) ornate p atterns o f brass studs, t iger-tails,

f ringes, chain s and bells.

V e ry little has com e ou t o f th e w h o le teenage d evelopm en t

that has more beauty than decorated rocker- jackets. They

showed the creative impulse at its purest and most inventive.

W ith ou t an y sen tim en talit y it ’ s possib le to sa y th at th ey co n

stitute tribal art o f a h igh d egree, sym m etrical , r itualist ic, w ith

a bizarre metallic brilliance and a high fetishistic power.

T h om G un n , a conscious existential ist, Ca m bridge graduate,

poet o f act ion, found in the A m erican m idw estern b lack-

I le ath er c o w b o y a n aiv e w h o s e m e th od o f liv in g p r ov id e d a

w ay ou t o f the spiritual cu l-de-sac in w h ich in tellectual life

seemed caught, a way in which it was possible to avoid die

* contem ptible business o f squ atting ‘ irresolute all d ay at stool/

Inside the heart ’ . H is m ost w el l-kno w n p oem on the subject ,

how ever, amp lifies the pragm atic merits o f the earlier hipster

w it h an additio nal d yn am ism , th e hard edge o f w ill applie d to

ihe crucial m om ent, an ag gressive m ascul ini ty o f pr inciple

3i



expressed in the barbaric decorations and the atmosph ere o f oil

and petrol.

A minute holds them, who have come to go :

The self-defined astride the created will

They burst away; the towns they travel through

A re home for neither bird nor holiness,

For birds and saints complete their purposes.

A t worst, one is in motio n; and at best,

Reaching no absolute, in which to rest,

One is always nearer by not keeping still.1

T h ere had been som ething o f die fop about the hep-cat ,

w ith his loose clothes and his elliptic al speech . L e ster Y o u n g

bro ug h t hip to a fine point in his last year s b y w earing ribb on s

in his hair and camping crazily about the bandstand. The

leadier-jackets indicated a reve rsion, in m any o f their tribal

conventions, to die stoical mask (goggles , cult ivated tough

ness) and the m etallic seve rity (the m oto r-b ike s, die fierce

array o f buckles and studs) o f die 1945 generation. E ve n the

transfers on their shoulders were ten-year-old images adopted

for d ie ir ver y brashness and crudity from w hat remained o f the

po st-wa r pop culture in d ie high w ay cafes and gas stat ions.

T h e A m erican pattern, the original o f this part icular m ode, w as o ld er and m ore bruta l than its E n g lish coun terpart. T h e y

w ere veritab le h o o d s, anxious to dem onstrate their p o w er o ver

respectable road-users by more dian speed. The twist , poker-

faced, untouching, v iolently erod e, w as their dance. T h eir w ay

o f l ife is hi lariou sly depicted in Steve W ilson ’s com plex

cartoons.

In England the pivotal ski l l was not brutal ity or dancingbut simply fast and dangerous riding. In the early sixties every

London hospita l was crowded to overf lowing with motor-

\ cycle casualt ies . The main rendezvous were die Ace and the

Busy Bee, two sprawling seedy petrol-stat ion cafes near the

Lo nd on terminus o f the M i. In die tangled mess o f the road

system s, die jungle o f g l it tering s ign s , the endless hyp no dc

cat’s eye s, the m on oto no us lanes o f traffic, the desolate m oto r

w a y cafeterias, the ro ckers w ere a stran ge and heartenin g

1THOM GUNN, The Sense oj Movement, Faber & Faber.

32



screaming select ions have gone and the vision is that much

clearer. T h e f ight against all them has m ove d into an arrogan ce,

this sure knowledge that we ’re going to come through, o i l orno oi l . W e ’re goin g throug h the rubble and t in cans and w e ’re

p ickin g o ut the ones that w il l be o f use, and c learing the site

and digg ing the foundat ions and then bui ld , bui ld . . . ’ 1

I t w as the beg inning o f a short w ar . Before the huge pitched

batt les o f 1964, ho w eve r , the m ods and pop ular music changed

sti l l further. Small group rhythm-and-blues, a bel l igerent

A m erican N e g ro fo lk fo rm fro m w h ich ro ck ’n ’ ro ll had taken

a good dea l , began to be popular . A lex is Korner and Cyr i l

D av ies , w ho had, for ye ars , run a ve ry dedicated scene ca lled

die Blues and Barre lhouse Club, now opened in the Moist

Hoist , a notor iously ev i l ce l lar opposite Ea l ing Tube Stat ion.

T h e y opened w ith am pl if iers fu ll on and D ick H ecksta l l-Smith

on tenor. Something was happening to the sincerity andauthent ic i ty cul t . The group moved to the Marquee fa ir ly

quickly where they attracted not only mods but a lso an even

more sophist icated crowd from die art schools . Art students

and popular music had, until diis point, been separate, except

fo r an odd ov erlapp ing in the wo rld o f trad and skiff le . But

R & B wa s that bit less com m ercial than rock had been. It

appealed to the auth enticity cu lt anddie rock ’n ’ rol l cult . Thestudents and the mods cross-fertil ized, particularly in Liver

pool . Purple hearts appeared in strange profusion. Bel l-

bottom s blossom ed into w i ld co lours . Shoes w ere painted w ith

W o o lw o rth s lacq uer. B o d i sexes w o re m ak e-u p and d yed dieir

hair. T h e art students brou gh t their acid co lou r comb inations,

their l ilacs, tangerines and lim e green s from abstract painting.

The air in the streets and c lubs was t ingl ing with a new

del ir ium . T h e handful o f art-student pop grou ps appeared,

w ith their lou d er, m ore v io len t m usic, their cu ltivated h ysteria ,

their painful am plif iers, the R o ll ing S tones, the Pre tty T h ing s,

the K inks , the Beat le s . ‘K inky ’ was a word very much in d ie

air . Everywhere there were z ippers, leathers, boots, p v c , see-

through plast ics , male make-up, a thousand overtones ofsexual deviat ion, part icularly sadism, and everywhere, mixed

in with amphetamines, was the birth pil l . The established

1r a y g o s l i n g , Sum Total, Faber & Faber.

34



business w o rld , the square com m ercial w o rld , the prom o ters,

the deathwishers , were completely out-distanced. Al l they

coulddo w as run to keep up, for unless they cou ld keep up an

appetite for l iving might emerge from all diis parrot-

coloured chaos and die suic ide plan might be wrecked.

In 1 964 die r ival gr ou p s, the mo ds, am oral, hy sterical, and the

t rockers, w h o b y d iis tim e seem ed alm ost en d ea rin g ly butch,

dashed on A ug u st ban k-hol iday a t M argate . Th e smal l seaside

town w as su d d en ly fu ll o f w a rr in g k id s, up to their sku lls in

amphetamine, wrecking the cafes , hunting one anodier ingreat bloodthirsty packs across the beach. They didn’ t even

turn off the transistors as they put the boot in. Affectlessness

was com plete . I t w as im possible to l ive w ith die bo m b and the

cold war and retain die sympadiet ic facult ies . The s ituat ion

remained, so sensit iv ity had to go. The mods and rockers

riots w ere not on ly the next step in die excitem ent gam e, they

Were the extended, tawd ry funeral o f com passion. I t w as theonly w a y th e g r o w in g m ind cou ld deal w ith the constant

probabil ity o f unprecedented pain and ho rror w hich the squares

took such trouble to preserve.

By the m id-sixties defe nsiv e b ru tality had form ed its first

completely formalized society. Since Elvis f irst presented

himselfas die sham an o f psyc ho pa diic sex , v iolence and anti-

I domestic narcissism, the whole subculture had been increas-I itlgly tribal in its customs and hierarchies. It was inevitable

that ultimately it would form at least one really vast and

organized local tribe. In C alifo rn ia die tribe clarified its elf in

the official ranks, chapters, membership rituals and savagery

of H el l’ s A nge ls .

Eulog ized by poets G insbe rg , Kesey and M cC lure , the

A n gels, under their president S o n n y B arg e r, terroriz ed C a lifornian society by their arrogant mindless brutality, the

extravagant splendo ur o f their f ildiy array, and their custom o f

multiple rape.

H ell ’s A ng e ls are b y no means a teenage gan g how ever . A l l

the po st-Hirosh im a gen erations are represented in d ieir ranks.

Th e adulating W est C oast l ibera ls , w ho saw in H el l’ s A ng e ls

I a virile rebe llion to reinfo rce their o w n intellectual’s im poten ce,

were left b ew ildered w h en a contingent o f A n g e ls , com plete in

35



cut-dow n denims and swast ikas , s ided with R eaga n, R ock w el l

and the police and attacked a Berkeley peace march.

W h at so c io lo g ists , liberals, B eats, and even th e A n g e ls

themselves didn’t realize was finally that they had been

prov oke d by the tw itter ing h yp oc risy o f a m iddie-c lass

m ovem ent—an hy po crisy wh ich m erely m asked w ith fragile

go od intentions the viciousn ess o f the social psych e it had

fallen to the A n ge ls to dem onstrate. “ T h e w orld is Hell and

w e are H e ll’s A n g e ls ” W h at u ltim ately terrif ie s the C aliforn ian

squares is su rely n ot the total lack o f affect on the A n ge ls ’

part. R ath er are they terrified by the total lack o f h yp oc risy

w h ereb y their o w n p rofou n d destructiveness is reflected

w ith such d evastatin g c larity .

36

'I



I | Disaffiliation was deliberate and conscious,even self-conscious, among thedemonstrators who appeared in the

I rO te S t fifties—unavoidably; disaffiliation is a

prerequisite of protest.

I

I’nris, after the war, has been the traditional hom e o f bohem ian-

lum. The particular brand it offered to the rubbernecking

middle-class students w h o f looded ov er the channel at vacation,

lit the first A m erican expatria tes, th e dem obbed G Is , w as

called existentialist . I t was a popu lar w ay o f life am ong yo u n g

people, based, fairly remotely, on existential ist philosophy,

particularly that o f Cam us and Sartre. Its pop ular idols w ere

luliette Greco , Anouk and Edi th P ia f , whose ‘ Je ne regret te

t leit’ wa s ye t ano the r statem ent o f the requ ired attitud e, ga llic

and w istfu l th is tim e, but in essence the sam e as the attitude

ol the hipster and G u n n ’s leather-jacket, a philosop hy o f the

moment. T h e pale face o f Jul iette , withou t m ake-up except

itround die eyes, widi whited lips, has been the mask for

female m iddle-class rebels ev er s ince. T h e sty le, w ith its necro

philiac overtones, constitutes another device for l iv ing with

tin; poss ibi li ty o f deadi . Bo redom wa s a mode. T h e crum bling

eidlars in Saint-Germain were unsmil ing. The sex was casual .

There w asn ’ t an y vio len ce.

[ F o r all the m odish fed-u pn ess it w as in diis gr o u p that the

p i 'St-war optimism began to m ake itsel f felt . C ut o ff from the

Spivs and the tedd y b oy s b y class , scorn ing die pop ular culture

nl the day as being phony and over-commercial ized, the post

war pop-boh em ianism launched itself with a cult o f the

primitive, o f ceramic beads and dirndl skirts , o f ankle-thong

Himdals and cu rtain-hoop e ar-ring s, o f shag gy co rd u roy s and

li ' i t-day beards, of seamen’s sweaters and home-dyed battle-

dress. Swing music, with its dri l led, precis ion section work,

w h s despised. T h e hipster was m isunderstood. T h e small-band

Collective im provizat ion o f twenties N ew O rleans jazz,

propagated by crit ics l ike Hugues Panassie and Rudi Blesh,

■ Was held up as die exem plary art form . N aiv ety w as equated

37



w ith h on esty , in eptitude w a s equated w ith s in cerity , and m erit

w a s gau g ed in term s o f p ro x im ity to the anim al and the

vegetab le . I t w as a natural reaction after the h arsh m etal o f w a r. I t w a s a h u n gerin g fo r the green and in tu itive life , alm ost

for the pastoral, and held, in its reverence for intuition, some

thing in common with the hipster; but f inally intuition, to

this group, was a sentimental thing, more to do with Ethel

W aters th an the H arlem G lo b etro tters.

Nevertheless , the clubs which set themselves up in London

and P ar is and prom oted N ew O rleans jazz like a re lig ion w ere

total ly outside o f com m erce, runn ing at the start o f things on

I a non -prof it -m aking bas is , em ploy ing amateur bands , co llec

tions o f students, pa rticularly art studen ts, w h o imitated the

g r e a t r e c o r d i n g s b y K i n g O l i v e r , L o u i s A r m s t r o n g a n d

Je l ly R o ll M orto n w ith v a ry in g sk ill and com plete self-decep

t ion . C laude L ute r in Fran ce , H um ph rey Lyt t le ton in England

and L u W atters in Am erica we re about the best . France

imported the bri l l iant jazz pioneer Sydney Bechet and

appointed him to the head o f the priesthood. T h ere had always

been something gal lic about his v ibrato any w ay. T h e fo l low ing

I w as a m inority fol low ing , self-conscious and partisan, opin

ionated and crusading. Th e w or ld w as evi l , gov erned b y Mam

m on and M oloch. N ew O rleans jazz w as a m usic stra ight fromthe heart and the swamp, unclouded by the corrupting touch

o f civil ization. I t w ou ld refertil ize the w orld.

T h e adherence to traditional jazz led to an adherence to

cou n try blues s ing ing and fo lk m usic . A lan L om ax w as still

making his i l luminat ing f ie ld recordings for the Library o f

C on gress . T h ey had the qua l ity o f s incer ity wh ich was

thought to supersede all other creative merits; they were

sociological ly authentic and somehow authenticity was held

to be a creative m erit . A lan L om ax came to Eng land and

show ed us what w as le ft o f ou r ow n folic mus ic . A lan Lom ax

had a theory about folk music which contradicted the people

at Cec i l Sharp House . They sa id not ‘who ’ but ‘what ’ , so

O w e n B r a n n i g a n s i n g i n g ‘ T h e F o g g y D e w ’ w a s f o l k m u s i c .Lo m ax sa id not ‘wh at ’ but ‘w h o ’ and ‘how ’ , so ‘I rene G ood -

I n igh t ’ sung b y Lea db e l ly w as fo lk m usic . T h e trad jazz

fo l low ing p icked up on this qu ickly , made a fetish o f the



unaccompanied, cracked voice, fai led to see die pragmatic

contradiction when diey imitated the dialects and quaverings

in order to be as audientic and sincere as they could possibly

con tr ive . L ater i t s tarted to pay. U ncle Joh n R en shaw , a band -

| E leader o f the t ime, used to say with som e iron y ‘ I ’m in die

i s incer i ty racket , m esel f. ’ N o t ev ery b o dy saw the joke .

| M A m o n g th e p e o p le w h o d id n ’ t se e th e jo ke w e r e le f t- wi n g

I intellectuals like E w an M acC ol l and Pete and P eg gy Seeger ,

■ w ho had w ork ed up a cute l ittle l ine in authen ticity and

1 sincerity. They didn’t see the joke because, for them, merit lay

in die pol it ical ideals to which they were being faithful , and

I here, righ t here in the ea rly stages, lay the pad ietic fal lacy

I underm ining the w ho le m ovem ent . A rt , creat iv i ty , mind and

I passion w ere s igned ov er to an exter ior m oral ity , a cart-bcfore-

I the-horse process, lam entably and typ ica lly m iddle-class in its

I nature , wh ereb y art , creat iv i ty , mind and pass ion w ere

r robbed o f an y real authent ici ty and m oral ity was consequen tly

l devitalized, a m atter o f p ol icy rather than co n viction , the exact

I r ev e rs e o f h ip .

! It was this gross sentimentality that ultimately led British

^ ■ r e v i v a l i s t m u sician s to c o p y th e m u sic o f p rim itiv e N e w

Orleans septuagenarians resurrected by intellectual critics,

radier than continuing to copy the robust and vir i le records

I o f the tw enties . G eo rge L ew is was too m usically illiterate to

I attem pt even rud im entary arrangem ents. H e w as too feeble to

I encom pass the v iolent lyrica l pow er o f a D od d s o r a Bechet .

I H e w as therefore mo re sincere and authentic. In Lon do n the

I Crane R ive r Jazz B and led this tendency. I t u l timately trans-

ft m uted itsel f into t ile K en C o lye r Jazz Band.

B y the mid- fi ft ies the C o lye r band had found a cul t fo l low -

I ing o f considerable s ize. A sm all group w ithin the band,

I encouraged b y gu i tari st A lex i s K orn er , p layed d ie m ore

■ danceable N eg ro fo lk tunes and called their m usic skiff le .

I T h e or ig inal skif fle had been the music o f C h icago ju g bands.

I Lon don sk iff le d idn ’ t sound much l ike it. T h e C o lyer C lub was

I perpetual ly packed. So w ere the hal ls up and do w n the co un try

I where the band p layed one-night s tands. T h e C hr i s Barber

I Band, an offshoot o f the C o lye r band, w as gett ing into the

Top Twenty , prov id ing poss ib ly the f i r s t br idge between the

39



separate worlds of the middle-class students and the working-class rock ’n’ roll fans, the teds. Skiffle provided an even wider

bridge. With its three-chord guitars and its tea-chest basses, itwas, like trad, ado-it-yourself music quickly adopted by theteenage group at large. Singers like Tommy Steele weresinging ‘John Henry’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock’ in the sameprogramme. Some groups were beginning to write their ownnumbers. The later flowering of British pop music wasclearly foreshadowed. Lonnie Donnegan, Barber’s banjo

player, was making big money widi his nasal imitations ofLeadbelly. Skiffle was a major breakthrough in that, briefly,it was the first popular music that disdained the adult-commercial completely. The squares moved fast however. AfterDonnegan the idiomhad been bought off and emasculated.

Soho was alive with cellar coffee-bars, where skiffle and jazzcould be played and heard informally and where the richodour of marihuana became, for the first time, a familiar partof the London atmosphere. SamWidges was the most popular. Also diere was the Nucleus, the Gyre and Gimble, the Farm.They were open most of the night and often the managementwould leave you to sleep where you sat. It was aplace to stayin the dry if you didn’t want to go home. It became obvious

that parental control was going to stop at about the age offifteen for a large number of young people. Teenage wageswere going up and so were student grants. It was becomingpossible to push the leaky boat of adult delusions a little furtheraway. The Soho Fair, which ran annually for three years, wasa festival of the ravers. Bands and guitars and cossack hatsand sheepskin waistcoats flooded out of the cellars and into

the streets. It was so good that it had to be stopped, so goodthat it was in the first Soho Fair that the real spirit of Alder-maston was born. All the attached commercialismwas despised by die hard

core Colyer fans. Solemnly dedicated, grimly puritan, withtheir black jeans, shoulder-length hair, donkey jackets, thesexes only distinguishable by breasts and beards, they constructed a left-wing romanticismbased on that patronizingidolization of the lumpen proletariat that only the repressedchildren of the middle class could have contrived. Over the

40



years they developed into an extensive nom adic gro up , haunt

ing the beaches of the coastal resorts during the summer,

flooding back to London when the cold weather started, and

ultimately returning to hom e and job for good . A number

drifted into the Young Communist League .

H ow m uch such egalitarian dream s have to do w ith the hard

I facts o f Co m m un ism is perhaps best i llustrated b y D oris

I Lessing’s character H ar ry—‘H e used to dress in a sort o f bush

' shirt, or tunic, and sandals, with a military haircut. He never

f ^ smiled. A portrait o f L en in on th e w a ll w ell th at certa in ly go es

without say ing . A smaller one o f T ro tsk y . ’ H arry eventua lly

fulfils his l ife -long dream o f go ing to R u ss ia - ‘T he de legat ion

proceeds on its f low ery w ay o f visits to factories, schoo ls,

Palaces o f Culture, and the U n iversity, not to mention speeches

and banquets. An d there is H arry , in his tunic, w ith his gam m y

leg, and his revo lutiona ry sternness, the l iving incarnation o f

ixtnin only these foolish Russians never recognized him. They

adored him o f course for his high seriousness, but m ore than! once they inquired why Harry wore such bizarre clothes,

, and even, as I recall , i f he had a secret s o r r o w .. . ’ 1

The real benefit o f this left-w in g zeal wa s fina lly no t felt in

the soc iety but in the practitioners them selves. T h e y had

I developed in their own minds an idealism which acted as an

[ iintidote to the sickness attendant on living with the bomb.

>Barefoot and cross-legged on the f loor o f the C o lye r c lub, theyavoided the sado-masochistic sym ptom s o f their w ork ing-

I class counterparts. Their greater literacy had enabled them to

I construct their own m yth o f a future . F o r a w hi le lon ger they

I could avoid the yawning facts. It is ultimately to their credit

that w h en harsh reality cam e in 19 56 they w ere w illin g to test

the truth o f their beliefs and accept the subsequ ent failure

as disproof.1D O R I S L E S S I N G , The Golden Notelwok , Michael Joseph.

41



I 'll

I

I havejtist hitch-hiked back fromLondon. A lorry driver has 1

told methenews. My wifeis curled in thearmchair in thefront Iroomof our cottage sobbinghelplessly. Theradio is giving the I

latest casualty figures from Budapest. On Sunday wego to 1

church, theonly timeweever haveor ever will. It just con- H

ceivably might havehelped. I put up a collectingbox at the I

school whereI’mworking. 1 send my ten pounds savings and I

put ten shillings in thebox. At theend of two days it contains H

ten shillings, and sevenpenceha’penny. Theother teachers are Iirritated by the news flashes which interrupt reports of the I

OlympicGames. Sunday night weinvitesomefriends round to I

try and snap out of it. They file in, sit round for an hour or so, 1sayingnothing. My wife cries a little. Then, oneby one, they I

make their excuses and go. I pass my days waitingfor my I

reserve papers to call meout to Sue[, wonderingwhat thehell |

I’mgoing to do if they arrive...

I t ’ s d if ficult to ana lyse or describe w hat it w as to yo u ng people , ■

l iv in g through the autumn o f 1956. A s Pres ley had put sex I

ou t in die open wh ile the teenagers applauded , so the square I

w o rld had n o w m ade u tterly clear it s suic id al in tentio ns. O u r

re luctant pretences could drop. Every young person was

forced to admit to himsel f : ‘The bastards are going to do i t

and they ’ re go ing to do it soo n ’ .

T h e teds w ere ready w idt a sneer . T h e yo un g m iddle class ,

softer and more starry-eyed, had to meet the emergency with

their ideals i f their ideals were to amount to anything at al l .

Earl ier that year an important play had appeared on the

Lo n do n stage. J im m y P orter , the carping, egocen tr ic , trad

trum pe ter hero o f Joh n O s bor n e ’ s Look Back In Anger w as

b y no means a sacred figure l ike P arke r , Bechet, Elv is o r Jam es

42



— m

A D ean , but he w as th e v o ice o f d ie rebel m id dle cla ss fo r a ll his

plebeianpretensions. His sel f-abusive bitterness was die right

note to spark o ff die cho rus o f m ass protest that started on die

night o f E d en ’s announcem ents abou t the invasion o f Suez —

'H al le lu yah ! I ’m a l ive! I ’ ve an idea. W h y don ’t w e have a lit tle

l gam e? Le t ’s pretend w e’re human beings , and that w e’re

I actually a l ive , just for a w hi le . W hat do you sa y? L e t ’s

pretend w e’ re human. O h brothe r, it ’s such a long time since

1 was widi anyone who got enthus ias t ic about anydi ing . . .

I supp ose p eople o f ou r generation aren’ t able to die for g oo d

causes an y m ore. W e had all that don e for u s, in the thirdes

and forties, when w e were s ti ll k ids . T he re aren ’t an y good

I brave causes left . I f the big ba ng does com e, and w e all get

killed off , i t w o n ’t be in aid o f the old fashioned grand design.

It’ll ju st be fo r th e B rave N ew -n o th in g -v ery-m u ch -th an k -yo u .

A b o u t as pointless and in g loriou s as stepp ing in fron t o f a b u s ’ . 1

So the hunger for the cause was there. The trad clubs were

i full o f kids with their anxieties and their half-form ed T ro tsk y -

■ ism. T h e po l it ic ians were s tepping up the suic ide program m e.

The Left hoiked up its capacious knickers and got mobile.

I H Th ere was , in England, a small established nucleus o f pacifis ts

; centred around G eo rge La n sb ur y ’s o ld Peace Pledg e U nion

and their newspaper Peace News. Heretofore this group had

sho w n little particularization in the direction o f nuc lear w ar.

There had also been a parl iamentary movement cal led the

Hydrogen Bomb Nat ional Campaign whereby the Methodis t

i minister Donald Soper and die social ist Anglican Canon

[ B Col l ins together with s ix Labour mps drummed up 1 ,000,000

I s ignatures for a petition against the bom b. T h is organization

i ■ was d is trusted by veteran pacifis ts , how ever , as be ing mere

polit ical window-dressing. More consequential di ings were

happening in North London where Gertrude F ishwick , a

member o f F inch ley Labour Party who was i l l wi th anxiety

about the bomb, organized Golders Green Committee for the

A b olition o f N u clear W eapon s. W ith the strenuous su p p ort o f

Peggy Duff , another energet ic Labour Party member, th is

H chang ed to a N at io n a l O rg an iza tio n fo r the Abo l it io n o f

Nu clear W eapon s Tests . T hese w ere days when the fa ll -out

1 JO H N O SB O RN E, Look Back in Anger, Faber & Faber.

■



l eve l was c l imbing s teep ly . Nobody knew how many were

dy ing as a resu l t but everybody knew somebody was dy ing .

P e g g y D u f f o rg an iz ed a L o n d o n M a rc h o f W o m e n . W e rn e rPelz, a Lancashire parson and a German refugee, had precipi

tated a go od deal o f local concern in the north o f En gland .

T h e sharper, and m ore authentic terror o f annihilation w as,

however , more clear ly discernible in the t iny Operation

Gan dhi w hich had form ed in 19 51 w ith eighteen-year-old

M ike R an dle and thirteen-yea r-old A pril C arte r affil iated.

O peration G and hi had held a W ar O ffice s i t-do w n as ear ly as

195 2 and had follow ed this up w ith early dem on strations at

A lderm aston and M ildenhall. T o m D rib e rg , the L a b o u r mp,

sugge sted, on the com m encem ent o f British bom b tests , that

a boat load o f peop le g o and place them selves deliberately in

the dang er zone. T w o M alvern Q uakers , H arold and Sheila

Steele , volunteered. Harold went but was prevented fromembarking in his solitary little boat. On his return he attended

a meeting at the ymc a , Great Russe l l St . Present were Hugh

Brock, Bertrand Russel l and Spike Mil l igan, amongst others .

They decided on a march and co-opted Pat Arrowsmith f rom

P eg g y D u f f ’ s organizat ion to arrange i t.

T h e social nucleus o f these activities was increasingly the

Partisan C offee H ou se. Set un der the library and off ice o f the

Universities and Left Review, it had a puritan atmosphere that

yo u cou ld cut w it h a kn ife . U p sta irs w ere ‘g o o d ’ foo d , coffee

and paintings; downstairs brute furniture, folk sessions, trad

jam sessions and polit ic al harangues. T h e notice board w as

perpetually covered w ith petit ions on an array o f subjects that

became monotonous, the bomb, the hungry, the death

sentence.

The march committee expanded i tse l f . John Berger ,

W o lf M an kow itz , M ic hael T ip p e t , P h ilip T o y n b e e , Jo h n

Bra ine , George Mel ly , John Osborne , L inus Pau l ing ,

Sydney Si lverman were included in i ts widening ranks. I t

became called the D irect A ction Co m m ittee. I ts e ne rgy and

orga nizing nucleus came from the old O peration Ga nd hi ,Mike Randle , Apr i l Carter , Reverend Michael Scott , Pat

A rro w sm ith . O n G o o d F r id a y 19 58 they gathered in T ra fa l

gar Square for their march to Aldermaston. Bayard Rustin

44



ol'tlie N A A C P made aspeec l i and a few others made speeches

unci they set of f . The weather was gr im. Trad jazz f loated out

over the sodden B erk shire fields. W he n they g o t to the austeretecretive place o f barbed w ire, concrete and l itt le civic lava-

lories they did n’ t w alk in and smash it up, as som e m ore real istic

marchers had hoped, but they did discover that they were not

affine. The march had gathered numbers impress ively . After

all the snarling and planning in shuttered rooms the public

tesponse w as d e lirio u sly en cou rag in g . D en is K n ig h t recalls

'Tile approach and entry into Reading were the gayest partsnl the w ho le w alk. It w as a succession o f

‘Oh when the saints, Oh when the saints

Oh when the saints go marching in!

Oh Lord, I want to be in that number

W hen the saints go marching in !’

and

‘It’s a long way to AldcrmastonIt’s a long way to go!’

uml

‘Men and women, stand together

D o not heed die men o f war

Make your minds up now or never

Ban the bomb for evermore.’

I 'All these songs, the variations on old songs and new, theInvention o f new s logans , and the fun o f trying to make them

tUlch on al l up and down the column, together with the

thought o f the approach ing town and the kn ow ledge that it

was our last night on the march, all helped to quicken the

puce and increase the feel ing o f ga iety and exp ectanc y. In the

Centre of R ead ing is a w ide and long m arket s treet, St M ary ’s

Butts, and this was now packed with people who had turnednut to see the fun. It wa s abou t half-past five as we entered this

iqiiare at a very fast pace, with ever) ' instrument that could

piny playing, a l l mixed up with groups shouting or s inging.

Above our heads the bells o f St M ary ’s were c langing w i ldly

(we heard later the vicar was giving his bell ringers an extra

Ijtflbtice) and the marchers, accompanied by occasional police

Oil foot or in cars, were cheering and counter cheering in turnif. they filed past one another until gra du ally the centre o f the

45



I !

1

square w as packed t ight , though the colum n o f marchers I

s till enter ing seemed n ever to be com ing to an en d . ..Sh ort ly I

a fter leaving B urgh f ield, die f ields began to w ear an aspect le s s ®gree n and pleasant, as w e entered a tract o f san dy heath that I

gre w n othing but gorse and fir . “ Rad ioactive co un try” said I

I C hr i s top he r ...Betw een the regiments o f s our and dra b f i r , ®

p la nted up to the ve ry edg es o f the roa d , d iere wa s m ov ing I

f o rw a rd a g rea t ma ss o f men, w om en a nd c h ildren , f our or I

f ive or s ix abreast , in a process ion that w as pro bab ly the I

longest that E n gl ish roads ha ve seen diese centuries on foot , I

and wa s certa inly the most purposeful . I ts purpose w as s igni- I

fic ant not on ly f o r Eng l a nd , b ut fo r every od ier country Ea st I

I and W e st, because it becam e clearer w ith e v e ry yard walked I

that this w as m ore than an old-fashioned peace dem onstration, f l

m ore than a spiri tual hu ng er m arch. I t was felt , as we walked I

a lm ost in silence diroug h diose men acing and m onotonous I

w o o d s, that this w as a b o v e all a c iv iliz in g m ission , a march I

aw ay f rom fear towards norm ali ty , towards human standards, I

towards the rea l people in the nursery rhyme whose houses®

are ov er the hill but not so far aw ay that w e cannot get d ie r e ®

b y candlel ight, w ho se hands are set to the p loug h and the I

m a k in g o f d i in g s . . ,nN ex t y ea r the C a m pa ig n f or N uc lea r Dis arma m ent , whic h I

h ad g r o w n o u t o f P e g g y D u f f ’s or ga n iz atio n as th e D ire ct H

A c tio n C om m ittee had g ro w n ou t o f O peration G a n d h i ,®

jo ined forces w ith d a c for the second m arch and for the next H

four years the Aldermaston March, reversing its direction

from Aldermaston to London, served as a gathering point for

die population who wanted to express dieir disturbance, to

comfort themselves that there were perhaps enough people oflike m ind to be p olitically effective, to test the po ten cy o f their

anxieties and ideals in the democracy, and above all to re

instate com m on d ecen cy as die cond ition o f m an. N o politician

in power so much as showed his dribbling nose outside his

door or bodiered to acknowledge the communications pinned

diere. So common decency continued to go begging. The teds

k n e w a n y w a y .The Aldermaston March numbers were vast , by far the

* Quoted by Ch r is t o ph e r d r i v e r in The Disarmers.

46



P M — — 1

largest ever assembled for political/humanitarian aims.

10,000 at the end o f the f irst m arch, 20 ,000 at the end o f the

necond, 100,00 0 at the end o f the third. F urth erm ore, althou gh

twn agers made up b y no means the bulk o f the marchers , as

l l ie square press consistently claimed they did, they never-

1 theless made each march into a carnival o f optimism . T h e

Oolyer fans, by now dubbed beatniks, although they dif fered

from the Ve nice W est originals in m any important wa ys ,

■ ippeared f rom now here in dteir gr im e and tatters, with their

nlogan-daubed cra zy hats and stream ing f i lthy hair, hamm ering

dieir banjos , s trum m ing aggre ss ively on their guitars , blow ing

their antiquated cornets and sousaphones, capering out in

front o f the m arch , des troy ing the w oode n digni ty o f Canon

■Collins, Jacq u etta f la w k e s , S y d n ey S ilverm an and oth er

celebrities w h o w ere the officia l le aders o f the cavalcade. It w as

this wild public festival spirit that spread the c n d s y m bo l

through all the jazz clubs and secondary schools in an in

credibly short t ime. Protest was associated with festivity .

There w as a n ew feeling o f licence gran ted b y the o b v io u s

humanitarian attitude o f the ravers d iem se lve s. . .

/Fit: thumb a lift ahead of themarch. IVefile into thecheap cafeand wepark theinstruments and weorder egg and chips and

lit round thegas fire tryingto dry out. I takeoff a shoeand a

tock. Before1 can takeoff theother a marshal comes in and says themarch is approachingand they need somemusicin weather likethis. So DaveAspinwall picks up his tromboneand/ get my cornet and Mick IVright gets his banjo and wego and stand

B a t thecurb in thepissingrain. Thecolumn comes near, grey through thegrey London rain. IVeplay Didn’t HeRambleand MV

play it again and again and theblood is tricklingdown Dave’s

Upand thegirls bringout theegg and chips on plates andput themnn thepavement by my onebarefoot and therain makes bubble

/mtterns in thegrease and weplay Didn’t HeRambleand thecolumn disappears and what with therain on thechips and one1hoeoff and oneshoeon and thebeautiful girls carryingfood and Doveand Mick and meplayingDidn’t. HeRamble, well, that Msit

oneof thegood times, oneoj thereally good moments if you

I knowwhat I mean...

47



A b b c program m e at die t ime, w ritten and p roduced b y Rene

Cutforth, f inished with the pertinent observation that perhaps

die Aldermaston Marchers were already the only people lefta live . T h ey w ere certa in ly people w ho w ere m aking a genuine

and de sperate attem pt to red isco ve r and reinstate die traditional

m oral virtues o f hon ou r and selflessness that had been

obliterated at Hiroshima and die young people among them

w ere attem pting to m ake o f their le ft ish rom anticism som e

respectable reality. If it is living to extend an optimistic

attitude tow ards the m oralit ies, dien C u tforth wa s righ t, for

the head-in-the-sand course fol low ed b y the rest o f the world

w as a s ig n in g -o ff o f d ecen cy as it had been u n d ersto od , w as in

fact a subconscious contrivance for die only f inal total peace.

cnd, w ith their ban jos and banners and go o d in tentions, stood

I l ittle chan ce aga inst such a w ide-sp read and deep-seated

death-wish.

T h e com m ittee at the head o f cnd, w h o even tu ally set upi! die L o n d o n office and organ ized the local branches throug ho ut

die country (even th rough ou t die w or ld , for m any nations were

represented on the Aldermaston marches) so that a secretary

and m inim al staff cou ld be paid from con tribution s, werem oderate liberals in their app roach . G ro w in g to som e extent

out o f the H ydrogen Bom b C am paign and the Labo ur

Party-mot ivated Nat ional Organizat ion for the Abol i t ion of

Nuclear Weapons Tests , p ivoted around the caut ious human-

Ii sm of Canon Col l ins and the Labour Party ef f ic iency of

secretary Pe g g y D u ff , they were ultimately em barrassed b y the

v e ry different approach o f the D irect A ctio n C o m m ittee and

their ow n fol low ing o f unwashed extremists. I f cnd g r e w bythe infecrious enthusiasm o f die beatnik g ro u p , it gre w under

die auspices o f com parat ively cosy-m inded people w h o had

notcom e to m aturity w ith the certainty o f uncertainty twisting

in their guts, who had not acknowledged the vacuum where

| the future used to be. T h e y w ere squa res, ha rdw orking, w ell-m ean ing sq uare s, w ho se particular refuge w as in the

lie o f socialist prog ress. T h e cam paign, for them, far from being

a cry o f em ergen cy, w as just the next step in the developing

pattern o f socialism. W hen com m ittee-mem ber M ichael Foot

w as asked i f he w o u ld vo te fo r an an ti-bom b con servative

48



rather than a p ro-b om b labourite, he replied ‘C ertain ly n o t! ’

Thus they aimed at having their views aired effectively in

parl iament by the t ime-honoured, bourgeois methods ofkeeping your nose and collar clean. It was at the height of

OND’s colossal num erical po w er that the cnd comm ittee ge nt ly

I edged the w ho le organization tow ards protest not on ly against

the bo m b, but against hun ger, old age pensions and the w ho le

gam ut o f socialist grievan ces. T h u s they destroyed the uni

versality o f d ie organization in w h ich C o n serva tives had

marched with Communists , Roman Cathol ics with Anarchists, Crossbow w ith the Universities and Left Review, by that

gross crud ity o f the perceptions w hich made them unable to

dist inguish between humanity which is a biological species,

ievolutionarily threatened, and social ism which is a point of

v iew , p o litica lly en gaged . W ith diat sam e desolate puritanism

carried to an even further degree they banned funny hats on

die m arch and hired official bands to p lay instead o f the oldanarchic assem blies o f banjos and pu nctured euph onium s.

W hen a kid w as nabbed p inch ing a beer m u g a lo n g the

Alderm aston ro ute his m other received a letter fro m th e

necretary com plaining o f her son soil ing the cnd image and

exacting a contribution in recompense. The Ir ish clergy could

■carcely have done better . The division between the polit ical

Btftndpoint and the creative impulse couldn’t have been moregraph ically displayed , nor the pov erty o f the form er and the

necessity o f die latter m ore clearly illustrated dian in the con

sequent lon g, s low death o f cnd. So devitalized was it , even

nix short months after its biggest Trafalgar Square turnout,

that when Frank Cousins and his Transport and General

W orkers U n io n turned in a b lo ck unila terali st vo te at the

Labour P arty C onference in Scarb orou gh in i960, that shouldand could have decided the Labour Party ’s defence policy,

lliey permitted the tw ittering G aitskell to overru le the vo te b y

■ evo kin g an antiquated clause from the rules o f conference

procedure and even, in some cases, shed a tremulous tear at

(iaitskell ’s ‘f ight, fight and fight again to save the Party we

love ’ . They even mourned his death.

T h e C om m ittee o f too centred around B ertrand R ussell and was, fin ally , the facelif t bestow ed on the D irect A ctio n C o m -

49



/

Imittee by A m erican R a lp h Sclioen m an . dac l iad already

fol low ed up the first Alderm aston m arch w ith dem onstrat ions

at the nuc lear rocket bases a t Sw af fham and Pickenham. T h eirm ediod and att itude wa s m arkedly d i fferent f rom that o f c n d .

T h e y w e r e y o u n g a n d r a n o n a s c r e a m i n g m o r a l h u n g e r . T o

hear M ike Ra n dle , Pa t A rrow sm ith or G eo rg e C la rke speak |

to a crowd was not to hear socialist platitudes in an anti

nuclear disguise but to hear young human beings speaking

from their own anguish and necessity , from diemselves and

no t from the bo ok . Fu rtherm ore the Com m ittee w as intell igent

ab ou t politicians h av ing realized that po lit ics is, b y no w , not I

a persuasion but a profession and is therefore not susceptible

to argument , merely to power .

T a k ing the ex am ple o f Ga ndhi a nd the idea s o f Th orea u ,

w ith a lo n g nom inal ro ll o f celebrities, th ey carried ou t a w id e

and successful program m e o f c iv i l disobedience. T h is, like

cnd, gathered num bers and m om entum. T h e f irst demon stra-

i tio n w a s a m ass sit-d o w n o utsid e the M in is tr y o f D e fe n ce .

No one wa s a r res ted . There wa s a g ood moment when

Bertrand Russel l , l ike some diminutive el f in emperor, walked

away f rom the Ministry door where he had pinned his

m essage. H is face was gr im and go di ic . A tousled you th in

I jeans and com bat jacket careened do w n the pavem ent to thekerb and roared in hoarse cockney ‘Good ol ’ Bert ie ’ and

R u sse ll ’s face swathed itself in beatific glee l ike a child w ith a

v e ry special present. F o r m e the w h o le th in g m eant the

sensation o f op en ly stepping outs ide the law . N o secret ive |

thiev ing , this . N o back-a l ley punch -ups. A n open and formal

gesture to indicate just where I stood with regard to the good

old k ind ly Br i t i sh bobby .

T h ere w ere further s it-dow ns but fines rem ained low and the

occasional prison sentences l ighter than they might have been.

T h e establ ishm ent hoped that its old w eapo ns o f patronization

( ‘They ’ re rea l ly very touching ’ ) and r id icule ( ‘Hope they a l l

get wet bo ttom s’) wo uld w ork . T h e real test, not on ly o f the

Commit tee , cnd, the U-ad-fan idealism , b ut o f traditional

m oral ity i tsel f and its continued vir i l i ty un der post-Hiroshim a

( c ondi tions , c ame on September 1 7 , 1 9 6 1 , Ba tt le o f Br itain D a y ,

w h en the M etropolitan P o lic e forb ad e th e use o f T ra fa lg a r

J50



Square for a meeting and cordoned i t of f . This measure was ,

in i tse lf , a s ign that die Com m ittee was draw ing blood . T h e

blood ran f ree w hen die police cordon prov ed inef fecdve and,

long hours after die demonstrations had been planned to end,

police officers, violent and frightened by this time, were stil l

tumb l ing dem onstrators into the vans and d riv ing them o f f to

1^ 1 be b o o k ed . R a n d le and C l ar ke w e re im p r iso ne d.

T h e go vernm ent w as shaken . Th e p olice had been show n to

be ineffectual , r idiculous and brutal . There was one diing that

saved the squares and their death-w ish in the m onths fol low ing

the September s it-down and that was the squareness and

death-wish o f the demo nstrators them selves. R athe r than carry

I dle aw ful w eigh t o f reorgan izing the defence and approp riat ing

p ow er, rad ier dian face them selves in the realization o f their

own minds and bodies , for better or worse, the Committee

immediately avoided the issue by dissipating its force over die

same wide area as c n d to encompass world health, wild l i fe

preservat ion, care o f ancient monum ents and so on. T h e

next dem onstration emasculated itsel f b y d ividin g its on ly , I

real strength, its numbers, between Ruisl ip and Weadiersf ield.

D espite the a lm ost im possible gr i t o f Pat A rrow sm ith , w i th M l

her attempt to get Liverpool dockers to black war goods , a

grit w hich carried her dirou gh jail and jail and jail again,

through forced feeding and God knows what odier v i l eness ,despite the sheer gu ts o f Ran dle and C larke and T e rry Chandler

and Pat Pottle and all the others who did prison sentences,

despite the r s g exposure ( r s g s are bomb shelters for the

priv i leged) , the Spies for Peace programme and Pat Pott le ’s

short-l ived outlawry, despite Shoenman’s fanaticism and

Ru ssel l’ s continuing clar ity o f def inition, die C om m ittee o f

too went into decline.

They saidfrom theplinth it had been thebiggest ofthemarches. IFemarched on from Trafalgar Squareto Grosvenor Squareand sat in theroad. Thereweresomenoisy exchanges with thepolice. Nowwe aresitting in a pub sharing two half-pints

[ between jive. All but meareteenagers. They arecynical teen-

i agers. It wasn’t easy to climb out of despair and try theold

moralities. They arecynical, sophisticated kids. It hasn’t come

51

------- - j M



easy, addressingbanal brown envelopes, systematically door-to- dooringthroughout theprevious year. Wesit in thepub and the

dusk light falls across their faces. They havesacrificed a lot, havecomeout of vital protective shells of isolation. They havewalked threedays and risked arrest again and again. They havebeen ignored again, snubbed. In thehalf-lit pub I can see profound hatred for theorgan 'i7ydworld instill itself in their very flesh likepoison.

What remains of die anti-bomb movement? The Committeestill exists and is still active but activities cling to traditionalpatterns, march, banner, sit-down, which are known to besafe and ineffective. Occasional excursions into Provo-typeactivities like those at Brighton where a church service at whichthe Prime Minister was present was interrupted, have fallencomparatively flat. The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundationhas done little but organize an art showthat lost money and atop-name jury on Vietnam, cn d has tried to enliven the Easterpicnic with Mike Kustow’s Chinese-inspired satirical puppetplays. The Anarchists, a professedly violent group, including

young extremists and older veterans of the twenties andthirties when Rocker was more than a myth have been promis

ingly troublesome.Nevertheless, the eyes of the demonstrators no longer lookat the public witii defiance and hurt but at one anodier in aslimy masochismof mutual congratulation. And the eyes ofthe public smile fondly, the danger over fromthis quarter, thesuicide programme still uninterrupted and well under way.The ideals and the morals proved false. They are perceptible

nowin the voices and manners of the pacifists, as a memory,wistful, despicably fatalistic.11Since the time of writing, the violent demonstrations of German students,

Polish students and English Viet Cong sympathisers have done much todispel the fond smile o f die public, who now are inclined to use c n d marchesas an example of the kind of demonstration they find tolerable.



Ill

A glance through the l ist o f the ear ly C om m ittee o f too (a

Umi that changed as var ious members withdrew to prison or

pessimism) shows more writers than polit icians. John Braine,

Arnold W e sk e r , Jo h n O sb orn e, D o ris L e ss in g , w ere am on g

runny w h o served th eir b r ie f tim e on the nom inal ro ll. In fact

one o f the techniques o f the anti-bom b m ovem ent, sheer

BlW llte-dropp ing, could have served as an ear ly wa rning to

young activ ists that these people w ere fatally and unalterably

IcHiare.The protesting w riters we re al l, m ore o r less, representative

of the direction E ng lish w riting had taken as a result o f the

VI K a t e o f op in ion in the fift ie s. E arth -yearn in g and prole-

pelting did l ittle harm to jazz. M ode rnists, aware o f P ark er and

of the necessity for total pragmatism, continued to develop

|use/, as a vital practice. B u t the se lf-co n scio u s arts, w h at m igh t

be called the Cu lture d A rt s, reflected the trend to the exc lusion

nf art i tself . I t wa s the dark nigh t o f the kitchen sink.

Not dtat there ’s anything wrong with plays , novels , poems

Mild paintings a bou t w o rk in g class l ife. A rt can use any subject

•nutter i t chooses, one is as good as another. The danger, in

deed the sickness, wa s the subjection o f art to m ora l ity, the

concept that a certain demonstrable moral attitude unambigu

ously expressed in the content o f art w as the param oun t aim,

Hi w h atev er cost to the intrinsic vit a lity and aesthetic valid ity

of the w o rk itse lf as a fetishistic ob je ct. E ve n th is can be

obliquely prod uctive o f e xc it in g w ork . Sw i ft , M ayak o vsk y ,

Brecht are ob vio us exam ples. So it w as in the f if ties. O sb orn e’ s

plays, H inde’s and Si l li toe ’s novels , some o f the poetry o f

I .urkin, G un n and H ug he s, and subsequen tly Po rter , M acBeth,

I ,ucie-Smith and a num ber o f others, have p roduced w riting

which is, to say the least, not negl igible. Porter, Brock and

53



M acB eth particularly h ave reached certain points o f penetrat- I

ing vision which are only possible in provincial l i terature.

W h at w a s totally d am agin g abou t the trend w as the dic tator- Iia l cr it ic ism wh ich propagated and accompanied it. Th is ■

crit ic ism was a p iece o f opportunism on the part o f le f t-wing 1

academics, o ften o f w ork ing c lass or ig in , w hose access to the I

m iddle class and intellectual l ife o f an y sort had been through I

the universities. U nti l the m id-fi ft ies such m inds, confronted I

w ith creativ e w ritin g o f th e k in d that had becom e i n t e r - 1

nationa lly prevalent in the twentieth cen tury, w ere in a I

cul-de-sac. T h eir m uch-revered un iversity training, so highly I

esteemed in the ir w orking-c lass hom es ( ‘Ee , M rs ’O ggart , I

I ’ ear yo w er D ick ’ s go in ’ t ’ un ivers ity ’ ) had g iven diem ■

certain m uch -revered ski l ls in polit ical ethics and semantic I

analysis . T he se ski lls w ere as useless in com ing to terms with I

Jo y c e , F au lk n er, P o u n d , L o rc a , B re to n , B en n , as th ey w ere in I

com ing to terms w i th P icasso o r W ebern . A l l the new academic ■

could do when confronted with art was hide behind a salon-■

! platitude ( ‘M y G o d , h ow tacri le !’ ) o r fran kly bleat ‘ I don’ t ■

k n o w w h at it m ean s’ .

M an y such minds, ho w eve r , were wel l posit ioned in the I

press, the universit ies and pu blishing, to construct a crit ic ism ■

w h ich m igh t d is card lit eratu re, o r at least th e d iin g literatu re

had become; which could reconstruct l i terature according to

a pattern in w h ich there w as a secure and ea sily fulfilled fu n c-,

tion for the new academic, a seemly literature which contained

its em otions and sub jugated itself to die m ore trustworthy

principles o f ph ilosop hy and ethics. T h e fifties m orality test:

It 1 1 p ro v id ed d ie o pp ortu n ity and th ey to ok it. i

Prime-movers in di is gigantic confidence trick were Robert

Co n q u est , D o n a ld D av i e , J o h n W ai n , K i n gs ley A m i s an d

Kenneth Tynan. More original thinkers , l ike Colin Wilson,

Stuart H olro yd , and B i ll H op kins w ere picked up for their

w o rk in g class o rig in s and th en dropp ed like h ot pennies for

thei r r ight-wing sympadi ies . They were no great loss . Thei r

actual perform ance w as scarc ely preferable to that o f tho

L e ft—no t just pedestrian, club -footed.It ’s perhaps in the theatre that the concept rose to gigantic

pro po rt io n s . W it h Ty n an , w h o th rew W i lso n , A m is , Osbo rn e

54



and Wain together and ca l led them the ‘Angry Young Men ’ ,

I w i th T y n a n a s w o n d e r bo y th ea tre c rit ic o f th e Observer , that

newspaper ga ined remarkable propagandist power . The ant i -

■ bomb youn gsters devoured the l ibera l press wi th an alm ost

E indecent appetite. The Observer responded, pushing i ts g im-

■ micks remo rse less ly . A t one time it seemed im possible to read

1 the Observer, Guardian o r Statesman w ith o u t th e subje ct o f

| the colum n, from c oo kin g to foreign affairs , be ing related, b y

V som e d ev io u s p eram bulation , to A m is ’ philistine hero L u c k y

Jim .

Osborne, being an art ist , went on to other things. Behan

r and De lan ey made their b rief curtsies at Stratford Ea st , both o f

I them u pstaging the rea l ta lent o f Joan Li t t lew oo d. A rnold

W esker to o k up the flam ing torch o f rom antic socia lism . H is

I spanie l-eyed tr ilogy w as sure ly the c learest case poss ible o f

‘ I want you a ll to be f re e - m y w ay ’ , wi th nasty over tones o f

■ 'AH men are equal and anyb od y w ho d i sagrees is in fe r ior ’ .

T ha t W eske r , mo re than any other , w as putt ing the m oral

H cart before the creative horse became c learer than ever when he

I abandoned his potential as a play w righ t to concentrate on his

^ ■ ( Cen tre 42 project . N o so one r had he publ ic ized his idea o f

■ br ingin g art to the w or ke rs than it w as put to the test w hen he

I Was invited to pro du ce a chain o f arts festivals thro ug ho ut die

Midlands. That the fest ivals happened, and on remarkably

I iho rt not ice , is ve ry m uch to W esk er ’ s credit . Also to his

I credit is his tru ly fantastic altruism . V e ry little else is to his

I credit .

U In a roomin BirminghamArt Gallery adjacent to thegallery ■ Where Epstein’s Lucifer stands, his majesticwings and penis B Casting a Jineirony on theproceedings, a number of actors are

mimingto music. Themimeis anti-war. Themusicis modern, I not serial but angular and discordant. Themusicis played by a

^ Ktection froma symphony orchestra. They play it very well. They ■ wear eveningdress. Themimeis mimed by dedicated young men. i They mimeit very nicely. They wear black leotards. Thewholek h witnessed by a handful of local labour-party members with I their wives, who stay throughout in order to prove that they are

■ tu/ual. They look a littleworn, as if a wholeweek of sittingfor 55



hours nursinga secret longingfor ‘Lilac Time has begun toI

takeits toll.

In theballroomof Ansell’s Brewery, down theroad, a swing■band comprisingmost of thetop London session-men is runningI

smoothly through a series of ultra-competent Basie pastiches/ > y l

Tommy Watts. Dancingis sparse. Shop stewards steer their I

sequinned wives proudly and cautiously across thedisinfected I

floor. Thebar is crowded. Thereis that atmosphereof bri/ liantineM and beer that identifies a real workingclass dance. Theyoungm

people, however, aremostly in thebar adjacent to thedancefloor. IThey aretryingto look as though they areenjoyingthemselves. 1

Themusicis not theirs however, and only theassuranceof their ■union official that it is better than theirs prevents thempushingI

off down theroad to theBijou. Wesker and a group ofhis friends■

aredrinkingin onecorner. A shrill Central European accentand a self-regardingULR blah rideprettily abovethesingsong<1

of Midland voices. Theolivecomplexions stand out amongthe I

beer-flushed pinks of thelocals. An anti-semitist sneer flickers J

subtly around thefaces of a group of teds. Elsewherein thecity ■ Bob Davenport and a crowd of fellow folk singers areclearingI

thepublic bars at a brisk rate.

Since the last o f the festivals W esk er addressed him self to Iset ting up an art centre in Lo nd on . A fter a great dea l o f further I

dedication he acquired a vast ra ilway shed in C ha lk Farm , I

called it Centre 42 and proceeded to drum up funds for its 1

decorat ion and appointment . Th is took a lon g time and for ■

years the gaun t m ajestic prem ises, w ith its sm o k y w o o d and I

gothic cast- iron , s tayed unused. W esker fe lt ve ry broken up I

about it.G radu al ly , how eve r , the art ists broke in . S tart ing with the I

International Times birthda y p arty in Septem ber 1966 it I

became the scene o f a series o f l ight-and-soun d raves which I

gav e the place a v er y h ea lthy no tor iety , the very antidote 1

needed fo r that air o f p recio sity that the festivals had acquired I

for W eske r and his projects. B ut it w as no go od . W eske r was 1

e m b ar ra ss ed . L i k e P e g g y D u f f h e d id n ’ t w a n t a n y b o d y s n ot- I

t ing up his image with the L ab o u r Party . A recent report in I

the anarchist newspaper Freedomshow s wh at happen ed : ‘O n I



I Ju ly 20, M rs W ilson ga ve a tea party at N o. io D o w n ing

I Street, to raise the m on ey fo r Cen tre 42 to bu y the freeho ld o f

the Round hou se at C ha lk Farm . W hen die party w as over , the

I m oney w as there. So it seems that at last A rno ld W esk er’s

L plans for purveying culture to the masses wil l go ahead. The

1 f irst phase o f dev elop m ent w ill be to co nv ert the bu ilding for

| use as a rehearsal hall for three L on d o n sym p h on y orchestras.

I T he cost—£ 8 ,0 0 0 —is to be paid b y the A rts Co un cil . T h e

Centre hopes to open in two years’ time with its own theatre

I com pany, ballet rehearsal room s, opera, w riters ’ work sho ps

I etc. F o r m e, the w h ole schem e m akes a grim and sad con trast

I to the use the Roundhouse was put to during the last two

I w eeks o f J u ly .

‘The building is Victorian, functional , magnif icent and

| extrem ely sha bb y. T h e r o o f leaks in several places, the f loo r

I is covered in dust, die yard is ful l o f junk . T h ere , for two

I weeks, w e heard lectures b y som e o f the m ost revo lutiona ry

I thinkers in the w estern w o rld , w e san g m antras w ith A llen

I G insbe rg, we rebel led, w e org an ized, we talked, w e learned

f how to get high on oxygen, how to get stoned on human

I communication. Several people brought sleeping bags and

j actually l ived there. The local kids, too, wandered in and made

themselves at hom e. A hu ge sw ing had been h ung f rom the

I gallery , and kids and grow n-u ps sw un g and clim bed. On e

I afternoon, wh en a large audience w as sitt ing w aiting for

Herbert Marcuse to arrive for a lecture, the kids settled

I themselves on the plat form ; one urchin took the m icrophone

[ and announced that he w ou ld n ow recite some o f his ow n

I verses. H e did so, to enthusiastic applause.

‘O n die last day a ga ng o f k ids appeared w ith som e ho l ly

hocks each about s ix foot ta l l : goodness knows where they ’d

nicked them from but they made a splendid parade around the

hal l , and gave a hol lyhock away to anyone who wanted one,

I Saying they could easi ly get more.

‘Meanwhile, the grown-ups also played. A pedal organ in

I one corn er w as in constant use. Im pro m ptu po etry recitals

were held . Poem s w ere pin ned up on the w all, and w ere jo in ed

by a set o f charcoal d raw ings. So m eone discovered an old

piano frame in the yard and began playing it with two sticks:

I I



others joine d in with m etal pipes, m ilk crates, t in cans and 1

p rodu ced a m ind-b lo w ing so u nd. A t o dd m o ments p eop le I

played f lutes, ba njos, recorders . A n o the r time a m iddle- aged

D an e ann ounced that he fel t like dan cing: he danced, someon e ]

played a tambourine, odiers c lapped or beat a rhythm on

the hollow iron pil lars.

‘ I do ub t i f C entre 42 w il l see as m uch real cre ativity in ten ]

years as w e saw in these tw o w eek s o f the “ D ia lectics o f

Liberat ion” congress . And I doubt i f , when the roundhouse j

has become A rno ld W esk er ’ s Pe op le ’s Palace o f C ul ture , the 1local C ha lk F arm kids w ill com e within spitt ing distance o f i t. ]

Or i f they do , i t wi l l probably be to break a window or chalk 1

rude w ord s on the n ew ly smart w al ls , not to recite poem s and I

hand out flow ers . ’ 1

W esk e r is a m icro co sm o f the pathetic e rro rs o f th e L e ft . I

A r t terrif ie s h im as it terrif ies the establishm ent. It terrifie s him 1

because i t takes place outside any containing ant icipatablel

m ores. I t is defined b y its ackn ow ledgem ent o f the unforsee- 1

able. I f values are com plete art dies . A rt l ives w hen values m elt 1

and present a s ituado n o f op po rtunity instead o f certainty, j

A s fu tu re, p articu larly since H iro sh im a, is an un certain ty , art

is that human practice best defined to cope with it, being the I

m ost tho roug hly addressed to it. A practice w hich has die I

l im itlessness o f op po rtun ity so central ly placed in i ts funct ion- 1

ing i s guaranteed to g ive W esker and any other left is t agora- I

p ho bia . So W esker makes use o f exacd y the same ge ld ing I

iron as die establishm ent, the museum . H e uses on ly that art I

w h ich is accepted o r acceptab le . H e uses o n ly th e respectable , I

o r that w hich can be rendered acceptable b y scholastic object i- I

f icat ion, the m useum routine (thus Picasso , the m ost violent ■o f ar tis ts , has som ehow been rendered acceptable ; thus a lso I

S t rav insky) .

T h e fes tiva ls w ere rem arkable fo r the ir a i r o f no t h ing tak ing I

place initially, nothing b eing presented that had n’ t been tested 1

and doub le tested, nod i ing b eing dared in die ar ts th em se lve s !

and therefore no art , only Art , no culture, only Culture. And I

y o u d o n ’ t have to be a d runken n a v v y to th ro w up in d ie face 1o f that lot.

1 A. M. f e a r o n in Freedom, 25 August 1967.

I



I IV I

I An ti-nuclear protest was one thing that passed across the

■ A tla n tic th e o th e r w a y , E a s t to W e st. I t to o k r o o t an d g re w

I fai rly eas i ly in the m em ory o f the N ew D eal , d ie Dep ress ion ,

I die W obb l ies and the M cC arthy C om m ittee , w hich last prob-

I ably did more than any other single body to reawaken left-

I wing feeling in Am erica. T h e Peacem akers, using die same

■ march-and-banner techniques as cnii, organized themselves

I and began to be active. T h ere w ere sit-dow n dem onstrations

I and som e people , inc lud ing the poet Ed Sanders , swam out

I into Ne w Y o rk h arbour to t ry and board Po lari s-carry ing

I submarines. Som e w ere arrested and som e jai led.

Bob Dylan , fo l lowing Jack E l l io t and the openly Com-

I munist Pete Se ege r, pop ularized pro test son gs to such a degree

■ that it w as forgotten fa i r ly qu ickly that his sty le , like Seeg er ’s

I and E ll iot ’ s, w as l ifted directly from the O akie sing er o f the

thirties, W o od y G uthrie . D ylan had an e f fect ive ly g lam orous

I image. H e w as a sort o f bad-tem pered pixie. He became the

I ear ly model for the Engl ish s inger , Donovan, whose sharpI ly rics fa ll short o f the w i t and v ita li ty o f D y lan ’ s w r it ing .

Th e creative bri ll iance o f D yla n ’s w ri ting and his profound

sourness o f de l ivery w as the f irst s ign that pop ular m usic

| was transcending its commercial situation. Joan Baez and

Ju lie F e lix becam e the prim a donnas o f protest.

A lth o u gh the sam e sym b ol w as adopte d th e A m erican

movement w'as, from the start, broader in its aims than cnd.I Th e bom b became just one item am idst the violent actualities

o f the N egro c iv il r ights programm e. Mart in Lu ther K in g and

his fol lowers demonstrated with dogged courage al l over the

■ South . Bayard Ru st in , an or ig ina l D i rect Act ion Com m ittee

member, organized his massive but ineffective march on

I I W ashington. W hen Ke nn edy ordered integration in education

Miss issippi U nive rs i ty and the schools o f L it t le R oc k , A rkansas ,

■ 5 9 1



becam e focal points o f the dispute. D em onstrators were 1

m urdered. Little chi ldren burned. A fter events l ike this , I

coupled with the way in which the Vietnam war has been 1

conducted, Johnson’s overseas bodyguard is no paranoiac f l

gesture . Norm an M orr ison soaked h im sel f w ith petrol and |

burned him self on the steps o f the Pen tagon in protest against I

the V ietnam w ar. A fte r the stunned hum iliation follo w ing this I

eve nt, die qu estion nevertheless arose W o u ld it perhaps hav e I

taken greater cou rage to set f ire to the President? A b od y o f I

men wh o s leep soun dly on a da i ly program m e o f sanctioned 1mass-murder are surely only disturbed by personal danger.

T h e Am erican m ovem ent also addressed itsel f to li ft ing the I

crushing w eight o f Am erican sexual hypo cr i sy . H ere it d i recd y I

varied w ith d ie E n glish m ovem ent. It w o u ld be lu d icro u s to I

see Ed Sanders ’ Gobble Poems pr inted in Peace News—anA I

the m onster cock/m ade con suela’s/m outh/taut//& round/ as a I

peace-button’ .

T h e un iversi ty at B erke ley , C a l ifornia , becam e the fer- I

m enting core o f the protest m ovem ent. Peter Beagle describes I

how much more c losely the American kids l ived to the un- 1

countenanceable facts: ‘sometime after dinner, satn got to I

ta lk ing about people w e have both kno w n in berke ley fou r or I

f ive years ago . I m ust have started him o ff b y asking about |

di is one or d iat one ; the summ er o f 19 6 1 , spent in berke ley , 1

w as a stran ge, w an d ery on e, d u rin g w h ich I flo ated d o w n I

w aterfalls read ing a b o o k and drifted round and round the I

edges o f the w hir lpoo ls thinking diat on ly m y w riter/s eye I

detected a certain uneasiness in the w ater. I mad e tw o or three I

go od friends that sum m er, in spite o f m yself, and brushed |

against m ore odd souls than ev er before or s ince. I w on der Iabo ut them sti ll , and ask fo r news o f them, l istening as sam I

talks for news o f m yself , then and n ow .

‘m uch o f w h at he told me w as old stuff to sam —this happened j

a ye ar ag o , this g u y hasn/t been b y since last w inter—bu t I l ive 1

e igh ty m iles from berkeley and don/t mind m y t idings m ou ldy. I

he spo ke o f ray f isher, once the unanointed kin g o f the folk I

guitarists alon g the hippie axis , w hich runs from berk eley to I

the v i llage b y w ay o f den ver , m adison, ann arbor , and cam - I

bridge, when I met ray he couldn’t have been over e ighteen: f l



a skin ny kid w ith the bo b dylan look b efore it had the n am e-

depending on the shadow and the moment, he looked l ike an

avenging angel , a bol l dyke , and harpo marx . run away f rom

home in new ark at the age o f fourteen or so and on the roadever s ince , “ p lay ing on the corners for ga y gas m oney and

looking for songs in the scary b ack w oo ds” , as an israe l yo un g

blurb abo ut him in singoutonce ran. there was a b rief stop ov er

at the un ivers ity o f m ichigan , and I diink that/s w here he really

learned to play the gu itar; m ost o f ray/s teachers were p rob ab ly

the same dazzl ing kids I saw in berkeley-pale teenagers,

expressionlessly p icking their new yo rk m artins w'ith unb elievable skil l and sureness, ti le bass driving, die treble strings

singing and st inging, in t ime I understood that mo st o f i t wa s

technique and m ost o f that no thin g but m otor reflexes, there

I were on ly a few rea l m usic ians , ray was one o f the m .. .

‘when I was f irst in berkeley pot was so common I forgot it

I wasn/t legal, and I don/t think I wa s the on ly one. not ev er y-

I body turned on reg ular ly , but the stuf f w as a lwa ys around

I seem ingly no m ore in need o f a pusher dian lov e in eden.

i I rem em ber sw eet yo u n g hostesses passin g butts out after

I dinner, like d es se rt . . . in a wo rld o f beautiful toys that de-

I manded noth ing from y o u , gett ing hook ed was considered

I p retty s q u a r e . ..

‘but that was almost f ive years ago, and either the scene/s

I changed or I just didn/t know', ray/s been sh oo ting up fo r som e

I time, sam told m e, die real stuff, the killers, the y had him in

I jail for a w h ile , .w h en he go t out it was the same as before,

I and there is still the trial to face, and his w ife is d iv o rc in g him .

(I wonder what she was l ike, that pretty l ittle ghost 1 saw'

■ In a photograph once , w ho w ould m arry ray? someone to ld

I me she w as a fem ale ray w ith an m a in philosophy—but wdiat

■ does that m ean? I w ish I had kn ow n her.)

‘sam had seen ray a few days before, for about ten minutes.

I “ I think he w as high . I asked him abo ut the trial , and he said,

I I man, I ain/t go ing to ja il , cause I feel too go od , and he floated

I on out again.”

‘and the g ir l s ! the g ir ls o f the class o f ’6 i , the lov e ly yo un g

I ’{ il ls w ho came out to berk eley loo kin g for trouble, most o f

i them w ere far ab ov e the ave rage fo r intell igence and loo ks ,

I " I____________________________________ j



and fo r that w a ry w it which is sometimes called hipness, they W

seem ed assured o f rea l l ives , w ant ing to spend a l ittle t im e !

luxuriating in their own potential before they started walking I

o ne w ay o r t he o ther. I g rew d izzy so metim es, savo r ing them I

in carload lots—they w ere all so p retty, and so w ell-equ ipped . H

‘but w ha t happene d to th em ?.. .the re is a bit that girls d o, a ,

pattern that I have a lm ost com e to expect o f the br ightest and I

m ost aware o f them , it var ies a great deal, but it near ly a lw a y s ®

includes these two constants : a com plete lack o f center o H

co nt ro l (w hich mu st be w h y there are so m any o f them fo rever *so r t o f go ing t o scho o l ); and a strange search fo r d eg ra d at io n , ®

fo r t he gru bbiest k inds o f mess and m isery , the w ro n g man *

a lwa ys a lw ay s ; the d r ink ing, the abo rtions , and no w the W

drugs, the bit . ’ 1

N eve rtheless, protest constituted the same test o f ideals as in I

Britain, and be ing idealist , even regarding N eg ro em ancipation, ,1

created a direct di ff icu l ty for the h ipster , w ho se a lready d e v e l - ®oped resistance was essent ial ly e l l ipt ical , subversive, depends®

ent on the cham eleon f luctuations o f a nerve w ho se s e n s i t iv i ty ®

w o u ld be shatte red b y th e frontal te chniques o f m ass dem on- . 1

s trat io n . M aile r p uts the d ilemm a in d ie w o rds o f h is c h a r a c t e r

Sha go M artin : ‘C ontemplate dtis . I d id the Freed om R ide r bit. I

L i k e I w a s ru n n in g fo r P re sid e n t o f d ie b la ck as s U . S . A , ®

T h at ’ s d ie D ick G re go ry bi t , not m ine, but I d id it . I d id it. f l

A n d I m ean I g o t n o th ing but elegance to sell, p lu s a b ig b e a t .H

A n d d iat b ig beat com es fro m up H ig h , it d o n ’ t com e fro m me, I

I ’m a l ily-wh ite devi l in a b lack ass. I ’m just the future , in lo v e ®

w ith m yse lf, d iat’ s th e future. I g o t tw en ty faces, I talk d i e ®

tongues , I ’m a devi l , w ha t ’s the devi l do ing on a Freedom ■

R i d e ? W h y , y o u s een m y ac t, I r em e m b er y o u , y o u b r o u g h t ®

y o u r w ife back to m e, d iat battlesh ip w ith d ie pearls a r o u n d ®

her neck, yo u di ink I forget , I g ot elegance , man, and e le - B

gance is no t h ing bu t m em o ry . I mean I go t elegance when f l

d o m y a c t . . . ’2

Ja m es B ald w in , w ritin g TheFireNext Time s a v e d h i s f l

elegance w ith threats. T h at his threats have been carried out in I

the bonfi res o f W atts , D etro i t and N ew ark, m ay or m ay not 11 pe t e r b e a g l e in Klactoveedsedstecn , no. 3, May 1966.2 n o r m a n ma i l e r , A n Am erican D ream , Andre Deutsch, 1965.



make a point about the prop het ic potency o f e legance . In

I any case po tency is v e ry m uch at stake, be yo nd e qu ality, in

the Negro struggle . The accelerat ion from cla ims for human

l ights to claim s o f black suprem acy is a hero ic attempt on the

part o f the A m erican N eg ro to disinherit U ncle Sam ’s pathetic

I impotence.

The Amer ican Anarchis t movement , centred around Ber-

i nard M arzalek and his C hicago b ook store and the N ew Y o rk

Black Mask gro up has, fo r som e t ime, been drum m ing the hard

I and hip fact that liberal idealism and beat m ysticism w ill not

I save die sink ing bo at in time, that violen ce is the on ly realistic

measure in political protest, politics being a power structure

[ and force being the pivot on wh ich po w er rests . T h u s they

champion the B lack Po w er m ovem ent o f S tok e ley Carm ichae l

I and his predecessor M alcolm X . T h e y also keep a clear head

I about the nature o f art. T h eir m anifesto reads: ‘ R ejecting ,

totally, the political, theological, literary, philosophical and

academic assum ptions w hich hinge o ur society to the w itheredrefrigerator o f civilization (and w hich are in any case, rooted

in the stup idity o f class interest) and insisting, m ore ov er, on

our own irresistible emotional autonomy, we find it essential

to affirm, here and now, without reservation and at any price,

the m arvellous red and black va lidity o f absoluterevolt, the

on ly attitude w or th y o f surviva l in the present mi llenium o f

I streets and dream s.‘More than ever , with ev eryth ing con t inu ously at stake , we

find it ne cessa ry to affirm the impa ssioned use o f the m ost

dangerous w eapon s in the arsenal o f freedom :

‘Mad Love: totally subversive, the absolute enemy ofI bourgeois culture;

‘Poetry: (as opposed to literature) breathing like a machine

gun, exterminating the blind flags of immediate reality;■ ‘Humour : the dynamite and guerrilla warfare of the mind,

I as effective in its own domain as material dynamite andguerri l la warfare in die streets (when necessary, however,

rest assured: w'e shall use every means at our disposal);

‘Sabotage: ruthless and relentless destruction of thebureaucratic and cultural machinery of oppression.

■ ‘ I t is necessary, at t imes (and this is one o f them) to speak

63



bluntly: we affirmdeliriously and simply t o t a l l ibe r a t io n

o f ma n . Long live the Negros of Watts, the Puerto Ricans

of Chicago, the Provos of Amsterdam, the Zengakuren of Japan and the youth of all countries who burn cop cars in thestreets and demonstrate by these exemplary manifestations thatthe struggle for freedomcannot be guided by the rulebooksof priests and politicians!!

‘Long live the NewGuinea tribe who, aware of the stupidityof technological civilization, massacred the managers of a

washing-machine factory, took over the building and con- I verted it into a temple for the marvellous but elusive Rabbit-god!!

‘Long live the youth of Fairbanks, Alaska, who, after beingforbidden by lawto drop out of school, retaliated by burningdown the school-house!!

‘Long live the lunatic who escaped froman asylumandcalmly robbed a downtown bank only to have his “sane”brother tell the man!! Long live Barry Bondhus of Big Lake,Minnesota, who dumped two buckets of shit into the filedrawers of his draft board!!! Long live the twelve FortLauderdale, Florida, teens who prevented by their schoolsfrommeaningful experimentation, independently began manu- .facturing LSD, two sizes of plastic bombs, smoke bombs and a |

varied and catalytic assortment of revolutionary hardware!!Long live the Incredible Hulk, wildcat strikers, the Nat Turner jInsurrection, high-school drop-outs, draft-dodgers, deserters,delinquents, saboteurs and all those soul-brothers, wild-eyeddreamers, real and imaginary heroes of defiance and rebellionwho pool their collective resources in the exquisite, material

transformation of the world according to desire!!!‘The lucidity of alley apples and broken bottles have re- Iplaced autumn leaves-the crushing subservience to authority jscorched by molotov cocktails of fantastic destruction, and, |far fromfinally, the expressionless caress has been deliciously Itranscended by the touch that stimulates to unheard of heights |the sensuous pores of the only dynamismthat matters. As

liberated souls (and we are, for our quest cannot be stoppednow) we have necessarily an historically enviable role ascosmic architects armed with hammers, electric guitars, and

64



I | j Disaffiliation is the celibacy of the artistwhereby he becomes the oracle to whom

i society can always and only turn.

I

The future is a void. In these days this seems particularly

apparent . The on ly way to dea l wi th void i s by a game of

chance, some absurd pattern o f beh aviour. T h e com plete void

of the future reveals the fa l lacy o f logic and rat ional i ty . T h e

Void is infinite and thus abs urd . C on seq ue ntly the o n ly human

activities w h ich can be o f an y use in on e ’s p rog ress in to

Infinite v o id are absurd practic es.

■ T h e gam es are called m agic, or ig ina l ceremonia l, m ore

recently are called art . Fr om die si l ly dances and arbitrary

patterns, from the gesture, which by special def inition has no

| .reference wh atso eve r to values p rev iou sly m aintained, by the

(•hot in die dark, the step into the void, from those routes

which scorn all reference points, there com e ob jects and ex

periences which themselves in turn serve as reference points

and values for society . Thus Giotto, paint ing Christ ’ s halo in

three-quarter-view perspective, ignoring the al legorical laws

of Byzantine art , made patterns which inadvertently brought

God down to earth again and led to a vast number of con-

ncquent axioms, reference points, values attached to the

humanist persuasion. Giotto drew the halo in perspective not

j because he bel ieved in humanism but because it looked good,

It worked, and it was new.

W ith hum anism d eveloped into a c iv iliz arion o f crude

L technology, however , a rediscovered Giotto could serve as a

touchstone to the Deist persuasion. His work would serve

equally well in the opp osite direction. A well-constructed

Irtish co-ordinated perfectly in all subliminal terms, a step into

the v o id danced w e ll, a cat’ s cradle sh arp ly s lu n g , it w ould

nerve, l ike any other tool , to spin man’s thought and self-

■ Organizat ion into w ha tsoeve r course i t next must fol low . T h e

Xdestination, as far as art is concerned, is the journey itself . Art

67



keeps the thing m ov ing . T h e o n ly true disaster is the end o f die j

jo u rn e y , the end o f m an and his developm en t. T h is is w h at we Iare currently threatened w ith. I t is not the f irst t ime w e h a v e *

been threatened w ith extinction but it is the first time e x tin c ti o n ®

has been prob able. I f w e get ou t and on , it w ill be b y art, as I

a lways .

A r t d ivided from society m ore rad ically than p re v io u sly at I

the end o f the e ighteenth century, sensing, as it ine vitably m u s t ,®

the e norm ity o f the consequences o f an e xc lus ive ly t e c h n o ®

logical c iv il izat ion , preparing the atdtudes and standards o f die ® y o u n g people one hundred and fifty years th ence. A r t is knit I

to soc ie ty by re lig ion . I f relig ion be com e s n o n -r e l ig io n ®

corru pt, then art , in order to remain art , m ust divide i tse lf o f f I

f rom society .

A t the end o f the eig hteenth cen tu ry re lig ion g o t foun d out. I

I t was systematica lly revealed that organized bodies o f wo rship I

had ossified into autho ritarian l i ierarchies w hich defended Iexploitado n and oppression in terms o f the divin ity o f the jsocia l order. For man to be free God, King, and the Pope had 1

to be dethroned. T h e m ain impact o f Ro m antic ism w as dial 1

the carpet-sl ippered dream ers, the con tem plators o f sublim e ]

landscape, o f desolate stream s, A lpin e bl izzards and A rab ic I

bloo d-o rgies , had shif ted die onus o f w ond ermen t and vita l ity I

f rom the state and the church to the direct com m union b e tw e e n ®

man and N ature . Th e derogation o f the Spanish court in 1

G o y a ’s portraits increased in direct ratio to the intensif ication I

o f h is m anic v i sions o f the organic darkness. T h e sweet I

ha rm ony o f Na tural m an dep ic te d in the w ork s o f the A n c ie n ts , ®

P a lm e r, C a lv e rt and R i ch m o n d , w a s o b stru cte d b y R i n t r a h , ®

B l a k e ’ s s y m b o l o f T o r y H ig h C h u r c h au th o r it y. T h e m e a n s f l

back to Ed en was the obl iteration o f that moral restrict ion' ■

imposed b y church, army and pol ice , in the name o f Go d— I

the m urder o f the priest w h o ‘bound with briars the joy s and I

desires ’ . And the destructive power necessary was Ore,I

B l a k e ’s s pirit o f r ev o lu t io n a r y e n e r g y ; O r e , w h o w o u l d ®

‘sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted,®

des ires’ . M ora l ity was the province o f church and h ie ra rc h y ®

the prim e weapon o f control and po w er. T h e o nly true mean-m

ing o f the Sub l im e wa s the sub l im ity o f m an a nd the o n l y ®

68



1I il| ',ltllul p rov inc e o f man w as the Su blim e. M or ality preached

ItllMible contentment and submission. Thus it stabilized the

|i|iw<T o f the pr ivilege d and em asculated the po w er o f man -llilltl-

Dm when O re triump hed, seem ingly, and the heads o f the

I n tu b divine auth orities dro pp ed into the baske t, w ha t resulted

I Wim not a co n join ing with the orga nic S ub lim e bu t a new

(Ubjugation o f the ind ividual to a sh ifting b urea uc racy w ho se

principles o f im posed eq ua lity and justice p rov ed just as

I jilmlructing. Politics, pure politics, lost no time in showing itsIdiills. It may have been what the power-movers and political

llllnkers o f the Fren ch R ev olu tio n had m eant but it w as no t

I wlnu the artists, the Romantics, Rousseau, Sand, Hugo,

Idtinunine, Delacroix, Chopin, Liszt, Shelley had meant at all .

The end of the eighteenth century, when God was de

throned, was followed, for the artist, by the early nineteenth

! " utury wh en po litics w ere d iscredited. Bo th r o ya lty andpublic subjected man to society, the one in the name of

Wnity, the other in the nam e o f justice. T h e artist found

insclf alienated from society b y som ething m ore fundam ental

inn his traditional eccentricity.

T he Rom antics w ere in som ething o f a di lemm a as regards

mis and fidelities. Their rebellious spirit, their concept of

en equal und er the face o f N atu re rather than appo inted u nde r

le divine rights o f king s, their f lam boyant advo cation o f

ujrty and their lov e o f the wild vita lity o f the p roletariat,

id provided the Zeitgeist that carried the revolution through

iiih I put E u ro p e in a turm oil o f political discontent. But their

I fputivating appetite was fo r the Su blim ity o f N ature. W ith

find dethroned an y p ursuit o f sub lim ity was v ag u ely directed.

I’lieir aggressive amorality threw their indignation in the face

I til the opp ressors into mazes o f paradox. T h eir ad vo ca cy o f the

lllghts o f Man w as offset b y the Ro m antic Bohem ian tempera-

liu nt to w hich all the bureau cratic co ntr ols th ro u gh wh ich

•tone the R igh ts o f M an could be ensured w ere unacceptable.

P Such polit ical vaguen ess w as ultim ately, h ow eve r, the means

I |n the preservation o f their inte grity. W itho ut it the y m ight

l ive become, l ike the painter David frequently was, mere



1 — — “ ” ."

them leeway to step aside into dteir Bohemian ghettoes and I

continue to practise art. Tl iroughout the nineteenth century 1

artists subv erted the State and oscil lated betw een prostration I

before and so vere ignty ov er N ature . M an being defined no( ■

b y k ing and church, m uch less, as it ev olved , b y republ ic , bullb y the forces o f or gan ic en er gy , both internal and external, I

then his precise relationsh ip w ith that e n er gy h ad to be if nu| I

established then n eu ro tically titillated. A t the tim e o f till) ■

Fr en ch R ev olu tion a certain deposed fop w as w ritin g his ciiri» I

ous works . In sty le they were mannered, naive and c lumsy A Ph i losop hica l ly they const ituted a b ur lesque o f re la ii v i s u a l

T h e ir au th o r w r o te m a n y o f th e m , h o w e v e r , u n d e r im m e n l H

stress du r ing long term s o f im prisonm ent which made billsensibi l ity the ve ry crucible o f the conf l ict ing principles o f f r d f l

w ill and o rga n ic e n erg y . T h e w o rk s becam e obscene tragc<B

dies o f form idable intensity . T h e m an’s name w as de Sadr, I

Battened d ow n in ja i ls and m adhouses for m uch o f his liltylthe tentative de viato ry appetites o f this m an, w h o was a lre ad j l l

s o im pr is oned b y the restraints o f an a ris toc ra tic u p b r i n g i p j

th at h e c ou ld o n ly r ea ch o rg a sm in b e llo w in g d i s c o m f o r t

developed to the demonic force that produced 120 Daysi / l

Sodom. T h e a ffectation o f the prose and fa llacy o f the p h i lo t l

so p l iy wa s transcended in a p ow erful m onum ent formed from I

the wre st ling e lements o f en ergy and pa in .

D e Sade can readi ly be seen to be in suppo rt o f die idea of I

the state as a mechanism inf initely adaptable to the individual

and the idea o f the individual as bein g infinitely f ree, l i r a

bel ieved, fo r instance, in die r ight o f the individual to m u rric f l

but not in the r ight o f die state to execute. H is repeated crc od l

am ounts m ore o r less to this: ‘ I f it ex ists i t ’ s N ature and i f i t ' f l

Nature i t should be accommodated in die state ’ . This init ia l !

po sit ion d if fers li tt le f rom that o f the Ro m an tics. T u rn er stood I

in such aw e o f his oceanic sunset that he didn’ t hes itate to m id

w ith it the b lo od o f je ttis oned slaves in SlaveShip CastingOff ITheDead and Dying. The wi ld f l ames which destroyed tha l

H ouse s o f Parliam ent in his oth er great p ainting w ere tho I

liberating destructive force that would lead the proletariai, I

banked gawping in the mud across die Thames, into the celutf l

rial pa laces o f t ru ly sp i ritua l governm ent . T h e R om an tic !

I ' | 7 0 I



position w as la rge ly a masochistic one; salvation lay in being

enveloped by the organic. Eq u al i ty wa s thus a loss o f indiv idual

Itnd hum an ide ntity no t in the state bu t in the C o sm o s.

As the 120 Days twist to their abominable peak it becomes

clear that de Sade had found that power over Nature, trans-

cendence o f the orga n ic, lay in the wwnatural. I f the means to

conjoining Natu re wa s throu gh the passions freed o f church

itnd state, then the means to surmounting Nature was through

those passions practised in a w a y that negated the organ ic

functioning that Nature fo l low ed. D e Sade’ s pos it ion with

l*gard to Nature was sadist ic . Turner, later Rimbaud and

Cautreamont, hurled themselves into the grandiloquent storm

and hoped there to be absorbed into the Subl ime Force. De

Sade, and later Nietzsche, Jarry , Jacob, Apol l inaire , P icasso ,

hurled diemselves into the Subl ime Force and took over .

.

7 1



■ I F o r Bau delaire, de Sade w as the ‘com plete natural man’ . Hy

I this he m eant the man m ost tho rou gh ly possessed by fliK

am oral forces o f N ature. T h e artists o f the irrational tradition!submitted so thoroughly to Nature, in the late nineteenth

cen tur y, that the y b egat the aesthetics o f fragmen tation*!

In die f inal book of Maldoror, in R imbaud ’s Illumination narrative becomes disconnected incident, argument becomtw

verbal arabesq ue, descriptio n becom es im age, im age cIIm

solv es into the berserk juxta po sitions o f schizophren ia. Dtt

Sad e, on the con trar y, had m ove d tow ards a relentlessly Iogii .il1 pyram idal fo rm . H is v e ry p erversion , far from b ein g e v id en c ®

I IIH o f possession b y N atu re, indicated his app rop riation o f tint 1

I I I o rg an ic flo w .

T h e Impressionist s drowned in organic flow . T h ey brokfl

form into juxtapo sed co lour. T h e broken brush strokes surged I

like m aggots under Van G o g h ’s hand into concentr ic pattem il

o f the organ ic. U nd er M on et ’s hand they blurred and driftedinto edgeless dream s o f the ocean ic. M on et’s l iquid tides and

blots struck echoes on D eb uss y ’ s de-systemized keyboard,I

and the echoes died in the silence o f total self-imm olation, I

M allarme m ade the picture s fo r D e b u ss y ’s silences. I t becaiiW |

clear that the dissolution o f form as volu m e w as m erely lint

d i scove ry o f form as m ovem ent , space, co lour and t ime . T h l im

in all subsequent develop m ents, the debris o f a destroy ed!tradition pro ved to be the secure foun dation ston e o f the new,

M eanw hile the process o f disintegration continued.

‘Be drunken, a lways , ’ sang Baudela ire . ‘That i s the poinff l

n oth ing else m atters. I f yo u w o u ld not feel the ho rrible btircb n

o f T im e weigh yo u dow n and crush you to the ear th , l in

drunken con tinual ly, ’ 1 A n d , as he sang, the orga nic force of

1CHARLES b a v d e l a i r e , from Ba ud elaire: Rim baud: V erlaine, trans. ArllllMSymons, Citadel, 1962.

72



the clap ate him g rad ua lly aw ay . ‘W e are abo ard the drunken

I boat’ cr ied R im ba ud , ‘F ree, sm ok ing , touched with mists o f

Violet ab o v e ,/ I, w h o th e lurid heavens breached like som e rare

H w W h ich boasts confection that the go od ly poets lov e-/

l ichens o f sunlight on a m ucoid azure p a ll . . . ’ 1 But R imb aud

- luw the ro ck s ahead, leapt o ff at eigh teen , and stru ck o ut fo r

dry land. ‘ I would have gone mad’ , he said. Lautreamont gave

lllmself to his am orou s shark and f inally did g o m ad. H uysm ans,

W ilde, B eard sley and Sw in b u rn e toyed p erilou sly and ex

quisitely with the artificial.

I Simultaneously Cezanne painted the images which em

bodied Nietzsche’s ideas. That is, his dictum of ‘redoing

Poussin from Nature’ meant precisely that he wanted to put

himself in the same po sition as C on stab le or M one t, out there

m the weather, grappling face to face with the tangled,

bozing, tempestuous monster, not drunk to dissolution despite

tile Baudelair ian lasciviousness o f his early w o rk , but app ro

priating the unbearable sun fo r the noon dance o f Zarath ustra—

■Praised be this spirit o f all free spirits, the lau gh ing storm

which blow eth d ust into the eyes o f a ll back-sighted su p

purative ones! Ye higher men, what is worst in you is , that

Hone o f you hath learnt to dance , as one m ust d an ce -to dance

beyond y o u rs e lv e s ! R a ise y o u r h earts, y e go o d dancers, h ig h !

higher! A n d fo rg et not the go o d lau gh ter! T h is cro w n o f

Bfrose w re a th s -u n to y o u , m y brethren , I th row th is c ro w n !

The laughter I have procla imed holy . Ye higher men, learn

Itow to lau g h !’2—exec uting that dance in a violen t geo m etric

A jh o r e o g r a p h y w ith the e n erg y o f th e sun and the stren gth o f

l l ie rocks, appropriat ing the energy by pervert ing the organic

tangle o f cyp ress and m oun tainside into a riveted structural

A ia c h in e o f d yn am ic rh yth m .

I T h ro u gh the rest o f the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

the aspirants to join nature suffered their traumatic, melan

cholic disappointments. Valery comes to the tree in the park,

A p p r o a c h e s its frantic orgasm o f m ovem en t, but fin ishes

I S ep ara te, isolated from N ature as from so ciety—‘I h ave chosen

■ 1 ARTHUR r i m b a u d , f r o m Ba ud elaire: Rim bau d: J'er/aine, trans. LouiseCitadel, 1962.

■ 1F R I E D R I C H N I E T Z S C H E , Thus Spake Zarathustra, Penguin.

73

" — M



I I

yo u , po w er fu l dw eller in a park , drunk w ith yo u r p itching , I

s ince the sk y exercises yo u and urges yo u , O great bo w , to givn I

it back language ! O , lov ing ly r iva l ling the D rya d s , m ay tho Ipoet a lone caress y o u r pol ished b od y as he does die ambition* ■

thigh o f the ho rse! . . . —N o , says the tree , I t sa ys : No \b y the I

spark ling o f its prou d head, w hich the storm u n iversa lly treat* I

as it does a blade o f gra ss . ’ 1



logether/Are as quiet and meaningless/As wind in dry grass/

Or rats ’ feet over broken glass/In our dry cel lar ’—‘This is the

' wa y the w orld ends/Th is is the w ay d ie w orld end s/Th is is

the w ay die w orld ends/No t with a bang b ut a w him pe r ’ 1—into

Li K afk a’s interminab le laby rinth s, to B eck et’s deso late beaches,

to Gru b er ’s pum iced nudes , to B aco n’s e jaculations o f disgust .

By the ye ar o f H iroshim a Sartre had said, with ch aracteristic

grit , that he was only interested in what lay beyond despair.

The composer Berg and his f r iends , pa inters Kokoschka,

Kirchner, Heckel , poets Stadler , Heym and Trakl made the

anguish o f isolat ion into a regenerat ive dyna m ic. Van G o gh ,

Munch and Str indberg had done i t before them. They created

Expressionism.

In Italy the Futurists , Marinetti , Severini , under the

■ Baudelair ian gu idance o f the poet-pol it ic ian D ’An nu nz io,

attempted a strenuo us pantheism o f tech no logy , seeing the

■ m ac h ine not as d ie assass in o f sublim e N ature , as W i ll iam

Morris and D . H. La w ren ce saw it , but seeing it as the ve ry

emanation o f Subl im e En erg y . T he irs was prob ably the most

aggressive and naive attempt to establish an aesthetic on the

■ p re a ch in g o f de Sade and Nietzsche . T h e y painted k inet ic

movement, held concerts using machine sound-patterns,

I heaped contem pt on I ta ly ’s cult o f the past , and correspond ed

Internationally. Their ideas were adopted fairly directly by

* W y nd h am L e w i s, W i llia m R o b e r ts , E z ra P o u n d an d G a u d i er -

Brzeska who cal led diem Vorticism.

The Ital ian Futurists , under Marinetti , al igned themselves

| with the Fascists , ul t im ately . Th e Ru ss ian Fu turis ts , under

Mayakovsky , a l igned themselves wi th the Bolshev iks . They

heralded die revolution with their wild, disruptive behaviour:

i 'Th e “ f low er o f the Russian intel ligentsia” was there to a m an:

fitmous painters, actors, writers, ministers, deputies, and one

high foreign diplom at, nam ely the French am b assa d o r. .. I sat

ill supper w i th G o rk y and the F innish pa inter A xel Gal len ,

■ i end M ay ak ov sky began his per formance b y sud denly com ing

up to us, pushing a chair between ours and helping himself

from o ur plates and drin king ou t o f o u r glasses . G allen stared

Ml him spe llbou nd , just as he w o uld p ro b ab ly h ave stared i f aI 1T. s. e l i o t , C ollected Poem s, Faber & Faber.

75



I

horse had been led into the ba nq ueting h a ll. . .a t that momenl

M ilyu k o v , ou r Fo re ign M inister at the time , rose fo r at) I

official toast and M a ya k o vs k y dashed tow ard s him , to fho Icentre o f the table, jump ed on a chair and shouted som ething I

so obscene that M ilyu k ov w as com pletely f labbergasted,

A fte r a m om ent, regain in g co n tro l, he tr ied to start his speed)

again , “ Ladies and ge n t lem en . .. ” but M aya ko vsky yelled jloude r than eve r, and M ilyu k o v shrug ged his shoulders and j

sat down. The French ambassador rose to his feet. Fie wait 1

ob viou sly convinced that the Russian h ooligan wo uld give Iin to him. W ha t a hope. Flis voice w as dro w ned b y a deafening

bel low from M ay ak ov sky . Bu t this was not all. A wi ld and j

sen se less pan dem o n i u m bro k e o u t . M ayak o v sk y su ppo r t er* J

also began to yell , pounding their feet on the floor and their ■

fists on the tables. They screamed with laughter, whined, 1

squeaked, snorted. But suddenly all this was quashed by

truly tragic w ai l from one o f the Finns, a painter, w ho looked I

l ike a clean-shaven sea-lion. R ath er d run k, pale as death, he had 1

ob viou sly been shaken to the core b y this excess o f mis- I

be ha viou r, and started to shou t at die top o f his vo ice, l iterally I

w it h tears in his e yes , one o f the few R u ssian w o rd s he knew ! I

“ M n o g o ! M n o - g o ! M n o - g o ! ” (to o m u ch , to o m u c h . ..) ’ . 1



Ill

I ni ' Apollinaire, de Sade was die misunderstood innocent, the

ebullient brat who had carried the anal-erotic extravagance

infantile folklore into his adult life and been jailed for it.

Moral ity was, for Apoll inaire, the obstruction to innocence:

I ‘A h ! G o d ! ho w pretty w ar is w ith i ts song s, its long rests .

I have polished this r ing. T h e w ind is mingled w ith yo u r

•Iglls.

Fa rew ell ! H ere is the boot and saddle. H e disappeared do wn

iifturning and died over there, while she laughed at the sur-

llf lirises o f fate . ’ 1

In the 1900’s and through the 1914- 18 war Apol l inaire and

Ills friends cond ucted an exp losiv e par ty-tim e o f the spirits in

Ikris. T h e pu rpose o f the pa rty w as the application o f the

Siulist spirit to culture and conventions. People’s beliefs and

|*ople ’s patterns o f beh aviou r were torn up l ike confetti , burst

like) party balloons, shattered like furniture in a Keystone

movie, and stuck together again (and here lay the movement’s

♦lifiturbing po w er) no t into som e m akeshift scarec row but into

formal edifices o f unprecedented dign ity and beauty. ‘T h e

plastic virtues, purity, unity and truth, keep Nature in sub

jugatio n,’ said A p o llin a ire , and in troduced the party :

I ‘So here I am once more among you

I’ve found my ardent company againI’ve also found a stage

Hut to my dismay found as before

file theatre with no greatness and no virtue

That killed the tedious nights before the war

A slanderous and pernicious art

That showed the sin but did not show the saviour

B l GUILI.AUMK APOLLINAIRE, from The Penguin Book oj Twentieth Century I ‘ ft tn. />Verse, ed. Anthony Hartley, Penguin.

77



1 •

Th en the hour struck tile hour o f men

I have been at war like all other men

In the days when I was in the artilleryOn tile northern front commanding my battery

One night when the gazing o f the stars in heaven

Pulsated like the eyes o f die newborn

A thousand rockets that rose from the op posite trench

Suddenly wo ke the guns o f the enemy

I remember as diough it were yesterday

I heard the shells depart but no explosionsThen from the observation posts there came

The trumpeter on horseback to announce

That the sergeant there who calculated

||^ H From the flashes o f the enem y guns

Their angle of fire had stated

That the range of those guns was so great

That die bursts no longer could be heard And all m y gunners watching at die ir posts

Announced the stars were darkening one by one

Then loud shouts arose from die whole army i f^ B U ii.

THEY RE PUTTING OUT THE STARS

WITH SHELLFIRE

Hi IThe stars were dying in that fine autumn sky

I ^ B I A s memory fades in the brain

O f the poor old men wh o try to remember

W e were dyin g there in the death o f stars

And on die sombre front with its livid lights

W e would only say in despair

t h e y ’ v e even murdered

THE CONSTELLATIONS

But in a great voice out of a megaphone

The moudi of which emerged

From some sort of supreme headquarters

The voice o f die unknown captain who always saves us cried I

I I ||!: THE TIME HAS COME TOLIGHT THE STARS AGAIN

And the whole French front shouted together

■I H r F IR E A T W ILL

The gunners hastened

78

n■ I



I Th e layers calculated

I The marksmen fired

I And tlie sublime stars lit up again one by one

I O ur shells rekindled their eternal odour

I Th e enemy guns were silent dazzled

[ B y the scintillating o f all the stars

K Th ere there is the history o f all the stars

K An d since that night I too light one by one

I A ll the stars wid iin that were extinguished

I So here I am once more among you

I My troupe don’ t be impatient

I Public wait without impatience

/ I bring yo u a play that aims to reform society

I It deals with children in the fam ily

I Th e subject is domestic

I An d that is the reason it’s handled in a familiar w ay

■ Th e actors will not adopt a sinister toneft They will simply appeal to your common sense

K An d ab ove all will try to entertain you

I' So that you will be inclined to profit

I From all the lessons that the play contains

I And so that the earth w ill be starred with the glances o f infants

r Even more numerous than the twinkling stars

I Hear O Frenchmen die lesson o f warI And m ake children you that made few before

W e’ re tryin g to brin g a new spir it into the theatre

A jo yfu l voluptu ousness virtue

ft Instead of diat pessimism more than a hundred years old

I And that’s pretty old for such a boring thing

■ Th e p lay was created for an antique stage

I F o r they wouldn ’t have built us a new theatref A circular theatre with two stages

I One in the middle and the other like a ring

I Around the spectators permitting

I But out there there’s still a fire

I Where they’ re putting out the sm oking stars

I And those who light them again demand that you

I Lift yourselves to the height o f those great flames

ft And also burn

79



0 public

Be the unquenchable torch of the new fire.. .’ ’

A lfred Ja r r y , w ith his elaborate superstructures o f n ih ilit l;

philosophy called pataphysics, wrote and staged his Ubu Rni J

a fart ing k nock abo ut pantomim e o f the caricatured bou nfl

geoisie, based, like the recent Macbird., on the MacBetlt plot.1

Pere U b u , tl ie spluttering apotheosis o f all trivial pom posity*

open s up the play w ith the first o f his frequ en t exclam ations <d

‘S h it! ’—a term then un com m on in serious dram a. Ja rr y himsell

became utterly involved in his own charade, acted Ubu out <>1

the theatre and into his social life and ultimately became the ■

character to such a de gree that no o ne w as certain, least o f all

Ja r r y , w h ere the satire ended and m asquerade b egan . F ifty 1

years later the sam e th ing happened w ith S p ik e M illigan and I

his character Eccles.

M ax Jac ob , heralded somew hat b y the fruity im agery o f |

Sa i n t - P o l - Ro u x , w ro te p o em s o f d isco nnected a b su rd i ty ! ®

‘A m an, a man lost in the midd le o f trees. W as his m ind de* I

ranged? He held a standard l ike a harp embroidered with

orange colours. He examines a business deal meticulously or

else he carries the coffin o f a high pe rso n ality; he has the air I

o f an An glican priest, o f an angel or a cannibal. H e asks for

the legendary flower that only grows in Paradise, he has alege nd ary fortune and doe s no t possess a rad ish. ’ 2 T he j

schizophrenic juxtaposit ions o f Lautream ont had been tortured I

and haunted. The same literary device became, with Jacob and

A p o llin aire , veritab ly festive.

E ric Sat ie wrote die music for this extended pa rty. Jazzy, I

evocative, brilliant, witty, audacious, it was exactly the dance

for die occasion, the appropriate sound to offset Stravinsky'**ostentatious dissonances. D iag h ilev w as in town and, although I

the extrava gan t camp o f the Ballet R usse w as scarcely in the

spir it o f the Mon tmartre festiv it ies , D iagh i lev had a true I

impresario ’s nose for true madness and employed Picasso, I

Chagal l and Stravinsky from among the party guests .

1 g u i l l a u m e a p o l l i n a i r e , ‘Tlie Breasts of Tircsias’, The Faber Book nf i

Twentieth Century French Drama, Faber & Faber.2ma x J a c o b, from The Penguin Book o f Twentieth Century French F 'erii ,

ed. Anthony Hartley, Penguin.

8o

J



pieces o f skin, mu scle, pen ises , bits o f l ive r, lun g, heart, tongu e, I

etc. etc . w ere a l l f ly ing abou t , shouts , screams. W h o was I

fig h tin g w h o m ? G o d k n o w s .‘T h e p rofessor had been s tanding in the d oo rw ay fo r some I

w h ile before h is presence began to creep th rough the room . I

Silence.

‘ “ Y o u sh o uld b e ash am e d o f y o u r s e lv e s ,” h e th un de re d} I

I “ h o w do yo u expect them to sort them selves out on the D ay I

o f Ju d g e m e n t ?” 11

N orm an M ailer points ou t the same qu ality in his perceptis 'e 1essay on Picasso: ‘F o r the last f if ty years ( i f one is to take as h is I

point o f departure Les Demoiselles D’Avignon) Picasso lias I

used his brush l ike a sw or d , d isem bo w ell ing an ey e to plaster I

it o v er the ear, lop pin g o ff a breast in ord er to turn it behind I

an arm , sco ring the nostri ls o f his ladies until they to ok on I

the violen t necessities o f those tw in holes o f l ife and death, I

the vagina and the an u s . . . P icasso is the mon om aniac o f form, I■ sh ow ing us the prol i ferat ion o f the breast , the eye as breast, I

die nose as bre ast, the chin, and the head, the sho u lder s, knees, I

bel ly and toes as a harem garden o f breasts- or eq ual ly a I

cornucopia o f fecal form s , o f gen ita lia , o f bu ttocks ...’2

Picasso hangs now in the m useum s, die scho olroo m s, the I

V lib raries, and th us th e squares sit back , im agin in g th at this I

beast is safely caged in fame and crit ical definition. One won- f lders i f, had l i sa K o ch ’s lampshades o f human sk in been of I

I H i br il li ant des ign they too w ould hang com fortably in the I

kindergarten. P icasso ’s NudeDressingHer Hair o f 6 M arc h, I

I R 1 9 40 , is th e la te st m on um en t wh ich p laces obs cen ity wh ere I

harm on y had once rested. ‘A p o l lo is d yin g ’ , sa id Nietzsche I

in TheBirth of Tragedy. ‘ I g ive yo u a trag ic age . ’ P icasso , I

U A p o l lo ’s assassin , w as read y w ith the berserk sava ge ry of I

total innocence to conjure up the rejuvenated D ion ys u s in all I

his form idable p ow er- the G od he ad w ho se form idab le phtillu** I

A lle n G in sb e rg ch ok ed on .

F o r innocence, te ll ing, licentious , exp los ive and ga y, wat I

I I HI at the heart o f the Paris ian p arty , w here the twen tieth century I

w as li fted , red and sq u ealin g , fro m C o lu m b in e ’s vagina, I

1R. D. LA1NG, The B ird o f Paradise, Penguin.- NORMAN MAILER, ‘Picasso’, Advertisements for M yself , Andrei Deutscli.

82



a corne r o f the table Gui l laum e Ap ol l inaire , w ho had found I

this an excellent opp ortu nity to catch up on his corresponden ce I

w h ich w as n o w tw o m onths behindhand, im provised a poem I

and read it out, after Rousseau had finished a song called I

‘ P a n ! P a n ! o u v r e z - m o i !” . . . S u d d e n ly th ere w a s a k n o c k o n I

the do or . I t w as F au vet the barm an. W ith the utmost dis- I

cretion he had com e to annou nce that one o f the ladies had been I

found sitting on the pavem ent near his establishm ent. She had 1

gon e o ut to get som e fresh air and, as the result o f several ■

falls and up sets, had travelled the w h ole length o f the street as Ifar as his bar. A ll the ladies present stared at one ano th er and I

one o f them looke d at h erse lf in the m irror to see i f it could I

be he r; then the party continued , no imp ortance be ing attached I

to die episode. A t this m om ent there was a scuff le in the I

co rrido r as a result o f a regrettable accident perpetrated b y I

one o f the guests against die do or o f the gentlem en’s c loak- I

room. But i t was a lready becoming more and more di f f icult 1to disentangle events . T h e D ou an ier had the ladies dancing to j

the strains o f his v io l in; f irst an acco rdion and then a harmon ica 1

jo ined in , heads w h irled , daw n b ro k e , the bottle s w ere em pty I

and som e o f the guests had a l ready s lipped o f f . . . ’

Fernand O livier recalled, ‘R ousseau w as so ha pp y that, I

throu gh ou t die ev en ing, he received on his head large drops o f I

w ax from a la rge lam p that h u n g a b ove him w ith o u t flinching. I

T h e y ended b y fo rm ing a small eminence on his head l ike a 1

clow n ’s hat w hich he kept r ight up to the m om ent w hen the 1

lamp caugh t fire. l ie w as m ade to believe this was the final |

apotheos is . ’ 1

E l sewh ere Gertrud e Ste in wro te :

‘ In wh a t w a y do c h im e s re m in d you o f s in g in g . In w ha t w a y Ido birds s ing. In w hat w ay are forests black o r white .

W e saw them blu e.

W id i fo rg et-m e-n o ts.

In the midst o f our happiness w e w ere ve ry p leased. ’2

1Quoted by JEAN b o u iie t in Henri Rousseau, Oldbourne.

2GERTRUDE STEIN, Accents in Alsace.

84



IV

•Or Tristan Tzara, de Sacle was the total permissive who

[ tjksolvec! the structu re o f m ora lity and thus m ade ab surd ity

B |eee ssib le, a man w ho had clarif ied the sup rem acy o f the spirit

I (lilt- l ibido, ecsta sy, in B reto n ’s terms— h ysteria) o v er the

^■tutorial .

Tzara w as the waspish and destru ctive element in that gro up

which gathered in Z t r ic h d u rin g the 1 9 14 - 18 b arbecue and

Opened the Cab aret V oltaire in May o f 19 16 . T h e y w ere in

Correspondence with the Ital ian and Russian Futurists. They

■displayed Picasso’s pictures in the Cafe Meierei where their

Hfebarct was held. Across the road from the cafe a Russian

■ fulled Lenin lodged . Jo y ce was a lso to be seen, l iv in g f rugal ly

■ y h i l e h e w o r k ed o n Ulysses. Zurich was a l ive with ideas.

Th e orig inal and m arkedly contrasted coup le around wh om

ll ie Dada movement developed were Tzara and Hugo Bal l .

I Tzara’s nihilism had passed beyond the violent extremes of

hatred for society to that pitch o f ab su rdity w he re destru ction

■ Ik the on ly w ay back to sense. H u go Bal l was the passive,

childl ike contemplative who knew that dissolving institutions

I and definit ions by T za ra ’s savag e techniques wo uld be to knock

I the bottom out o f those artif icial al ignm ents that prevented

I men from experiencing and acknowledging their common

I tplrit.

I Zurich, in 19 16 , w as an island in the stinking wre cka ge o f

■ inciety and all its precepts o f organization, stabil ity, and

Hkecttrity. On that island, as the slaughter wore on, the sureties

dissolved rapidly in sensitive minds, and the absurd presented

I Hwlf as the point from w hich all decent action m ust begin.

Thus the Dada grou p were a m icrocosm o f the wh ole

Romantic predicament, the oscillation between the organic

85



and the totally determ inant. T h e sick ab surd ity o f l iving in the

European slaughterhouse was a direct confrontadon with t i l l

organic. The organic was not , to them, die grandi loqueni

face o f N ature, to be possessed b y or to conquer. T h e organic

w as s im p ly all th at w as le ft to turn to . T h e correct cou rse, then,] I

w as th e system atic pu blic d is solu tion o f the fallacio us and dll'

co rru p t, o f all but the or ga nic, and this w as to be carried otll

w ith som e u rg en cy , fo r ratio nal m an w o u ld , unless sw iftly

disarm ed (no t only o f his po w er but also his faculties) , clearlyM

m urder everyon e wi thout even k no w ing he w as do ing it.

A r t n o rm ally w o rk s th rou gh slo w sublim inal c h a n n d M

before it becom es pu bl ic ly e ffective . I t took hundreds o f ye a i tM

for Giotto ’s humanism to become common pract ice. Dadi i

w anted to tele scope that procedure. It w as no go o d le avin g

masterpieces around until they started to have effect. TMn

masterpieces had to be immediate and sensational in their

nature, had to alter people ’s minds physical ly and inuflmediately, and had to do this in a place where people cairn'

read ily rather than reluctan tly or per fun ctori ly—ou t o f die

ga l lery , into the cabaret. T h e di srupt ive ga iety o f the P a r i lB

pa rty , the ca lculated lunacy o f Ja rry and Ap ol lina ire , b eca m ^S

an urgent psych ological w eapon to stop the s laughter .

Tzara started a magazine called Dada and expounded Ilia

ideas: ‘I smash d raw ers, those o f the b rain and those o f socialo rgan izado n : E v e ryw h e re to dem o ralize, to h u r l th e h and f r o m

heaven to hell, the eyes from hell to heaven, to set up once

m ore, in d ie real po w ers and in the im agination o f every

indiv idual , d ie fecund w heel o f w or ld c i rcu s . . .

O rd er= d i so rd er ; se l f= n o t - se l f ; a ffirm atio n = negatio n

ultim ate em anations o f absolute art. Ab soluten ess and purity

o f chaos cosm ically ordered , eternal in the glo bu le second w ith o u t duration w id io u t breath w ith out lig h t w ith o u t c o n tro lJB

—I lo ve an old w o rk fo r its no ve lty. It is on ly con trast dial

attaches us to the past. . .

D ad a means n o d i ing . . .Th ou gh t is produced in the mouth ,

A r t falls a s le e p .. . ‘A r t ’—a pa rro t w o r d -r ep la c e d b y D a d a . < B

A rt needs an operation . A rt is a pretensio n, w arm ed b y thr

diffidence o f the urinary tract, hy steria born in a s tu d io . . . ’ 1

1Quoted by u a n s m c h t e r in Dada, Thames & Hudson.

86



■ ~wk h - - — - _>W iw iW ^w W¥ W rrrMMiiT ■

Simultaneity was the principle that increasingly governed

■ ||ie entertainm ent at the C ab aret V olta ire. W h at the am iable

| Hall had intended as a place w here ‘a few yo u n g p eo p le...

[ could enjo y their independence and giv e p ro o f o f it’ became

I mi arena where the artists, beside themselves with nihilistic

I bitterness and h ilarity, performed their o w n w o rk in such a

I way as to dissolve the w o rk itself into that general chaos in

I which they placed their faith. Tz ara and M arcel Jan co read

I their separate poems together. I luelsenbeck played his tom-

I toms w ear ing J anco’s grotesque m asks, wh ile Em m y H ennings

I Hang her wistful cabaret ballads and H u go Ball played piano.

I Th e p oetry o f the absurd develop ed its patterns o f scram bled

I Imagery and abstract soun d. S ays Ba ll: ‘ I wo re a special cos-

I lutne designed by Jan co and m yself . M y legs w ere encased in

■ ' l ight fitting cylindrical pillars o f sh iny blue cardbo ard w h ich

■ reached to m y hips so that I looked l ike an obelisk. A b o ve

I this I w o re a hug e cardboard co at collar, scarlet inside and go ld

■t m tsid e, w hich w as fastened at the neck in such a w ay that I

■ could f lap it like a pa ir o f w ings b y m oving m y e lbow s . I

I also wore a high, cyl indrical , blue and w hite str iped w itch-

I doctor ’s hat.

' [ had set up m usic stands on three sides o f the platform

I and placed on them m y m anu script, w ritten in red cray on . I

■ officiated at each o f these music-stands in turn. A s T za ra k new

I ull abo ut m y p repara tions there w as a real little premiere.

I Everyone was very cur ious . So as an obel isk cannot walk,

1had m ys elf carried to the platform in a blacko ut. T h en I

■ began, s low ly and m ajestica lly .

[ * “ gadji beri bimba glandridi laula lonni cadori

gadjama gramma berida bimbala glandri galassassa laulitalomini

gadji beri bin blassa glassala laula lonni cadorsu sassasa bim

Gadjama tuffm i zimzalla binban gligia wowolimai bin beri ban

o katolominal rhinoscerossola hopsamen laulitalomini hoooo

gadjama rhinocerossola hopsamen

l bluku terullala blaulala loo oo o” ’

Tzara created the poem of total chance, slicing up newsprint,

I his ow n poem s and anyth ing else, tossing them into a bag ,

87



I the ob ject app ears as m atter, in co sm ic terms, a w on de rful

lather than a useful entity. One knew that, say, the Belvedere

I Ap ollo w as ‘A rt ’ and one kn ew that the part one had to play

I Was ‘A w estru ck ’ . T h is prevented any enjoym ent. Shatter the

■ A pollo an d the p ie ce s, b ein g no lon g e r ‘A r t ’ , w e re a s w on d e r -

I liil and en joy ab le as peb bles on a beach.

The second principle, that o f the au tho rity o f the senses,

I lollowed n atural ly ou t o f the f irst. T as te, canons o f aesthetics,

Itandards o f l iving , p hilosophical associations, stood in the

I Way o f enjoym ent, sheer fun. So peop le w ho gaw ped at master-

E pieces and m issed the w orld g o in g b y , had their senses sh arp ly

I drawn back to the w orld , to the bo ttle-rack, spind ly and

H horned, the bicycle w heel , taut and sym m etrical , the urinal,

I fat and curled, wh en these ob jects we re presented as m aster

pieces in Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymades’ , or in the wonder-

I land o f Sch w itters ’ Saule , a wh ole m aze o f sub tly com posed

| objects. Sch w itters w rote:

World needs new tendencies in poeting and

I paintry

[ Old stu ff is not able to lead further on

Muses ought to be whisked when mankind

I will survive

In die very war creative whisky is fallen

I very dry

We will develop w hisky spirit, because we

I see with ou r ears and hear with our ey es ...

Their phantic contents are so direct, that

! they are placed above the meanings o f

language at all

Language is only a medium to understand

and not to understand

You pre fer the language, when you understand

; by it things, which eve ryb od y know s by

heart already. We prefer the language,

which provides you a new feeling for new

whiskers to co m e ...1

I I Jacques Pre vert, a m em ber o l the Fren ch branch of the

movement, was aware that what they were precipitating had

1k u r t Sc h w i t t e r s , From Pin Gabberbocchus.

89



been learned from Picasso and die Montmartre party. He 1 w ro te :

and the dazed painter loses sight of his modeland falls asleep

It’s just then that Picasso

w ho’s goin g by diere as he goes b y every where

eve ry day as if at home

sees the apple and the plate and the painter fallen asleep

W hat an idea to paint an apple

says Picasso

and Picasso eats the apple

and the apple tells him Thanks

and Picasso breaks the plate

and goes off smiling

and the painter drawn from his dreams

like a tooth

finds him self all alone again before his unfinished canvas

with right in the middle o f his shattered cliina

die terrifying pips of reality.1

‘H on ou r can be bo ug ht and sold l ike the arse . T h e arse, the I

arse , represents l ife like po tato-chips, and all yo u w ho are 1

ser ious m inded w i ll smell w orse than co w ’s shit.

‘ D ad a alone does not smell: it is no thing, nothing, nothing. I

It i s l ike your hopes: nothing.

l ike your paradise : nothing.

l ike your idols : nothing.

l ike your pol idcians: nothing.

l ike your heroes: nothing.

l ike your artists: nothing.

l ike your rel ig ions: nothing.

‘H iss, shou t, kick m y teeth in, so w h at? I shall sti ll tell yo u 1

that yo u are half-w its . In a few m onths m y friends and I w i ll I

be sel l ing you our pictures for a few francs. ’2

That i s from a manifesto wri tten by Picabia and read by 1

1 Ja c q u e s p r e v e r t , Selected Poems, edited and translated b y I.. Ferlinghetti, ™Penguin.3Ha n s RICHTER, Dada, Thames & Hudson.

90



i n A ndre B reton in P aris in 19 20 . It refle cts the an g ry m ood o f

I Tzara’sprovocat ions .

In Berl in , w idi t ile acute bitterness o f G eo rge G ro sz, the

caricaturist , as a guiding force, the movement became more

I com m ittedly pol it ical :

‘What i s Dadaism and what does i t want in Germany?

I I. Dadaismdemands:

(a) T h e international rev olu tion ary union o f all creative and

I intellectual men and wo m en on the basis o f radical co m -

I munism;(b) T h e introduction o f progress ive unem ploym ent

I I throug h com pre he n s ive m e chanization o f e ve ry field o f

I act ivity . O n ly by un em ploym ent does it becom e possible for

I the individu al to achieve certain ty as to the truth o f l ife and

I thus becom e accustomed to experience;

(c) T h e imm ediate exprop riat ion o f property (socializa-

[ lion) and the com m unal feed ing o f al l ; further, the erection o fI cit ies o f l ight, and garde ns diat w ill b elon g to soc iety as a

I whole and prepare man for a state o f f reedom .

I 2. TheCentral Council demands:

(a) D a ily m eals at pub lic expense for all crea tive and

intellectual men and wo m en on the Potsdam er Platz (B erl in) ; g f l l

(b) C om pu lsory adherence o f a ll c lergym en and teachers

I to the D ad a-ist articles o f faith;

(c) T h e m ost brutal strugg le against all directions o f the

I so-called ‘w o rke rs o f the spirit ’ (H itler, A d ler) , against their

I concealed bourgeoisism and post-classical education as advo-

H catedb y the S turm g roup ;

(d) T h e im m ediate erection o f a state art cen tre, elim ination

I o f concepts o f pro pe rty in the new art (expression ism ); the

I concept o f pro pe rty is entirely excluded from the super

individual movement Dadaism which l iberates al l mankind;

(e) Introdu ction o f the sim ultaneist poem as a com m unist

I state prayer ;

( f ) Req uisit ion o f churches for the perform ances o f bruit-

I ism, simultaneist and Dadaist poems;

(g) Establishm ent o f a D adaist adv isory counci l for the

remod elling o f l ife in ev er y city' o f o v er 50,000 inhabitants;



(h) Imm ediate organization o f a large scale D ada ist propa

ganda campaign with 150 circuses for the enl ightenment of

the proletariat;(i) Submission of all laws and decrees to the Dadaist

central council for approval;(j) Immediate regulation of all sexual relations according

to the views of international Dadaismthrough establishmentof aDadaist sexual centre.

The Dadaist revo lut ionary centra l counci l German

Gro u p: H au sm an n , H u e l sen beck

Bu siness O ffice : Cha rlottenbu rg, Kan tstrasse 1 18

A p p licatio n s fo r m em bership ta ken at busin ess office.

1 9 2 0 ’ 1

In New York Dada became jazzy . In Barce lona i t became

stoical and deathly. In Paris , with the Romantic genius of

A n d re B reton as a g u id in g lig h t, it m erged and transform ed

into the su btly different Su rrealist m ovem ent. W hat had

happened in the lyr ical m inds o f Breton , Eluard and Cocteau,

w h o w ere direct descendants o f th e d esp airin g S ym b o lists,

w as the idea o f F re u d ’ s d ie o ry o f the Id as a n ew w ildern ess,

a cod-scientific confirmation that the wild wind in Valery’s

tree lay not out there, unattainable and separate, but within

die human m ind, a lon g-stand ing prisoner — the Id as a N ew

foun dland o f the se n sibilides, to be released like the Bastille

prisoners in an im m ense internal f low ering o f the mind.

Early surrealist manifestoes were as sociologically directed as

Dada had been. In 1925 Antonin Artaud, Andre Breton,

Ren e Crev e l , Ro ber t D esn o s , P au l E lu ard , M ax E rn st ,

A n d re M asson, Benja m in P eret, and R a ym o n d (Zazi)

Queneau, amongst a great many others , s igned a statement

saying , amongst o ther th ings :

‘W e w an t to proclaim ou r total detachm ent, in a sense of

unc on tam ination, fro m the ideas at the basis o f a still real

European civilization, based in its turn on the intolerable

principles o f necessi ty and du ty.

‘Even more than patriotism, which is aquite commonplace1RICHARD HUELSENBECK, ‘En Avant Dada’, Heatwave, no. 2, ed. C. Radclifle,

October 1966.

92



I sort o f hysteria , though em ptier and shorter- l ived than m ost—

J we are d is gusted b y d ie id ea o f b e lo n g in g to a co u n try at all ,

which is the m ost bestia l and least p hilosop h ic o f the concepts

to which w e are subjected.

‘W e are certainly barbarians, s ince a certain form o f civi liza-

l ion thoroughly d isgusts us . . .

i ‘ It is the turn o f the M on go ls to biv ou ac in ou r squares.

! We should n ever for a m om ent w o rry that this violenc e could

■ take us by surpr ise or g et out o f hand. A s far as w e are con-

Bcerned, i t could never be enough, whatever happens. Al l that

should be seen in o u r beh av iou r is the absolu te confidence that

[ I We have in a sentim ent com m on to us all , the sentiment o f

revolt, on w hich eve rything o f va lue is ba se d . . .’ 1

I I t w as the lingering aftermad) o f Cath olicism that d rov e

E the m ovem ent aw ay from D ada anarchy towards a kind o f

I , metaphysical M arxism . Th e w ho le thing had gon e serious

^ ■ R g a in . Fo r Breton, the long-standing leader o f the surreali sts,

whose argum en t w ith T z a ra is one o f th e sig n ifican t polit ic al

■O ccurren ces o f the century , de Sade was synon ym ous wi th

Blake’s O re. H e w as the force n ecessary to blast the Bastille

H wall o f the Su pere go and release the ‘gre ater reality ’ o f the

^Biubconscious; for Surrealism meant just that—that the dream

I Was greater than the material . A rtau d, w ho existentially kn ew

I this assertion as a personal predicam ent rather than a political

I theory , puts it very po ignan t ly : ‘Eve ryth ing in the order o f

the w ritten w ord w hich aban dons the f ie ld o f ordered and

■ lucid percept ions; eve rythin g w hich a ims at creating a reversa l

o f appearances, to introduce dou bt abou t the posit ion o f mental

■ Im ag es and the ir re la tionship ; everyth ing which p rovokes

i confus ion w ithout w eakening the burst o f menta l energy ;

everything w hich disrupts the relat ionships o f things wh ile

j g iv in g th is agitated m ental e n erg y an even greater aspect o f

■ truth and viole n ce— all these offer death an exit, and relate

I l l s to certain m ost subtle states o f the mind, at the heart o f

which death w an ts out.

[ ‘T h is is w h y all w h o dream w ithout regrett ing their dreams,

without b rin g in g back from the p lu n ge in to a fertile uncon-

1 Hcious this fee ling o f an atroc ious n osta lgia, are p igs. T h e d ream

I 1PATRICK w a l d b k r g , Surrealism, Thames &r Hudson.

93



is true. A ll d reams are true. I hav e a feeling o f harshness, o f

landscapes as i f sculptured, o f sw ay ing patches o f ground 1

covered w ith a sort o f cool sand, and they m ean:“ R eg ret , disappointment, abandonm ent, separation, when I

w ill w e m eet a g a in ?” ’ l (N o te the sim ilarity to G eorge I

H arr ison ’ s ‘L . A . W ay ’ ). T h e m ovement was thus fraught 1

w ith contradiction . It becam e a re vo lu tio n ary m ovem ent to I

w h ich th e m ateria l e v il o f Eu ropean so cie ty w as o f increasin gly I

sec on d ary imp ortance. Y e t it continue d to p roclaim itn I

support for historic material ism.I ss ue O n e o f La Revolution Surrealistesaid , in an E ditorial I

in which Paul Eluard’s hand is discernible: ‘As the trial of j

kn ow ledge is no lon ger relevant and intell igence no longer I

need be taken into accou nt, the dream alon e entru sts to man all |

his r ights to f reedom . Th an ks to the dream , the m eaning o f I

■ j death is no long er m ysteriou s, and the m eaning o f l ife become*! 1

i mporta nt . . .‘W e declare the surreal ist exaltation o f my stics, inventor* 1

j . and prop h ets, and w e g o o n .. .

‘ R ev o l u t i on . ..Re vo l ut i on . ..Re a l i s m is the pruni ng o f tree#, 1

surrealism is the p run ing o f li fe . ’ 2

T h e E ditoria l for Issue T w o indicated die socia l applicat ion I

o f dtese principles : ‘T h e idea o f prison and the idea o f barrack# I

are com m onplace tod ay: those m onstrosit ies no longer shock I

y o u . T h e in fant lies in the calm ness o f those w h o h ave got I

roun d die dif ficulty b y va rious m oral and p hysical abdication# I

(hone sty , s ickness, p atr iot i sm . .. ) ’ 2

The tone of Breton ’ s own f i rs t Surrealist Manifesto in 192.1

w as p redom in antly in w ard -lo o k in g :

‘ S u r r e a l i s m , noun, masc. , Pure psychic automatism by I w h ich it is in tended to express, either ve rb a lly o r in w riting,

the true function o f tho ugh t. T h o u g h t dictated in the absent’d

o f all control exerted b y reason , and ou tside all aesdietic or

moral preoccuparions.

‘Encycl .P/ i H os. Su rrealism is based on the be lief in die

su p erio r reality in certain form s o f association heretofore

1 ANTONIN ARTAUD, Collected IVthings, City Lights.2Quoted by Pa t r i c k w a l d d e r g in Surrealism, Thames & Hudson.



I -----------------------■ neglected, in the om nipotence o f the dream, and in the dis

interested p lay o f thou ght. It leads to the perm anent destruc

tion o f al l odter p sychic m echanisms and to its substitution fo r

them in the solution o f die principal p roblem s o f l i fe. ’ 1

W h at B reton d id dten, in tran sform in g D ad a in to su r-

1 realism, was disarm it on two scores, the m etaphysical and the

I polirical. T h e f irst he handed ov er to Freu d and the second to

I Marx. Small wonder that f ive years later, when he published

the second Surrealist Manifesto, he reiterates the old line with

■ Itomewhat less aplo m b—‘Surreal ism sho uld no t be at the m ercy

I ofthis o r that m an’s w h im ; i f it declares that it can, b y its o w n

1 means , del iver thought f rom an eve r harsher bo nd age, put it

I back on the path o f total und erstanding, restore its origina l

I purity , dien it is enou gh to ju st i fy its being judged o n ly by

I what i t has done and b y w hat rem ains to be done in ord er to

I keep its p rom ise. ’—and is ultima tely reduced to political

s i lence- ‘They asked me to give a report on the I ta l ian s i tua

tion in die “ G as ” cell , spe ci fying d ial I was to re ly upon

K Statistical facts alone (steel production, etc.) and especially no ideology. I could not . ’ 1

, Th ese dead ends il lustrate the fund am ental differenc e

■ between T za ra ’s use o f chance and B reton’ s . T za ra ’s w as car-

l : ried out as access to the cosm ic, to the total iden tity o f B ein g, >it subm ission, i f yo u l ike, to Na ture, w hilst B reto n’s autom atic

I w ridng, M asson’s com pu lsive cal l igrap hy , were seen as access

I to die human subcon scious , a considerable narrow ing o f scale

and possibility, far more humanist in its pretensions than

Tza ra ’ s w o rk , an appropr iation , i f yo u l ike , o f N ature.

T h u s , i f T za ra w ished to denude the human mind so that it

I played, oceanic, in the w ond erm ent o f innocence, Breto n, as he

■ States, w anted to deve lop the hum an m ind so that it rose to a

I s ituation o f im proved control and pow er . B reton ’s C o m

munism wa s therefore co ntrad ictory but inevitable. It fol low ed

I Rom anticism. Tz ara w as m eanwhile on the on ly firm pol it ical

I ground for art . H e was an anarch is t.

A rtaud said : ‘A n d i f th ere is one hellish , tru ly accursed

thing in our time, it is our artistic dallying with forms,

* instead o f being like v ict im s burnt at the stake, s igna l ling

I 1Quoted by Pa t r i c k w a l d b e r c in Surrealism, Thames & Hudson.

95



I t liroug h the f lam es’ . 1 N everth eless , despite their separate ■

intentions, objects were left behind by these desperate I

m agicians . T h e released Id , die progress ive sub ject iv ity o f art , |had produ ced abstraction; pictures, sculptu res, poem s that were I

best and m ost pro p erly en joyed as s imple material form s, which

w o u ld th en serve as fetishes o f im m ense p o w er and beauty. I

T h e C antos o f Ezra Po un d are often abstract juxtapositions o f j

language f ragments , exquis i te ly co-ordinated. The Viennese I

com posers Scho enb erg and W ebe rn, pass ing throu gh seria l

techniques , showed Boulez, Stockhausen and Barraque the 1 w a y to the ‘sound o b ject ’ . B ou lez sp o k e , v e ry m uch with

N ietzsche in m ind, o f the col lective delirium into w hich the I

i ■ , hum an mind m ust m ove , and contr ived this de lir ium by I

exqu isi te ly ordered w ork s .

- j l K a n d i n s k y ’ s pa in tin g , I th in k , best illustrates how re fe r- |

ence and de finition, rational tho ug ht and reasoned com m un ica- I

t ion b eing altoge ther aband oned , the coh esion o f unattached I

I

l ife and en erg y in system s o f aesthetic un ity can stand as I

I eviden ce to an area o f Be ing p erpe tually accessible, a com m on I

deno m inator am on g m en and things , to w hich m en can turn I

!r w hen attitudes de stroy them selves and reason curls w him per- I

ing in the desert.



I ----------------------- I V

I T he bible o f the subconscious is J ames Jo y ce ’ s Finnegan’s

I Wake—a bo ok w ritten not on ly about dream , in the langu ageI o f dream , ad op ting the voice o f a dream ing man, but also

I written fo r dream , a bo ok w ho se aural richness is lost if die

I multiple puns are approached an alytically, and wh ose puns

■ only open out pro pe rly into a succession o f concentr ically

■ lo w er in g image-nuclei i f they are taken autom atical ly . T he

only way to experience Finnegans Wake is to allow the

I relent less p atterns o f sound and syn tax to mesm erize theI perceptions in such a w a y as to make the puns accessible as

the lightning puns were made accessible by the delirious speed

I o f the radio program m e it ma. Thus, ult imately, the mind

■ expands and be com es the collective m ind o f all m en, as the hero

■ E arw ick er’s mind is indeed the mind o f Man asleep in a

((hapelizod pub. Jo y ce avoided the l im itat ions o f F reud ian, / g-J1

l i u r r e a l i sm by co n ce iv in g h is dream in J u n g i an te rm s . Bu t, ultimately his faith lay in Nature. Annalivia Plurabella, die

I green and fecund female river, wa s the antidote to the cripp ling lI guilt o f the Phoe nix Pa rk crim e. It was the Ro m an tic attitude

I granted a new technique by psy cho -ana lysis , a new signi ficance

I Imparted to the o ld j ingl ing patterns o f fo lklore and com m on

■ dpeech. T h e En gl ish A po calypt ic poets o f the w ar years ,

I Barker, Th o m as and G asco yn e , w ere v ery m u ch fo l lo w ers o f

Jo yce . T h e co m p lex ity and p ro fu n d ity o f Finnegan’s Wake, togedier with the fact that the ideas o f Freu d w ere am plified

and strengthened by those o f V ico , made the w or k less prone

to vulgarization than surrealism and subjective abstraction.

A fte r the Secon d W o rld W a r a vast n etw ork o f sm all galler-

I les spran g up thro ug ho ut the W estern capitals and abstract

a painting became a paying game. The squares decided to re-

■ establish contact w ith the alienated visiona ries b y defining

97



In N ew Y o rk , in the la te for ties, a nervou s hypn ot ic man

■ seemed to synthesize all the conjoining cultures in his unique

personal i ty . A heroin addict and a fam iliar o f the un derw orld,lie had som ething o f the hipster. T h e son o f an ultra-respect

able m iddle-western business fam ily , he had som ething m ore

of the hard-willed independent puritan aghast at the abomina-

| t ions o f his t im e, and ye t, w ithin that same puritan fram ew ork ,

i lie had an old-fashioned sceptical business acumen that gave

I him a quick nerve fo r the changing loca lit ies o f po w er . A

[ westerner , he pr ided h im self on his accuracy w ith a pistoland va lu ed freedom as h igh ly as W h it m an and W ild B ill

H ickock. A s a sensit ive and lonely ch i ld, he had, like W ill iam

Blake, seen vis ions and become curiously famil iar with the

I supernatural . A hom osexual , his consequent app roach to

I human relat ionships had the p sych olog ical insight o f a

Prou st or a G ide. Indeed his cold e ye and thin l ips gav e him a

I rem arkable s im i lar i ty to the latter . His vo ice, l ike P o u nd ’s ,I had the rasping, do w n-h om e tones o f the cracker-barrel

phi losopher . H is hu m our w as as sour and col loquial as M ark ,

Twain ’ s . He was , a t that t ime, known only to a handful o f

[ s tudents , A l len G insbe rg , J ac k Kerou ac , Car l Solom on , and he

I was, to them, a com binat ion o f m entor and m agical character.

He used severa l names. T h e real one was W il liam Bu rrou gh s . (

Ju s t w h ere B u rro u gh s ’ con v ictio n s lay in those y ears im -

[ m ediately after H iroshim a is uncertain, but it is clear from

I letters and accounts o f that time (fo r instance the famo us

I descript ions by Jack K erou ac in Timeof theGeek and On the( Roadand the notes to Ginsberg called TheYageLetters) that

I a m u rd e ro u s h atre d o f th e b o m b , o f H a r ry T r u m a n , o f J o h n

I Fo ster D ulles , o f the 'Time-Lifeorga nization, o f the m aterial-

I ism and b ureau cracy o f A m erican l ife , w as predom inant in

I his m ind. In this facet o f his think ing he w as the direct descend -

I ant o f H en ry M iller, N athaniel W est , Ke nneth Fea ring, Ke n-

I neth Patchen , a clear A m erican tradition o f m asochistic social

I crit icism . A lso it’s clear that his li fe wa s a m eand ering search

I for that t imeless spiritual l i fe where human communication

I was possibly telepathic and perfect and the strange planes of

I being in his chi ldhood vis ion s could be revisi ted. Lo n g before

the current psychedel ic movement began Burroughs had tr ied

I 1



and rejected d rug s as a means o f ach ievin g this . R ather did

his experience o f dru gs lead him to a bitter understanding o f

h ow the hum an m etabolism is subject to exterior con trols and I

ho w a man seeking vision and enlightenm ent becomes dou bly ]

pron e to those con trols. H e ultim ately reached a pitch wh ere j

no t on ly soc iety but N ature itself appeared as a confidence I

H trick, a chronic imposition.

C ertain ly the qu ality o f f light inform s all post-Hiroshim a I

A m erican art. T h e M om ent, th e p sych o p ath ic N o w in whic h 1

man was im prisoned wh en the future became im probab le, was I■ die launching point from w hich the creative missi les were I

hurled into chance w ind s w here they were played alon g like I

g l iders . N o w was the po int from w hich C harl ie Pa rker ’s 1

phrases w ere throw n in a Hurry o f sem iquavers and gritty I

■ inflect ions, spreading ou t l ike g l iding eagles o f lon g sou r notes I

o v er the subsequen t eight or twe lve bars. N ow w as the brush I

and paint in Jac ks on P o llo ck ’s hand and the place where ha Istood and sent his lariats o f D uc ol sna king ou t across the I

prairie canv as leav ing a trail for K line , M oth erw ell, Francis, I

H o f fm a n, S t il l, G u s to n , Ro t hko , and D e Ko o ning . N o w w a s I

j t i le New York f rom which Kerouac and Dean Mor iar ty I

(N eal C assa dy ) set out on those lon g fl ights to D en ve r and I

J San F ran cisco described in On theRoad. N o w w as the left I

hand m argin o f Ch arles O lson ’s typew ritten breath-lines as lie Iexpoun ded his dogm a o f project ive verse from the short- lived I

M B lack Mounta in Co l lege . N ow was the wo rd ‘W h o’ in Gins- I

be rg ’s saxopho ne-inspired How!, a repeated sy llab le that sends I

the Fe arin g-style paragraph -line spinn ing out through iis I

syn tax, losin g pu nctuation in the sheer volit ion o f f light:

I saw the best minds o f my generation destroyed by madness, Istarving hysterical naked,

draggin g themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking I

■ l for an angry fix,

angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection

to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,

who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up sm oking I

in the supernatural darkness o f cold -water flats floating across Ithe tops of cities contemplating jazz,

too

I



I who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Moham

medan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,

I who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars

o f war,

I who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing

I obscene odes on the windows o f the skull,

■ who cowered in unshaven room s in underwear, burning their

money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terro r through the

wall,

I who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo

. with a belt o f marijuana for New Y o rk ,

■ who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise A lley,

I death, or purgatoried their torsos night after n ig h t...1

insberg’s generation, the Beat Generation, adopted,

finally, the ba re-foo t, bearded m odes o f ‘existentialist ’ Paris .

■Their alienation, h ow eve r, w as o f a s ignif icantly d ifferent kind.

The Parisians were to be taken as intellectuals and were re

markable fo r the cultivated ste ril ity o f their feelings. The Beats

■W ere bewi ldered A m erican middle-c lass k ids who se pre

occupation w ith p hiloso p hy and the arts w as largely incidental

In their sym ptom atic del inquency. In fact it was here, amon gst

■ this gro up , that the del inquen t came to be revered not on ly as a

B a tu re liberated o f m ora lity and sup erego, but as a person

Hjlrhose w a y o f life served as a protection again st the m assive

public gui l t o f the Ko rean w ar and the H -bo m b. H e, like the

I Ilipster w h o se descendant he w as, sh ow ed an alternative w a y

o f life to that o f soc iety . G reg o ry C orso and R a y Bremser,

■therefore, excel lent poets though they both are by any stand-

#tds, w ere both adopted b y the g ro u p la rg e ly fo r their delin

quency and the special frisson which it created.

| T h e generation centred its l ife around a nom adic tribe w hich

■ ra v e l l ed be tween Berk e ley , D en v er , and C o l um bi a U n i v ersi ty ,

I * ’hh occasional excu rsions into Mex ico. T h e real centre o f the

K r n u p w as , how ev er , the W es t C o as t , where they se t up a

H'i imm unity in the seedy w aters ide subu rb o f Ven ice W est .

I Im portan t fig ures were G i n s berg , K erouac , who orig in ated

I * ALLEN GINSBERG, Hon/, City Lights.

IOt



the typical w r it ing s tyle , Co rso , Sny d er , W ha len and die hal f

legendary Herber t Huncke and Neal Cassady . A lexander !

T roc ch i , a lso , was an ear ly Ven ice res ident.

O n the W est C oa st the Beats did al l that the current com

m unity o f h ippies h ave done and m ore . T h ey exper im ented j

w ild ly w ith all ava ilab le d ru gs and set d o w n in te llig en t!

observat ions on their consequent discover ies . The drug wr it

ings o f G in sb erg ( ‘ It is electr icity conn ected to itself , i f it hath I

w ires/it is a v a st sp id erw eb ’) , 1 o f R o sen th aa l ( ‘H ero in is the ]

f ir st n ight in di is n ew se aso n . ..C oc ain e is the start le o f sun -1

shine on a turbulent se a . . .P o t is theater’ ) , 2 o f M cClure j

( ‘ . . .F o r day s i t l ightens the black inter iors o f the b o d y and i

lends an iv o ry cast o f s leekness and lum inosity to the

se n se s . . . ’ ) 3 are part icularly bri ll iant . A lso on d ie W est C oa st]

Beats painted action paintings, studied Eastern rel igion, !

yearned back, lik e the h ip p ies, to th e d ays o f the red sk in s!

(Brem ser : ‘ . . .d ro o l ing to turn you , M other Am er ica , back]

into/the one-t ime-great Sho shonee m agnanim ous squaw /toi

the decadent Indian p o et - lo st go d o f the p la in s . . . ’ ),'1 created!

the cool jazz style o f A 1C o h n , G e r r y M u l lig a n , S h o r ty R o g e r s , !

and pioneered the no w u niversal reading o f po etry to jazz in

public.

T h e y also, s ignif icantly, established a vital and fundam ental!

independence quite early w hen Lau renc e Fe rl ing he tti, another-]

excellent poet, set up his own shop and publishing f irm in

San F ranc isco, C ity L igh ts , and put i t at the disposal o f the

Beat community .

Behind al l the anti-academicism and the Huckleberry Finn

soli loquizing there was a very familiar objective. Michael

M c C l u r e w r o t e :

—A barricade—a w all—a strongho ld,Sinister and joyous, of indigo and saffron—

T o hurl m yself against!

To crush or

T o be a part o f the w all.. .

1a l l e n c in s be r c , Kaddish, City Lights.2I. r o s e n t h a a l under nom-de-plume H. Sheeper in Gnana magazine.3MICHAEL MCCLURE, M eat Science Essays, City Lights.

* n. BREMSER, Poems o f H oly Madness.

102



I Spattered brains or the imprint

o f a violent foot—

T o crumble loose some brilliant masonry

Or knock it down—

T o send pieces flying

Like stars!

To be the chalice of the hunt,

T o handspring

Th roug h a barrier o f white trees!1

Now w as the com m encem ent o f the fligh t perpetually re- j

comm enced. I t w as the Rom antic/Sym bol ist/Dad a/Surreal is t J

quest continued w itl i a big-sho uldere d fron tier panache and a L

bland Oriental clarity .

1m i c h a e l m c c l u r e , from The New American Poetry, ed. Donald Allen, [Is

I Grove Press.

Am

■

i li

I iiI



I hi

I X T ‘When will the veil be lifted?■ * When will the charade turn to Carnival?

I p , 1 Saints may still be kissing lepers,t j ICK It Is high time the leper kissed the saint.*

R . D . L A I N G

I 1I lie decline o f the anti-bom b m ovem ent in 1962 left us

stranded in the unbearable. The unbearable was now clearly

| visible. T h e one thing the protest m ovem ent had achieved w asto tear do w n all artif icial co m forts. W e kn ew for certain that

| governm ents had no thing w ha tsoe ver to do w ith the m oral ity

they preached and enforced, that society had lost its appetite

I for l ife and looke d forw ard to die death it had con trived (ho w

I many times had I stood on ord inary doorsteps w ith black and

( white leaflets, a rg u in g d ow n through the levels o f the deterrent

theory and linge ring patriotism until the ho use ho lder blurtedan g r i ly ‘W ell wh at d if ference does it make i f it does com e? So D l l

I long as we all go qu ickly the soo ner the b loo d y better I sa y’ ) , O

I that we ou rselves lacked even the w il l o f colonial dissidents, E l

that none o f us w as sufficiently alarm ed about extinction to jp;

H force the m urderers to put do w n their weap ons, that society C '

commanded nothing but contempt, much less dedicated labour

I or respect for law, that lov e, h on ou r, faith, selflessness w ere as M | HI false in ou rselves as in ou r elders, that the on ly ef fective thing to £ 1

| do w as wh at w e daren’ t d o - riot and de stroy the death m achine

I in a dem onstration o f serious protest, that the on ly thing w e

I coulddo was sit in humiliation and wait for extinction.

T h e question, then, w as practical. H o w best could one go

I about the business o f w aiting in hum iliation fo r the end o f

man? One could, to begin with, become more passive . YoungI people ceased to be ga rru lous . In scho ols children stopped

■ p layin g g am e s an d in d an ce-ha lls and c lub s f ew e r pe ople

| (lanced. A t all events one avoided w ork . Yo u n g people had

! worked hard against the bom b. T h e y had been snubbe d. T h e y

were not likely to w o rk again , except in the in terests o f their

own sensationalism. T w o passive peo ple are isolated from one

I another. W e becam e isolated.

■ io5



A n o th er th in g w e could d o w as live fo r sensatio n , as the 1

hipsters and the teds had, but w e cou ld d o it deliberately, 1

l ive for sex rather than love, for speed rather than safety, for 1

k icks . I t i s my exper ience that a l arge num ber o f tee n ag er s®

became then, and rem ain, incapable o f thinking m ore than half I

an hour ahead. Things l ike promises and responsible under- 1

takings, ho no ur, indeed a ny principles at a l l, are, o f c o u rs e ,®

impo ssible in minds so condit ioned. C learly , in a w ay o f life®devoted to the sensat ion o f the mom ent, drugs w ere o f con- 1

s iderable use and began to be used. T h at they m ay be ad d ict iv e®

or lethal was comparat ively i rre levant because such dangers®

belonged to the future and the future was, to say the least of 1

i t , not a safe bet, too improbable to be taken seriously into I

account. D om est ic ity becam e regarded as rather w ist fi il ly I

old- fashioned and, like the w o rld, tem porary.

A n anti-gestalt becam e prevalen t am o n g y o u n g p eople , an jinstinct to leave nothing complete, to half-close doors, to 1

half- finish letters, to d o three-quarters o f die w ash ing up, to 1leave the cinem a pa rtw ay thro ug h the f ilm, fo r an act completed

is an identity established, and an identity established is a rela- J

t ionship acknowledged, and no entity outside ourselves and I

ou r implicit instincts w as to be trusted. W h o cares to f inish ®

the bu i lding w hen all d ie ground is quicksand. W or k may I

som etimes p ass the time—no m ore.

F in a l ly , for f ive years w e had been pol ite ly in form ing !

government and public dtat their pol icies were directed to-S w ard s in con ceivable h o rro r far b eyon d d ie scale o f the p r e - 1

v io u s tw o w o rld w ars. H o w w e re w e to live w it h d ie t h o u g h ®

o f that horro r so clearly in ou r m inds, wh ilst kn ow ing that 1

our own indignat ion had proved impotent? Obvious ly an jaffectlessness had to be cultivated. M oral ity, pain and co m *®

passion, die wh ole business o f iden tify ing w ith od ier peoplo!and thu s sh aring and h elpin g dieir discom fiture, had to bo I

dissolved in humour, as it had been dissolved in humour by I

d i e so ld ie rs at Y pre s b lit he ly b a w l in g , ‘W he re ’ s T o m m y !

A tk in s? ’A n g in ’ on the w ire . ’A n g in ’ on the w ir e . . . ’ O ur j

means o f d oing this was the s ick joke.

A s to ry goes diat w h en a fam ous cartoon ist p roduced h it ®

re cur r i n g j ok e - n urse w i t h n e w b a b y con f ron t i n g youn g ®

106



i mother: ‘W ill yo u hav e y o u r supp er now or later? ’—it w as a

l ignal for him to be taken aw ay. Su ch h um our, in wh ich values

arc total ly negated, had been a sure sign o f certi fiable m adness.

S ick hum our was the hum our o f someone w ho w as ill, s ick .

Livin g with the bom b had m ade us a ll ill. T h os e m ost aw are

o f the bom b show ed the sym ptom s m ost c lear ly and used those

I kv mp to ms as a last ba nne r to brand ish und er the noses o f the

I Hquares as a syphilitic might display his chancres to a puritan:

I ‘ “ M um m y I don’ t l ike lit tle bro ther .” “ Shu t up and eat what

I you’re g ive n .” —Y o u see, we are i ll. IVeareill. Y ou l aug he d .

I Y o u ’ve adm it ted it ’ .

I Th is w as ultim ately the distressed and utterly serious

■ message w hich Len ny Bruce had to impart. A ve ry d ifferent

I tiling from the fashionable ‘satire ’ o f Private Eye and the

I Establishment, which had nothing to say except that the

I public scho ol/O xbridge c lan could no w use ‘sat ire ’ as an

I alternative career to the church , die arm y and b roadcasting.

I Com m encing as a sexual ly obsessed cabaret com edian w ith the

I diabolic charm, the im pro visatory genius, the perfect de l ivery . I

I and the heroin habit o f an archetyp al hipster, B ruc e’s cabaret

H act became increasingly a f lagellat ion o f him sel f and his

I audience, as ev ery single sacred, serious t i ling, ev er y single

thing held in lov e and rev ere nc e w as revea led as lost in d ie ^jjiJ

I winces that accomp anied his com pu lsive, self-abu sive situation

m onologues, and, indeed, his w ry and actual public sel f-abu se.His death w as one o f a lon g and s igni ficant line—Jam es Dea n, t I

Jackson P o llo ck , C h arlie P ark er, B illie H o llid a y , Fats N ava rro ,

M C liffo rd B r o w n , B u d P o w e ll, M a rily n M o n ro e , L e n n y B ru c e,

I Brian Ep ste in , Jo e O rton . .. casu a l t ies . ..

But the real burst blister o f s ick hu m our wa s W ill iam

[ Bu rrough s’ slaugh terhouse carnival The Naked Lunch.

I Since his ear ly appearance in N ew Y o rk Bu rroug hs had ven -| lured into Sou th Am erica after w on de r-dru gs, been deported

from Mexico, had stayed brief ly in London and Paris, and

[ Denied in T an gier s w here his heroin habit go t w orse. D u rin g

I the bad stages o f his habit and his con sequ ent with dra w al

through apomorphine he scribbled ceaselessly what was

taking place ‘ in front o f his senses at the t ime o f w rit ing ’ .

I I A llen G insberg , finding Bu rroughs in wretched c ircumstances

107



4 ■

in T an gie rs, gathered the fragmen ts from the squalid corners o f I

the room. They were eventual ly assembled to form a col lage m

nove l in which the paranoid fears o f withdrawal w ov e them- I

se lves into a fabr ic o f sado-erot ic hallucinat ion, a nightmare I

satire about the m anipulation o f hu m anity through the creation I

o f need. W ha t makes the free spir it prone to need and therefore I

m an ipu late is the crav ing flesh. The N aked Lunch is an angry ■

circus in which die s ick joke is not only a weapon against®

soc iety bu t against hum an ph ysical existence itself. Its I

implication is that we have been conned into our nauseous'®

vu ln erab le bo dies. It sets out to dislocate the m ental norm 1that keeps us there, in the flesh, by schizo id ju xtapo sition s o f I

humour, nausea and (this , l ike Francis Bacon’s paint-surface ,®

is its really extraord inary qu ality) an exquisite grace o f prose. I

It is unlikely that any previous l iterature has the direct*

physical effectiveness o f The N aked Lunch. A s F ran cis B aco n ’s I

Figure In A Landscape caused a schoolgirl to faint on the If loor o f the Tate G a l le ry , so The N aked Lunch actually caused I

at least one unp repared squ are to vo m it on the carpet and I

leaves the mind o f an yon e w h o reads it redirected sexually. I

It depicts the w orld and existence as a nightm are obscenity I

and it describes accu rately h o w w e felt the w o rld to be at that .1

point , the early sixt ies, when The Naked Lunch w as fin ally .^

publ ished.

T h e nightm are was shared and a numb er o f us described i t—®

R . D . L a ing in h is B ird o f Paradise, A ld en V a n B u sk irk in his I

O a k la nd p o em s , Chr i st o p he r L o g u e , Ed w in B r o c k , G e o r g e I

MacBeth, Peter Porter whose Annotations oj Auschwiq is I

sure ly one o f the best En gl ish p oem s s ince the wa r , Adrian I

Mitchel l , Wil l iam Wantl ing, Char les Bukowski .

A n d , as w e w ere m entally ill, m enta l illness itse lf becam e o f 1interest in a curious way. Schizophrenia was ill-defined. At 1best it m eant, means, som eone w ho w as isolated and therefore I

no t adjusted to the patterns o f society. T h e langu age was I

anyway familiar to art ists :

Smit h: W hat do you do for a living, little fellow? Work on a Iranch or something?

Jones: No, I’m a civilian seaman. Supposed to be high muckaflmuck society.

108



S: A singing record machine, huh? I guess a recording machine

sometimes sings. I f they’ re adjusted right. Mn-hm. I thought that

was it. My towel, mm-hm. W e’ ll be goin g back to sea in about—

eight or nine months though. Soon as we get our—destroyed

parts repaired. (Pause)

J : I ’ve got lovesickness , secret love.

S: Secret love, huh? (Laughs)

J : Yeah.

S: I ain’t got any secret love.

J : 1 fell in lo ve but I don’ t feel any w o o —that sits over—looks

sometlting like me—walk ing around over there.

S: My, oh, my only one, my only love is the shark. Keep out of

the way o f h im .. .1

N ot Becket or Joy ce o r Artaud two schizophrenics recorded

I chat ting in a N ew Y o rk m adhouse. I f the patterns o f soc iety

I centred around the H-b om b w as it not possible that schizo-

1 phrenia w as a torture d m eans to a fuller existen ce, to a life m oreI properly hum an, to com plete b eing? T h is echoed the

Ro m antic/Surrealist attitude to m adn ess, the vision o f de ~j(. I

I Sade, Van G o gh , Lautream on t , A r taud , a ll o f wh om were

I certified at som e po int in their de velo pm ent. R . D . L a in g , jfjji !|

David C oo p er and a num ber o f associates, began to approach

lliis point o f vie w throu gh their long experience as p ractising

[ psychiatr ists . C oo p er set up an annexe to Sh enley m ental § Hhospital called ‘T h e V illa ’ w here certi fied schizoph renics w ere j

I permitted to act out their m adness as fu lly as possible and arrive rr| |

I at a point on the oth er side o f the exp erienc e rather than be ing

I shocked and dru gge d back to the point from w hich they began.

Laing and C oo pe r d id extens ive derog atory analytic w ork on

I the fundam ental units o f so ciety , the lov ers, the fam ily, and

I the neigh bo urh oo d. T h eir perpetual gu ide in this w as the

phi losophy o f Sartre, part icularly his analysis o f B ein g-F o r-

I Others . Final ly i t was Laing who stated die posi t ion most

I lucidly:

‘When all has been said against die different schools of psycho

analysis and depth p sycholo gy , one o f their great merits is that

they recognize explicitly the crucial relevance o f each person’s1 j. HALEY, Strategies o f Psychotherapy, Crane & Stratton.

[09



experience, especially in the so-called “ unconscious” , to liis or

her outward behaviour.

‘There is a view that is still current that there is some cor*|

1 1 relation between being sane and being unconscious, or at least I

not too conscious o f the “ unconscious” , and that forms o f j

psycho sis are the behavioural disruption caused by being over* J

whelmed by the “ unconscious” .

'W hat both Freud and Ju n g called “ the unconscious” is 1

simply what we are, in our historically conditioned estrange*

ment, unconscious of. It is not necessarily or essentially un»

conscious. I am not merely spinning senseless paradoxes when I

I say that we, the sane ones,’

—in this case it was the delegates of the 6th InternationaBCongress of Psycho-therapy—

‘are out o f o ur minds. The mind is what the ego is unconscioiUj

of. JVeare unconscious o f our minds. O ur minds are not un

conscious. O ur minds are conscious o f us. As k yo ur self wh o and

w'hat dreams o ur dreams. O ur unconscious minds? T h e dreamer

w ho dreams our dreams knows far more o f us than we know of

him. It is on ly from a remarkable position o f alienation that the]

source o f life, the Fountain o f L ife, is experienced as the It. T h ai

mind o f which we are unaware, is aware o f us. It is w e w ho are)

out o f our minds. W e need not be unaw are o f the inner world. 1

‘We do not realise its existence most of the time.’

‘But many people enter it—unfortunately without guidef,

confusing outer with inner realities, and inner with ou ter—an(l

generally lose their capacity to function competently in ordinaiy

relations.

‘Th is need not be so. T he process o f entering into theother world from this world , and returning to this world from the

other world, is as “ natural” as death and cliildbirth or beinja

born. But in our present world that is both so terrified and so

unconscious of the other world, it is not surprising that, when

“ reality” , the fabric o f this world, bursts, and a person enters tho 1

other world, he is completely lost and terrified, and meets only!

incomprehension in others...

‘W hy do almost all theories about depersonalization, re *

ideation, splitting, denial, tend themselves to exhibit tint.

n o

__________________________________________________________



issymptom s they attempt to describe. W e run the constant risk of

I being left with transactions, but where is the individual? Th e

individual, but where is the other? Patterns o f behaviour, but

where is the experience, information communication but where

is tire pathos and sympathy, the passion and compassion?...

‘We psychotherapists are specialists, as they say, in human

relations. But the Dreadful has already happened. It has

happened to us as well as to our patients. W e, the therapists, It

■ are in a wo rld in which die inner is already split from the outer,

and before die inner can become outer, and the outer inner,

we have to rediscover our “ inner” world . A s a whole genera

tion of men, we are so estranged from the inner world that there

are many arguing that it does not exist; and even if it does exist,

it does not matter. Even if it had some significance, it is not the

hard stuff of science, and if it is not, dien let’s make it hard.

Let it be measured and counted. Q uan tify the heart’s ago ny and

ecstasy in a world in which when the inner world is first dis

covered we are liable to find ourselves bereft, and derelict.For without the inner the outer loses its meaning, and withou t h jthe outer d ie inner loses its sub stance...

‘When our personal worlds are rediscovered and allowed to

reconstitute themselves, we first discover a shambles. Bodies

half-dead; genitals dissociated from heart; heart severed from

head; heads dissociated from genitals. W ithout inner unity, X I

with just enough sense o f continuity to clutch at identity—die■ current idolatry. T or n body, mind and spirit by inner contra-

dictions, pulled in different directions. Man cut o ff from his ow n

mind, cut of f equally from liis ow n b o d y—a half-crazed creature

in a mad world.’1

A nd elsew here L a in g w ro te : ‘ O u r san ity is not “ true” san ity .

Th ei r madness is not “ true” m adness. Th e m adness o f ourpatients is an artifact o f the destruc tion wrea ked on them b y us,

I and by them on themselves. Le t no one suppo se that w e m eet

I " true” madness an y m ore than that w e are truly sane. T h e

I madness w e encounter in “ patients” is a gro ss trave sty, a

I m ockery, a grotesq ue caricature o f wh at the natural heal ing

1h . i). l a i n g , The Present Situation. Paper addressed to the 6th InternationalI ( I ingress of Psycho-Therapy and published in sigma Portfolio.

I l l



o f that estranged s ituat ion w e call sanity m ight be. Tr u e sanity I

entails in one w ay o r another the dissolution o f the norm al ego , I

that false se l f com peten tly adjusted to o u r al ienated social I

real ity : the emergence o f the “ inner” archetypal m ediators o f I

divine p ow er, and throu gh this death, a rebirth, and the even - I

tual re-establishm ent o f a new kind o f ego -fun ctioning , the I

ego no w being the servant o f the d ivine , no longer i ts I

be t rayer . . .

‘W e can no lon ger assume that such a vo ya ge ( s ch izo -■

phren ia) is an illness that has to be treated .. . Ca n w e no t see I

that this voyage is not what weneed to hecured of, but that it is I

itself a natural way of healingour own appallingstateof a/iena- I

tion called normality ?nT h at there w as a necessary era o f therapeutic lunac y at hand I

had lon g been an idea continu ou sly present iti Beat writ ing. I

T h e f irst pub l ic mention o f TheNaked Lunch w as in 19 5 6 1

w h en G in sb erg dedicated Howl to Bu rrou gh s with the joy ou s I

announcement that die ‘endless ’ bo ok he w as w rit ing wo uld I

‘dr ive everybody mad ’ . J ack Kerouac , even ear l ier , in Timeof I

theGeekhad com e to som e dis turbing conclus ions : ‘Eve ryb o d y 1

in die w orld has com e to feel l ike a g e e k . . .ca n ’t yo u see i t? I

C an ’ t you sense w hat ’ s go ing on around yo u ? Al l the neuros is ■

and the restrictive m ora lity and the scatolog ical repressions I

and the suppressed aggressivene ss has f inal ly gained die upper I

h an d on h um an i ty - ev eryon e i s becom i n g a g eek ! E v eryon e 1feels l ike a Zom bie, and som ew here at the ends o f the night , I

the great magician, die great D racula- f igu re o f m odern dis- Jintegration and madness, the wise genius behind it all , die I

D ev i l i f you w i ll , is running the w hole d i ing wi th h is st ring I

o f oaths and he xe s . ..

‘Y o u feel gui l ty o f someth ing , yo u feel unclean , a lmost I

diseased, yo u have nightm ares, yo u ha ve occasional vis ion s o f I

ho rror , feel ings o f spir itual geekishness D o n ’t yo u see, eve ry- I

b o dy feels like that n o w . . .

‘ I t ’ s d ie great molecular com edow n. O f course d iat’ s on ly 1

m y whim sical name for it at the m om ent. I t ’ s real ly an atomic I

disease, you see. But I ’ l l have to explain it to you so you’l l

know, at least. It ’s death, f inal ly reclaiming l i fe, the scurvy of

1 r . D. l a in g , The Politics o f Experience, Penguin.

1 12



I *

[ the sou l at last, a kind o f un iversal can cer. I t ’s go t a real

medieval ghastliness, l ike the plague, only this time it will ruin

I everyth ing , don ’ t you see?

‘Everybody is going to fal l apart, dis integrate, al l characterI Ntmctures based on tradition and uprightness and so-called

I m oral ity w ill s lo w ly rot aw ay , peop le w ill get the hives right on

[ their hearts, grea t crabs w ill cl ing to their b ra in s. . . th eir lungs

I will crum ble. But no w w e have on ly the sym pto m s, the disease

I Isn’ t rea lly under w ay yet—virus X o n ly . . .

‘L i s ten ! You know about molecules , they ’ re made up

I according to a num ber o f atoms arranged just so around aI proton or som ething. W el l the just-so is fa l ling apart . T h e

I molecule w il l sud de nly collapse, leaving just atom s, smashed

I atoms o f people , noth ing at a l l . .. as it was in the beg inning o f

I the w orld. D o n ’t yo u see, i t ’ s just the beg inning o f the end o f

I Ceneseean w orld. I t ’ s certainly the be ginn ing o f the end o f

I the w orld as we k no w it no w , and then there’ l l be a non-

I Gencseean wo rld w ithou t all the truck a bou t s in and sweat o f

I yo ur bro w . I l e - h e ! I t ’ s g rea t ! W h atev er it is, I ’m all f o r it. I t L

1 may be a carnival o f ho rror at fi rs t -but som ething s trange w i ll

come o f it , I ’m conv inced . ’ 1

It wa s the psy ch op ath, the ted, the m od , becom e p olicy. It J2'

■ w as the p o s t- H i ro s h im a e v ils str ip p ed d o w n a nd a c k- C l l

I now ledged. It w as the napa lm-scorche d w or ld. It w as the f il th

I o f our hum iliation and i t wa s the point o f cultural develop-

I ment at w hich all three p rev iou sly separate traditions o f po p, C

I protest and art began to m erge. W e heard the soun d G insb erg

I had prayed for :

Y o u r clean sonnets?

I want to read your filthiest

secret scribblings, your Hope,

in his most Obscene Magnificence.

My God! 2

1 j a c k k e r o u a c , ‘The Time of the Geek', from The Town an d the City,

Ityrc & Spottiswoode.• A l l e n GINSBERG, from ‘To An Old Poet in Peru’, from Outburst, ed.

I Tom Raworth.

■ n 3

^



1 ^

kno w ing I ’m part o f i t, caught r igh t in the m iddle , he lp ing to

change it al l and being changed by it al l at the same time.

‘R em em ber w h en w e were at s ch oo l. O h , don ’ t w orry , th e

school hasn ’t changed one l i t t le bit . The change hasn ’t gone

I that fa r. Bu t rem em ber d ie o l d c row d. M o ( h e ’s in N ew Y o rk

now ) w idi that face and die ha ircu t-al l s traight and f lop p y and

un sty led . A n d J e r ry ( h e ’ s g o t this p l ay com in g o f f in C ov en t ry

some time next year) w ith d iose b lack unused jeans, t ight in all

the wrong places, and that curly black hair al l over the place.

Rem em ber the ta lk a ll about Ten nessee W i ll iam s and Jam es

Dean and “ I w anna go to Am erica” , and M us ic wi th a capital

M, and b r ing ing C ul ture to d ie People and all that. Th e w ay w e

■ all took th e rise ou t o f th e P o ps an d th e P eop l e and P o l it ic s .

‘ W e ll, H o w a r d , n o w d ie r e ’s a n e w c r o w d . T h e n e w a r t y -

crafties are different. T h e y ’re sti ll the same terribly con scious

lot , get t ing a l l worked up over what ’ s happening . They ’ re

stil l the all brain and no sport, stil l looking and listening and

talking and laughing in al l the right places, but you want to

see the w a y they dress . T h e y ’v e g o t all t igh t in the righ t places

and their ha ir ’s al l sharp and w ell razored and the y’re as much

■ involved in th ings as the secondary m odern k ids . I t ’ s not jus t

looking and l is tening and talking and laughing any more. j

T h ey have g o t m ixed up in th ings , a ll invo lved. I te ll you i f yo u

lined this new generation up with the same age lot from the

j sec. modern, you’d have a job to te l l one f rom tother . The

superior a ir has got le f t behind. They’ve got their feet on the

ground. The capital letters for art and music and culture have

been missed out. You remember the f i f th formers, the old

■ te dd y b o y lo t w h e n w e w e r e in o u r la st y e a r in th e S ix th .

W ell, th is n ew lo t h ave ta ken o v e r fro m there. T h e y ’ re all

keyed up and w ith it all and in. F o r them ti lings ha ve becom e a

w h ole w a y o f li fe . I t ’ s D e B eat gen eration all E u ro p ean ized ,

w ith B an n in g th e B o m b and Jazz and D e p op u lar arts. A n d

the point is that down in the beer and piana bars and in the

jazz ro o m s they re a lly are m ix in g . H o w a rd , th ey ’re all r ig h t.’ 1

Perhaps the m ost im portant br idge , though , was ‘T h e G oo n

Show’ , a radio comedy programme that ran throughout the

late f if ties and w ent a lon g w ay tow ards p reparing the grou nd

1HAY GOSLING, ‘I Like You Full Stop’, Queen, 13 September 1961.

” 5



for the current hybr id sub-culture . Th e or ig in o f the G oon I

Sh o w and its curious hum our lay, I bel ieve, in Brit ish National I

Service . N ational Service in the t ime o f the H -Bo m b, wh en all ]

defence w as geared to m assive nuclear retal iation an yw ay , was 1

an imposed absurdity which Engl ish teenage conscripts sus- I

tained b y form ing their ow n sense o f hum our, a comb ination ]

o f corny music-hall com edy, the hum our o f En gl ish comic 1

papers l ike Dandy and Beano, hatred o f w ar and the officer 1

classes—the arm y is one place w h ere class distinction is im- I

posed b y law —and a w ild n ihilistic surrealist elemen t w hich I

derived f rom the absurd ity o f the arm y itse lf . Po l ishing boot- I

studs and painting coal black were, after al l , masterpieces of

Dada. The Internat ional Christmas Pudding rol led a long I

inevitab ly. W e all heard ou r B arrac k Ro om fantasies articulated I

and per formed p er fect ly by the Go on Sh ow team o f Spike 1

M ill igan (also a trad trum peter), M ichael Bentine, H arr y I

Secombe, Peter Sel lers and the bop drummer, Ray El l ington. 1

T h e G oo n Sh ow catchphrases and the G oo n Show' caricature I

vo ices spread into e v e ry b o d y ’ s con versation and p ro v id ed us I

all with schizoid subterfuge s, vo ca l disguises. O u r attitudes I

became inflected w idt B entine’s m anic hatred o f w ar and I

gov ernm ents (he had been am on g die troops w h o released die J

Belsen prisoners), with Spike M ill igan ’ s socia lism (a founder I

m e m b e r o f d ie C om m it te e o f i oo and the D i re c t A ct i on C o m - I

mittee) and his public conduct (a radio discussion on the I

nature o f hu m our when he sudd enly dried up and refused to I

spea k—an od ier radio interview w hen he claimed that the G o on |

sh ow farces we re an accurate representation o f the w orld —a I

fabled pu blic reception w h ere he sat on die steps outside and I

peppered die arriv ing gu ests w ith inane rem arks—the time he 1

sent his w ife a telegram ask ing her to please pass the m armalade). I

T h e G o on S ho w w as prote st . T h e G oo n Sh ow w as sur re alis t I

and therefore art , and the Goon Show was every National jServicem an’ s defence mechanism , w as therefore pop.

T w o alien traditions had tentatively com e toged ier. T h e 1

inf luence was widespread.

T h e chaot ic pa int ings and nove l s o f Joh n Bratby g ive a j

grap hic picture o f the w orld o f the Lo nd on art scho ols at this I

time. T h ro ug h ou t this w orld the prev ai ling m ood w as pure j

1 16



r

I (loon and the prevailing sentiment was anti-bomb. TheI trowning expression of both mood and sentiment was theB Comedy-trad of two bands, the Temperance Seven and the

I Alberts. The Temps, who started off with a brilliant freak-I clarinettist called Joey, finished up in the Top Twenty.The Alberts, far wilder than the Temps, with disturbing

■elements of genuine lunacy in their make-up, consisted of thei <trey Brothers and Bruce Lacey. The Grey Brothers owned an

extensive collection of Edwardian clothes and redundant windI Instruments, all of which Dougie and Tony could play with

HUsarming skill. They appeared on all anti-bomb demonstra-I lions and most Communist rallies, Dougie in Norfolk jacket■mill plus-fours, or white ducks and yachting cap, his cornetI midliis lecherous greyhound both on golden chains. WhenI they performed at Colyer’s, ravers staggered back fromtheI blindingexplosives flashing fromthe bells of the instrumentsI midthe sight of Dougie’s magnificent genitals hanging in

Splendour as he sat in kilt and tam-o’-shanter with pheasantL illume, blowing the guts out of‘Dollie Grey’, while ProfessorH mi c c v accompanied on the amplified penny-farthing bicycle.

Ileloretheir legendary San Francisco engagement (where theyI flopped miserably-‘Nowlisten mac, what the act needs is aI littlepolish’-and escorted a stuffed camel back through theI lost motels of the Western Desert) they performed their riot-

■:oils ‘Evening of British Rubbish’ in London and sank aboat1 Inwhich they were being interviewed by theb u g , or so the■Itory goes. Bruce Lacey made his magnificent bominoids,■lick, urinating, stuttering machines constructed of the debrisI of thecentury, always with pointed socialist/pacifist overtones

binwith a profound sense of anger, disgust and gaiety that goeslilt beyond any simple political standpoint. The hominoids,

I adio-controlled, began to appear in die act.Screaming Lord Sutch, with his pop-adaptation of sadisticI melodrama, Jack-the-Rippering up his volunteer victimto the

(bunder of steel guitars, took some of the Alberts’ lunacy intollierock-’n’-roll clubs. With his bid for Parliament he took the

Koine spirit into the General Election.Dick Lester, the director of die Beatles films in which Lacey

played, also the producer of films with Spike Milligan, the

'



m ■

1 Ka pro w , Claes Oldenb urg and J im D ine were by pa inters and

! were a direct developm ent f rom action painting. H appen ings

■ were s im ply three-dim ensional paintings in w hich the m ove-

I ments o f painter and public w ere incorp orated into the design.

I This obvious ly had a good dea l to do wi th the Cabaret Vol -

1 ta ire, w ith Jan co ’s m asks and B al l ’ s Corinthian colum n. B ut

I the existential difference between the Zu rich wartim e en viron -

I ment and the smart N ew Y o rk ga l le ry environm ent m akes a

B Mgnificant dif ference in the nature o f the w o rk , n o m atter

I what the art ist ’s intention.

T h e term ‘happening ’ w as quickly imposed on the w o rk o f a

tuimber o f people p resenting unusual pu blic events. It w as

applied to the s ituations by wh ich K en D e w y in A m erica ,

k Mark Boyle in England and Jean- Jacques Lebe l in France

■ provo ked their publ ic into act ing freely in a g iven en viron

ment. It was applied to the Sko ob T o w er ceremonies o f

Joh n L a th a m . I t w as applied to rail crashes engin eered b y W o lf V o ste l, to the b lo o d -o rg ies o f O tto M uhl, G u n ter B ru s ,

■ Herman N itsc li and the ir V ienna Institute o f D irect A rt ,

lothe Japanese Zero Dim ens ion G rou p and d ie ir erotic dem on-

B>|trations, to the didactic p olitical events o f die In ternado nal

■ S ituationists, the N ew Y o rk Black M ask anarchists and the

A m sterdam P ro v o s , to the m usical use o f actio n in com p osi-

■ fionsb y John C a g e , C orne l ius C a rde w a nd re c e nt l y S toc k-I Imusen, to Ad rian H enri ’s rom ant ic co llage-events in L iver -

Spool’sC ave rn C lub , to the coo l detached exercises o f R ob in

■Pageand the Fluxus Group with their murdered viol ins and

I llieir public defecation, eventually to wide-open l sd parties

wherepaints and noise apparatus were at hand for anyone to

play w ith , partie s w hich w ere the fore-ru nn ers o f the San

1 Francisco Be-Ins and the current mixed-media l ight shows.

[ M any ‘happenings ’ , those o f Ra lph O rtiz , G u stav M etzger,

YokoO n o , A 1Hansen and others , involved the principle of

■transformation by destruction. Create a sculpture by tearing

lip an armchair, a piano, a typewriter, your own clodies, and

mount die result as a foun d object . C learly wh en T h e W ho ,

pardcularly v iolent pop group, went berserk and smashed

lip their amplifying equipment, and that was subsequently

ff kept in as p art o f the sho w , w hen T h e M ove obliterated

1 19

I I



effigies o f politicians as they p layed , there was a close connec- J

t ion between the popu lar m usic w orld and the previou sly I

separate w orld o f art .

T h is w as no accident. W ith the w ork o f Lichtenste in and 1

Rosenquist , in which pop commercial images are presented as

found objects, a curious coming to terms with pop-industrial

culture had been attem pted. A rt stopped flirting with N ature, |

as it had since Rousseau, and decided to look its arch enemy, 1

mass production, squarely in the eye. Rosenquist said he

painted ‘ to stop the sky coming in at the window’. Lichen-

stein said he painted to ‘co m e to terms w ith ’ som ethin g he 1

‘despised’ . Bu t Lichten stein also wished to paint som ethin g i

un acceptab le to the fashion able art w o rld that had clustered ]

round action painting. H is paintings w ere intended as som e- jthing just too garish and nasty for the snob co llectors. T h e on ly j

one i t worked on was Peggy Guggenhe im. On the whole h i s

intention backfired. Lichtenstein was interpreted as a piece of

elaborate camp and was bought up. In England pop art re

discovered a kind o f w him sy o f the com m onplace in Peter

Blake ’s assemblages and David Hockney ’s gay i l lustrat ions .

Dodo, Tradand other shops up and down the Portobello

Road, which was , by now, a p lace where the three separate :

traditions could l iterally be seen interm ingling and m er g in g , !

follow ed as the outcom e o f pop art, selling fet ishistic bric-a-

brac for idiotic prices. Art , then, had moved towards pop.T h e m e m b ers o f T h e M o v e a nd T h e W h o , o f T h e P r e tty j

T h ing s and T h e R ol l ing Stones , w ere vast ly d if ferent , socia l ly

and p sych olo gically , from the hard-case rock ’n ’ rollers . I

Ex -art students , m any o f them, wh o came into pop by w ay o f

R & B , they had m emor ies o f anti -bom b protest , o f the

A lb erts and the T em p eran ce S even . T h e y k n ew about m odern

painting and sculpture, indeed their counterparts were alreadycreating the current schoo l o f En glish sculpture, sm ooth,

m echanist ic , brigh tly colou red and k ink y, so they con - j

sequen tly enjoye d an appreciat ion o f the modern m ovem ent as

a w ho le . T h ey brok e aw ay from tradit ional twelve , s ixteen and

thirty-two bar patterns . Th e y com posed their ow n increas ingly

sophist icated and im aginative lyrics. T h e y increasing ly ignored

the m istaken dictates o f m anagers and prom oters. T h e y intro- I

12 0



duced wild fashions which obviously owed a lot to the art

I school fancy dress rave . T h e y , with the ir fashion des igner

parallels, also from the art schools, took popular culture by die

scruff and w hipped it far ahead o f the square adm inistrat ion.

Pirate radio, broadcast from ships, islands and bizarre marine

I structures all arou nd the B ritish co ast, w h ipp ed the culture,

I significantly and for the first time, ou t o f reach o f the law. It

I should be made clear that dtere was n oth ing o f deliberate

■ protest abou t pirate radios until the extra legislation against

them. Radio Caroline, heroically remaining at the t ime of

w ritin g , im m ediately becom es an underground institutio n.

But init ial ly pirate radio was a purely and brashly commercial

H enterprise even thoug h it reflected exactly the speed, rhythm

and flavour of the maturing alternative culture.

Pirate disc jock ey s became trend-setters, kn ow n and reputed

as such, appointed by the public. In those wild days of 1963-4

■ they w ou ld appear at the Scene, the or ig inal m od c lub in

Ham Y ard , the premises o f the o ld C y Laur ie Jazz C lub , in

fantastic clothes, dy ed hair, m ake -up , dictating a ne w fashion I

and a new dance ev ery Satu rday night. Jo h n Le n n on ’ s l it tle ( ;]

■ p iece ‘A t T h e N evi l le ’ sketches in the c lub scene o f the

I period.

C arnab y Street bout iques opened w ithin a few short m onths. J '■

Tiny shops, run by kids making their own c lothes , opened a l l

■ o v e r th e c o u n t ry th r ou g h o ut 19 6 5 -6 . Vogueand Harpers w ere

strangers at these places. H igh fashion, ov ern igh t, began to I

look what it had always been, st i lted, pompous and si l ly . Only

Mary Quant among the squares had her ear to the ground.

■ Recently she said, ‘The Beautiful People are non-violentanarchists, constructive anarchists. They are tile real breakthrough. But I have been worrying about the way they dress.It can’t be called a fashion because it ’s old clothes, and it’s

alwa ys dep ressing to we ar clothes o f the past. W he n eve r I see

that happening I feel we designers have failed to supply the

answ er.’ She needs to w o rry. M ost o f her sensational lines so

far have been taken from art school jumble-sale fashions—

the daisy motif , kitchen curtain materials , granny clothes. . . .

Fash ion then, became an applied art. A s much inventiveness

and creativity was employed there as in the action paintings,

12 1



In the 47th minute of the final hour prostitution became un

necessary;

In the 48th minute o f the final hour all the road signs were altered

to g o !;In the 49th minute of the final hour all women’s magazines were

turned into semen;

In die 50th minute o f die final hour the B oy Scouts joined with the

Girl Scouts in a new era of joy and experimentation;

In the 53rd minute of the final hour Jesus Christ appeared on the

cover of Time magazine along with Donald Duck and J. Edgar

H oover . . . ’ 1

The Beatles were and are the biggest single catalyst in this

w hole acceleration in the developm en t o f the sub-cu lture.

T h ey robbed the pop w orld o f its violen ce, its ignoran t self-

consciousness , i ts infer ior i ty complex. They robbed the

protest w orld o f its terrible self-righ teou s d rabn ess, they

robbed the art wo rld o f its cod-ser iousness . T h e y ref lected

the scene from w hich they came, w he re all this fusion o f art ,

protest and po p had happened p rev iou sly, in m icrocosm , fo r ,

the w orld to fo l low ; so that A l len G insb erg, vis i ting L iver p o o l 1

a year after die Beatles left , was moved to pronounce it ‘ the

centre o f consciousness o f the hum an u niverse ’ , a statement

more percept ive than ex travagan t. In L i verpo ol , h ow ever , th e ■

peaked caps, mini-skirts, long haircuts, drugs, happenings,

collages, po etry readings and pop clubs generated a significantly

d iffe ren t a tm osphere from th at o f d ie Lon don Scen e. L i ver - H

pool is a roaring, seedy , w ork ing-class p ort . I t has som ething

o f the old red-no se La ncash ire com edian abou t it. It has die

crum bling grandeu r o f the nonco nform ist north. It has the

w h im sicality and d runken recklessn ess o f an Irish d ocker. It

lacks completely the ‘Swinging London’ feel ing, the KingsRoad, debby, two-seater , sports model e lement. There ’s

nothing toffee-nosed about Liverpool . Marcel Duchamp

once said that his li fe had been dev oted to rem ov ing the pre

ciosity o f art. Liv er p o o l w as the place wh ere his idea paid off.

A lrea d y it had produced B illy F u r y and C lin to n F o rd . I t w en t

on to produ ce C i lia B lack and G er ry and the Pacem akers

1pa n pr o ppk r from The Heats, ed. Seymour Krim, Fawcett Publications,i960.

I23



Ibesides the Beatles. Freddy and the Dreamers, a scatty sur-

■ realist group, came fromnearby Manchester. The so-called

Mersey beat was a Lancashire version of the heavily negroidTamla Motown sound. The Liverpool Poets, Adrian Ilenri,Roger McGough, Brian Patten, Mike Evans, Tonk, and theirmany local followers, formed a style for public reading withpop groups which, like the work of Milligan and the Alberts,constituted a sort of gentle music-hall surrealism. The music/sadre group, The Scaffold, thrived on alocal audience. John

Lennon of the Beatles wrote in a far more savage mood withpungent sick overtones and illustrated 1tis work with sophisticated little drawings. As The Beatles went their own way moreand more, dieir lyrics more and more reflected the Liverpoolspirit—‘YellowSubmarine’ is a perfect example. On the samealbumRevolver , the Beatles introduced influences of Indianmusic, electronic music, chamber music and brass band music,

a collage technique which is borrowed completely fromLiverpool pop art and happenings. ‘She’s Leaving Home’ and‘Eleanor Rigby’ both have astrong Patten influence. BrianPatten, the outstanding poet of the whole group, has moved onto a far more individual style. Nevertheless the religious nature

I of his recent work, derived frommeditation and i.sd , followsI ", a curiously similar pattern to that of the Beatles’ public image.

In i960 this poem o f A drian H enri ’ s wo uld have seemedunthinkable:

| | | Paul M cCartney Gustav Mahler

Alfred Ja rry John Coltrane

I I Charlie M ingus Claude D eb ussy

W ordsw orth Monet Bach and Blake

Charlie Parker Pierre Bonnard

I

Leon ardo Bessie Sm idi

Fidel Castro Jackson Pollock

Gandhi Milton Munch and Berg

iBela Bartdk Henri Rousseau

Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns

Lukas Cranach Shostakovitch

Kropotkin Ringo George and John

W illiam Burroughs Francis Bacon



Dylan Thomas Luther King

H.P. Lovecraft T. S. Eliot

D . H. Lawrence Roland Kirk

Salvatore Giuliano

Andy Warhol Paul C& anne

Kafka Camus Ensor Rothko

H Jacques Prevert and Manfred Mann

Marx Dostoevsky

Bakunin Ray Bradbury

Miles Davis Trotsky

Stravinsky and Poe

Danilo Dolci Napoleon Solo

St John of tile Cross and

The Marquis de Sade

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Rimbaud Claes Oldenberg

I Adrian Mitchell and Marcel Ducham p

James Jo yce and Hemingway

Hitchcock and Bunuel

Donald McKinlay Thelonius Monk

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Matthias GriinewaldPhilip Jones Griffiths and Roger McGough

Guillaume Apollinaire

, Cannonball Ad derley

Rene Magritte

Hieronymus Bosch

Stephane Mallarme and Alfred de Vignyi Ernst M ayako vsk y and Nicolas de Stael

Hindemith Mick Jagger Durer and Schwitters

Garcia Lorca

and

last o f all

me.

By 1965 such a poem was inevitable.

125



Ill

The point of viewwas stated with the greatest honesty and

clarity by Norman Mailer in his play, The Deer Park. Thehipster hero, Marion, has failed to allowthe girl Elena to killherself, has, in fact, permitted her to telephone for help when jhe might have prevented her.

ELENA

...Please call the hospital...Have themsend an ambulanceover here...to Marion’s.

(She hangs up)I’msorry, Marion, I’mso sorry, but I don’t want to stop, ](She begins to weep)(It is at this moment that the bomb goes off a hundred mile!

away- far across the desert. But the light through the windowis intense, a white shuddering light. Elena screams amiMarion does not move. He merely looks at his hands. When\

die light has gone, ared glowis left in the sky. Then he begin* Ito speak in a little private voice, a murmur away fromtliojdelicate voice of the sensitive gone mad.)

MARION

Dorothea, my mother, she made money frommen when Ishe was young, and I was her bastard, a passing gift frompassing prince, no more- because the salmon of his seed dill I

not have such a vast desire to gain the rapids of a janitor*daughter. Yes, I was her bastard, and I grewup while she wuMdoing her gossip column. The cruellest gossip column inllltfl

country. An assassin. She used to print the American flagnn| Ito her face. So I knewwhat it was all about. I mean I k.iic?Mearly. She wanted me to be a priest. I was to be her sacrilic'O®do I have to spell it out? I have this idea so deep in my head I

(Striking his forehead)that the center of hell must be in here, yes I have this idftfl

12 6



t il ing at the time, d aring, sexua lly and em otionally, w ha t would

( have been unthinkable in the fifties, when we still had our

polit ical hopes. A go od m any o f us w ere trying , l ike Mai ler,

1 1 | to m ove out o f deadlock b y breaking all taboos.

STit i l latory Nazism was by no means peculiar to Brady and

H ind ley. W e had all applauded and roman ticized the Am erican j

leather- jackets, particularly H ell ’s A ng els, w ith their swastikas

and cheesecutters. There were numerous Nazi overtones in

literary life, like the distinguished writer who sent his mistress

iron crosses and photos o f H itler signed by himself . Private

fantasy, o f course, but so w as l ife for B rad y and H indley until

I dle fuzz came call ing . W he re, in love and sex, does permissible I

fanta sy end as an inn ocent gam e and be gin as impe rm issible I

reality? H ad no t the surrealists taught us to follow the dream ? I

Besides this there was R o ge r M cG ou gh having a fantasy

girl-frien d address a valentine to Ian B rad y in one o f his poems.

There was the Glasgow tenement background which Brady

shared with the Scots who were so acdve in the London

underground, Trocchi , La ing , Te l fer , McCaf fer ty , McGrath .

T he re tvas the w ay in w hich Bra dy referred to ordinary folk

as ‘anim als’ , m eaning, sure ly, som ething ve ry l ike wh at we l

IBS meant when we talked about the ‘squares’ .

Fu rth er, i f B rad y had had a greater intelligence and a l iterary

talent might he not have written very much like Lautreamont?

Lautreamont, whom we had al l praised?

Besides this there was the Goon Show adulat ion. The I

reverse o f the scream ing tape was filled w ith G oo n S how s I

recorded o ff the radio .

T h er e w as the R om an tic pantheism, the m oo nlight trips I

to the wild moors on amphetamine and cheap wine, no rare

com bination. T he re w ere the overtones o f w itchcraft , cabbala

and bestiality.

T he re was the s ick sense o f hum our the graf t ing o f jo lly

Ch ristm as s on gs o nto the end o f the tape o f l ittle Leslie

Downey whimper ing , p leading and screaming; Brady ’ s I

rem ark, ‘H e’ s a bra iny b astard isn ’t lie’ , as he and Sm ith carried

the butchered E va n s u pstairs. Both ideas w o rth y o f the bestsick com edians. Jok es dtat not on ly said, ‘ W e are i ll ’ but also

said ‘W e are ill and so w hat. W e love it’ . I t was p recisely that

128

l » —



■catastrophe fe l l on the heads of Brady and Bindley , who were

less sophisricated and less prepared, who did not yet really

■ 1 know how v ic ious ly i l l they were . The ca tas t rophe fe l l , God

forg ive them and us, on the bodies o f their defenceless vict im s,

on the spoi led l ives o f the relatives.

A poet, w hen told o f th e first rum ours o f the iMoors

Murders, nodded and said ‘Ah, i t ’s started. ’

L ate r the sam e po et said ‘ Y o u see—there’s little do ub t, i f the

twentieth century is the twentieth century, Hitler was the

twentieth century polit ic ian. But when it comes to i t , you

ju st d o n ’ t d o th in gs lik e that.’

W h en Pam ela H an sfo rd Jo h n so n su ggests that B ra d y and

Il in d ley w ere d ie obscene emanation o f a w idespread s ickness

in society she achieves a m asterpiece o f understatement. M y

own convict ion at the t ime, a lbeit hysterical , was that Brady

and Bindley were the scapegoats , the necessary low point

that someone had to plumb before progress was possible .

A press p h o to grap h er I k n o w had to be ta ken o f f d ie case ,

ju t not on see in g the face o f B in d le y o r h earin g th e ta pes, bu t on

form ing d ie impress ion diat the crow d outs ide the Co urt of

Inquest at I lattersley stood there in envy rather than indigna

tion.

Pamela Hansford Johnson’s mistake was her d iagnosis of

the sickness, which is not a facile sensationalism with its roots

in com m erce, but a state o f dis-G race w ith its roots in the

com puls ive suic ide o f the species . T h e ob vious evidence of

this l ies in the very obvious fact that Miss Hansford Johnson

missed, that Brady was a footling amateur, a whimsical

eccentric , compared with any decorated, lauded us bomb crew

in the Vietnam w ar , that an y judg e and ju ry in supp ort o f one

and condem nation o f the other is the sickest jok e o f a l l, that i f

the Vietnam bombing and the H-bomb are a fa i r pr ice to pay

fo r the free t rade o f the W est and the surviva l o f Com m unism,

then o ur jou rn ey to the deepest place o f hell, tho ugh intolerably

exp en sive, did n ot co st so dear.

In the same year Adrian Mitchel l wrote :

On e : we were swaddled, ugly -beautiful and drunk on milk.

T w o : cuddled in arms always covered by laundered sleeves.

13 0



Three: we got sand and water to exercise our imaginative facul-ties.

Four: we were hit. Suddenly lilt.

Five: we were fed to the educational system limited.S ix : wo rried b y the strange creatures in ou r hands, we strangled

some o f them.

Seven: we graduated in shame.

Eight : W orld W ar T w o and we hated the Germ ans as much as

our secret bodies, loved the Americans as much as the Russians,

hated killing, depending on tile language in the Bible in die

breast pocket o f die dead soldier, we w ere craz y-diirsty for

W inston Superm an, for Je sus w id i liis infinite to m m y-gun and

the holy Spitfires, while the Jap dwarfs hacked dirough the

' undergrowth o f our nightmares—diere were pits full o f people-

, meat—and die real bom bs came, but they didn’ t hit us, my love,

r they didn’t hit us exacdy .

My love, they are trying to drive us mad.

Make love. We must make love

Instead o f m aking m oney.

You know about re jection? Hit. Suddenly hit.

Want to spend m y life building poems in which untamed

People and animals walk around freely, lie down freely

Make love freely

In die deep loving carpets, stars circulating in the ceiling,

People like honeymoon planetariums.

Hut our rime is burning.

My love they are trying to drive us mad.

Peace was all I ever wanted.

It was too expensive.


Half the people I love are shrinking.

My love they are trying to drive us mad.

Half die people I love are exploding.


I am afraid o f going m ad.1

* A d r i a n mitche l i., from Out Loud, Cape Golliard Press.

131



IV

H S ick ne ss w a s, th en, fo r m a ny , a w ill to en act so m e d efinitive

cerem on y o f violence that w ou ld spend the agg ression inherent

in the co llective sub con sciou s, exorc ise it and thus leave society

cleansed o f fear, with a clear w ay ou t for ou r over-accumulated

frustrated energies. S om e im pulse o f this nature inform s

Gustav Metzger , Ralph Ortiz , and the Vienna Inst i tute of

D i re c t A r t .

Sickness w as also, then, the confron tation o f tabo o, daring

the uncountenanceable only to discover that no harm is

don e—‘G o d has not said a w o rd ’ . Th e feel ing o f exhilaration

follo w ing the first act w hich violate s the prev iou s restriction,

the moment af ter leav ing the Church, committ ing buggery,

m aking love to one ’s ow n sex, wh en n ew areas o f freedom

open ou t limit less ly l ike vast m eadows. H ow Leo nard o must

have felt dissecting his f irst procured corpse, or Renaissance

dukes defying the Pope, or Masaccio painting his earthy,

naked A dam and E v e a fter the draped form alit ies o f the

Byzantine convention. The operat ion proves s ick when an

early triumph leads headlong into a later folly—marihuana and

cocaine into heroin, pederasty into child murder, sado-maso

chism into permanent harm, psychedelics into mutations and

so on .

But sick is also simply what it says, an il lness and therefore

undesirable. The most sinister possibility remains that the

subculture has merely found a different excuse for exactly the

same destructive drives as the so-called squares. This is a

broad view, cutting across all declared standpoints, based on

simple marked similarities.

It seems to m e h o w ev er d tat these sim ilarities, if they arc

sim ilarities, are constituted o f those elem ents that are sy m pto

m atic reflexes in respon se to the p os t-B o m b situation, rather

13 2



than the elements that constitute deliberate p sych o-th erape utic

m easures - that those elem ents are the self-app rop riated m argin

o f freedom w hich the hipster m anufactures for him sel f and

w h ich the alienated y o u n g adopted as a defence m easure, th e

m argin o f un involvem ent, d isengagem ent, a ffect lessness ,

‘c o d ’ . W e on ly rea lly resemble the squares in our defence

mechanisms, in our fear.

The cool element prefers the casual fuck, which is an exten

sion o f m asturbation, to a m utual sexu ality w hich impairs his

auto no m y; the cool e lement exchanges pass ion fo r mo vem ent;

the cool element rejects compassion as a burden, as psycho

logically false; the cool element is the element that responds to

Ja m e s B o n d ; th e co o l ele m ent fe els strength ened rath er th an

assaulted b y sick hu m ou r; the cool element w ears dark glasses,

I is faceless.

T h e cool e lement is a lso reinforced b y dru gs w hich produce

an even greater inviolabi l i ty . Alex Trocchi once told me he

first took heroin for d ie sense o f inv iolab il ity it ga ve him.

I f the cool h ipster is severed from iden tificatory processes and

thus from odier people ’s pleasure and pain, he is nevertheless

an athlete o f time. C o ol jazz m usicians sw ing m ore dian hot

jazz m usicians because co o l ja zz m usicia ns, their tone clear o f

v ib rato , unburdened b y a n y em otional nuance w h ich m ay

prolong their note unnecessarily , are more mobile around the

beat, w hich is , o f course, a measurement in time, and can

sw ing better because o f their temporal skil l. T h e same principle

applies to Cassius Clay and the Harlem Globetrotters. But this

in itse lf is an en slavem ent, an enslavem ent to action and time,

an over-awareness o f the c lock. D ru g s , a ll dru gs , even aspir in,

w ill sev er this. N o user is punctual. A ll users understand

perfectly their own time and their own events, provided theyuse the same drug. Events outside this awareness are severed

from them complete ly . The a larm system by which appoint

m ents, distribution o f en erg y, schedules, are m aintained,

, em ergencies met and suffering peo ple relieved , is silenced and

from the safety o f the si lence, r idiculed as ‘p aranoia ’ o r even

I ‘ fascism’ . T h u s a H atfield you th, on an i. s d trip, sat and

watched a b ab y d row n in three in ches o f w ater. H e m ay h ave ju st seen sp iders eating th rough the w alls o r a pterod actyl at

L



IIthe window. An experienced tripper, he knows that all before

his senses will pass, avoids the alarm which would signify a

‘bad ’ tr ip and ‘keeps his co o l ’ . Th e b ab y dies . A sim ilar d is location is im plied w h en D a v id M edalla says,

as he did recently, that he subscribes to the Eastern belief

that reality is an i l lusion. So does Burroughs. So do a good

m any others, althou gh , in their adaptation, the be lief is su b

stantially sentimentalized and coarsened. The point is that,

i llusion or not, it is an illusion we live by and is therefore

m ore real, in the sense o f being m ore vital to ou r self-ma intenance, titan an y m etaph ysical reality, m erely an enrichm ent

but not a necessity to our self-maintenance. By Medalla ’s

b elief l ife and death are o f no imp ortance, com passion is a

pathetic error, the bomb, by the logical conclusion to which

almost no one progresses, is your best fr iend. It wil l , after all ,

l iquidate ‘ i l lusion’ and leave ‘ inner truth’ unimpeded. Possibly

the gra ve st o f the psyc ho logica l gash es infl icted by the bom b isthe w ay in w hich the hun ger fo r regen erat ive spirituality

becomes discoloured into a vapid pseudo-oriental anti-

mater ia lism w hich says ‘ W h y w o rry about the w or ld and the

human species? They ’ re not rea l anyway. ’ ‘Let the bombs

fal l , ’ wri tes Joe Berke, ‘ the biggest bombs, and so a great

mandala will unfold, and in one micro moment, all that can be,

w ill b e ; and all th at need be stated, w ill be stated; and w estern

man w i ll have achieved full and everlast ing expression o f what

no longer need be expressed. ’ 1

T h e end result o f such a disengagem ent can be interpreted

as identical to the attitude o f the firm ly en ga ge d ; the rebels

can be held to be the same as the entrenched establishment

in a dif ferent guise . T h e dru g o f one is l sd, the drug of

I the o ther is patriotism ; the on e inflicts m utation on his

y o u n g b y l sd , the other b y nuclear fallout; the one, i f he’s

a Hel l ’ s Angel , roars through the border towns raping

and wrecking in motorized battalions, the other, with more

v ic io u s equipm ent, d oes the sam e th in g in V ie tn am ; the

one suffers from the faceless lov eless sex o f the psychopa th,

the other suffers from the faceless loveless sex o f the puritan,

anal-restrictive bo urg eois , the sex o f the P lay b o y C lub and the

* jo e b e h k e in F ire , Poets and Painters Press.

134

BPi i



I s tr ip sho w . T h e one courts N oth ing as a re lig ious princ ip le by

I drug s , the other courts N oth ing as a pol it ical pr inciple b y

I nuclear physics- o r so the argum ent can run. It ’s veh em en tly

I and coheren tly put in a recent pam phlet b y G . Le gm an —

I ‘Th e Fa ke R ev o lt . ’ Ce rtainly the obsess ive concern o f both is

I death and crue lty w hile both cultivate a s imilar affectlessness

[ and both, in A m erica part icular ly , share the same com m un ity

I neuroses, the aftermath o f pur itan ism.

But even in dteir ref lexes, even in their sel f-protective de-

I v ices, th ere are sig n ificant d ifferences m ark in g the rebels o f f

f from the squares. W e are not suff iciently orientated to Freu d

I o r L a in g as yet to be able to discount del iberate intend on. It

I wo uld be fa lse to loo k at the sym ptom atic diseases o f the

I subcu lture witho ut their being il lum inated b y the declared

I intentions o f the people invo lved , w ho have said with desperate

■ urg en cy again and again that they are concern ed fo r the health

I o f m an by the rem oval o f restr ict ion and the re-establ ishment

I o f ecs tasy as the p ivot o f l iv ing . T h ei r final cry o f po l icy and

I un derlying alarm, no m atter ho w it m ay contradict their

■ re lig ious ideas, is ‘B an the B om b’ . Th ere seems no lit tle

I indication then (being as object ive as one can wh en on e is

I sym pa thetic) that the affectlessness o f the rebel is , as I h ave

I said, the toleration o f a vast, profo un d and hon est alarm, and

I an alarm at no p rojected p hantom but at the fact o f imm inent

I nuclear destruction w hich the square p ersistently ignores.

I Aff licted by identical neuroses m ayb e, and with s im ilar effects

I on his psycho-sexual metabolism, the rebel is honest with his

1 aff l iction. He advertises whatever is twisting in his mind and

I testicles w ith a desperate ho ne sty. Fie says, ‘IVeareill. A d m it

I it’ . H is gesture and ho ne sty m ight even lead to pu blic m urder.

The square pretends, pretends, pretends. He rationalizes ,

I and rationalized patriotism as a drug merely serves to enlarge

I the gap between b el ief and self , between be l ief and truth. T h e

I rebe ls m ay burn ou t that gap b y sheer intens ive exposure o f

I the neu roses w hich constitute it.

Legman puts i t that such pol icy inval idates revolt . I can ’t

I speak too closely for Americans but I can only repeat that in

I England the fa ilure o f c n d looke d l ike d ie end o f ef fect ive

B revol t un less we were prepared to move , as d ie American

*35



Negroes were, to wholesale polit ical murder. Left with this

situation we could, as Burroughs advocated, dismantle die

destruction machine, disassemble society. This being the

situation, our very sickness and humiliat ion was a virus which

w e could spread. W e could spread it b y in flam ing it and acting

it out publicly, whereby squares could either recognize it in

us and them selves and cure it , cure this terrible destructiveness,

or they could contract it , have it spread widtin and amongst

them undl they w ere incapable o f human com m unication,

pu nctuality, hon esty, until all sense o f pro pe rty, identity and

m orality w as dissolved . A desperate measure and one wh ich

required our own self-sacrif ice. This, I believe, is what society

is n o w w itnessing. I f the squares w an t to stop the rot , save

their children and believe in their society there is one and only

one utterly indispe nsab le first step—nu clear disarm am ent at any

price, whatever the risk to the nation.

I36



A T The atmospheric colours have changed from' * negative to positive when disaffiliation from

I m i the original majority is discovered to

1 I1C constitute affiliation to an international W minority holding more internal

L J 11 Cle r P T O l 1t l cl understanding and cultural power dian anyO government or group o f governments.

I H May 196'5. They havebeen bombingNicosia. Criton shows me

I his drawings. Why are Criton’s curtains always closed? You | leaveBallard’s Laneat Finchley Central, you say ‘hello’ to the| newsboy on thecorner who you once taught. Hegrins. Old Nutty I don’t changemuch, do ’e?

You walk down theroad and over thebridgeand you see this court ofpost-war jerrybuilt flats, theexposed plumbing, theraw

1 brick and tile, thebourgeois pretensions of front gardens(unkempt,

carryingfragments of sweet wrappers, bus tickets, on thesodden I stumps of flowerbeds—maggots in therose) and thestained glass I front doors and windows. And Criton s flat, in theother used

open familyflats, is closed likea blindface. Curtains drawn. Will heanswer thedoor? Is heill or dead? Is theblindness of thehouse

I thesameas his eternal blandness—Criton s irremovablegrin set I likea garden gate across his violated sensibility.

Heis home, grinning. Heshows mehis drawings. They areI much better than his previous work. The pedestrian, self- I conscious cubist-pacifist designs arestill visible, stacked in a I corner of his studio. Thesenewdrawings twist in a summary of I shock—oneline, wiry, poised, feeling its way alongthecontours I of the bombed, terrified figures. The drawings areformally I ambiguous—a disconcertinguncertainty about whether volumeor

I recession is described—you can read thelinetwo ways too often.■ Often thedrawings aregrotesquely erotic, with a kind of berserk

I sarcasm. Criton talks guardedly. Hewants to get us all together.I Heserves tea and biscuits. Heis going to invitemeto a meeting, I an exhibition, a party. Heis workingwith DaveTraceand an K architect friend. There’ll bea meeting-exhibition at his pad.

There’ll bea maquetteof his planned environment, an extension

I of thesTigma. There’ll bea book to describeit. There’ll beIssueI Two ofAmaranth. Hewants somethingfrom everybody. Yes,yes,

137



11' I

sureCriton. I havethis urgeto go away from Criton. I’ve had it for two years. Thewholedamn project is directingmy dream. My

dreambelongs to my preserved otherness from things, God, nature, all men and most women. My dreamis aimed, I suppose, at God but ifit wereto turn in another direction/ wouldn’t stop it or haveanyoneelsedeterminewhich way it is to face. Criton pulls at my dream, hepulls mefrom women, hecompetes with my family- life likethejary band used to, likeCND used to.

JVesit and drink tea. Thereis this cold polished surfaceon

( what Criton says—no humour, no irony, except that ineradicable jgrin ofgoodwill in themidst of his pride.

/ agree with Criton. Our ideas coincide. CND failed. The !

sTigma failed. Thefacts arethere. JVemust do what littlewestill can. But weface oneanother over tea and as I undertaketowritefor Amaranth, to provideconstructions for theexhibitions, to attend themeeting, my sensibilities turn away. IV ?part, having

madeextensiveplans, with no common feeling. Back up thehill. Finchley Central. Cra y.

In 1962 I went to Salzburg, a long way on a dul l tra in. No

buffet . N o bar . N o other En gl ish-spe ak ing person. M y first

hours a lone fo r any length o f time since chi ldho od. I w ent to

Sa lzburg wi th a c n d badge on, and on the way back, at one

fixed point along the night journey, I quite f irmly saw that theCampaign had fa i led, that I must use the bomb as an evolu

t ionary spur , and I took m y badge o ff.

It was all nowaquestion of becoming, of acceleratingevoludon beyond the point of special suicide. And I had toexplain all this to Criton a fewshort weeks after my returnthe first meeting with Criton, the first meeting between us.

We may not have met if Currel-Brown hadn’t gone toGloucester. Currel-Brown wrote his letter to Peace News inthe previous July: ‘I would like to contact a few PeaceNews readers who share my concern. I shall be as brief as possible asI have a feeling that all this has been discussed in your columnsbefore.

‘ I bel ieve that art is not a small remote comparunent of

human experience, l ike croquet or spider-watching, but a vital

activity, a communication to al l men about, for instance, l i fe

138

I -



P and death, good and evil , war and peace within and without

I the individual. Th e im agination can be at least as exp losive a

■ pow er for peace, lov e and individual ism as an y there is for1 war and op pression , as ev ery d ictator has had to k n ow .

‘Bu t in the con tem porary art w orld it is ve ry unfashionable

I to be “ com m itted” even in the broadest sense. W hile this can

I be seen as an am ply justified revu lsion aga inst wh at has

■ happened, fo r instance, in C om m un ist coun tries , it saddens

H me that w hen thousands o f p ic tures are so ld in Lo nd on eve ry

I year, w hich are concerned so le ly w ith “ texture” and “ tens ion”I and similar pu rely technical prob lem s, the on ly “ com m itted”

■ Works w h ich are at all w e ll-k n o w n are a few cartoon -lik e varia-

■ t ions on a theme o f m ushro om cloud s and crosses and em acia-

| ted, sculptured m archers.

1

‘Great gal loping rampaging imaginat ions are needed to

Create an idiom as all-embracing and as hard-hitting as the

Dada m ovement dtat took organized soc ie ty by the scruf f o f■ the neck dur ing the F ir s t W or ld W ar . T h e y m ust com bine the

■ ruthless honesty o f Franc is Bacon w ith the v is ion o f re lig ious

I painters; they m ust shout and sho ck and p ray and n ever resign

■ the m s elves to A r m a g e d d on.

‘I am , at present, painting w ith such thing s in m ind and

I wo uld l ike to contact three or fou r art ists , amateur or o ther-

■ w ise , to w ho m these ideas appeal w ith a v iew to an exhibition■ in Lo n do n in , say , s ix months time . A large proport ion o f any

■ profits could be g iven to the Co m m ittee o f ioo and to O xfam ,

ft and the exhibition would be as large and well-advertised as

■ possible. A statement o f basis o f the grou p m ight be publ ished.

I W ould an y one in terested ple ase w rite to m e at this ad d ress.’ 1

I answ ered the letter and a second letter be fore go in g to

■ Sa lzburg . I had a hundred or so b ig pa int ings , seven nove ls■ and a num ber o f sculptures piled up in m y studio. B on d Street

■ and straight pu blishing had rejected m e th oro ug h ly and re-

■ peatedly and I had, b y n ow , rejected them. T h e letter seemed

I to indicate w here and ho w I w anted m y w ork to reach a public .

■ W h e n I g o t b ac k f ro m S a lz b u rg I w a s n ’ t s o su re . W a s ‘ co m -

■ mitment’ go ing to he lp m e to jump o f f d ie end o f the l im b, or

I was th at jum p in itse lf a com m itm ent?

1From Peace News, 13 July 1962.

139



the shriek I wanted to smear across the public face? Criton

w as all v irg in ity and sile nce. H e excused h is o p tim ism co n tin u

ously l ike an eager student. He was anxious to please, eagerand hum ble. I could explain m y po sition and describe the twist

ing pain in my skull to Criton and he would say ‘yes ’ because

he was intel l igent and more than art iculate but he wouldn’t

and couldn’t understand. Not with an innocence as wide and

seemingly invulnerable as his .

W e m easured th e cry p t, m ade o u r flo o r p la ns, d raw in g s,

m aquettes and scale mod els . T h e V icar o f St Mart ins too k onelook at ou r ideas and said, ‘T h is is not fo r S t M artins ’—

sanctimonious nasal voice, music-hall vicar.

Something about Cr i ton ’s ideas angered me, b ig dumb

roun ds o f plaster—silence, alw ays silence. It w asn ’ t an aesthetic

ism that avoided the point . It wasn’t the student immaturity

o f his v is ion and technique. I t was , and rem ained, som ething

to do with the bland guilt less Apollonian spirit that informedhim. He seemed informed b y the idea o f ev eryth ing and n ever

by i ts physical presence. As Mozart a lways unfai l ingly makes

me w ant to smash things , so C r iton ga ve som e savage impetus

to m y ow n ideas for the exhibition.

W e sent the fo lio o f id eas to B rya n R o b e rtso n at the W h ite

chapel. H e ignored it. It became o b vio u s that he intended to go

on ignoring it after he’d had it a year without reply. I said,

‘Let ’s do a magazine. Keep us occupied unt i l we do the show’ .

I had just dupl icated a bo ok o f poem s w ith Ke ith M usg rove . ■■!

T h e possib il it ies o f dupl icat ing (m imeo graphing) yaw ned

invit ingly . I turned out My Own Mag: a Super-Absorbant

Periodical in N ovem ber 1963 , as an exam ple o f the sor t o f

t il ing w e m ight do. M y intent ion w as to m ake a paper exhibi

t ion in words, pages, spaces, holes, edges, and images which

drew people in and forced a v iolent involvement with the

unalterable facts . T h e m essage was: i f yo u w ant to exist yo u

m ust accept the flesh and the mo m ent. H ere the y are.

The magazine, even those f irst three pages, used nausea and

flagrant sca tolo gy as a violen t means o f presentation. I

w anted to m ake the fundam ental condition o f liv in g u n

avoidable b y nausea. Y o u can’t pretend it’s not there i f y o u ’re

throwing up as a result . My hope was that a pessimist ic

14 1



Bradley Mr Mart in s tood not only for Lef t and Right po l i t i c -

■ a l ly , but fo r le ft and r igh t ph ys ica l ly , n o t o n ly fo r E as t and

W est p o lit ica lly but fo r east and w est p h ysica lly , not o n ly

; for right and w ron g but for goo d and bad. T h e composite

l f igure BradleyMartin and the hi larious replica sequence

I " H i satir ized all opp osi tes and dualit ies b y wh ich man is trapped in

I space, t ime, in both existential and sociological identity,

i O pp osites are l ing uistically defined. D isso lve langu age , said

| B urro u gh s, and opp osi tes dr i ft into harm onious un ity . M an

[ lias been cheated o f oneness . H is w a y back to i t w as b y the

r dissolution o f langu age, the dissolution o f definition, the dis-

1 so lut io n o f in d iv idua l iden t it y an d th e fo rm atio n o f a so cie t y

' w ith one ha rm on ious mind telepathically info rm ing all bod ies

1 in an interminable li fe out o f t ime. ‘ Jun kies o f the w orld

I united on a str ing o f rancid j issom ’ , said B urro ug h s, per-

I v e rse ly g u y in g h is o w n concepts. I f the R o m an tics believed

| m an’s prov ince w as the sublim e, Bi ll Burro ug h s bel ieved,

I believes m an’s prov ince is the sublim inal. It wa s a logical

f extension o f the surrealist b elief in the greater reality o f dream , ;

o f T za ra ’ s ons laught on the convent ional concepts o f rea lity ,

I o f de Ch ard in ’s be l ief in the consol idated N oo sph ere, o f

! D u n n e’s b elief in the i l luso ry nature o f t ime, o f die ancient ,|

comm unit ies o f the M ayas w ho ex is ted in a comm on consc ious- 3

I ness precipitated from the G o d s thro ug h the priests, o f the

I ego-di sso lution o f Zen . B urrou gh s in fact was not on ly say- t j

ing , ‘Y o u m ust become G od by di sso lv ing yo u rse l f into t ime- t*X

lessness— otherwise you per ish as a spec ies by yo u r ow n hand’

I —he w as also prepared to force , co ntrive and trick peop le into

I the dissolut ion o f self . He w as prepared to do the disso lving:

1 ‘T h e Hu m an B eing are strung lines o f w ord associates that

I control “ though ts feelings and apparentsen so ry i m pressio n s” .

Quote f rom Encephalographica l Research Chicago Wri t ten

E

1E . See P age 1 5 6 Nak ed L un ch Burro ug h s . See and

hat T h e y expect to see and hear because T h e W ord

k e e p T h e e I n S l o t s . . .



you write or a letter or a newspaper article or a page or less ormore of any writer living and or dead...Cut into sections.

Down die middle. And cross the sides...Rearrange the sections... Write die result message...No one can conceal what is saying cut up...You can cut

The Truth out of any written or spoken words//Cut up and spray back of all minds living...The human are

being strung lines of In when you cut it up...No one can con Cut Up...Cut your own where...Humans

are struction to diought feel all minds...Cut the’1The first step then was the dislocation of the word, the mainline of power control. A writer, Burroughs was well situatedto sabotage language. The irony when critics take a Burroughscut-up and ‘expose’ its ‘lack of literary merit’ is rich indeed.Rather like criticising a murdered corpse for not beinghealthy.

The cut -up method, a l ready announced in Minutes To Goand TheExterminator, two Underground book le ts , a l ready

dem onstrated at the Ed inb urg h W riters ’ C on ference organized

by John Calder in 1962, a l ready const i tur ing large sect ions of

die novels TheSoft Machineand TheTicket That Exploded,

w as first launched as a p ro gram m ed assault on reality in die

M o v i n g T i m e s se ctio n o f My Own Mag.

Juneic / 65. /It themeetingtherearea lot ofpeople1 don’t know. 1 don’t knowthegirl with pink trousers. I think she’s close toCriton. I hopesheis. If Criton gats his oats moreoften, or at all,

I might get closer to him.Outside Criton s flat theeveningis warmand mellow. A

liquid golden light drowns the valley of red-roofed suburbs between Totteridgeand Ken Wood. I amin loveand ashamed oj it. My control has gone. Does Criton understand this ? Will hel Can he understand that this kind of love dismantles your machinery likea habit ? That1 can makeno promises l

Wilcocks is thereand Bruce Lacey is thereand John Lathamis thereand John Rowan is there. TheMusgroves haven’t come. Neither has Trocchi or Cohen or Watkins.

W: sit round and talk. Criton shows his drawings, his plans 1 WILLIAM b u r r o u g h s , The Exterm inator, Auerhahn Press.

14 4



and his maquettes for his environment. IVehaveseen theflat which has itself been madean environment for thepurpose of the

meeting. Violent constructions stand in thecorners with sarcastic littleplastic ornaments distributed over them. IVediscuss thequestion of money for Criton s project. It involves a multistorey building, would cost thousands. I quell my anger at theold pro-tective trick : plan outsideyour pocket if you want to avoid beingeffective.

Theplan carries out all that Criton felt lackingin thesTigma,

themoral seriousness, thewit, theconfrontation with self and nothingness rather than with theplethora of nausea wehad con-structed in Better Books basement. It illustrates theeloquent and architectural useof space and proportion rather than theangry claustrophobic impositions of the sTigma. I avoid a central position in thediscussion. I still fear that my ebulliencewill offend and disrupt theteam. I haven’i yet clarified in my mind that thedisagreement in thesTigma came from our workingat cross purposes. Criton, Wilcocks and I weremoralists with CND backgrounds. Theothers wereantimoralists with no background of social protest. As Criton talks on1 wonder howto tell himthat he is avoiding

action, that ultimately he’ll beconfronted with thevapidity ofhis own idealism.

Then I makemy excuses and get out. I want to swimin guilt and eveninglight. I want to get drunk.

Burroughs sent his f irst testing letters from Tangiers. In the

bit ter w inter o f 1964 he came to Lon do n. H e wa s s topped at

the customs and his visit was l imited to fourteen days, no rea-

son g iven . I w ent to meet h im. T h e hote l in Baysw ater w as asu nrem arkable as a W im p y bar. Th e ro o m w as w h at y o u ’ d

expect . A pale b o y came in partw ay through ou r conversation.

He looked younger than he was, had button eyes and a button

nose. He was i l l with junk.

A n o th er frie nd cam e in —T o n y B alch . T o n y and B ill ta lked

abou t film s . T h ey w ere u n im p ressed b y J ac k Sm ith ’ s Flaming

Creatures— T o n y h ad seen a B rakh age b ir th film a t Kn o kk e ,was enthusiast ic . He had passed out watching i t . Both were

v e ry concerned fo r sub lim in al effect—the dir ect im pact on th e

145



n erve , the dislocation, redirection o f the neu ro-psych ological

com plex. M cLuh an militant . T h rou gh the casual dr i ft o f the

conversation Bi l l interspersed testing, hinting remarks, nudg

ing me tow ards an un derstanding o f wh at he was do ing wi th

c u t u p , ‘ Th e w h o le d a m n d i i n g - c u t u p - e s t a b l i s h a s c h i z o

phrenic relationship with a typewriter ’ . He spoke ell ipticaliy,

I H i s h y l y . H e w a s c are fu l to see th at h is sen te nces rea ch ed y o u r ears

in fragments. He perpetually dealt in clues and hints, never in

explanation. I t seemed som ething o f an irr itat ion to him to

have to communicate verbally at al l . His stoop, his thinning

hair , his thickening impassive businessman’s face dissolvedperiod ically in the force o f his t iny p ebble eyes and the

m ob ility o f his exqu isite lips and he became a creature o f un-

^ H n e r v in g p u r it y a nd e n e r g y , a q u ic k silv e r th in g , all n erv e,

w eigh tless. In narested in —M ag—n o osp ap er fo rm at— col-

um ns—juxtapo sition—headlines. C ou ld take a w a lk- re co rd in g—

w h at I call innersection point—an’ y ’ ha ve a little picture—M ight

be —u h -stree tco rn er—nam e o f the street . O n y ’ go —get on abu s—L itt le picture, nu m ber o f the bus—R ec o rd ing , recording. J

T h en cut it up, grid it, shuffle it , fold it in. Fe ed it b ac k. ’

C o u p lin g this w ith a later un de rstand ing o f the intersection j

point indicates the hard fact that for Burroughs die passing

events o f time w ere t imeless . A horizontal wa lk do w n an ordin-

. : ar y street w as fo r him an un altering existence , perpetually

s im ultaneous ou t o f time, uncontinuing.‘—A ll g o —p u b —drin k m ayb e—’ , and so w e w en t. Th er e was

floral w allpap er up the stair w ell . W or d lessly w e passed down ]

the stairs , out into a co ld, clear night. A b o v e the amputated I

trees in the squ are the stars we re lik e spilled sh erbet. I had u

terrible q uick sense that I wa s losin g them. T h e saloo n bar wan 1

■ fu ll o f w h a ck s b ur blin g o v e r jo lly pints o f E . W e fo un d a tablo I

in the public bar. T h ere w as a lot o f brigh t glass and a dart Igam e. M y custom ary sent im entalization o f the crow d ran on I

^ H I to v e r y d r y g ro u n d . ‘ F T in s ta n c e- p ar ty . H a v e a p ar ty , ’ jo y I

y e rse lv es . E v e ry b o d y com es, w rites an accou nt o f the evenin g I

to come. Tape record the evening. Cut accounts in with tape,

gr id , shuff le , see wha t com es u p . . . ’

T o n y and Bi l l talked on . I started to ge t dru nk , amiable

pu pp y drunk. W hen I asked B il l i f I cou ld buy h im another I

14 6



nd It he said, ‘Y e s, I w ant m ore’ , like that—sort o f old-

>ned. A plain d ry statement o f a physical fact,

go t drun ker , p i ling dow n pints o f sentim ental ity .

>ughs’ person ality cut across m e l ike a diamo nd,

e left . T h e b o y wen t to the hotel. W e chose the drabbest

e egg-and-chip cafes a long Queensway, went in and

ed a meal . By now I was e f fus ive and a l i t t le maudl in,

to the lavatory, walked into the Ladies, came back and

a loud b eery jok e abou t it . W ent on to c lum sy chat about

•s and drag shows. Burroughs nodded, played me a long

f. Ba lch w as bent o ve r w ith hi lar ity and em barrassment,

sengaged observer in my brain who never never gets

k but a lways watches for fun was impressed by die

igence o f Bu rro ug h s’ tolerance and a l ittle sadistically

ied at Balch’s discomfiture. Balch and the boy had bodi

ny grammar school b lood up a l i t t le with their Senior

1 drawls. I was half-determined to be as gauche and

1 as p ossible.

e f inished the meal and split . I shook Burroughs’ hand

lly. I fe lt con siderab ly hono ured . I think I said so. I m eant

hen I w ent and dran k m ore in the gr im y bar at the top o f

water T u b e S tation . A n old w o m an m uttered to h erse lf

he l igh ts sw am in the beer. M usic. T w o short mon ths later

wned on m e fu lly w h at B u rro u g h s w as attem pting. It

ike the earth open ing un der yo u r feet.

her i<)65. Thereis a special peculiar atmosphereto theser Books functions, a sort of curious mixed atmosphere, Quaker, part Anarchist, part decadent. Thecrowd usually Usof idealisticfigures in publishing, up and comings, ami-

ootheads, oneor two celebrities, and a rash of kids of all

sexes.'.ereis always a lot of cheap red wine, chat in theupstairs

and somethinghappeningin thebasement. This timetheproves havecome. Alex is talkingto a man from Millbrook. n Hernton and John Keys, homesteaders in thenewly d Kingsley Hall, arethere, Keys jiving with a thin, closed,

girl. Criton has his grin with him. Had I hiown1 would

brought my Noddy mask.



The basement is divided into compartments with ironic Christmas decorations. Criton is ironic. I am sarcastic. Con- «structiotis, some adopted from the Group H exhibition, some

specially constructed, are lying around like a picnic o f cadavers,Under the arch, in a screened o ff room, Criton is showing the

maquette fo r the cage, the book o f photographs illustrating its

aims. He is still hoping to drum up contributions. I wonder

whether to ask him what he proposes to do with his time until the

>H 1 firnds are there. I decide not to.

Gradually the party moves upstairs and fin a lly out into the street. The wine is churning redly in my guts and l have decided

to make a scene somewhere.

1 put M r W atkins toge ther w ro n g ly , treated the idea like .1

w ild w a y o f m ak in g a w o rd ob je ct. T h a t w as o k ay bill

Burroughs meant the project as die dissolution of t ime.

M r Watkins Got Drunk /Ind H ad To B e Carried Home was,i s, though , a fa ir record o f W riters ’ Fo rum . O ff ic ially a com

mittee ran ‘A rts T o g eth er ’ but real ly it w as B ob Cobb ing.

‘A rts T og eth er ’ wa s the far-out div is ion o f the Finchley

Society o f A rts . F inchley So ciety o f A rts , a pretty typical

collection o f pu blic virgin s, divided them selves from their

far-ou t division o ve r the inclusion o f the new yo uth g rou p in

the ranks . Th is w as a bunch o f k ids taught by Joh n Moaleand I , f inal ly by Cobbing as wel l , most ly from the Alder

School , a forbidding secondary modern in East Finchley,

They did possibly the finest junk sculpture I ’ve ever seen,

together with fantastic erotic paintings and drawings. They

w ro te an odd w a y w a rd k ind o f p o p -p o etry .

In ‘A rts To ge th er ’ W riters ’ Fo rum was the l iterary platoon,

They published duplicated monographs, a magazine called A nd, held mutual butchery sessions every week, wintf i

I read ings in the lib ra ry and sum m er rea ding s in the park. AI

di fferent times regulars were Lo is H eiger , Na nc y T a ylo r ( long - 1

suf fer ing N an cy) , G erd a M eyer , J ean Sa l isbu ry , me, Boh, I

Barry Cole , Kei th Musgrove , Headier Musgrove , Dic l i

W ilco ck s, Jo h n M oo re , B ill B u tler, J e f f C lo v e s , Lee H arw ood,

M ike M cG rind er, and, the best o f the En glish beat-imitatorn, ]

Derek Roberts , st i l l unpublished but for a w f booklet. Thu i

148

1



atmosphere w as, again, that odd m ixture o f m iddle class

f iiberalism and f lat-out m ad. T h is w as because o f the con joining

jof professiona l w ith amateur, o f total ly com m itted artists w ith

Im o-g oo de rs , a nice w o rkin g m ixture that has never happened

in Cen tre 42 and isn ’ t l ikely to w hi le W esker continues to

■whine about professionalism as though it were equated with

I fcreai ive m erit . U ltim ately it w as W riters ’ Fo rum that first

[publ ished Ginsberg ’s The Change (a poem whose colossal

(Importance has scarcely yet been real ized) and made available

a go od deal o f w o rk in the ‘concrete ’ f ie ld, no tably that o f D orn

B i e r r e Sy l v es te r H ouedard , th e an arch ic m on k w h o bom bards

[the world with class ic Dada f rom Prinknash Abbey, and

II. P . N icho ls , a Canadian p oet w ho se w o rk g oes p aral le l w ith

jtlie m ore expression ist concrete p o e try o f D . R . W ag n er and

D. A . L e vy . Co ncrete poetry , e lsewhere published by the

W ild H aw th orn P ress o f Ian H am ilton F in la y , and th e sound

I p o e t r y o f C o b b i n g a nd E r n s t J a n d l is , in fa ct , a d e ve lo p m e n t

of the aesthetic potential in the leav ing s o f D ad a. Its m essage,

fflna lly , is c lose to that o f Tz ara , o f Burrou ghs , o f R o thk o , o f

R a i n g , o f J o h n L a th a m . N o T h i n g ( n o p ar tic u la r th in g , n o

Befined thing, no isolated til ing, all-inclusive totality, total

Sp i r i t ) i s E v ery th i n g . E v ery th i n g i s N oth i n g . T o l i v e com

pletely you must acknowledge the s igni f icant void.

I T h e v is u al p la to o n o f ‘ A r t s T o g e t h e r ’ w a s c alle d G r o u p H .

It held f requent exhibit ions wherever anyone would let i t .

■ l eg u l a r exh ib i tor s were m e ag a in , R o w an an d C ob bi n g ag ain ,

Ifflohn Lath am , Bruce La ce y, Brian W al l , G ab y W eissm an,

H l w y n W atk in s , C r i ton T om azos , but our p ieces were

Bnvar iably overshadowed by the jangl ing barre l -organ jazz of

■ m ateu rs lik e J oh n M cC a r th y , C o l i n Sh or te r , J e f f C l ov e s ,f rank Taylor , A lan Baker , and the br i l l i ant Dav id Rothman.

[Pave W arren is p o ss ib ly th e fin est scu lp tor w o rk in g in

Kngland at the present t ime. The average Group H exhibit ion

Books something l ike a cross between a carousel and a con

centration camp. Barbara W right , w r iter and t rans lator o f

Murry and Queneau, was our sol i tary cr i t ical champion.

■ Th ere w ere theatre, m usic and cinema platoons as w el l wh ichR atu re d at one t ime and another the bud ding talent o f Lion el

Hart, the British prem iere o f G en et ’s Love Song and the first

149



happenings to be performed in Lon do n. Cu rrent ly C ob bin g i:

opening his own arts centre in the newly pulsating Coven

Garden area. I t promises to be good. After a l l , for the pasthree years Joh n Ca lder , A rno ld W esker , A lex Trocch i

Jo a n L ittle w o o d , M artin B ax , M iles and the G reater L on d o t

A rts C o u n cil have been p rom isin g creative re creatio na

centres for London, but the only place in London where t l ia

I H i k ind o f th ing has been regu lar ly go ing on (unt il the recen

ufo and Haynes ’ Arts Laboratory) has been Better Books, th<

Char ing Cross Road shop where Cobbing was manag er am

w o u ld b e still i f C o llin s , w h o o w n B etter B o o k s , hadn ’ t wisec

| | K ' up to the

T h e peop le I inv ited to write their accoun ts and com e to tin

par ty w ere from W rite rs ’ Foru m and Gro up H . T h ey seemet

handy and l i terate . Ke ith , John, Bob, Lois , me and Nic l

W atk in s p ro v id ed accounts and N ick set it as a subject at tin

school where he was teaching, so provided some marvel loui

copy a good long t ime before Br ian Johnson used the sanntechnique in Albert Angelo. The result, sieved and shuffled

w as Mr Watkins. I ran o ff a hand ful o f cop ies and distributee

them around WF.

April 1966. Thephonegoes. Critort. I don’t want to seeor spent to anybody. I’verecently had a. nervous crack-up and manage!

to pass it off to thefamily as flu—threewincingdays bound intinsheets, tryingto dull my screamingnerves. I want to hibernate And twwCriton rings.

Hespeaks likea gnome, theway hespokecomingaway frail theMaudsley after seeingJohn. This doesn’t help. Heasks if hi can comeand see meand of courseI say yes. Thehell of it is 1agree with theman. He’ll comenow, hesays, and thereis really ill

good reason why heshouldn’t. I open to his knocks. Helooks even moregnomish, impressivek solemn much of thetimeand thegrin changed from theohamiablefive-bar gate to a newaggressive coyness—a you-kmmand-I-k/ww-and-we’ve-all-known-all-alongkind of grin. I ask himhowhis fund is going and I supposeit must souiH

sarcastic but I don't mean it that way. Whatever way hetaka il hedoesn’t reply. / realisethat theconversation is to becarried iH

15 0



I in hints and signals which for themoment I prefer. I am, in any ■ case, in an unrelieved deliriumin which thereorientated systems

I °fSravlty a"dproportion arebigand simplevoices and tempera-■ hires, common referencepoints for minds dissolvinginto oneB another.

Thesimpleinterpretation of what weagree upon, squattingon■ my livingroomcarpet, grimting, grinning, titteringand probing, I is this: Eternity is God. Thebarrier to God is ego, will and fear. I The routeto God is insanity, thedissolution of identity through

I the dissolution of rational relationships. Psychosis has been the■ Common languageofart sinceRimbaud. IVeall dwell in Eternity I in themoresignificant parts of our being. Thetemporal parts of I our beingdeny this. Weareagreed on this. What thereis someI 1disagreement over is whether or not to dissolvecompletely our .temporal separateexistenceor to maintain that separateexistence

B as a penance until death. However thereis sufficient agreement K between us for us to decideon a little project.This then is what Criton is doingwith his timewhilehewaits gfor thefunds. Hehas also been spendinga good deal ofhis timeat

f mgsley H all.

The first job I haveto do for Criton is duplicatea circular for ■ him. I get theskin through thepost and nip in after schoolhours

Bto turn it out. It is an invitation to thepeople livingaround ■ Kingsley Hall to attend an event. It is simply phrased for the■ general public. Criton s morecomplex invitation heduplicated

and circulated himself.

I M Y . F L O W E R S . G R O W

W IT H O U T . W H O SE. P E R M IS S I O N

F O C U S . T H IS . W A Y .

S O . . .I T .. .H A P P E N S .. .O N A P R IL is t ...P R E C I S E L Y .. .

■jr-A’P M ...inside or outside...Kingsley Hall...Powis Road... ■ Row E3...Advance 2532...The world knows already...the

neighbours wil/ jhavebeen informed...THE CROWDS WILLI 1 Invade...at theappointed T.I.M.E....thepolice WILL\HAVE

U E E N thereto contain any disorder Please listen carefully... before you evacuate.. .and lock THE DOORS:

■(»)Request the Ground Grand H all fo r M Y H A P P E N IN G ...



■ NOBODY PLANS MY HAPPENINGS...They just...

I amseeingBruce Lacey at 2pm. today askinghimto install■ 2 loud SPEAKERS and one.. .round-the-neck microphone...

Pleaselock himout.. .becausehemay not comeat all...

(2) I will/havemadealternativearrangements with localjchurch authorities for another hall. ..in case IT RAINS OUTSIDE...

if it does...THE WEATHER STOPS NOBODY’S

TEARS as they watch thetely...to find out WHATS GOING

ON...GOT ITISO BE IT...

j (,5) Everybody HAS BEEN IN VITEL) Jew I many/nobody WILL COME

(f) I suggest you do/donot invite doctors and patients from FLO WERING HOSPITALS at a moment’s notice... '

If Ronnieis still sufferingwith flu., .entia.. .give hima kiss from

NOBODY’S LIPS. ..Ask himto CALL ME JUDAS

MY. LOVE. TO. ALL.

I deliver thecopies to Criton. 'Thecurtains aredrawn but insidetheair is cracklingwith mischief. I join Criton in thejoke. I walk into his house. I lean against thejamb of thekitchen door whilehemakes a cup of tea. Thereis a corpseat my elbow. Yellow,

emaciated, lolling head, eyelids puffed. The mischief drains

away. My legs arewater.Only Criton s flat mate—Chinesestudent, dopey with sleep.

What a giggle. Nevertheless I get out fast. Quicksand.

T h e firs t cop y o f the Movinglimesreached me in May, ready

for the special T an giers edit ion o f My Own Mag. It was in

three colum ns the f irst o f the colum n cutups cod-new spaperformat. The f irst column contained the explanation:

‘ “ W e will Tra vel not only in Space But In Tim e as W ell."

A Russian scientist said that. Let’s start travelling. Form the

word s into columns and march them o ff the page. Start with

newspapers like this: Take today’s paper. Fill up three columns



I lied about w i l l ult im ately act the lie , diat the thing that is

I masked wi l l cease to exist . Bu rrou gh s currently attemp ts con-

I trol o f people ’ s li ves by play ing tapes o f obscene or p leasant

ft sound in their vicin ity, spells o f aesthetics. L ive s take on the■ qual i ty widi w hich they are surrounded. Th e ev i l sp i rit s fo l low

I the ev i l sounds.

T h is , then, wa s d ie reg ion in w hich B urrou ghs w as operat -

I in g . N o t h i n g n ew abo ut it. Zen . D ada . Sur realism . E v en

■ Ch r is t iani ty . A n y line o f thought wh ich derogated m atter in

I the face o f the spi rit w as echoed here. T h e un nerv ing d i ing

I that made the MovingTimes l ike a cataclysm was that this

k w as not preached o r put forw ard as a legit im ate fl ight o f die

■ imaginat ion . T h is w as be ing appl ied to rea l ity in order to

■ destroy rea l ity . N ot d ieory —lab w ork , the psych ologica l

f t, eq u i va len t o f germ w ar fa re . A s Bu rro ugh s so m err il y q uo ted ,

I ‘L e t pe tt y k i n gs th e n am e o f par ty k n o w /W liere / co m e I k ill

I both f riend and foe ’ .

N o soon er had the s ignals gon e ou t in that f if th i ssue o f

I M y Own Magthan they started to come ba ck. C arl W eissner

L in H eidelberg, Claud e Pel ieu and M ary Beach in San Fran -

I c isco were plou ghing die i r poems in wi th f ragm ents o f new s-

K print, dr i ft ing scraps o f te lecom m unication. Haro ld N orse

E was on the w aveleng di . So w ere D an Richter and Ph il ip

1 Lam ant ia . O ther vo ya ge rs—the w ord ‘cosm onaut ’ was co ined

I, abou t d i is t im e—w ere s en ding the record o f dieir mental

■ i m p u lse s an d co sm ic read in gs t o Bu rro ugh s and to o n e

ft another. W eissner pu blished the f irst issue o f Klactoveedsed-■

steen.

M ost o f it w as devoted to co lum n cutups .

F o r m yself—I w as be ginn ing to dri ft , to lean on die dream

ft more dian I ever had, and to lean on some real ly berserk and

ft intrapersonal typh oo n b eyo nd the ind iv idu al dream. Inter-

■ sect ion points—the recu rr ing phrases, w ord s and num bers

I w hich t ied one incident to another , one person to anod ier , one

I time to anod ier , w ere ca rryin g me along on a t idal pattern o f

ft inevitable events . T h e idea o f the exhibit ion h ad b y no m eans

I been abandoned but die rock-hard conv ictions I maintained

I about fact and agg ressive realism w ere beg inning to leak at

ft the corners and letting in die stran ge perfum ed w ind s.I I was part o f an inevitable com plex and I watched each im age

D5



revea l itse lf to m y senses, each sensation im ping e itself , with

w o n d er and deligh t.

Letters w ere pou ring in f rom all o ve r the w orld . M y mind

w as everyw h ere . L o v e rs w ere m y other selves. C o loured

electric tremors seemed to be passing through humanity,

Hashing l iquid across my perceptions. Nightmares walked my

hou se—familiars . Al l things com ing under m y senses quivered

w ith a crazy potentia l.

I spent a lot o f time with K ei th M usgrove . W e w ent to

W riters ’ F o ru m m eetings. W e p lanned and perfo rm ed

happenings in North London. We did a book together . We

sat and talked. W e roared and raved and w ere expelled from a

num ber o f pub s and restaurants. M ostly w e just drank. I

remem ber a party at N ick W atkins ’ s tudio. T rav el l ing there,

j ^ B die shop sign s flash ing across the car w in d o w s stru n g them

selves together into messages. Thoughts rattled across my

brain like disconne cted bursts o f m achine -gun fire and the

snide bastard in me that watches me for kicks capered about

in eldritch delight, had me hurl Keith into a hedge, had my

life thronging through the world and the world rattl ing

through my senses l ike a motor-driven rosary.

I woke up one morning at this t ime, early summer 1964, to

find a loosely packed parcel throw n on m y bed, throw n b y my

w ife w ith a certain am ount o f resignation . It contain ed two

typescripts from Alexand er Tro cch i—77u; InvisibleInsurrection 1 K 1 of a Million Mindsand Sigma, a Tactical Blueprint.

I read through them quickly :

‘We are concerned not with the coup d’etat of Trotsky and

Lenin, but with the coup dumonde, a transition o f necessity more

complex, more diffuse than the other, and so more gradual, lesn

spectacular. Our methods will vary with the empirical fact*

1 pertaining here and no w, there and then.

Political revolt is and must be ineffectual precisely because it

must come to grips at the prevailing level of political process.

Beyond die backwaters o f civilization it is an anachronism.

| M eanw hile, w ith the w o rld at the edge o f extinction, w e cannot

afford to w ait for the mass. N or to braw l with it.

T he coup du mondemust be in die broad sense cultural. With |

Im ---------------



■ >preferably on a river bank. It should be large enough for a pilot

group (astronauts o f inner space) to situate itself, orgasm and

genius, and their tools and dream-machines and amazing appara

tus and appurtenances; with outhouses for “ wo rksho ps” large as

could accommodate light industry; the entire site to allow for

spontaneous architecture and eventual town planning......W e envisage an international organization with branch

universities near the capital cities o f ev ery coun try in the world.

It will be autonomous, unpolitical, economically independent...

...T h e cultural possibilities o f this movement are immense

and the time is ripe for it. The world is awfully near the brinko f disaster. Scientists, artists, teachers, creative men o f goodw ill

everywhere are in suspense. Waiting. Remembering that it is

ou r kind , even n ow w ho operate, if they d on’ t control the grids

l o f expression, we should have no difficulty in recogn izing the

spontaneous university as the possible detonator o f the invisible

insurrection.

...N o w and in the future our centre is everywh ere, our circumference nowhere. No one is in control. No one is excluded.

A man will know when he is participating without offerin g him

a badge.. .

. . .W e can write o ff existing unive rsities...Th e un iversity...

will have much in common with Joan Lirtle wood’s “ leisure-

drome” . ..w ill be operated b y a “ college” o f teacher-practitioners,

with no separate adm in istratio n.. ....In looking for a word to designate a possible international

association of men who are concerned individually and in con

cert to articulate an effective strategy and tactics for this cultural

revolution, it was thought necessary' to find one that provoked

no obvious responses. W e chose the wo rd “ sigm a.” Com m only

used in mathematical practice to designate all, the sum, the

whole , it seemed to fit very well with our notion that all men musteventually be included.

In general, we prefer to use the w ord “ sigma” with a small

letter, as an adjective rather than as a noun, for there already

exists a considerable number of individuals and groups whose

ends, consciously or not, are near as dammit identical with our

o w n . . .

...T h e basic shift in attitude described in the foreg oing pages



must happen, it is happening. Our problem is to make men

conscious o f the fact, and to inspire them to participate in it.

Man must seize control o f his own future: on ly b y d oing so can

he ever hope to inherit the earth.’ 1

The web was connecting up its separate strands. BetweenCriton, me, Burroughs in Tangiers, Trocchi, Weissner,Pelieu, something was clearly happening.

I answered Trocchi by return, saying simply, ‘What do you want me to do?’

1 A l e x a n d e r t r o c c h i , ‘The Invisible Insurrection; sigma, a Tactical Blue-print,’ C ity L igh ts Jo urn al , no. 2, ed. L. Ferlinghetti.

159



II

To acertain degree the Underground happened everywherespontaneously. It was simply what you did in the H-bomb

world if you were, by nature, creative and concerned for^B humanity as awhole. Not concerned just for self and friendsor for any corny abstract humanity thrown up by church,charity or politician, but concerned for the business of beinghuman in whatever happened to be the conditions surroundinghumanity, convinced that the business of being human and thecontinuation of that business is intrinsically, not relatively,

important, possessed by a sense of warmand sensuous well-^B . being in one’s membership of everybody else.The predicament was, in fact, the re-alienation of the artist

infar more stringent circumstances than those of the nineteenth century. The nineteenth-century artists were faced withthe collapse of Christianity and the end of Hellenism. We arefaced with the end of man.

It was a particularly subtle alienation by this time, not an ^B ; easy position to maintain. The old rebel groups and rebelmovements, Cubism, Surrealism, Dada, had been incorporatedinto the international art racket where they were partiallyemasculated (a) by misinterpretation through liaison betweenthe commercial galleries and newspaper critics, (b) by salewithin a cultivated price range that ensured work only reached

people in the upper income bracket who could treat outrageI ^B as amusement according to their well-tried methods, (c) by thepresentation of art in an aura of plum-coloured carpets,morning suits, toffee-nosed Smalltalk platitudes, a presentationwhich narrowed the social range of the art public still more,(d) by financially compromising the artists so that galleriescould dictate their styles of work.

The rebel styles in literature were blocked out of publishing,160



------------------------------------

out o f libraries, our o f serious discuss ion, b y the extensive

influence o f the universities w h o are too idle to reform their

critical axioms and therefore try to preserve the critical

s ta tus quo. T h e new m usic was o pposed b y m ost o f the es tabl ished orche stras for a s im ilar reason —m usicians w ou ld have

to change their concepts to meet it and they couldn’t be

bothered . T h e a nti- li fe w as protected on al l fronts and if die

situation real ly got threatening the establishment could always

get crude and use censorsl i ip.

The suic ide pact had, with elaborate speed and a lacri ty ,

preserved its pattern o f dem olit ion. A s im ple m ove in a

s imple war, real ly . Society was subconsciously determined to

destroy mankind. The art ists were consciously determined to

destroy society . So society bought them of f . Many a good

man fel l . The money was so plentiful in some quarters that

theft became the im perative act o f integ rity.

A ll o v e r E u ro p e , A m erica , then, artis ts, creative p eop le ,

stepped aside into a del iberate sel l- it-y o u rse lf am ateurism .

T 1l is w a s the b eg inn ing o f the U nderg round .

Jo h n R o w a n w ro te in d ie d iird is sue o f And: ‘Still, it’s a

fun ny thing that no l ive stu f f ev er gets printed in this coun try

unless the w riters them selves get busy and do som ething about

it.

‘The poems and other writings that interest us most are

unacceptable to pub lishers, editors and pro gram m e planners. ‘y2,1

A n d at le ast som e o f the w ritin g in this m agazine is u tterly j~ j l

unacceptable to a lmost everybody . That i s why we put i t in . 3H

It seem s to us that one o f the fun ction s o f a m agazine that

do esn ’t make a profit is to print stu ff w hich is incom plete,

tentative, na ive, idiosyn cratic and tho ro u gh ly irritating—so

long as i t has enough l i fe to stand up and answer for i tsel f . . . ’ W h en C o b b in g , M u sg ro v e , R o w a n and I w ere p u td n g on

our shows in hired rooms, excla iming our poetry in publ ic

parks , swinging the dupl icator handle throughout the long

Satu rda y afterno on s o f 1963 w e had no idea that the same

di ing w as happening a ll o ve r the wo rld .

Nevertheless the characteristic pattern was set in the

United States . S ince 1956 City Lights had shown what couldhappen i f yo u ignored the professional m iddlem en and set up



W rite s K en n eth H . B ro w n , auth o r o f TheBrig, whic h

the L iv in g T heatre presented in 1963 , ‘T h e nature o f d ie

p l a y {TheBrig) and the squalor o f their l iv in g condit ions

na tural ly unified die com pan y to an extrem e d egree ; and

intensified their alienation from society. It was at this time that

I began to sense a certa in sado-masochist ic qual i ty which

I p e rv a d e s th r o u g h a ll th e w o r k d o n e b y th em . T h e f ac t th at

their apartment had become a shambles , that they had been

e jected from the C h erry La ne Th eatre for neg l igence , that m y

play was deteriorat ing before their eyes , that this bui lding

w h ich th e y them selves had constructed w a s c o lla p sin g under

them, and that they were beating their breasts because the

1 w orld w as doing them gra ve injust ice became, in m y eyes ,

[ the v e ry thing w hich held them tog eth er. . .

‘ I t i s not enough to say that here l ies a community bound

f together by its a l ienation from die w or ld, that w ithin this

communal s t ructure i s to be found a devot ion to work and a w a y o f li fe aw fu l and desperate in its extrem es ou t o f w h ich

l gr o w hideous sado-m asochist ic fun gi w hich are an integral

part o f their m assive p ersonal and theatrical un de rtakings. It

I seems that the price they p ay for their m utual invo lvem ent is I

I often a loss o f perspective , a col lect ive insanity , an A rtaud ian J

m adness that f ills a theatre w ith h ollo w fore bo din g and shatter- j

1 ing p resence. Th ere is no m oderation in this corn er o f l ife.T h e personal and profess ion al bein g is blended and becom es j ‘

one . T h e theory on w hich this is based is P la tonic and, as such, y j j

t seems beautiful , but w hen p ut into practice, dark and m ysteri-

I ous areas o f m an’s essence are un covered w hich produ ce

I results that gr ea tly resem ble m on astery li fe in die m iddle

I a g e s . ’ 1

In all these ven tures the audience w as p resented w ith a take-

I i t -or- leave - i t att itude. Increa s ingly they to ok it .

T h e s tron g e lement o f pac ifis t protest and bo m b-an xiety

| in die L iv in g Th eatre , h ow ev er, made it c lear ul t im ately diat

I the U nd ergro un d w as not exc lusively concerned w ith the arts

I outs ide the com m erce-and-cri tic ism m achine. I t w as a lso con

i ' cerned with w orld un ity , w orld peace, current con f lagrat ions ,

I Over-audioritarian government, nuclear disarmament and,

1 KENNETH H. br o w n , from City L igh ts Jou rn al, no. 3, eel. L. Ferlinghetti.



abo ve al l, the app ropriation o f the m aximum freedom for the

individual , whereby he could strike and appropriate those

levels o f ecstasy that w ou ld pro vide him w ith a reason fo r l iv ing

thence to offer that ecstasy to other people in the hope that

they too m ight start to wan t to l ive, m ight not wre ck the wh ole

boat through the i r own d i s tas te for the voyage . Thrown out

o f the ir theatre by the N ew Y o rk po l ice , the L iv in g Th eatre

w e n t on tour, m essen gers and re lu ctant evan gelists o f an

attitude and a w ay o f life.

The att itude was, is , one in which despair , neurosis , mental

unba lance are a ll par t o f the day- to-da y norm , eve ryb o d y ’ s

starting po int, at wh ich al l form er reference points—society,

m oral ity, re l igion —are eradicated, w he re the individu al may

m ov e to establish his ow n v alues and relationsh ips accord ing to

his ow n exper ience . I t w as , o f course , a m aturing o f the hip

point o f v iew . T h ere was present, in the step-by-step adventure

to the next kick , a gr o w in g com m on appeti te for a comm on

spir i tual i ty , a commonly acknowledged need for certa inty ,

love and God or something just as good, for the old Christ ian

v irtu es w ith o u t a n y o f th e C h ristian trapp ings o f m o rality ,

puritanism, orthodoxy, l iaison with the state, body hatred.

Se x, bey on d the foot loo se hi t -and-run casual fuck o f the

psyc ho pa thic hipster, the defen sive brutal ism o f the ted and

the roc ker , the kinkiness o f the m od, the Freud ian fund a

m ental o f the Surrea l ist , became a purchase o n die spiritual,a direct contact, in orgasm, with whatever might exist that

might be ca l led God. The perfect orgasm as studied and

preached b y W ilhelm R eich, wa s seen s im ultaneously as a

holy union with the cosmos and a cure for the squares , who,

it is assumed, are largely so suicidal because they never get a

g o o d f u ck .

D ru gs a lso could co nc eivably be the m eans to va lues beyondthe ordina ry co m parat ive sca les o f society , pol it ics and com

merce . The Negro h ipster took h i s drugs for k icks . The

U nd e r g r o u nd , g u i d e d b y th e w r it ing o f G ins b e r g and

M cC lure , too k them as a m eans to the exper ience o f som edi ing

in w hich one cou ld p lace som ething l ike b el ief and faith. In

1963 the mere mention o f the G od concept was go od for a

laugh. B y 1965 it w as man y peop le ’s m ost ser ious concern.

164



D elinqu ents and misfits began to w o rk at their del inquen cy

w ith a veritab ly W esleyan zeal. D efe n sive am ateuris m becam e

a messianic crusade, defensive switched to offensive; this

of fensive w as the U nd ergroun d. I t w as m arked o f f f rom the

previously described hybrid culture by its self-awareness and

deliberation. It was decided upon and acted out, praxis not

process. It ran parallel with the process-developments in

popular culture which happened automatical ly. It was perhaps

this neck-and-neck race between praxis and process that

bro ug ht abou t such a fantastic pace o f developm ent.

The word Underground was st i l l , in the ear ly s ixt ies , not

ye t in com m on use. It p ro b a b ly cam e in to use in New Y o r k

aroun d 1964. T w o main activities defined it, f inal ly. D up licated

magazines and home movies.

Both movies and magazines were cal led Underground be

cause they were so tota lly d ivorced f rom the established l l |

communicating channels, and because they were intenselyconcerned with the use of the obsession for sex and rel igion

as a weapon against the spiritual bankruptcy which begat the

bom b. T h ere was a goo d deal o f concern for im m ediate points

o f protest like Vietnam and the C ivi l R igh ts C am paign , an

idolization o f political protest f igures l ike D yla n and Baez, h

but the concern was more for the wider issue; for the fact that,

w ith appetite fo r liv in g so depreciated , co llective suicid e b ysome method or other was inevitable until the deeper i l lness 3 |

w as cured in on eself, am on gst o n e ’s frien ds, finally p u b lica lly . . ,

There was an unprecedented concern to air al l taboos as 2 W

blatantly as possible, to confess and sing from the rooftops all

the mo st imp ermissible desires, a strange m ergin g o f the

titi l latory pornographic with the avant-garde absurd, and,

mixed in there in the r ing-fucks and the gobble scenes, among1 the toe queens and the cop rop hiles, the go d s o f A ncien t

> E g y p t a nd M e xic o , o f In d ia , T ibe t a nd the Pa c ific Is la n ds

fornicated hi lar iously , evoking Madame Blavatsky and

A le iste r C r o w le y rather m ore s tro n g ly th at th eir o w n p re

historic tem ple orgies . D ru gs became alm ost aso cia l ob l igation.

o k Motherfuckers! come out of your

I freak-skulls blaring Nothingness. Heave

16 5



Y o u r piles out the to urin g car win dow!

This is the time for the spray of the rrain. Rip Brain Valves! Gobble Gobble

Resist Hate Lines!

Gobble Gobble!

Total Assault!

Forward with Brainvalves

turned to spr a y a l e r t ,

as when a To m Ca t unloads in a

W et-dream: Y ello w R iver Y ellow R iver

Get the enemy on your freak-beam

Gobble Gobble!

This is the waiting Guerilla Pretzel

o f America. G et the money. G et

The Power. Braid their piles into

magical lavaliers! mass a l e r t !

G O B B L E G O B B L E ! INsect fuzz upon us!

Resist hate lines! Stomp!Freak!

Gobble! Phil Whalen! Calling gentle

flame brains into the Arena. Piles out the

Touring Car.

In tlie dawn raids outside the bunkers

we spray vast L ove Hunks!

Ankle-grabbers o f the Universe

This call to Gary Snyder, Michael

Cock-eagle M cClure, Lawrence Freakinghetti!

Forward with mind-beams spraying! Lob Alert!L o b A lert! G et the beams planted into

their minds! Toe Queen Lessons Learned

at last: Tillie the Toe Queen in Times Square

to the Broadw ay Arcades N o matter

what the fuck hating din glcberry cops

say/do/think/want. More Auden rim

jobs in fuck you/!

i 66



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Come on all You shining Genius Poets,

piles out the To urin g Ca r! G et '

disgorged on die spokes o f the wheels

as they wrap you up. Get caught.

Goddammit! The worst you can get

is a flame-job from an Ant Colony or

Tholh’s beak into your tuchas. Get

There! The f u g s are doing McClure

Rock 'n Roll Ghost Tantras all over

New York !

Get the Universe back in the s u n -b o a t !

Come on Whalen, stop worrying about

your alpha Rhythm s. Get out on

that tight rope between coma

and convulsion, waving a speech!

Out the touring car. Out the touring

car. B ig dra ggy speeches Sc - I I

pow er scenes? t o t a l a ssau l t !

Get the money. Get

tile power. Get the liaisons!

Big beautiful faces flashed on the

screen. Toe Grope Toe GropePiles out the touring car.

_ } |This is bunker # Sanders...

N ew Y o rk Amphetamine Terror

Roger ’n Out Roger ’n Out!

April I , 1965-PEACE EYE BOOK

s t o r e drop your drawers

Midnight.1

The best of the duplicated mags and shoestring movies weremade in NewYork. Ed Sanders, a graduate bum, poet, antibomb demonstrator who had served a prison sentence for hispart in the NewYork Harbour swim-ins, who eked out aliving selling newspapers etc to the junkies and trans

vestites of Times Square, collected a number of otherwise1 e d s a n d e r s , from Bu lletin from N othing, no. i, ed. PC-lieu & Beach, 1965.

167



un pub lishable poem s from the leading Beat writers including

Ginsberg , Snyder , Whalen, Burroughs, Mai ler , put them

together w ith the best o f the poets o f his ow n generation,

Szabo, Harry Fainl ight , Ted Berr igan, himsel f , dupl icated the

lot on to big fu rry tinted sheets o f pap er, stapled them togethe r

w ith an in tro d u ctio n , and called th e lo t Fuck You, a Magazine

o f the A rts.

T h i s w a s th e c om m e nce m e nt o f F u g P re ss . Th e

editor ia ls o f Fuck You w ere the m anifestos and ra lly in g poin t

o f the U nd ergroun d. In typical Sanders exp letives they ex

horted queers and junkies, lovers and dropouts to defend

themselves against police harassment through effective legalchannels. G ins b erg and F ain l igh t, at this t ime, cond ucted a

kind o f layabo uts ’ legal ad visor y service .

Sanders ’ distribution centre was the bookshop he opened

in his own apartment—the Peace Eye Bookstore . Al though

Better Books , C i ty L ights , and Asphode l s tocked Fuck You

under the counter i t was largely distributed by mail . The most

notor ious issue w as the one w ith the sti ll f rom A n d y W arh ol ’ sorgy f i lm on the cover, a three-part sucking scene. Other

publications were Bu gger an anthology o f anal-erotic poetry,

and The Fug Songbook.

Besides these Peace Eye put out a l ist

o f col lector ’ s i tem s for sale, like the col lected p ubic hairs o f

the m ajor li terary figures o f N ew Y o rk , and a jar o f cold cream

used by Ginsberg and Orlovski as a lubricant before inter

course, both items signed on the containers.The Fugs , a bur lesque rock- fo lk group l ed by Sanders ,

featur ing not on ly lyr ics b y him sel f and K u pfe rbe rg but a lso

m usical sett ings o f Sh el ley and Blak e, are indefinable in their

qua l ity . T h e consc ious i ron y o f the ir twan ging and swing ing

hillbil ly sound is an American parallel to the music hall ele

m ent in the A lbe rts ’ m akeup. T h e y share, as we l l w ith the

A lb e rts , an anarchic m essin ess o f presentatio n , irritatin g tosquares wh o frequ ently miss the joke . T h e lyr ics , h ow ever , are

the important thing, for their sexual audacity and Sanders ’

w ild execution o f th em in p ublic perform ance. A ll Sand ers ’

activit ies took place under c n d sym bo ls decorated w ith l ittle

draw ings o f the E gyp t ian G od s fu cking m err ily in dif ferent

posit ions.

T ul i K up ferberg , a m ember o f the Fug s wi th rather m ore

168



I political ideas than those o f San ders, had launched his Birth I Press s l igh tly before Fuck You. Birth Press w as produced b y

■ ph oto -litho and ran, first, into an exam ination o f sex, thenE drug s, then c h ildre n ’s poe try .

A ll cop ie s but the last w ere collages o f sn ip pets, quotations

I and antiquated i llustration s, cut from the m agazine or manual

I wh ere they had been foun d. Th e dru g book lets constitute the

I m ost inform ative I ’ve seen on the subject , w ith ev ery p oss ible

I S att itude covered and the same dire w arnin gs being issued

I in the nineteenth cen tur y against alco h ol, tea and toba cco as1 are now issued against marihuana. Shortly afterwards came

I True Confessions, incredible col lage col lections laying the

I Am erican cancer as naked as an onion:

‘Afraid? Ha-Ha! I’ll Make You Bristle With Fighting

Co urag e in 48 H ours’ —‘In C olo r: Th e Vicious Fighting in

Vietnam’ - ‘N U -T E C H C IR C U M C IS IO N C L A M P ’ - ‘N ew

Sexual Deviation Cure Seen. Technique Uses Electric Shock

H 75 Tim es a D a y .. . ’

Ted Berrigan’s C Press publ ished the other dist inguished

duplicated mag, called C. I ts contents were more consciously

I l iterary than those o f Fuck You, w ith a fa ir prop ortion o f fu l

H c utu p-n ot the s ema ntic c la irvoya nc e o f Burroug hs (o f whic h

I Berrigan published a fair amount in his Time) but wha c ky

I dislocated col lages o f orig inal w rit ing and corn y old novels

I shuff led together into strange distorted narratives. Charl ie

Plymel l ’ s NowNow, predominantly pictorial , was a third

I importa nt ‘mime o ’ .

C lose ly associated w ith S anders in the f irst da ys o f die

■ m o v em e n t, A n d y W a r h o l a lr ea d y e n jo y ed a r ep u ta tio n as a

I pop painter. His style, s l ight variations played across total

I sym m etry ( for instance, a s ilk-screened s till o f M arilyn M onroe

I repeated fo u r-b y-s ix in dif ferent colou rs) p rove d itself as

I adaptable to happ enings , m ovies , po rno grap hy , as to anyth ing

K else. W ith W arh ol the subject m atter is final ly o f no im po rt-

I ance. T o use m aterial sup erficially sensation al—the m ov ie

■ camera le ft runn ing in the sex or gy , b y the s leeping m an’s

I bedside, on a series o f U nd ergrou nd faces, ten minutes on each,

I the identical helium-fil led pillows in silver floating their

169



different ways, and so on, all emphasize the aesthetics of boredomthrough repetition. The ultimate effect on the audience isthat of tricking them into prolonged meditation. Their

crowded minds empty and they examine the Nothingnesswithin. Warhol’s frequent sadistically amoral public remarksreflect this standpoint as John Cage, the composer, had reflected the same standpoint in his compositions (extremelysimilar to Warhol’s in their use of mathematical regularity,repetition and total fortuitousness). Cage said of Rauschenberg’s painting-constructions:

To Whom:Rauschenberg’s paintings

no subject no image no taste no objectno beauty no message no talent no technique (no why)no idea no intention no art no feelingno black no white

‘After careful examination, I have come to the conclusion thatthere is nothing in these paintings that could not be changed,that they can be seen in any light and are not destroyed by theaction of shadows.

‘Hallelujah! The blind can see again; the water’s fine.’1

Warhol merely took these elements and chose to impose themon the art public by every sensational means. In doing so liemade himself a curious public figure. Smart, camp and seem-ingly possessed of perpetual youth (although in his middle-age, he looks like a teenager) he became the darling of the

young and rich. His studio, where a teamof adozen brigln young artists turned out products to his design, was a necessaryport of call in the social round. He stood for all the qualitiesthat marked off the American Underground fromits Englishcounterpart, for hip exclusiveness as opposed to aggressiveegalitarianism, for huge commercial success set against tiltEnglish firmsocialist attitudes, for modish camp as opposed tcthe butch attitudes of class warfare no English rebel can eveireally lose. Very fewdonkey-jacketed y c l and Anarchist

1 JO H N C A G E , from N ew D ep artures, no. 4, ed. Michael I lorovitz.

170



I----------------------

\Leag ue m em bers could ev er realize that in dem ocratic, pioneer

ing , whiskey-swigg ing , pseudo-mascul ine America , where

every man is sel f-made, die nonconformist attitude is the

effeminate. Lester Y o u n g w ith his hair r ibbo ns had discovered

this. So had the bop musicians widt their f loppy velvet bows,

for there is a ravin g queen at the heart o f the Y an ke e badman

that no conventional American l ikes to be reminded of ,

Ishmael in bed with Queequeg, Whitman who was just too

big to be straight, the beautiful Indians and the mountain men

. wh ose odd s im ilarity to drag-queen s the H aigh t-A shb ur y

hippies were quick to discover.1

1 D espite the priesthood awarded W arho l , how eve r, the

class ic Underground movie is FlamingCreatures, a tattered

romantic documentary-fantasy about a Tangiers drag-club

where septuagenarian queens d rift around in their lace and

stained satins, clinging to magical fetishes and drunken sailors.

Its m aker, Jac k Sm ith, says o f his films: ‘H ow I adore Maria

Montez w ith her stunning 1935 padded shoulders , that m arvel

lous creature, that sheer gossamer goddess, I have seen the

Cobra Woman twe lve t im es in m y l ife . A l l du ring m y chi ld

hood she w as m y ideal o f sheer fi lm y beau ty, and a ll I wan t m y

photographs to do is recapture what she exuded. ’

f Other important Underground movies were Kenneth

■ A n g e r ’ s Scorpio Rising, T o n y B a lc h ’ s a nd W illia m Burrou g hs ’Towers Open Fire, the entire w o rk o f Stan Brakh age, f ilm s by

■ Carson D avidson and Bruce Co nn er in the States , Y o j i

P Y u r io and Y o k o O no in Ja pa n , S teve D w os k in and Je f f Keene

in England.

T h e N ew Y o rk U nderg round o f that time , 19 63/4 , wa s in

1 contact wi th an arm y o f expatr ia te Am ericans w andering ,

active, in the w ake o f t ile L ivin g T he atre thro ugh ou t the who leo f non -C om m unis t Europe , w a nder ing e ither f rom c ho ic e or

" legal necessity. Som e had been drifting since their dem obil iza

t io n in 1945 . F o r them P ar is remained the centre w here they

circulated around Maurice Girodias ’s erotic Olympia Press

lind Ga it F ro ge ’s E n gl ish B oo ksh op . In the f ift ies a nexus o f

yo u n g w riters includ in g T ro c c h i, T e r r y S outhern and S im on

I V in k e n oo g , w o r k e d o n the im p o rta nt m ag azin e Merlin.1 1Sec The R eturn o f the Van ishing /tmcrican by Leslie Fiedler, 1969.

1 7 1



real ism had arr ived w ith M ary B each, the daugh ter o f Jo y ce ’s

pub lisher . B oth were aw are o f the fact that cutup wa s an

adventure which extended on the one hand the psychic

adventure o f surreali st autom atic w ri t in g and on the other

hand the purely aesthetic juxtaposit ion of language fragments

■ begun by P o un d an d th e Im ag i st s. F r ien ds and co - o pera t ives

I o f Pel ieu w ere Ch arles Plym ell , a jazzy poet from Kansas,

L o ne-tim e ed ito r o f NowNow, who did sadist ic col lages, Nor

man Ogue Must i l l , a l so a co l lag i s t , and Dave Hase lwood o f

A uerh ah n Press. T h e re w as/is a fu n k y expression ist spirit

[ abo ut m uch o f th e ir w o rk . Th e t w o Bulletins FromNowhereI and Grist f rom Wichi ta g ive the preva i l ing mood.

■ T w o o th e r n ativ es o f K a n s as are a ctiv e in S an F r an c is c o :

Bruce C on ner, the art ist w ho se constructions o f nylon , cheap

[ lace and w ax that loo ks l ike sperm or m ucus hav e simu l-

I taneou sly a raw h orri f ic im pact and a certain m acabre glam ou r,

j and M ic hael M cC lu re , the B eat poet, w h o has n o w extended his

I m onum ental vis ion tow ards theatre, g ivin g readings o f h is

I beast-sound p oem s naked but for a l ion’s head, turn ing on

[ LSD in pu blic and disp layin g the effect on his be h avio ur, -i

f inally writ ing his play TheBeard w h ich inco rporates pu b lic M

cunnilingus and was chased from theatre to theatre by the

A n o th er excitin g p layw righ t in th e San F ran cisco second

generation is Bob Burleson. City Lights Journal, N u m b e rs i , :

2 and 3 , g iv e a fa ir sur ve y o f other local talents .

‘Funk’ is a jazz expression. Like the term ‘ jazz’ i t was used

' before the m usic. It m eant orig ina lly the thick pu nge nt od ou r

■ g i v en o f f b y th e s ex u a lly aro u se d fe m ale . I t u lt im a t ely cam e

I to mean the aesthetic o f ob scen ity -th e aural equ ivalent o f sheer

I stench. T h e term usua lly im plies in jazz a go od deal o f h eavi ly

I vocal ized tone, grote squ ely s lurred notes , gr o w ling ph legm y

| anal-erotic distortion s. Fu n k in San F ran cisco , rather different

[ from Ed San de rs’ blithe sca tolo gy and the total sexual glu tton y

I o f T an giers , has at least som ething to do w ith the tough spir it

that Kansas ga ve to the W est C oa st . A s im ilar spir it w as

I reflected briefly in the du plicated m agazine Ole. Edited and

I distributed b y D o u g Blazek, it specialized in a gr i t ty po etry o f

I sex, dirt and torment. Blazek was perceptive in pointing out

H 173



die connection between fun k and L o rc a ’ s ‘duende’—‘the

m oribund duende dragg ing her w ings o f rusty kn ives a long the

g r o u n d ’ . Ole w as the testing g ro u n d and ult im ate p latform for

W illiam W an tlin g , C h arles B u k o w sk i, M arcus J . G rap es,

Harold Norse and Blazek himsel f .

Funk poetry contrasts s t rongly wi th the B lack Mounta in

tradition o f f ree verse . T h is w as a lso carried on m ainly in

mimeo magazines, rather distinguished ones with nicely

balanced type pat terns. Ed D o rn ’s Wild Dog w as on e o f the best.

Dif ferent again , and owing somedi ing to bodt funk and

Black Mounta in w r i ting , w ere the product ions o f the Mara- wannah Quarterly. D . A . L e v y , a fine and exciting poet1 , first

appeared in diem . D esp ite the harassm ent o f pol ice and the

derision o f academ ic critics m imeo m agazines continue and

curren tly prom ise to su rv ive the psychedel ic ne w spap er craze.

In Europe the Underground, whi l s t connected wi th Ameri

can expatriate groups, reflected regional differences in terms of

interpretation, althou gh the fundam ental purp ose w as identical:

the current technological/commercial/industrial/rational civi l

ization is suicidal , it mu st be d estro ye d ; a new culture, based on

total freedo m , extended sen sibil ity, and sp iritua l ity o f some

! kind re-established in the place o f po l it ics m ust be developed

at breakneck pace and spread am on g the peo ple ; hum an com - J

m unication m ust be f reed o f the lim itations o f language;

peop le m ust be induced to iden ti fy w ith hu m anity rather than

w id i cla ss o r n atio n ; fear fo r secu rity m ust be sh ifted from the

_______ centre o f hum an affa irs and aspiration tow ards hum an ful fi l

m ent in terms o f vital ity, ecsta sy, and d el ight be p ut in its

place: thus the wish to l ive must be rekindled in the species

and the drift to suicide redirected.

T h e U n d e rg roun d in Fran ce con sis te d o f a g roup o f youn g

men who could remember a chi ldhood under the Nazis , an

adolescence in the A lgerian w ar w ith its attendant ho rrors , wh o

had d ie co llosa l po m po sity o f de G aul le for an Au nt Sa lly .

Their biggest u-aumatic spur was die maudl in negat ion of

democrat ic pr inc ip le whereby de Gaul le came to power . The

International Situationists, centred in Paris, profoundly

1 Since time of writing, after years of harassment by the Cleveland Police,

D. A. Levy has killed himself.

174



I --------- ------------- \P Marxist in spirit , began operations in the f i ft ies. Their pro-

f gram m e, under the secretaryship o f Jaque l in de Jo n g , has

I consis ted o f com m ando activ it ies en forc ing B reton ’s Marx is t-

■ Surreal ist point o f v ie w —polit ical correction throu gh the dis-

i location o f prevalent m oral att itudes . T h e y held w el l-attended

I international con ferences and form ulated rigid po licies. U nlike

I (he M aquis , the Com m un ist P arty and other e f fect ive poli tica l

I organizations, they had n o internal m eans o f disc ipl ine and

I w ere therefore ineffectual. W he n, for instance, they w rote to

A m erican m em bers in stru ctin g them to secure the rele ase o fI A l e x T roc c h i w ho had been a rre ste d in N e w Y o rk on a drug s

I charge, the instructions w ere abo ut as realist ic as the C om -

■ mittee o f too ’s repeated intention to ‘ take o v er ’ variou s

I Am erican rocket bases. T h e sum o f the ir achievements is ,

I f inal ly , a num ber o f w itty and pointed p ubl ic events and the

WSituatio/ iist Bulletin w h ich contains co llage s, com ic str ip s, and

■ i art ic les o f an un usu al ly h igh q ual i ty . 1T h e y o u n g e r w a v e o f th e F r en c h U n d e r g r o u n d a sse m b le

I round the publ ications o f J . F . B or y , Ju l ien Bla ine and H enri

I C h op in (Approches is abo ut the best) and the hap pen ings o f

Je an -Ja c q u e s L e b e l. T h is g ro u p , c lose r to surrealis m than to

I M arxism , c loser to the A m erican m ovem ent than the Situation-

I is ts , bes ides m aking considerable head w ay in exp loring the

I hinterland between pain ting and literature in con crete po etry

[ (a f ine international exhibition w as organ ized in 196 7) h ave J j d

I conducted a num ber o f seasons o f happenings in Par i s under ,I the genera l auspices o f Jean- Jacq ue s . T h e last and most dynam ic

I Inc luded a happening b y Jo d o ro w sk y that le ft everyon e stun-

I ned:

‘I get inside the frame with my back to the audience.The woman lashes me with her whip.

I draw a red line on her right breast with a lipstick.

A second lash o f tile whip . I draw a line on her left breast.

A last blo w o f the whip . Th e line begins at her solar plexus and

goes down to her vagina.. . ’2

Since these events Jean-Jacques has put on the notorious

•This is no longer true. Situationists were very active during the ParisI (Undent riots.

2 JODOROWSKY, irom City L igh ts Jou rnal , no. 3, ed. L. Ferlinghetti.

*75

I



product ion o f P icasso ’ s p lay DesireCaught By TheTail and

continued to paint his whacky Picassoid pictures. The typical

Lebel event places powerful emphasis on public sex, as do the

Japan ese events o f H ijikata and o f K ato w ith h is Z e ro D im en s ion G rou p. A m orbid sexual preoccupation inform s the

posters o f the Japanese art ist Y o k o o and the fi lm m aker A dach i.

I t was a s imilar aggressive preoccupation with the earthier

aspects o f sex and l ife which caused the mem bers o f the Indian

H un gry Generat ion G rou p o f wri ters to be arrested. M alay

R o y C h o u d h u r y , D e b i R a y , S am ir R o y C h o u d h u r y , S a ile sw a r

Ghose , Subhas Ghose , Pradh ip Choudhury and SubimalBasak have pioneered an expressionist s tyle o f w hich the

best known example is Stark ElectricJesus b y M a l a y R o y

‘W hy w asn ’ t I los t in m y m other’ s u re thra/W hy w asn ’ t I

driven aw ay in m y father ’s urine after his self -coit ion /W hy

w asn ’ t I m ix ed in th e o vu m -flu x o r in the p h legm ’ 1- f o r whic h

Ch oud hu ry w as conv icted and ru ined .

The s imi lar i ty between Stark ElectricJesus and Howl is

quickly apparent. Also in the same mode is the Human Manifestoo f Y u r i G a lansko v : ‘N o one wi ll tread/The whi te ,

shredded ve i l /O f m y soul ./People l/Leave m e, forget i t . . . /

D o n ’ t bother to com fort :/Th ere i s nothing to breathe with/

In you r in ferno !/ W elcom e F am ine and Pa l tr iness n o w ! ’

W h eth er there is d irect com m unication o r not it seem s cle ar

that the em ergent Russ ian U nd ergroun d o f the imprisoned

G a l a n s k o v , G i n s b e r g , D o b r o v o l s k y , L a s k o v a , D a n i e l a n d

Sinyavsky is on exactly the same mental wavelength as the

U nd erground e lsewhere . T h e s igni ficant div is ion is no longer

between east and west but between square and hip all over

the globe.

In Austra l ia there was Richard Nevi l le , Dave Duncan,

J . J . W ak e , A lb ie T h o m s, G o rd o n L asslet. S ays L asslet,

‘The re has grow n up here a group o f people wh o h ave beengiven die n ickname o f the “ push ” . T h e y are th inkers and

innovators o f new s tand ards . ..con s i s t o f one o f eve ry k ind o f

scrag in the community so there is a lways a good cross-

1 ma i.a y r o y c h o u d h u r y , from C ity l ig h ts Jou rnal , no. 3 and Klactoveed- sedsteen, no. 4, d. Carl Weissner. See also Intrepid to, ed. Alan de Loach,1968.

17 6



Isection o f opinion , they h ave their patron saint, his name being

I “ seba st ia n sc ra g g ” . . .

Y o u w ill note that the le ader o f the a n ti-v ie t w a r dem on -

I s tration in front o f austra lia house in london gave his nameI to the p ress as “ seb astian s cr ag g ” . S e b a s t i a n S c r a g g ’s o w n

I m a g az in e wa s Obscenity.In Vietnam there were the poets of the National Liberation

I Fron t an d the ir re presen tat ive in Cz e ch os l ova k ia , Pha m

V an C h u o n g . J ir i V a lo ch carried the con crete p o etry banner

in Cz ech oslova kia . In R om an ia there was the Romanian Review.In Switzerland there was PoesieVivante. In I ta ly there were

I C arlo Betaha and D on atel la M ang ano tti w h o translated

Burroughs into I ta l ian.

In byw aters o f Am erica and Br itain there was D ay Parsons

and R a y G o s li n g ( N o t t in g h a m ) , A l e x H a n d ( W e s t H a rt le p o o l) ,

l Ian Breakwel l (Br i s to l ) , Dave Cunl i f fe and Tina Morr i s

(B l a ck burn ) , Pe te H oida (Ch e lte n ha m ) , D om Sy l ve s te r

H oue da rd (Gl ouce s te r ) , Ar thur M oyse , Chr i s Gre y , Cha r l e s

R a d c l i f f a n d T e d K a v a n a g h ( L o n d o n A n a r c h i s t s ) , B i l l B u t l e r

an d J e f f K e e n e ( B r ig h t o n ) , I v o r D a v ie s ( E d in b u r g h ) , V ic to r

S l oa n e (Be l f a s t ) , Da n Ge org a k a s , Be n n M ore a , Ron H a hn e ,

Eve re t t Sha p i ro , Bruce E l we l l a n d M urra y Bock chin (Ne w

Y o r k A n arch ists), ‘ C o p k ille r ’ (N e w O rlean s), F ra n k G o ld

sm ith (P i tt sburg h ) , M org an G ibson (M ilw a uk e e ) , ‘ L im bo ’

1 ( V a n c o u v e r) , D . K e i r d o r f ( D e t ro it ) and a ho st o f o th ers.

A le x a n d ra Jo d o r o w s k y w as the leader o f the M exican

P A N ic m ovem ent . H is manifes to is ag gress ive ly expl ic it :

‘In order to comprehend the idea of the “efimero” it is necessary to explain PANic philosophy. Yet diis is impossible becausePANic is action, more than anything else. There may be men

capable of blinking PANically but unable to act. On the otherhand there are those who-in the archaic sense of the word—act‘panically’, i.e. without thinking. The real PANic individualtends to idea-action. Therefore, it is anti-PANic to write publicproclamations. The only possibility of explanation lies inmaxims and statements:

—The PANic individual “ is” not but “ is being” .

1 GORDON LASSLET, from a letter to Dan Georgakas published in Smyrna

M New sletter.

i



T h e ot h er lead ing Germ an m im eo was Mamaf rom M unich ,

| with a goo d deal o f Am er ican w r i ting , inc luding pieces f rom

I m embers o f th e L iv in g Th eat re , sigm a propaganda f rom

T roc ch i and m yse l f in Lo n do n, and the br illiant st rip draw ings

o f U w e L au s en . T h e e d ito r o f Mama, Klaus Lea, has s ince

form ed a liaison w id i the V erla g Petersen Press and publ ished

a num ber o f the or iginal D ad a d ocum ents in facsim ile .

In Berl in and Vienna Muhl , Nitsch, Vostel , Brus, Peter

V eibel, W ern er S ch re ib w ere c a rry in g ou t h app enings o f

rn cre d ible dest ruct ive p ow er—a f ractured man w alks throug h

W te streets, nudes are suspended in p la stic, rele ased and

spattered with freshly disembowelled entrails . Elsewhere in

Eu rope Jean Toch e (B e lg iu m) , Gianni S imonet t i ( I t a ly ) ,

Pab lo Serrano and M arco and Marchetti o f the Z A J grou p

(Spain) carr ied out aggressive art work.

But by far the most powerfu l Underground act iv i ty in

Germany comes f rom the Ber l in Commune I (ca l led the Horror C om m une) w hich has carr ied o ut a num ber o f d idactic

public events including a mass love demonstration in which al l

the girls touched up the police and another in which a pam

phleteer em erged from a coffin. T h e central figure o f the

Commune, Fr i tz Teufe l , current ly awaits t r ia l for meet ing

police bullets w ith stones. W h ate ve r the co u rt ’s decision , it

w ill be turned to p ro p ag an d ist ad van tage b y th e rem ain in g

m e m b e rs o f th e C o m m u n e .

M uch o f their ac t ivity is a M arxist appl ication o f the tech

n iqu es employed by t h e Amst erdam Provos . Th i s enormou s

tribe , cons is ting , f ina l ly , o f ev ery m em ber o f the Beat com

munity that had gathered in Amsterdam since the f i ft ies,

m odelled its activit ies on the one-m an polit ical hap pen ings o f

pa inter R ob er t J a sper G roo t ve ld , w h o once spent a nu m ber

o f days on a ra f t in the middle o f one o f Am sterdam ’s main

canals. He had furnished the raft as a bourgeois sitt ing room

and sat through the days reading newspapers .

The Provos , with their apple symbol , exploded into the

publ ic eye in 1966 with their violent demonstrat ion when

1 Claus vo n A m sbe rg m arr ied into die D utch roy al fam i ly .Since then their act ivit ies ha ve included a hap pen ing in w hich

hundreds o f yo u n g people lay in the pub l ic square in b lood-

179



stained bandages, a campaign for free public bicycles to be

painted white and left around the motor-free city, giving

birth-control pills to adolescents, procuring a barge for a pad

and playroom for i t inerant Provos. A n odd aspect o f the P ro v o s is their em phasis on a kin d o f

anti-rom antic pu rity—the w hite denim s and the wh ite bicycles,

G ro otv eld ’s cam paign against tobacco sm oking, their concern

for elementary civil liberties, the odd and disruptive presence

o f old-fashioned left-w ing l iberals at their head ( w h o, inci

dentally , show increasing fr ict ion with the genuine beat and

hoodlum element in the movement), their representation onthe local government. Nevertheless, behind the declarations

and the high civic intentions the same clouds o f potsm oke

d rift and the sam e painful dislocation exists: ‘T o climb the

social ladder, to have a job, means: to collaborate in the next

atomic destruction, to collaborate widt the Authorit ies and

their Strateg ic P ropa gand a—the televisio n . . .W e are supposing

that nei ther Pres ident Johnson nor Mr Koscygin wi l l l i s tento us , but we are freed by that to do w hat w e w ant . W e under

stand that a demonstration will finally be inept. That is just

w h y it is so im portant to m ake th is dem onstration all that can

be made o f i t . . . I f G od created this society w e w i ll do w el l to

tie up with the d e v i l . . . ’ 1

Perhaps through the extraordinar i ly forthcom ing atti tude o f

A m sterdam au th orities, under w h o m p ublic funds seem m oreeasily accessible and less likely to be frittered away on drugs,

and def ini te ly because o f the energy and opt imism o f Simon

V in k e n o o g , a S itu ation ist veteran o f th e fiftie s in P aris , A m ster

dam is the place wh ere sigm a has taken roo t and been p roduc

t ive . A pub lic ly en dow ed s igm a centre ex ists , incorporat ing

gallery and theatre, where activit ies have been continuous for

more than a year.

Tjeb van Ti jen, the current leading figure in sigma, has

organized the open -air d isplay o f G eoffrey Sh aw ’s pv c illu

minated dome in Amsterdam and a continuous drawing that

started in Lo n d o n , spread a lon g the streets to a taxi, thence to a

plane, from the plane to an Amsterdam taxi to the Stedeli jk

1r o e l v a n d u y n , from San Francisco Earthquake, no. i, ed. Herman, Dusen-berg, Bastian, Leonni.

180



irn. A num ber o f the draughtsm en invo lved , including

Latham, were arrested in London and subjected to heavy

na, however, was Alex Trocchi ’s name for the cultural

icy to progressive al ienation and for his own ideas. It

term he applied to both praxis and process o f the w ho le

ment. It w as also a bid to con ve rt a stage in social evo lu-

lto an international sp iderw eb w ith h im self at the centre,

then it has becom e evid en t that the m ov em ent is l inear

than concentric, that there are no power figures, and

liere is no centre for such a figure to occupy.

)cchi arrived in Britain in 1963 from the United States,

ipanied by his wife and chi ld. At Edinburgh he was

I by Bu rrou gh s for the International W riters Con ference

ized by Jo hn Calder . A t the conference B urrou ghs gave

st public dem onstrat ion o f his cutup technique. To ge th er

1T r o c c h i m o v e d d o w n t o L o n d o n .

London they becam e the pivo t round which a num ber o f

2 revolved —Charles H atcher , T o m T el fer , M cGrath,

1 G r e e n , m y se lf.

ey were not , how ever , the beg inning o f the U ndergroun d

jla n d . T o w a rd s the end o f the g reat d a ys o f A ld erm aston r ' J

n o f the whackier and you n ger cnd fol lowers had <8|

red in the Peace Cafe in the Fulham Road, eventually1 throu gh no toriety fo r dr ug s, and formed a cultural j

is that looked mainly towards America and the Beats

> m odel. Prom inent f igures to em erge from this grou p

Da ve C unl i f f e , L e e Ha rwood , I a n V ine , Ne i l Ora m,

Hawkins , Mi les and, most important , Mike Horovi tz

A te B ro w n . In those d ays inseparable , H o ro v itz and

n, who had met at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival where theran amo ck w ith f ire and water, com bined on the m agazine

Departures (three issues , very g lossy and very far-out) ,

azz-and-poetry road show Live NewDepartures (a

“llous season at the O xfo rd Street M arqu ee in 19 6 3—

v e ly p oetry availab le and m ore o r le ss o rth o d o x hard

and an endless mutual poem called ‘Blues for the Hitch

g Dead’ . Horovitz ’s f inest hour to date , however, has

t is chaotic F est ival o f the N ew M oon at the A lber t H all



in 1966, when Sp ike M ill igan introdu ced a note o f true anarchy

into the proceedings.

H or o vitz ’s concern is reflected in his Go on-inflected p oetry,

part icular ly the lon g ‘ D eclarat ion ’ published in 1963. H e wantsto see the arts reinstated as p ub lic festival, g a y, sim ple, stripped

o f obscur i ty and, above a ll , s tr ipped o f sour , p erverse o ver

tones . Cont inuously he works towards this end.

Tro cchi launched s igm a; Bet ter B oo ks , ow ned dten by T o n y

Godwin , opened i t s paperback shop with a wi ld mod decor

and a succ ession o f influential m anag ers, Bill B utler, M iles,

B ob C ob b in g ; J im H a y n e s la un ched h is Ed in b u r g h b ook s hopand his theatre, the Traverse; Dave Cunlif fe started his

Poetnieat magazine from Blackburn, and del ir ious ly , within

about twelve months , everything s tar ted to grow together .

J im m y Jo h n s ’ Pean uts C lu b , all th at w as w o rth sa v in g o f

c n d , w ith th e brilliant M ike O sb orn e Q u artet and h ellroarin g

le ft -wing poets like D ick W ilcocks and D el F o ley , was a

favourite meeting place.T h e firs t Ed inbu rgh W riter s ’ Co nference was fo l low ed by a

series o f conferences and carve-ups at wh ich di fferent group s

converged. The unoff ic ia l Edinburgh poetry conference, the

utter ly chaot ic C ard if f po etry conference (cal led the Co m m on

w ealth P o e try C on fere n ce and attended b y a ch oru s o f b e w il

dered C om m onw ealth delegates) , the Better B oo ks W riters ’

Nights , Str ip Readings at theic a

organ ized by Er ic Mot t ramand Bi l l Bu t ler— the potsm oke eddied and the w ine f lowed

free. T h e h igh p oint o f these activ it ies was A l len G insb erg ’s

v is it to L o n d o n d u rin g his g ran d to u r o f 1965 w h ich drew

a l ine o f contac t f rom India , through Greece , Y ug os lav ia ,

Czechos lovak ia , Poland, to London, back to Fr i sco , and

gav e Lo nd on a d irect taste o f something new , d isturb ing

and in tox icat ing . A t the huge A lber t H al l reading organ

ized and presented in s ix hectic days by John Esam and

Dan R ichter , not on ly were Trocchi , Corso , Fer l inghet t i ,

H or ov i t z , B r ow n , H a w k in s , R ic ht e r , M c G r a t h , L a c e y , Es a m ,

M acBeth , Lo gu e , H ol lo , Jan dl and Fa in l ight ( the real star o f the

show), per forming together but a l l our separate audiences

had come to one place at the same t ime, to witness an atmo

sphere o f po t , imp rom ptu solo ac id dances , o f incredible

182



procured K ing sley Hal l for their com m unity o f regenerative

madness. Leary had set up and established the Alte House at

M illbroo k. W e were all sudden ly in touch w ith one another,

throw n ou t b y the termination o f ou r loneliness.

In London we tended quickly to sidestep, duck, ret ire into

ou r own affairs unt il w e could get ou r bearings . W hat w e

had str iven for seemed to be happening now without us. It

w as again st th is ten den cy th at C r ito n ‘w en t m ad ’ .

T h in g s seemed to slacken off . In the sum m er o f 1966, after

m aking a hi lar ious speech in T rafa lga r Square , I w rote to

cnd advocat ing a new pol icy , with some suggest ions for the

next T ra fa lgar Square ra lly . P eg gy D u f f d idn ’ t exact ly embrace

my suggestions but she passed diem on to PeaceNews w h o

published them:

‘I f there is on e m istaken co ncep t that has underm ined the

effectiveness o f anti-bom b m ovem ents in B ritain it is that man

is prim arily a soc ially oriented p olidcal anim al: he is certainly

this but not prim ari ly . Man is a w elter o f fears, urg es, needs,aspirations, appetites, and emotions, on which his political

rationale forms a mere crust, and a pretty thin crust at diat.

‘Thus to speak to the common sense and the conscience of

the pub l ic , as the ant i -bom b m ovem ent has done, m ight w ork

w e re it n o t fo r the fact that the w h o le m ovem en t is pitted

against an establishm ent w hich threw aw ay the pathetic fal lacy

o f hon our years ago , and no w k now s how to comm unicate w ith d ead ly e ffic ie ncy to the total human beingby all the

sublim inal m ethods o f pu bl ic ity and propaganda.

‘ I agree w ith all w ho say that this shouldno t b e the case and

w ith all w h o sa y th is shouldno t invalidate die appeal to hono ur,

the conscience, the political crust on the psychic cesspool; but

it is the case and it m eans diat propaga nd a o f die cnd type is

outflanked from the beginn ing. N o go od for a man to go hom eupright with r ighteous facts when the social soporif ics of

muzack and politically tailored t v are already infiltrating his

bloodstream before he gets through the front doo r .

‘T h e au tomatic extension o f this naivety , or perhaps the

roo t o f di is n aive ty, is the idea that go vernm ents are in any

w a y susceptib le to d ir ect po litical appeal b y a n y p arty w hic h

is not in po w er o ve r them. It is a fact o f pol it ica l po w er that

184



I the b ig fishes ign or e the little fishes un less the little fishes either

g e t b ig g e r or g ro w te eth .

‘Ne i ther cnd, the Co m m ittee o f ioo , no r the anarchist

I m ovem ent has as much m oney or as m any guns or even as

■ many people as the government. Also, lamentably , no anti-

1 bom b organization seems to have as much stamina or organiza-

w tional p o w e r as even the lo w er ranks o f the c iv il service .

‘W e can , ho w ever , m ake ourse lves e ffect ive b y ch anging

■ ou r tactics. W e can pu rsue a course w hich, unl ike c ivi l dis-

1 obedience and str ike action, w e have suff ic ient num bers to■ carry e ffect ive ly . Th is course should e m ploy the subl im ina lly

I com m unicative techniques o f h eav y adv ertising. I t should

ft speak to the wholehuman being in such a way as to tint his

■ ve ry consc iousness be fore he ’ s even had t ime to “ m ake up

1 h is m i nd ” .

[ ■ ‘I f th is cam pa ig n w e re qu ick e n oug h a nd widespre a d

■ enou gh it could transform the mental cl im ate o f ou r society1 as rapid ly and as tho rou gh ly as that c limate has been recently

ft transformed by the publ ic i ty behind pop music .

‘ I would advocate, then, that al l posters become stickers

I (that, in fact, the w h ole o f this cam paign stays ou tside d ie pale

o f civic co ntrol as mu ch as po ssible) and that stickers do not

put all the right arguments in a right and honourable way.

Photos o f bon ny babies should be coupled w ith p hotos o f

mutated children with the capt ion “ In O nly F iv e Ye ars T im e” .

O n a m o re p o sit iv e p la ne the “ M a ke L o v e N o t W a r ” b a d ge

could be the be ginn ing o f a m ore sophisticated and audacious

(

c».-;»s 0 f pacifist ero tica.

w o u ld also advocate that p o p g ro u p s (n o t fo lk g ro u p s)

pproached to f lavour the hysteria which is their stock-in-

e w ith reference to the sweetn ess o f l ife and the im m inence

Dtal death.



ance. A t the next station both priest and soldier hand out V iet

nam new s cl ipp ings and g et o ff the train.

‘ I intend to prov ide a pam phlet o f suggest ions for events

such as these, but i t is real ly best i f gro up s dev ise their ow n.n b : the idea o f such an eve nt is im plicit in the acd on . T h e

uneasiness created is m ore imp ortant than the com m unication

o f hard prop aganda. T he se are not stunts who se on ly purpose

is to attract public attention; they are ends in themselves. Each

even t, poster, w ha tever, shou ld be a li tt le seed from which

the fol lowing flowers should spread l ike a rash: identi f ication

w ith oth er p eo ple, a sense o f th e com m on cond itio n o f hum anity, d isgu st and alarm at the political situation , a lov e o f the

life principle and each other, a sense ofe v e ry o n e ’s responsibi li ty

for everyone else ’s wrong, above al l the direct awareness ol

flesh and spirit, a pr op er and fu lly realized sense o f self.

‘An d ult im ately, o f course, a dance and a m usic to celebrate

these qualities. ’ 1

I need not have bothered . W ith in a mon th everyth in g Isuggested so desperate ly was c lear ly happening. The Provos

had erupted in Holland, giving a pattern for the Berlin

Commune I , the New York anarchis t s and the New Or leans

Copkil lers with their recruit ing station happenings. The

Beatles made Revolver w ith all th at it im plied re gard in g their

change o f att itude (l sd again) , and Tim o th y Leary ', having

been arrested on a pot charge, gained access to every conceiv

able pu blicity o rgan and spread the w ord at colossal speed. The

badge movement spread, the st icker movement spread, the

poster m ovem ent spread. T h e Internat ional Tim es opened

its off ice under Miles ’s new Indica shop. Miles, whose maga

zine LongHair had been a fine a n th olo gy o f the talents

around the Albert Hall reading, was the first to feel the

benefit o f the new fav ou r show n b y pop stars Marianne

Fa i th fu l , Paul McCartney , Mick Jagger . Revol t had never

rubbed shoulders with weal th before .

Jo h n W ilc o c k edited his East VillageOther in N e w Y o r k

and went on to the Los Angeles FreePress. Duplicated mags

w ere outdistanced b y the p ro liferation o f U n d ergro u n d news-

l From Peace New s, 2 September 1966.

t86



The second step is the realization that you have to go out of your mind to use your head; that you have to pass beyondeverything you have learned in order to become acquainted

with the newareas of consciousness. Ignorance of this fact bthe veil which shuts man within the narrowconfines of his;acquired, artifactual concepts of ‘reality’, and prevents himfromcoming to knowhis own true nature.

The third step (once the first two realizations have taken;place) is the practical theoretical. Howcan consciousness boexpanded? What is the range of possibilities outside ourcurrent verbal-cognitive models of experience? What light do'the newinsights shed on our viewof man and his place in theuniverse? And, perhaps most important, howcan the newlevels of awareness be maintained?

For diose concerned with the ‘third step’ questions, a series]of weekend workshops in consciousness expansion have beefflinstituted by the Castalia Foundation, anon-profit corporation.!

STAFFThese educational experiences are designed and guided by

form er m embers and associates o f the H arv ar d - IF IF psyche

del ic research p roject . T h e permanent s taf f cons is ts o f Tim oth y

L ea ry , P h .D . , psych olog is t and former lecturer a t Harvard

U nive rs i ty ; R ichard A lper t , Ph .D . , psych olog is t and former

assistant professor at H arvard U nive rs ity , and R alph Metzner,

P h .D . , psych op harm acolog ist and form er research fe llow at

H arva rd U n ivers ity , p resently editor o f d ie Psychedelic

R ev iew . T he se three are co-authors o f T h e Psychedelic

Exp er ience : A M anual Based on the T ibetan Bo ok o f the Dead

( U n iv e r s i ty B o o k s 19 64 ) .

Each weekend this s ta f f w i ll be jo ined b y one o r m ore o f a

gro up o f abou t f if ty profess iona ls wh o specialize in some

aspects o f the th eo ry and p ractice o f con sciousness expansion.Some of this group are scientists , scholars , rel igious leaders

and creative artists w h o , since i96 0, hav e been exp loring the

effects o f psyc he de lic (m ind-m anifesting) chem icals such as

l s d , m escaline and p silocy bin . In the cou rse o f this research,

this grou p has studied die psyc ho logica l effects o f diese sub

stances and their app lications in th erap y and reh abilitation, the

188



Ef m ystici sm , creat iv i ty and com m unication. A num ber

cendental com m unit ies patterned after A ldo us H ux ley ’s

■y ‘Island’ have been set up, in part to act as psyche-

■ delic training centres and in part to ap ply the insights o f

» expanded awareness on a da y to da y basis . T h e pract ical w o rk

I o f the grou p lias been ve ry con trovers ia l—two o f the members

I (D rs Lea ry and Alpe rt) were dismissed from their posts at

I Harvard University and the psychedel ic training centre in

■ M exico was closed by the M exican governm ent .

I P ROG RAM

In the course o f the research w ith psyche del ic dru gs certain

1broader implications and applications become apparent. In the

first place i t w as c lear that drug s are on ly one w ay o f a l ter ing

consciousness and that many ‘spiritual ’ ‘schools ’ , particularly

| the Hindu and B udd hist yo gic traditions, have developed a

I sophisticated repertoire o f non-chemical m eans o f t rans-I cendence m editat ion, visual izat ion, breathing, m ovem ent,

■ sensory w ithdraw al. Seco nd , m any techniques have been

K dev eloped or red iscovered in recent years in the W est,

I techniques fo r red ucing som e o f the b arriers to increased

| awareness G estalt therapy, T -g ro u p s, G u rd j ief f ’ s t raining in

l self-awareness, dance, diet , and psycho-drama, to mention

[ o nly a few . T h ird ly , the experiences o f expanded consc iousness shed m uch l ight on ou r understanding o f rel igion , m yth-

| o lo gy , art , ph i losop hy, and psy ch olo gy . A n d fourth , they have

profound implications in our thinking about social forms and

institutions (what might be called the politics and architecture

o f ecs t asy) .

T o com m un icate and explore these ideas and techniques is

[ the purpo se o f the w eekend w ork sho p s. T h e f indings and

m ethods o f Eastern p hi loso ph y and W estern science w ill be

I drawn upon to expan d ou r aw areness o f participants. Sp ecial-

I ists in the various areas mentioned above wil l from time to

time join the regular staff , and contribute their own theories

! and techniques. Ea ch w eekend w ill be balanced between

I verbal -cognit ive com m unication and direct, m etaverbal

■ experience .

Because o f the com plicated current legal situation in the

I *9



United States, psychedelic drugs will not be used in theseworkshops.

E v e ry e f fort wil l be made to create transcendent experiences

through non-chemical m eans. T h e exper ience o f the sta ff-

m em bers , the setting o f the house and surrou nd ing cou ntry

side and the prog ram m ed activities sho uld help each participant

to m ake a step in the direction o f greater sel f-awarene ss,

to expand his consciousn ess and to m ov e closer to that unitive

v isio n w h ich lib erates and en ligh ten s.’

The thing which recommends ac id above a l l th ings i s i ts

unparal le l led spreading power. Cutup, the dislocation of

def inition, the m oun ting f igures o f psych osis and b reakdow n,

sick culture, had al l gon e som e w ay tow ards creating a public

del ir ium in which dislocation was dislocated, destruction

dest royed . The v i rus had a l ready begun, a s I hope I ’ ve made

clear . But once Lyserg ic Acid was launched as something

other t itan mere pleasure, as a ready window on the Zeneternal , as a short cut back to the organic l i fe , rel ig ion and

w o n derm en t, as an open road to L a in g ’s lo st se lf, it le ft art

and T im oth y L ea ry s tand ing and took protest and pop w i th i t.

The sit-ins, riots and marches at Berkeley failed. All they jproduced was added legislation from Governor Reagan,alterations in the staff so that even the old permissive leftish

regime of the University was disrupted, police brutality andthe continued war in Vietnam, awar conducted with senselessweapons like napalmand Lazy Dog bombs, which make |Leary’s catchphrase ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’ almost theonly alternative to the previous ‘ban the bomb’.

‘D rop pin g ou t ’ means m ere ly d i ssoc ia t ing y ou rse l f from

y o u r so c ie ty—disaffilia tion . T h e artists d ro pp ed ou t at the end

o f the e ighteenth century vo luntar i ly . T h e teds , rockers andm o d s weredroppedou t o f society as sure ly as the p int-sized

b o m b w a s d r o p p ed o u t o f th e p la n e o v e r H i ro s h im a i n 1 9 4 5 .

T i m o t h y L e a r y w a s a s i gn o r a n t o f th e p ro c e ss a s m o s t a c a

demics unti l he was droppedo u t o f H a r v a r d ( th a t h e w a s o n l y

able to co nv ert th is process to praxis by turning on and tuning

in, chem ical ly , is sym ptom atic o f the fa l lacy behind his dog m a) .

W h en cn d fa i led Brit ish protesters dropped out into sickness.

190



W hen th e B erke ley peace m ovem en t failed B e rk e ley protesters,

fo l low ed b y other A m erican l iberals , dropped out into LSD.

T h e m ost able defence o f the dro p-ou t , and the m ost

intell igent analysis o f i t, came, not im prop erly, f rom A llen

Ginsberg in his address del ivered at the Arl ington Street

Church in Boston in the November o f 1966 : ‘What can the

y o u n g d o w ith them selves faced w ith d ie A m erican versio n o f

the p lanet? Th e m ost sens it ive and am ong the “ best m inds”

do dro p o u t . Th ey wan der o ver the bo d y o f the natio n lo o k ing

into the faces o f their e lders , they w ea r lon g A da m ic hair and

form Keristan communit ies in the s lums, they pi lgr image to

Big Sur and l ive naked in the forests seeking natural vis ion

and m editat ion, they d w el l in the L o w er E ast Side as i f it w ere

an hermetic forest . And they assemble, thousands together

as t hey have do ne d i i s year in Go lden Gat e Park San Fran

c i sco o r Tho mp kins Park in New Yo rk t o mani fes t t he i r

[peaceableness in dem onstrations o f Fan tasy that transcend

protest against—o r for—the host il it ies o f Vietnam . Y o u n g men

and wom en in speckled clothes, m instrel’s garb , jester ’s rob es,

[ car ry ing ba llo o ns , s igns “ President Jo hn so n w e are p ray ing fo r

y o u ” , gathered chan tin g H in d u and B u d d h ist m antras to calm

their fel low cit izens who are otherwise entrapped in a planet

ary bar -ro o m b rawl .‘B ut there has been no recogn ition o f this insight on the

part o f the fathers and the teachers o f these yo u n g. W ha t ’s

lacking in the great institutions o f learning ? T h e specific

w isd o m d iscip line that the y o u n g p ro p o se : search in to inner

s p a c e . . .

‘ . . .L ike ly an en larged fami ly u n i t w i l l emerge fo r many

cit izens; possibly, as the Zen Buddhist anarchist anthropologis t G a ry Sn yd er observed , w ith m atr ilineal descent as courtesy

to those dakinis whose shaddhana or holy path is the sexual

l iberation and the teaching o f D harm a to m any frightened

males ( including m ys el f) a t once. Ch ildren m ay be held in

co m m o n, wi th t he o r g y an accep tab le co m m u nity sacram en t -

one that br ing s al l peop le closer together . Certain ly one m ight

seduce the Birch Society to partake in naked orgy, and the

pol ice w ith their w ives , together w ith Le ro i Jon es the br il li

ant ly a n g ry poet . Am erica ’ s pol it ical need is org ies in the parks,

19 1



on Boston Common and in the Public Gardens, with nakedbacchantes in our national forests.

‘I amnot proposing idealistic fancies, I amacknowledging

what is already happening among the young in fact and fantasy,and proposing official blessing for these breakthroughs ofcommunity spirit. Among the young we find a newbreed ofWhite Indians in California communing with illuminateddesert redskins; we find our teenagers dancing Nigerian Yoruba dances and entering trance states to the electric vibration of the Beatles who have borrowed shamanismfrom

Afric sources. We find communal religious use of ganja, thehemp sacred to Mahadev (Great Lord) Shiva. There’s nowheard the spread of mantra chanting in private and suchpublic manifestations as peace marches, and soon we willhave Mantra Rock over the airwaves. All the available traditions of U.S. Indian vision-quest, peyote ritual, mask dancing,Oriental pranayama, east Indian ear music are becoming

available to the U.S. unconscious through the spiritual searchof the young...‘...What satisfaction is nowpossible for the young? Only

the satisfaction of their Desire-love, the body, and orgy: thesatisfaction of a peaceful natural community where they cancirculate and explore Persons, cities, and the nature of theplanet—the satisfaction of encouraged self-awareness, and the

satiety and cessation of desire, anger, grasping, craving...‘I amin effect setting up moral codes and standards whichinclude drugs, orgy, music and primitive magic as worshiprituals-educational tools which are supposedly contrary toour cultural mores; and I amproposing these standards to yourespectable ministers, once and for all, that you endorse public-ally the private desire and knowledge of mankind in America,

so to inspire die young...’1No one pointed out to Ginsberg that die quick and onlyway to that peace beyond ‘desire, anger, grasping, craving',is to cut your diroat, diat anyone who has no appetite forstress has no appetite for life on human terms, desires merelylife on cosmic terms, desires death. Acid advertises its usage more quickly than other drugs.1

a l l e n g in s be r g , fromInternational Times

, no. 6, January 1967.192



It takes a quick and sophisticated eye to detect the over

confident speech and m ovem ent o f heroin and m ethedrine

users. It takes an experienced eye to iden tify the ben ign dream iness o f potsm okers or the blinks and g r ind ing teeth o f am

phetamine and cocaine users. But l sd i s a dru g o f visual dreams and visual experiences and adv ertises itself im

m ediately in the re-implem entation o f the visua l aesdietic

sense o f users. T h is has been app arent in the m escalin culture

o f the desert Indians. I t q uick ly became apparent in H aight-

A sh b u ry , the ru n -d o w n area o f San F ran cisco in to w h ich thefailed protesters moved and constituted at least the outward

impression o f an alternat ive society, t r ibal , rel igiou s, orga nic

and pseudo-pastora l . Accounts vary : ‘As soon as I knocked,

a young bushy-haired blonde cat with a ful lback’s shoulders

answered and invited me in. On the phonograph was the

B eatles s ing ing “ E leano r R ig b y ” , in the a ir w as t he hap p y o do r

o f pot , and so I stretched ou t m y alto sax case, m y tam bou rine

and m ovie cam era into the corn er and laid o ut on the f loor to

relax and d ig. I looked around this tw o and a h al f room pad,

there were dtree cats in the music bedroom and about four

or f ive more in the kitchen. All these cats were in their early

twenties or late ( 18 or 19) teens. I was immediately struck by

f this one cat in bed . ITe o r she look ed just l ike m y ex-w ife,

ho ne y-red blonde hair in a medium page b o y , big blue eyes that

1 seem ed to soleful ly twitch o r st a re . . . ’ 1

‘C in d y ’s entire p icture o f w hat she ’d f ind here (L .A .) had

been con ve ye d to her via the national m agazines, an occasional

I te levision show , two copies o f the L A Free Press w hich had

I b een sm u g g le d in to h er to w n b y a frie nd .

She was broke when she arrived here . N o w , a fter threeI w ee k s, her financial situation rem ains the sam e. H er sta y here

has been a most unpleasant one.

T h e f irst cat w ho took her hom e to “ get cleaned up and

[ spend the n igh t und er fresh she ets” turned her on to speed

i and acid and w ou ldn ’ t let her ou t o f his locked apartment for

three days. It was a miserable f irst trip complete with sadistic

I ov erton es and his ow n acid-stim ulated pe rson ality han gups.He finally dropped her off in a desolate area near Malibu.

1 I S RAEL h a l p e r n , from Grist, ed. John Fowler.

193



mr -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I H e kept her suitcase w ith a ll her pit iful belong ings . N o 17-

y e a r o ld ru n aw a y cou ld g o to the p olice.

She walked m ost o f the fol low ing night and f inal ly fe ll

asleep on the beach.I m et her a few days la ter.

She told me she had already had to turn two tr icks (of her

own vol i t ion) . The Johns were motor is ts who p icked her up

late at night.

She sti l l had no place to stay and was considering a new

hitch-hike journey to the Haight in search of her gir l fr iend

w h o is a y e a r y o u n g e r than s h e . ... ..W h en she ar rived h ere , she was jus t another wide-eyed ,

chi ld ish ly-at tractive run aw ay chick in search o f H ipp y Heaven .

T o d a y th e t rip p y a b a n d on m e n t o f yo u th a nd th e m a g ic

w h ich sh ou ld h ave been p art o f h er scene are buried beneath a

callou sed, dis i llusioned blanket o f fear and d istrust.

T o o few o f the C ind ys now in Ca l iforn ia are mak ing it to

the Love-Ins and savour ing the truly incredible exper iences

w h ich the h ip p y scene o ffers.

They are the lost and innocent who are such an easy prey

: 1 f o r th o se w h o o n l y pre te nd to o ffe r c are an d a id .

In San Fran cisco they are be ginn ing to call such blind fol l

o w e r s o f th e P sy c h ed e li c R e v o l u t io n “ U n c le T i m ’ s C h i ld r e n ” . ’ 1

‘Tune in , turn on, drop dead. Are you aware that Haight

Street is just as bad as the squares say it is? H av e y o u heard o f

the k i l lings w e ’ve had on H aight Street? H ave y o u seen dozens

R j l o f h ippies watch pass ive ly wh i le some bur ly square beats

another h ippy to a psychedel ic red pulp? Have you walked

dow n H aight Street a t daw n and talked w ith the su rv iv o rs? . . .

T h e Street reeks o f human a go n y, despair and death, death,

death. ’2 Which is what Al len Ginsberg had always been

ta lk ing about any w ay, a ccord ing to Fer l ingh ett i’ s poem.

T h e e ffe ct o f l s d is the dissolution o f the self into other

dissolved identities . Inanimate things become animate.

Exis tence heaves in a great a l l inclus ive movement drawing in

the self. T h e aesthetic then is one o f indefinabil ity and m ov e

m ent, im ages and letter ing swollen to the l im it o f discern-

1ELLIOT MINTZ, from Open City, no. 15, August 1967.- From tile Boston A vata r.

■ 194



Iabil ity , swooping arabesques eradicat ing a l l possibi l i ty of

: stable geo m etric im ages and nuances. In a culture l ike that o f

the plains In dians the anim ated arts—im pro vised m usic, aural

J p oe try , im provised dance, in form al ritual, sex , c lothes, jew ellery and cosm etics—are d ie channels o f expression w h ilst

the inanimate arts o f sculpture, architecture and civic design

I are w el l-nigh imp ossible. T h e significant difference between

I the H aigh t-A sh bu ry culture and the Indian culture (w hich it

I oh-so-consciously imitates) is that Indians balanced and

I supported their mobil ity with portable ski l ls l ike hunting,

i r iding and fort itud e, wh ilst the W est C oa st hippies w ere

I utterly parasit ic , not other, not a lternative, not tru ly a com -

I munity, in that their whole self-maintenance relied on the

■ excess material in the ove rm aterialistic culture the y purpo rted

| to despise—die uno ccup ied hou se, the excess o f sup erm arket

I food s, the c lothes jetdsoned before being wo rn out . T h is same

I parado x is con tinu al ly present in L e ar y ’s pu blic statements.

In one breath he contemptuously consigns die ‘mineral cul-

I ture ’ (tech nological c iv i lization) un der the groun d, into the

I sub w ays , g iant bom b shelters, und erground nuclear testing

I pads, secret factories. H e says it w ill beco m e feasible to banish

[ tile ‘m ineral culture’ i f eve ryon e drop s out and form s a m ajority

I o f nature-orientated vision aries, a ‘vege table culture’ . T h en

I w ith the next breath he says that die econ om ic sel f-suffic iency1 o f such a culture is no t a considerat ion because drop ou ts are

b y definit ion a m inority and w ill a lw ays ha ve a m ajority to

| feed off.

In H a ig ht - A shb ury the seem ing ly oddly- ma tc hed e lements

I o f sp iri tua l ity and debauch com bined in the freak-out . T h e

I f irst freak-outs we re forty-eig ht-h ou r even ts u sing a ll the

I techniques o f sense distortion —lights and soun ds pushed to the

I point o f pain and coupled w ith m usic b y g roup s l ike the

I Je fferso n A irp lan e and die G rate fu l D ead . T h e freak -o u ts

I were heralded by w eek-end parries held at die cou n try

■ residence o f the w riter Ken K esey . K ese y w as the centre o f a

I c rowd o f dancer-bacchantes called d ie M erry Pranksters .

1 C lose associates o f K es ey at that time were Ch et Helm s and

I Em m et G rog a n. L ea r y had trans form ed d ie Ca stalia Foun da -

I lion into the Leag ue for Spiri tua l D isco ve ry wh ich he defined

>95

___________________________________________________



as a church. He followed this step with the instructions to his

followers to form their own churches according to their

tastes. Helms was quick to see that there was no difference

between a freak-out and a church in which all members ‘didtheir ow n dt ings ’ . H is ‘Fa m ily D o g ’ w as the first monastery

o f this anarchic calling, and being the religious articulation o f

an animated culture, w as n ot a static com m un ity but nom adic.

H elm s and his priests - dan cers, painters, m usician s, poets,

electricians (for the lights- from this time on pop groups began

to em ploy electricians as creative m embers o f the com pan y),

lived and travelled in a bus. They were finally doing little new.The ear ly Wesleyans and Quakers had l ived in nomadic

tribes, sexua lly interconnected in this w a y , spreadin g their

w o rd b y con trived h ysteria . T h e b ig ja zz orchestras o f the

thirt ies and fort ies had taken their Dionysian package-shows

across the American plains and lived in a bus while they did it .

The L iv ing Theatre had done f rom necess i ty what Fami ly

D o g a t tempted f rom choice . Fam i ly D o g w as a f inger -popping Je su s C h rist ro ad -sh o w .

K ey se y and Gro ga n w ere alive to the contradictions inherent

in l ivin g parasitically o ff the society they oppo sed. La rge ly

guided b y the techniques o f se lf -sufficiency G ar y Sn yd er had

developed through years o f Bu dd hist disciplines, they init iated

the D igg e r m ovem ent named after one o f the 17th century

religious dissident com m unities the hippies so resembled. T heD igg e rs ’ preoccupa tion is not m etaphysical but econom ic.

They took steps f irst to ensure that the H aigh t com m un ity were

1 su fficiently w ell-fed to m aintain themselves as a breakaway

culture by start ing a farming community from which fresh

vegetab les, fo r a w h ile a n y w a y , w ere d riven e v e ry d a y into

Haight and g iven away . The Diggers’ free clothing shop,

run on a kind o f jum ble-sale principle, provid ed the raw

material for the extravagant hippie tribal dress. The story-

goes like this:

Square Customer: ‘How much is this?’

Digger: ‘What d’you think it’s worth?’

Customer: ‘Two dollars.’

Digger: ‘That’s the price-two dollars.’

196



Customer: ‘Here you are.’Digger: ‘Thank you ma’am. Hey, anybody want two

DOLLARS?’

Tlie Diggers work in fairly close conjunction with the SanFrancisco health authorities and ensure that hippies physicallyaffected by privation or excess are properly attended to incity clinics.

Their other preoccupation is the dissolution of the conceptof property. Another story tells howGrogan, passing through

NewYork, performed a public burning of dollar bills and thedollar dropped six points on the stock exchange.The Digger/Merry Pranksters bus, recently prepared for a

gospel-spreading tour of Europe, is fitted with earphones andmikes in the seats so that evangelists might cultivate a closer andmore perfect rapport. It also carries its own acid producingequip-ment although this, in San Francisco, involves increasing risk.

The Mafia cut off the armof a hippie pusher some months ago.T h e acid culture, chanting i ts s logan s o f ‘T u rn on , tune in,

drop ou t ’ and ‘D o yo u r ow n thing ’ , spread througho ut the

w estern w o rld at a b risk rate. T h ro u g h o u t 19 6 7 the spread w as

m arked b y the appearance o f scores o f psychedel ic new spapers ,

mixed-media pop c lubs , b ig bright unreadable posters and

‘head shops’ deal ing in badges, beads, prayer wheels , joss

sticks and al l the paraphernalia o f pop -bud dh ism.The typical newspaper involves bright, subtly discordant

colours like those on the posters, neo-art nouveau drawings, viciously aggressive cartoons, and local drug and pop gossip.The best of them, however, include coverage of avant-gardeactivities in all the arts, articles and interviews fromAlpert,Ginsberg, Zappa, McCartney, Laing, Fiedler, Leary, Snyder,

Watts, and other leading figures. The Underground PressSyndicate is made up of A rt and Artists (art glossy—England), A vatar (Cambridge, Mass.), Berkeley B arb (Berkeley, Calif.),Canadian Free Press (Ottawa), Connections (Madison, Wis.),Crocodile (Gainsville, Fla.), Communication Company (N.Y.and S.F.), The Eagle (Washington), theEast Village Other

(N.Y.), The Fifth Estate (Detroit), Graffiti (Phil.), Guerilla

(Detroit), Helix (Seattle), the Illustrated Paper (Calif.), theInternational Times (London), Inner Space (N.Y.) the Los

19 7



Angeles Free Press, Other Scenes (all over the world), thePaper (Michigan), Peace Brain (Chicago), Peace News

(London), Punch (Mass.), Promethean (N.Y.), Modern

Utopia (Mass.), M averick Press (S.F.), Notes From Under- ground (Dallas), The Rag (Austin), Seer (Oregon), Sounds on

Campus (N.Y.), Spokane’s Natural (Washington State),Sanity (Montreal), Satyrday (Toronto), San Francisco

Oracle, Oracle Southern California.

T h e i n clu s io n o f Peace News indicates die remaining pacifist

concern o f d ie w hole m ovement . Open City is probably the

best o f the papers to date . Co m ing from L o s A ng eles , it carries

regular features by Bukowski and a reasonable proport ion of

w ritin g besid es p sych ed elic chat. I t refle cts th e in te ll igen ce o f

Jo h n W ilco ck w h o can be called th e in itiator o f th e w h o le

newspaper movement be ing an ear ly ed i tor o f East Village

Other and Los Angeles Free P ress. W ilc o c k n o w dis trib utes his

own newsletter , Other Scenes, f rom w he rever he happens to be

on his journalist ic round. The Real Free Press o f Amsterdam

is the s igm a new spaper , colours , drawing s by R . O . Stoop and

go o d , w i t t y p o r n o gr a p h y .

T h e International Times, sponsored by J im H aynes and

M iles, ed ited by T om M cGrath and Joh n H opkins , gre w out

o f the il l- fated Lo nd on Free S chool . T h e free univers ity

movement, well established in the United States and the back

bone f rom w hich the s trengd i o f the U nde rground must

ult im ately spr ing , consists large ly o f vo lun tary week-end

IS scho ols at w hich radical academ ics can meet their non-academ ic

counterparts and pool the ir ideas . Joe Berke , a New York

psychiatrist who had conducted a free coffee bar clinic,

appeared at the Kingsley Hall in London as soon as the

Phi ladelphia Foun dat ion took o ve r in 1965. Im m ediate ly he

w anted to start th e sam e activ ities there as had been tak in g

place in the Free U nivers i ty o f N ew Y o rk . U nfor tunate ly he

hadn’t accounted for the yawning gaps exist ing between the

English Underground, the English left-wing l iberals , and his

‘professionally ’ defensive colleagues in the Philadelphia

Foundat ion , who re fused to a l low h im to use K ings ley Ha l l

for h i s week-end schools . The London Free School moved ,

then, to a disused cellar in Notting Hill Gate where John

19 8



I 'to m ake it into a kind o f local spontaneou s C entre 42. In evit

ab ly the voice o f M ichael D e Frei tas , s ince become n otor ious

under his Mohammedan name Michael Abdul Mal ik , made

, i tsel f heard in the Fr ee Sch oo l . T h e excit ing music ian D av e

To m l in wa s a l so a round. H a rry Fa in lig ht w a s an eminenc e

gr ise a t Hopkins ’ shoulder .

Ult imately the Free School d id nothing construct ive but

put out a local Underground newsletter and organize the two

N ott in g H i ll Gate Fes t iva ls , w hich we re, adm ittedly , m odels

o f exact ly h ow the arts shou ld operate —fest ive, fr ien dly ,

aud aciou s, a l ittle mad and all takin g place on dem olition sites,

| in die streets, and in a m agnif icently institut ional church hall

i n P o w i s G a r d e n s .

Hopkins however , nudg ed a long by Fa in l ig ht , ha d a whi f f

o f the psychedelic movem ent and kn ew m ore c lear ly what he

| w as after, a q u ality and an atmo sphe re un obtainab le in theFree School as i t stood. Nevertheless he launched the Pink

F lo yd , the f irst E n gl ish psychede l ic po p-gro up , complete w ith

lights and blitzing volume, at the same church hall where the

festival a ctivities had taken place.

In ear ly 1967 he shi f ted to the o ld Shamrock Club in the

( Tottenha m Court Roa d a nd opened Unident i f ied F ly ing

O b j e c t —u f o —w hich w as the scene o f the wildest regu lar ii jpub l ic events London ha s yet ex per ienc ed . A ided now by

Ja c k M oo re , J im H ayn es and M ark B o y le (m ak in g brillian t

1 use o f l ight and colou r techniques) H op kins , b y no w a ffect ion-

I

ately kn ow n as H op p y, introduced a ll the adventurous e lec-

| t ronic pop g roup s : the F loy d , T h e M ove , T h e So f t Ma c hine ,

T h e S o c i a l D e v i a n t s ; T h e S u n T r o l l e y , A r t h u r B r o w n . T h e

Beatles had doubled the scope o f pop m usic with Revolver.

I t was amongst these groups inspired by the Beat les ’ exper i

m ents that po p m usic began to be m ore than m erely an amuse

ment. They played with sound in both an abstract and anexpress ionist ic way . They featured lyr ics which were s incere ,

intel l igent and wit ty . The Incredib le Str ing Band, operat ing

mid- wa y between fo lk a nd psyc hedel ic pop , ha ve proba b ly

reached the highest level yet achieved by contem porary popu lar

music . They a lso were introduced to the London publ ic a t

x99



II

UFO. A nu m ber o f in ven tive artists staged happenings at u f o .

The Exploding Galaxy , a part icular ly Goonish dance- troupe

run by David Medal la (who had previous ly been act ive at

Sign als , the Lo n do n centre o f kinetic art) m ade its debut there.The People Show, a theatre group who combine techniques

from music hal l , happening, straight drama, cabaret, funhouse

and chi ldren ’s party , som etim es ventured out o f their own

domain in Better Books Basement to perform at u f o . A ll this

ju xtaposed w ith un dergroun d m o vies, o ld silen t com edies and

Mark Boyle ’s perpetual ly changing l ights created an atmo

sphere in which young people could relax quiet ly or createfrenetically. I f dr u gs are to be taken into acco un t in the

assessment o f u f o i t was perfect ly obvious that l s d and pot

created an atmosphere o f harm ony and inventiveness , whereas

amphetamine and alcohol , at the old mod clubs, created an

atm osph ere o f sourness, scepticism , alienation and agg ression.

T h e atmosphere spread to the Electr ic Ga rden (now renamed

Middle Earth) where it continues.*

F r o m u f o the fad for freakouts on a San Francisco scale

spread through 1967—u f o held freakouts at W esker ’ s Ro un d

house and the Alexandra Palace and commercial promoters

picked up the habit and put them on throughout the country.

The national press assisted splendidly, particularly the Peopleand the News of the World, bandying around the Castal ia

Foundation ’s term ‘psychedel ic ’ l ike any popularized psycho

analyt ic phrase, ta lk ing about ‘ f lower power ’ and drug-crazed

y o u th s w ith that m enopausal tone o f total scandal d ia t is

guaranteed to bring the English clustering l ike f l ies to the

subject as participants or s igln-seers . Nine months after the

f irs t gatherings in H aigh t-A shb u ry m ill -g ir ls and off ice

w o rk e rs w ere w an d erin g d ow n th e B rig h to n and B lack po ol

seafronts , jangling their souvenir prayer-belts , trai l ing their

Pais ley bedspreads, brandishing daffodils and trying to look

tr ipped out . The Beat les had gone ‘ f lower-power ’ and i t was

up to the kids to do their best to fol low . O ne o f the richer

ironic sights in the sum m er o f 1967 was the in-grou p U nder

ground pop s ingers and drop-outs turning away in disgust

from the w idespread success o f their ideas, seeing their much

* Middle Earth is now closed.

200



valued exclusiveness evaporating, realizing, perhaps, that whentheir ideas were as widespread as that they could turn awayaltogether, their function over. Like Marshall McLuhan,Timothy Leary and Brian Epstein, they had been outdistancedby l s d and the Beades. When—was it the Sun Trolley?—refused to play to an influx of North London mods at the AlleyPally it was rather like Peggy Duff and the Aldermaston ravers,a fastidious: ‘If I’ve got to succeed that way I’d jolly-wellrather fail’.

Centres of the whole English movement throughout wereBetter Books and Miles’ Indica shops, the first one widi artgallery in Mason’s Yard and die second one over theInter-

national Times office in Soudiampton Row. Jim Haynes,disappointed with the way filings had gone both at dieTraverse and the Jeanetta Cochrane Theatres opened his ArtsLaboratory in Covent Garden with an exhibition of artwork

by the Exploding Galaxy, a light environment by RolandMiller and the People Show.The police, with strong indications of direct press liaison,

became violently alarmed at the spread of l s d and pot. Theyhad dealt with the far more sinister mod amphetamine crazecomparatively calmly. The truth is, I suspect, that die policeare wiser than the lawor die exact terms of their employment.Existentially they go far beyond dieir official role of uniformedcivil servant and have become die guardians of a definite wayof life with its established scale of values not always explicitin the law. They realized that amphetamine, although quicklydamaging to die brain and productive of incalculable licentiousness and violence like die mods and rockers riots,

generates exactly those situations of power, isolation andcombat with which the police can come to terms. (It is perhapsinteresting to note that during the Suez crisis Anthony Edenwas taking benzedrine.1) Similarly the American police arefar more warmly inclined to Hell’s Angels than to PeaceMarchers or hippies. Any copper can understand weapons,fists, rape and conflicting loyalties.

1 ‘Already in July 1956, Eden was taking many pills. When the crisis camehe told an adviser that he was practically living on benzedrine.’ h u g h t h o m a s

in The Suer A ffa ir , Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

201



But when the sexes merge, when reserve and privacy are

dissolved, when anchorages o f loya lty , m arriage, cou ntry , the

church, m one y , the m ili tary dead, w ork , pro pe rty , rank,

m ono gam ous lov e are m eaningless to a gro w ing section o f the

community this is something infinitely more s inister than vio

lence, som ething o utside the range o f police understanding.

T he y pa n ic .

They at tempt to make Br ian Jones and Mick Jagger

restr ictive exam ples and make them m artyr-heroes. T h e y arrest

a boy for b lowing bubbles in Tra fa lgar Square . They throw

the Ex p l od in g G a l a xy out o f S t J a m e s ’ P a r k f o r d a n cin g . T h e y

harass a l l Underground pop groups . They send the narcot ics

squad to look for pornographic l iterature in the ash-trays of

die International Timesoffice, experts w ho confiscate the com

plete (and irrelevant) f iles o f the paper, w o rks b y m ys elf and

Burroughs from Indica Bookshop upstairs , and leave un

touched ob viou s ‘h eads ’ am on g the custom ers and v iolent ly

t it il latory wo rks on w hich an obscenity charge could poss ibly

la ] : have been fram ed. T h e y arrest E d Sand ers on ly to be confused

by the differentiat ion between pornography and art . Could it

have been that W . H . A ud en w as prepared to defend his own

pirated gobb le poem ? T h ey ar res t J im Lo w el l o f the Asph odel

Bo ok sho p for his assoc iation w ith the Cleveland poets L e v y

and W agn er . T h e y raid the Los Angeles FreePress. T h e y ar rest

Suzy Creamcheese and al low her parents to incarcerate her ina m adhouse. T h e y arrest and im prison Joh n H op kins and turn

himinto a m artyr-hero. T h e y do the same to Ro be rt Fraser , the

on ly real ly adventurous art dealer in Lon do n. T h e y conf iscate

die Dine-Paolozzi pr ick pictures and charge Fraser with

I vagrancy for showing them. They arrest s igma art is ts for

drawing on the pavement and they arrest John Latham for

protesting about it. T h ey do their best to prevent the sho w ingo f Y o k o O n o ’ s a rs eho le f ilm . T h e y a rre st B ill W a n t lin g f o r

I exceeding l iis prescript ion o f cou gh m edic ine. T h e y arrest

L e s l i e F ie d l e r on a c om ic d r ug c ha r g e . T he y b e g in t o im -

pr ison people not for taking drugs but for permitt ing other

people to take them. They charge Dave Cunl i f fe with publ ish

ing obscenity for gain. In Greece, tradit ionally unhypocrit ical ,

they ban beards. In Ind ia, land o f the guilt less , they im prison

202



Malay Roy Choudhury for writing rude poems...and sohilariously on, rewardingly responding to our little prods and

turning themselves into a laughing stock to the entire youngergeneration. Meanwhile die Mafia, the strip shows, the bluefilms, the bedrock dirty picture shops, proliferate unchecked.Perhaps they pay protection money, but far more probablythey subscribe to a hole-in-the-corner, guilt-ridden attitudeto sex which is more acceptable to the society the police are atpains to preserve. Someone who steals money is practically a

bluebottle’s blood-brother compared to someone who burns it.The fuzz can and will get much more vicious.

It’s two years nowsince the Underground surfaced widithe Albert Hall reading and TimLeary’s arrest, two years sinceit spread beyond die in-groups and die minority-interest bookshops and jazz clubs. In that dazzling short time, jet-propelledby the spread of soft drugs (so-called ‘so-called soft’ by the

1squares) the genuine alarmof the police can be taken as ageneral barometer reading of Underground virility. / After theInternational Times raid there were a number of

pirate broadsheets, anarchic emergency issues produced underthe trade name, which bridged the gap between the resignationof the first editor, TomMcGrath, and the appointment of die

present editor, Bill Levy. These pirate issues, whilst leaving alot to be desired in terms of constructive art work and journalism, are valuable documents in diat they reflect accurately diestrength and weakness of the Underground. They are vital,audacious, reckless insofar as diey represent an extreme viewadopted in a broad popular way, and they have a curious bravespirit in that their very function was to keep the flag perilously

| flying until things could get organized again.They are also inept, irregular, stretch thin material to fillI too large a space, are badly written, even badly spelled, reflectthe minds of searching, well-meaning, even desperate young-

I sters who are nevertheless ignorant of anything but the trendyI frissons of the subculture and are therefore incapable ofcontributing original thought, merely capable of repeating

I tribal attitudes. Their chief weakness however is a weakness[ that becomes increasingly obvious as the winter draws on,\ with Better Books closed,u f o closed, Haight-Ashbury having

203



conducted i ts ow n funeral , H op py st ill in ja il , M cG rad i dis

appeared, Trocchi si lent, Burroughs hibernating, the Beatles

abso rbed in their nav els, the no ve lty o f die first trips we aring

off .

T h e weakness is a k ind o f fa tigue o f comm unication and

con structive action, a pursuit o f inner spaces wh ich has

al low ed ou ter densities to stagnate. A reaching ou t for the

stars that fai led because the tecl inology was not available

w ith in the inner s e l f - E r ic C lap ton o f T h e C ream p la ys fa r

less ably than Charley Christian did thirty years ago and

y e t attem pts so m uch m o re ; th e E x p lo d in g G a la x y expand the

w h o le con cept o f d ieatre and ye t la ck a sin g le e xc itin g actor,

comedian o r dancer. Arth u r B row n is ful l o f br ight ideas and

the sanest madness but lacks die t iming o f even L o rd Sutch.

N one o f the w ander ing poets seems to be a Ginsbe rg . Estab

lished artists lean heavily on their past masterpieces. What

y o u n g tale nt d iere is , in the W estb ro o k , M c G re g o r , M el

D av ies , O sbo rne jazz bands, in the Peo ple Sh o w , in Mark

B o yle ’s dance-and -light sho w s, in Am erican hardmou th po etry

and funk ar t , among d ie Archigram des igners , among d ie

students w ith C o rn y Ca rde w at W atford, in the Incredible

String Band, the Mothers, the Fugs and the Beatles, seems

caught in a temporary hiatus.

It ’s as i f the praxes o f art w ere in vo lved , to their detrim ent,

in the processes o f socia l dissolut ion. T h e nature o f the revo lu

tion to which they belong necessitates a change in direction

be fore art can reassert itse lf as a roo t force.

T o m M cG rath wrote be fore leav ing the paper he had so

capably launched: ‘Here are some thoughts I have arr ived at

in the last few hectic days since it w as busted.

‘ i . I t is essentia lly an inner-directed m ovem ent. T h o se wh o

are involved in i t share a com m on v iew po int—a new w ay o flook ing at th ings- rather than a credo, dogma or ideology .

T h is can never be suppressed b y force or La w : yo u cannot

imprison consciousness . No matter how many raids and

arrests the police make on whatever pretence -there can be no

final bust because the revolution has taken place w it h in t h e

min d s o f th e y o u n g .

‘2. It is impossible to define this new attitude: you either

204



have it or you don’t. But you can notate some of its mani-festations:

‘ (A) Permissiveness—the individual should be free from

hindrance by external L a w or internal guilt in his pursuit o f

pleasure so long as he does not impinge on others . The con

flict betwe en the im portance o f the ind ividu al ’s righ t to

pleasure (orgasm) and his responsibil it ies towards other

hum an beings m ay becom e the ult im ate hum an social problem .

T h e search for p leasure/orgasm cov ers e very fie ld o f hum an

activity from sex, art and inner space, to architecture, theaboli tion o f m one y , ou ter space and be yond .

‘(B ) Post/anti-pol it ical—this is no t a m ovem ent o f protest

but one o f ce lebration . Altho ug h i t i s futur ist ic , look ing tow

ards the le isure o f a com pu ter culture the new m an o f the space

ag e . . .tho se invo lve d in the “ ne w th ing” a re hav ing a goo d

t ime now. And they are succeeding . This g ives r ise to envy

and creates enemies . Favourite put-down words against the

n e w m o v em e n t a re “ f ri v o l o u s ” a nd “ ir re sp o n s ib le .” T h e

“ pleasure now ” att itude ensures , h ow ever , that w hatever

happens, this is one revolutionary movement that must win

one w ay or noth ing. I f ou r ideas are quashed in the future, at

least w e can lo ok b ack on the ba l l-up w e had no w .

‘3 . E ve n to call it a new “ m ovem ent” is to create a false

im press ion. T h is n ew thing is jus t people com ing together and

g r o o v i n g . I f y o u d o n ’ t k n o w w h a t g r o o v i n g m e an s th en y o u

haven ’ t yet understood what is going on. There are no

leaders : each individual fol lows his inner voice in the most

honest w ay poss ib le—“ D o es this loo k l ike som ething I w i ll

e n jo y g e tt in g in v o l v ed i n ? ” “ Y e s . ” “ C r a z y . ” B u t th ere are

influences rang ing from the Beatles to W ill iam B urro ug hs.Lead ers o f com parable m ovements in the States don ’ t have

m uch o f an influence here despite so m any sneers to the con

trary. M ost o f the peop le I h ave com e into contact w ith in

Eng land a re susp ic ious o f Le ary ’ s “ T u rn on , tune in , drop

out” s logan , for example . D espite A . J . A y e r and a ll that,

Britain has com e up w ith a new spir itual m ovem ent. B ut it has

one c lear distinguishing ty pica l ly Brit ish feature- its comm onsense practicality.

‘4 . T h e new m ovem ent is essentia l ly optimist ic . I t has a

205



ha pp y v ie w o f man and his potential, based m ainly on his

creat iv i ty . This is a post-existential movement, bringing an

end to years o f tough and painful despair . Th at optimism has

been reborn in d ie face o f the H -bom b, Vietnam, p overty ,

hunger, etc. , is so surpris ing it is almost a miracle. Again, the

opt imism i s t inged with commonsense . The b ig wor ld pro

blems that concerned cn d and the C om m ittee o f too at their

zenith have not been forgotten. The new approach is to make

pos i tive changes w herever y ou are , r ight in f ront o f yo u r nose .

T h e w eapon s are love and cre at iv ity—w ild new clothes,

fash ions , s t range new mus ic sounds . The new movement i s

num erical ly we ake r than cn d at its strongest, but its members

seem to have an instinct ive un derstanding o f M cLu han -sty le

media theory : they know how to use the media to s trongest

advantage. In an instant-com m unication age, any act anyw here

can be g iven w or ld-w ide s ign i ficance i f yo ur com m unication

l ink -up is eff ic ient enou gh. T h is is one aspect o f w hat i t and

! !

the U nd ergrou nd P ress Syn dicate is a ll about.

*5. T h e new m ovem ent is s low ly , careless ly , constructing an

\ alternative society. It is international, inter-racial, equisexual,

w ith ease. I t operates on different con ception s o f tim e and

space . T h e w or ld o f the future m ay have no c locks . ’ 1

1 t o m m c g r a t h , from Internationa l Tim es, no. 10, 13 March 1967.

' : ' l l



ill

April 1st, 1966: thenight of Criton s happening. ThePhiladelphia Foundation have whipped round Better Books and

Indica postingup denials of Criton’s invitation. Criton has already told methat he wont hethere. Bruce Lacey, who called to rig up theloudspeakers, was turned away. I get off thetubeat

Bromley, havenever walked so high on theliquid of theevening. I walk to theKingsley Hall—theGandhi sign, blueand white, on

thewall. I knock and there’s no reply. I go to drink in thelittlepub around thecorner. Every time I go I put a newanalysis on therelationship between thethreeor four family-members who serve in thethreebars. I drink enough to let theeveningrun through my mouth with its slowpatterns of events.

Then I knock at Kingsley Hall again. Thereis still no answer.

My mind and systemis a sea of coloured shocks, a tearinggladness underneath theimplicit irony of thedead-end events. I walk round theestate whereCriton circulated his invitations.

A littlegirl hauls up her skirt and shows meher wet, grey knickers. Ipull a face at her. ‘Fuck off,you , shehusks. I give her sixpence. 'Fuck off’, shesays.

Onemoreknock on theKingsley Hall. A voice above—dark, pale American girl, John Keys’ bird(John Keys left in anger —Gavemea savage poemto RonnieLaingfor theMag) leans over thebalustradeabove, ‘Do you want to comein ?’

‘Yes’ I say. I feel that from nowon theabsent Criton and thegods control events. Again I’mmerely a witness, floating.

Thebigcommon roomupstairs is untidy. In thediningroom

is a half-finished mural, improving, says thegirl, as theartist becomes happier with her mind. Flicker ofanger—she’s got a good

longway to go. Thereis embroidery in oneof therooms, terrible

*°7



embroidery, a veritable Rechabites’ tablecloth, apocalyptic sun

and all.

Evening lies dying on the remaining furniture in the recreation

room, billiard table, upright piano, chairs—The walls are partly painted, no completion anywhere. The furn iture, remaining from

the time when the H a ll was a community centre, is like a glimpse

o f a homely fam iliar domestic life left Uttered in the rain.

I wander aim lessly round, tinkle at the piano. The g ir l makes

coffee. There is too much washing-up.

I am w orried about the washing-up. ‘S h a ll I do it ? '

She stayed when John left. With Jo h n ?—oh—fo r years. What she wanted—you know when you fin d it. A sense o f belonging and

possibility.

David (/ think it was David.') joins us from his room. H e sits

in a kitchen chair, periodically perm itting his whole body to be

caught up in paroxysm s, sm all broken orgastic spasms o f move

ment. During these violent little climaxes his face remains

impassive and unhappy. H is static dances come sailing down the evening to me and twist into smoother curves in m y dream. They

signal sarcastic attitudes about the situation—the situation alw ays,

the perpetual situation.

I start vaguely to wash up. The g ir l is sad. She disappears a

while. I wander lam ely about the common room. I remember my

coffee in the kitchen, go and finish it. Images from that berserk

week-end at B ra fter’s P ark sw ell and wane in my imagination.The g ir l comes back. She talks a little o f N ew York. N o, she

hasn’t been to the pub round the corner. No she hasn’t been into

London. N o, she doesn’t want to. Inner space. Cra^y.

D avid twists his w ay in from the kitchen. H e picks up a

billiard cue. I want to say ‘Forget it D avid. Don’ t do this mad

bit any more. I t ’s a ll a load o f shit.’ H e starts a burlesque game

o f billiards. I pick up a cue. We swing around, cues skidding

across the baige, balls thumping across the flo or. The g ir l smiles

sadly.

D avid gets excited, starts breathing hea vily, pan ting, grunting;

his eye lights up, he wants to play, he wants to force his play

th rough the comptdsive piss-take o fm y own ebullience which it now

is. H e might break back into touch with bloodshed. So I cool it.

He slumps back into isolation and stands, listlessly holding

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w ere anxious to g iv e ou t w ith a form al w elcom e at din ner.

Y e s , w e had all been asked to be there fo r d inner. B u t dinner

came and went and sti l l no formal announcement. That would

^^■1 have to w ait t ill a f ter dinner . T o m M cGrath show ed with w ife

and bab y. C oo pe r and I went to meet La ing and loo k for Alex

(v isions o f him put dow n facing in the w ron g direct ion b y a

bus condu ctor and w and er ing o f f to the south) . C oo per

w h ip p ed a lo n g th e la nes in his fla sh car. W e m et R o n n ie .

He was with Clancy Sigal and Joe. We chased round the

lanes looking for a pub. In the pub I said to Sigal ‘ I can’t see

y o u ’ . ‘O il s o r ry ,’ he said . H e li fted h is shades. Jo e rode back w ith C o o p e r and I . A H u n garian brain su r

geo n w ith huge m audlin eyes and a big Jew ish yearn ing in him,

j Jo e talked ab ou t the p la y he w as w ritin g . ‘T h is is K a fk a ’ he

said, indicating the bleeding landscape. I thought, ‘For these

cats eve rythin g is K a fk a ’ . I sa id ‘ Y o u should have seen the

sun ear l ier this evening- l ike a bloody great f r ied egg ’ . So Joe

smiled and that looked a bit more promising.H alf the peo ple had been in to dinner. Th ere w ere two times

suggested to meet after dinner. Alex arr ived, nerve-wracked

f f i f rom J im ’s dr iv in g, wanted to leave this eve ning inform al

unti l morning. Joe and Ronnie wanted to go on the piss . The

hosts wanted to give their welcome and outl ine their regula-

tions. I w as beg inn ing to stretch between app easement o f the

hosts, excitement at the people, excitement at the place, and apo w er fu l unassuaged th irs t o f m y ow n.

B y ten-thirty we w ere assembled—w and erers back from the

pub but Alex in his room. The Phi ladelphia representat ives

w ere a lit tle sceptical abou t the w h o le project. W h at the hell

w as sigm a a n y w a y ? I started to try to te ll them . T o m sloped

o ff to ge t Alex . A lex , i rr itable , came dow n. F o r a ll his inade

quacy and megalomania there was something warming abouthim and his w ife—there a lwa ys i s -a w arm ing v iri le w h if f o f

sheer jazz about them.

C o n f r o n ta t io n b e tw e e n B o b C o b b in g a n d A l e x . A l e x

sitting cross-legged on the f loo r painting a piece o f driftw oo d

in Cry la co lour .

C o b b in g : ‘ W h e r e is th e m o n e y co m in g fr o m ? ’

T r o cch i : ‘ T h e m o n e y i s no problem.’

2 14



Cobbing: ‘Where is it then?’Trocchi: ‘I’ve got the fucking money.’

Cobbing: ‘Howmuch?’Trocchi hurled his driftwood at Cobbing, Cobbing grinned.Trocchi: ‘Have I got to sit here all night looking at your

fucking ugly face?’Play this man right like an instrument, I thought, and you’ll

get a good song. Thinking vaguely that the Philadelphia Trustmust be trusted with something, I said ‘It’s okay Bob. There

is money.’ At this point the host, Mrs Faithful, came in to deliver herofficial welcome. She had waited patiently since dinner fourhours ago. ‘I don’t want to listen to any administrative details,’growled Alex.

Later we fixed a meeting for ten in die morning and brokeup. Sigal, McGrath and I talked. ‘You’re awful hung up on

art,’ said Sigal. John Lathamhad a pint of whiskey. He shared it. Joe

crooned Hungarian Yiddish lullabies to Beba Lavrin.In the morning Alex overdosed. I began to get the pattern

of his habit. It was, basically, a kind of worrying towardsself-perfection. Thus he had lasted longer than most. He camedown to the meeting late. By the time he came down Ronnie,

Joe and Beba had gone off on the piss again. Another pattern.These people dreaded meeting one another. Deeply theydreaded it.

So through most of the morning session TomMcGradiand I talked about an art centre and nobody dug the idea toomuch.

We had lunch. Ronnie, Joe and Beba were back, picnicking with wine and garlic sausage on the terrace. ‘My obligations do not go so far as to have to eat their fuck-awful food,’said Ronnie and hurled a stone out into the park.

The picnic got wilder and drunker. Wine got into peoplelike the sun got into the butter. The picnic table became animage of the whole meeting. Discordant, messy, runny,

sticky and finally abandoned.I began, doggedly, to make mere meeting times my business.That final abandonment was not going to happen if I

215



could help it. Graham Howe had already left in disgust.In the afternoon Ronnie sat in a centre chair, magnificently

slewed, with a litre of wine at his foot, ‘I want everyone in this

room who is not prepared to be a fucken general in thiscampaign to walk out of that door now.’ The discussion started circling. Joe asked, ‘ IVhat is this

sickness in society you refer to?’ Everybody sounded off abstractedly. Joe kept asking.

I said ‘Ronnie, will you for Christ’s sake give Joe some definition of the social sickness so that we can move on?’

Sigal said ‘Jeff, you’re beginning to bug me.’ That was it. I crumpled into a chair with the wine and heldback angry tears. There is a movie somewhere of my beergutrising and falling on that occasion, tumultuous with suppressedwrath and frustration. ‘Why put down Jeff and not Joe?’ asked Tom. ‘Because Joe seems to have a little more behind his asking,’

said Sigal.Laing pointed at McGrath. ‘You are an innocent man,’ he

accused. John Latham burned a Skoob Tower.In the evening there was a hurtling drive to Oxford. Beba

Lavrin’s teenage son, who suffered with a violent nervoustwitch, sat in the front of the car. As we crashed the trafficlights or hurtled towards slowing vehicles Jim, driving, threwhis left arm across the boy’s chest. And a hell of a lot of goodthat would have done had it come to the crunch.

At dinner I sat by Joe and the boy. Joe, well-plastered bynow, talked to the boy about his twitch, then screamed ‘ForChrist’s sake stop it!’ The boy froze. Joe turned to me with anexpression of dreamy benignity: ‘I’m winning,’ he said.

The bill for dinner came to a hundred pounds. SomehowRonnie paid it.

One of Cooper’s patients drove me back to die Park. I hadto get petrol for him on the way—conned a passing motoristinto driving me to a garage and back with the can. A mile fromthe Park we ran dry again. Joan, Sid, the driver and I piled outand pushed the car home.

In the house everybody was stoned. Alex and Ronniesquatted cross-legged on the floor, forehead to forehead, eyes

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closed. Sigal had some jazz records. I listened for a while— Joe Turner—then turned in.

A smell woke me up. On the stairs it was stronger, a cheap

scented chemical kind of smell. I expected chaos in the loungeand vaguely intended clearing it up. That at least I could dofor the Faithfuls (who, I later discovered, had sat up all thatSaturday night with a gun.) I opened the lounge door. JohnLathammet me with a steady staring eye. There’s somethingabout Lathamat such moments that is mad beyond madness.

A staring immovable shocked and shocking inner violence.Lathamhad taken a book (an irreplaceable book belonging toa pleasant little Chinese friend of Alex’s) stuck it to the wallwith Polyfilla, and shot black Aerosol all over book and wallin abig explosion of night. That was the smell. Otherwise theroomwas tidy.

Until breakfast-time John reassured me that the Faithfuls

had given himpermission to do a mural. Later it caused seriousmental distress to aged community members. That Sundaymorning it stood, overlooking the talk, a stark, beautiful,

violent emblemto pure action, the most graphic condemnationpossible of our evasive ineffectual waffle.

So that Sunday morning Cooper and Laing spoke well.Calmafter the party, relaxed, knowing us nowand we know

ing him, Laing enacted a catatonic ceremonial, summarilydescribing its magical function. ‘It’s a question,’ he said,‘of coming down fromthe surface of tilings, fromthe surfaceof yourself, down to the core of all things, to the centralsphere of being of which all things are emanations.’ At mid-day we fled fromone another with colossal relief.

April 3, 1966: ‘It was worth it,’ I say to Criton. ‘No bastard camebut IVilcocks and his bird, oh, and somefriend of yours, but therewas somethinggoing on.'

Criton nods. Heseems pleased and calmer. IV: go to thepub. Criton talks about his sexuality, his hangups. I talk about mine. I amseeingmoreclearly nowwhat Criton is about. Criton has

listened and learned well. For threeyears he, finally a Christian idealist, has been buffeted between theideas of me, Keith, Burroughs, Laing, strivingselflessly and giving his best in despera-

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Another batch o f duplicating comes through the post fo r me to do

and I realise I ’ve had enough. I try to articulate my alienation

from Criton. I write, to begin with fran kly and kin dly :

‘Dear Criton

IVd have gone further (could have gone along even further)

had it not been fo r the grow ing certain ty that yo ur cosmic plan -

chette is totally insensitive or antipathetic to a whole area o f

! existen ce...’ but going on to a fla t and frigh tened brutality:

‘gleefully annihilating in clouds o f empty clemency the very thing

you haven t got and never w ill have until you come out o f your

' godawful disinfected mental bath room ...’

On the morning o f Good Friday, dig that, Good Friday, a phone

\ call. Criton s flat-m ate, the little Chinaman: ‘ Criton’s had cut

accident, Can you cornel’

‘I’mglad we had it,’ said Ronnie over the phone.T h rou gh that summ er o f 1964 w e turned ou r poss ib ili ties

o ve r between use like enigmatic stones. A lex and L y n m oved

back together . Ly n had kicked her habit successfully . T h eir

fla t was a three-room place near W estbourne G rov e . T h e d i s

carded cars rusted away in the street.

I spent long sunny afternoons sitting on die balcony playingwith little Mark, sitting in die pub talking to Lyn. Our intentions and schedules submerged into a warmambience, compounded of Lyn’s gentle slatternly beauty, the soft purr of

Alex’s voice, an ambience of tenderness, intelligence, totallicence and crackling undercurrents of a kind of sad cruelty. Alex rigged up his study like an office. People passing

through London dropped in, Jack Michelin, Gregory Corso,Bob Creeley, Ian Sommerville. Posters went up on the walls,statements of policy, plans of action. I drewup a plan for a

[ sigma poster magazine and found a cheap printer at Hertfordwho’d print it like awrestling poster. Alex didn’t like it.He drewup his own mock-up and passed it on to Sankey at Villiers Press.

2 2 1



I duplicated the sigma portfolio and Alex and I went up tothe unofficial poetry conference at the Traverse with somethingto sell. JimHaynes’ vast Edinburgh flat was like a Bedouin

encampment. Actors, poets, folk-singers, dancers came in,dossed down and passed on. A man fromMillbrook showed up—actual tangible proof of the psychedelic movement.

The dreamwas strengthening. My best things I said tomyself—auto-responses to passing remarks and half-memories.

A little man called Jack Moore held my hand in the TraverseBar. I caught my nose in the door of a telephone kiosk on the

Royal Mile and a fat man called Adrian Henri released me.Chinese lunch with Alan and his bird. Ferocious embracefromRoddy Carmichael. George Lawson like a wren. GeorgeMacBeth like a predatory spider. Martin Seymour-Smith and Iand two vacant American girls. The Corries late night at dieTraverse reminding me of Dennis Winnie and DennisWinnie dying. Looking for Bill McArthur and selling the

Festival Special Mag. Sunday morning sunshine waking thebeatniks dossed out in rows in the castle gardens.Phil Cohen found die Kingsley Hall. What was the Kingsley

L[ Hall? A beautiful hall, says Cohen, what you might callBypass Ecclesiastical. Who’s running it? Oh some trust, somecollecdon of social workers, working more or less underDavid Sheppard (who was, at that rime, unsullied by Last

Exit To Brooklyn).-Gandhi slept there-Social centre in dieEast End. What are they doing with it? Absolutely fuck all.The exhibition. Yes, the exhibition. I went to see die

Kingsley Hall. Lathamhad his Skoob Box, a strange darkenvironment, in the basement. Cohen was dossing in theorgan room. The Philadelphia Trust wanted it for their community. Cohen wanted it for a youth recreation centre. Iwanted it for Criton and me, to house our exhibition. Icontacted Criton and called a meeting. John Ladiam, BruceLacey, Islwyn Watkins, Criton, Dave Trace, Phil Cohen,Keith and Heather Musgrove, came.

Meanwhile I learned something more of Alex and the priceof his self-perfection—howeach step towards his own apotheosis cost himdearer in terms of need—a veritable Faustianprogress widi the Devil upping die price all the time, so that

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I __



each project that his aspiring sensibility conducted himtowards, each ideal, each aim, each plan too huge and tooaudacious for unstimulated minds, carried with it its sadreverse of negatives. Each gesture of self-realization carried anaspect of snide self-gratification. The funds poured in. Butthe funds also poured out. In September Tonk sent me ten bobfromLiverpool with the note, ‘Is this any good for sigma?’I sent it back by return.

Good Friday, A p ril1966.

Criton s curtains are, as ever, drawn. ‘H e fe ll in the kitchen and cut his head,’ says the Chinaman. ‘H e

says he's paralysed.'

Criton lies on a mattress on the floo r o f his half-dark studio.

The mattress is made up neatly with clean sheets and he lies neatly

on his hack. Even the cut on his forehead is bleeding neatly in a

single decorous track.

The rest o f the room is disturbing. I t is in a strange disorder—not the usual squalor o f an a rtist's studio but an almost com

pulsive plethora o f stuff. The duplicating jo b / refused has now

been done and the stacks o f paper are a ll across the bed. Construc

tions, drawings, clothes, gear everywhere, not dropped or left, but

placed. The effect is rather like that o f a kleptom aniac's un

covered magpie hoard.

‘Sit down,' says Criton.

I sit.

‘H ave you paper and a pen ? ’

I s a y ‘ Y es'.

‘O ver there', says Criton, ‘are the pam phlets. I want them sent

to the follow ing people—The Queen, the Prime M inister—

‘ Oh-oli I think. 'Th e real thing.' Criton's little excursion into

the subliminal has turned into schizophrenia.

‘I think you 're m ad,’ I say.

Quotations run o ff Criton’s tongue—things I have said through

out our relationship—whole conversations remembered word

perfect but translated into persecutionary terms and juxta posed

now as evidence o f m y imposition. Perhaps I have imposed on

Criton but this is the fir s t, honestly the firs t, I know o f it.

‘ Perhaps you d better ring your wife. You’ re going to be here

fo r some time■’

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‘N o I ’m not,’ I say. ‘ I ’m going home fo r m y dinner.'

Criton is out o f bed like a shot. Coldly angry, he walks about the

room moving things. I ask him fo r the telephone number o f his

doctor. Then I bid him goodbye. Outside in the hall I te ll the Chinaman that Criton is m ad and give him the doctor’s telephone

number. I go up the road in the bright Easter sunshine. I ring the

doctor and te/l his secretary that Criton is mad, that he believes he

is Christ, that it’s Easter, so fo r Christ’s sake get a move on.

The doctor is on Easter vacation, she says, but she’ll do what

she can.

I ring round the Philadelphia Trust trying to get some response. Kingsley H all residents are so pissed off'with Criton by now they

don’t want to know. Jo e Berke is sympathetic, asks me to ring

back and tell him what happens. We make a date to meet in the

Porcupine on Easter M onday. D avid Cooper says ‘ W ell, we a ll

think we’re Jesu s, don’t we, Je ffT

T h e K ing s ley Hal l went , o f course, finally , to the PhiladelphiaT ru st . B y now w e had another place Better Boo ks basement.

Tony Godwin had opened the new paperback shop with Bi l l

But ler as manager in November 1964 . I wrote to Tony God-

w in . F in e , he said and w e w ent to w o rk . W e did a happening

w ith C h arles M arow itz and K en D e w e y and then proceeded to

build the sT igm a in early 1965. C riton had made a plan and a

m odel. B ruce and I had dis liked the arty look o f it but weadopted the main grou nd plan. W e app ortioned o ff the parts .

La tham , the entrance; me, the passage; W atkins, the darkened

passage; Lacey, the polythene maze and the dentist ’s chair;

T rac e, the cafe; me, the liv ing roo m ; Keith and H eather, the

cylinder and the tunnel; Criton, the remainder.

Criton and I started just after Christmas. It was the firsttime I’d actually, physically worked with Criton. It wasmurder, two different speeds and both of us incapable of work-ing outside those speeds, me like a bull in a chinashop, Critonlike acabinet maker. Cohen came down to help, sawthat itwas real, really taking place, not just being planned, and wentaway again. We put up asteel framework. After ChristmasKeith came and knocked it down.

Through January Keith was out of work. He spent every

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■ I ■ ■ I

day down in the basement hurling his considerable energyagainst the concrete and the crumbling walls. By February,

almost single-handed Keith had put up a newframework. Wewent to work.I tried to fix it for everybody to get together on Saturdays

and talk about progress. Criton was almost desperate to get amonastic tiling going. He rang me up and suggested we allget sleeping bags and live in die basement. This was firstimpressive, then a touch alarming, and finally made me angry,

a quick unpleasant impatience with the odier man who dogsmy footsteps and calls on me to dog his. I could hear over thephone diat Criton was angry also. Wasn’t our cause die mostsacred possible? Wasn’t it a cause demanding our total commitment? I told Criton bluntly that I had other sacred commitments and that die rest of the gang wouldn’t play either. As Saturdays passed it became obvious diat we were once

again avoiding one another. Everyone in the teamseemed to behiding behind a separate stance and a separate concept of whatdie exhibition stood for.

For Keith and Heather it was a bunch of friends doing thething primarily for fun, a kind of practical joke, cocking asnook at the squares. For John Lathamit was another gesture

against the printed word. For Bruce it was one more itemin aconfused frantic programme all more or less devoted to hissocialist obsessions. For Nick and Dave it was the art game-form. For Criton it was sacred dedication. For me it wasanger, ebullient sarcasmand a public for my art work at last.For Criton and I it was intensely serious, a last chance. Fordie others, only partly so.

I tended to find myself spokesman for the group and explained the showas best I could according to the originalideals of Currel-Brown’s letter. It was propagandist rather dianart. Its brutality, its nauseous elements were intended to enforce life and to inspire compassion, an angry diagnosis intended to provoke correction.

Increasingly I realized that only Criton, Bruce and I werediinking in these original terms.

The entrance to the sTigma was through three valve-doorways lined with old copies of theEconomist. The last you could

225



-------------------—

-----—

----- ■' ' y *

si lence and two bleak host i le responses. Could he describe

w h at the exh ib itio n m eant to h im ? ‘N o . . .

N o t y o u r w a y . . .’

W ith in a few d ays Jo h n w as in the m ad h ouse, the v ictim

and scapegoat i t seemed o f ou r col lect ive d isease. H is eloquen t

s i lence was broadcast . Anne Duchene gave the broadcast a

rather patronizing review in the Guardian. C r i t o n w a s a n g r y

now, co ld ly and unchangeably angry .

A s the sT ig m a w as w reck ed , abused , rep aired , as th e rad io

and press interviews passed, as we realized by the graffit i that w h at w as hell to puritans w as a heaven to sadistic fetish ists, as

the toes we had reeled from and steeled ourselves to use were

draw n on the liv in g roo m w alls in erot ic contexts, as it became

ob viou s that som eone am ongst us w as n icking the gate m oney,

as w e shifted the l ittle tribes o f beatn ik squatters out w ith

their droppers and guitars, the sharp angers, jealousies, differ-

ences between us flared. A t the end o f M arch we tore it do w n

than kful ly . W e tore it do w n and let the day l ight in and forg ot

it as best w e co uld. W e fo rg o t the plans to reconstruct it on a

bus and take it round the pro vinces. W e forg ot ou r plans for

shock happenings on Lon do n Transp ort . W e le ft it to Jo h n

to do o ur rem em bering for us .

Easter Saturday 1966. I go to Uxbridge. TheFreeman Syndicate, a bunch of energetic young IVest London anarchists, arerunninga poetry and jaqgsession. I amdirectinga happeningwith theMike Westbrook Band. Motor-bikes round thehall, simultaneous films, lights, dark, whistles, Osborne, Griffiths and Surman flipping their sweet lids.

Easter Sunday. Thephonerings at regular intervals through the day. Two rings and then stop. Criton signalling. They

haven t yet collected him. Easter Monday. / meet Joe Berkein thePorcupine. Wetalk

about Criton, vision, Louis WTin. Heflashes his gammy finger at meas/ expected himto. With about four pints under my belt /go down to Trafalgar Square. Thesameold tremors ofanger and frustration. 1 seeJohn Keys and his bird. They areangry at

Criton s interference. Keys compares thenumbers with Bayard Rustin’s massivecivil rights march. Wewatch Adrian Mitchell’s

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and MikeKustow’s puppet play. I got a meetingtogether earlier

in theyear, a lameeffort to follow on from the-sTigma. Keys remarks that of all thepeople at that meetingonly Mitchell and

Kustowhaveactually doneanything. I say ‘Nowabout Criton ?’ I go to talk to Adrian and Mike. IVilcocks and Foley grab

me. Half-slewed, I find myself on theplatformfacing about five thousand people as theAnarchist speaker. I tell themmarchingis ineffectual. I tell themfor eight years they havemarched past

theMinistry of Defencewithout ‘leavingso much as a bullet hole’ to remember themby. A uniformed dinosaur of someconsiderable

rank takes my nameand address. DuringtheeveningI run across DaveTomlin but wish, now,

1 hadn’t. I was no pleasurablecompany.On Tuesday half theFreeman Syndicateand John Moore

cometo visit. In full viewof themall, luxuriatingin thesourness

of my perversity, 1 ringCriton s doctor, find that Criton has either not answered thedoor or turned callers away. I call the

welfareauthorities. In an hour they ringmeback and tell methey

called rotmd with thepolice, that Criton is nowin Napsbury

madhouse. I break thenews to theroomful ofpeople. John out—Criton in; somebody, it seems, has to carry thecan.

T h e sT igm a c losed at the end o f M arch 1965 . G insberg arrived

in May. Unannounced he wandered into Better Books one day

and introduced himself. He offered to read anywhere for no

fee. His first readin g at Better B oo ks w as the first hea ling wind

on a ve ry parched collect ive m ind. T h e sourness , the negat ivity

in the air befo re his co m ing w as almo st tangible. W as certainly

poisonous.

W e sat, packed tight, rather se lf-con sciou s. B o b C o b b in g

looked triumphant. I was drunk and insane and in love. Bill

Morris was sick in the metal waste-basket noisi ly.

Ginsberg read and it registered that what had seemed over-messianic, grotesquely self-exposing and self-lacerating in

print, was, in fact, a gay thing, the violent images delivered

w it h a m isch ievou s w in k le , an in credib le m ilk y gentle ness

flowing out from this one man into the minds and bodies of

the audience. After the reading he sauntered down into the

audience-cigarette , hands in pockets , not a prophet , not a

m



W L \ . - -

great poet an y m ore, just a fr iend ly Y a n k , said: ‘W ell , w here ’s

the party? ’

T w o wo m en w id i flo w ers o n the ir faces wh isked h im aw ay .

D ay s later, in M arcus Fie ld ’ s room one floor d ow n from A lex ’ s ,

a crow d o f us sat in a circle . Field, a yo u n g and capable Au stra

lian , had been doin g m y job for s igm a since we b egan w o rk on

the exhibit ion, doing it far more eff iciently than I. Allen was

t i red. Was I Nutta l l ? Did I know that Burroughs was against

the f lesh? I was surprised that he knew. Did the youngpeople read Blake? R athe r in the same w ay that Am erican

reporters thou gh t die B eatles were queer because o f their

haircuts, so Allen seemed to diink that any long-haired

Brit ish youth was steeped in Proust . The misunderstanding

reached a hilarious peak when, stark naked, he encountered

Lennon and McCartney (at that t ime very sharp l i t t le mods)

at a party and demanded their embraces. It seems to indicatean insight beyond error , that now two years later bodi the

Beatles and their fans wo uld e n joy P rou st ve ry much indeed.

I t was a new and e levat ing summer , a long warm t ime of

co lours merging, changing, in a s low exploding orgasm of

events.

A t th e A lb ert H all read ing Jo h n Latham and I w ere to h ave a

battle. W e dressed in blue paint and huge A ztec costumes o f

bo oks w hich w e were to tear o f f one another. Tro cch i forgot

to s ignal ou r entrance. A s w e w aited in the w ings Joh n passed

out . There was a f ight with one of the Brit ish Legion attend

ants who tr ied to prevent Cohen and I from using a door as a

stretcher to carry John to Sir Malcolm Sargent ’s dressing-

room. It was the same attendant , pulverized by die goodly

A n g lo -S a x o n p o u rin g forth fro m Je w ish lip s d o w n in th e

auditor ium, who burst into S ir Malco lm’s bathroom, found

Jo h n and I g ig g lin g and w ash in g one another, assum ed th e

w o rst and staggered a w a y in an advanced sta te o f shock.

T h e sum m er w as out o f contro l . I behaved, I am to ld,

intolerably at one o f Joh n C ald er ’s parties . M ost people, I am

told, behaved intolerably everywhere, s igma off ice wascro wded wid i p eo p le wear ing f lo wers . Grego ry Co rso , a

pretty gir l and I sold newspapers in the Portobel lo Road.

I w rote real po etry at last . In Septem ber A l len w ent home and! 11

229



F w e all w en t to C ard iff. A t C a rd iff Jean -Jacq u es L e b e l, T o m

H udson and I put on a happening . C ardi f f 'Sch oo l o f A rt was

full o f beauti fu l yo u n g people . Th e Park H ote l was fu ll o f

local queers affecting disgust at visiting poets. Henri, Patten

and M cG ou gh floated on a sea o f black sullen faces. Patten

took the shoes put out for the bootboy and threw them down

the lift-shaft. Paolo Leonni, hiding behind a crazy assumed

name because o f the w arrant o ut fo r his arrest, ten m iles up on

l s d , shambled out to the f ront o f the Com m onw ealth Po etry

Conference, respectable delegates turning with a wince from

his cracked black shoes, f loppy tweed hat, naked, dirty ankles,

and delivered the following message to her Majesty the Queen

o f E n g la n d .

‘T o the Queen

(1) That poetry, as an artistic extension of language, is a

concrete alternative in the spiritual vacuum of contemporary

everyday life.

(2) That every man, woman and child alive is an actual orpotential poet.

(3) That the same words used daily to wilfu lly create ugliness

and division can be profitably turned to attain unity and beauty,

through poetry.

(4) That we feel the following to be problems in reality

not sufficiently or satisfactorily dealt with in the tacitly accepted

structure of politics, diplomacy and finance:(A) Overpopulation.

(B ) Dep letion o f the earth’s natural resources to satisfy

artificially created cravings.

(C ) T h e understanding and elimination o f armed animosity.

(D ) The equitable distribution o f material necessities.

(F.) The perpetration o f official interference in the com

municative condition o f man.(F) The nature of legality and crime.

(G) The monopolization of temporal and spiritual authority

by businessmen through the governments on the one hand and

priests through the churches on the other.

( If ) The refusal to grant poets their rightful Periclean role in

modern democracy.

230



(I) The newspaper and magazine monopoly over the masses

of man’s highest symbolic achievement, the written word;

delegating the respon sibility o f ferreting out the relevant truths

o f existence to anonym ous, advertising-sup ported uncreative

writers called journalists.

(J ) The legal perpetuation o f archaic, quasi-barbaric and

intellectually insulting powerheads such as Kings, Queens, etc.

—no w often masked and protected by either capitalism or its

cancer, communism, but certainly and in any case by those who

would exalt the fundam ental im portance o f m oney rather thanman.

(K ) T h e blind spread and acceptance o f atheistic and dia

lectical materialism. We do not deny matter, nor does God need

verbal solicitors . W e envisage, rather, a world in which, per

haps, no one aspect o f human or natural form predominates over

tile others, at their expense.

(L) The potential of die spoken, sung and written word to

change the surface and substance o f life.

(M) T lie need to alleviate pain and raise all men to the highest

possible level o f human health in their minds and bodies.

(N ) The need to remove sex, death and drugs, among others,

from die taboo status they presently enjoy, not only within the

Commonwealth.(O ) T ha t we are bound b y and can attain both individual and

collective liberation through o ur first common wealth as poets—

the English language.

(P) That national boundaries are as ultimately unnatural as

diey are com m only and pragmatically a pretence for the p ow er o f

destructive forces whose operational existence none can deny.

(Q ) Tha t love need not remain a banal cliche but is and must

be a constantly original and divine verb.

(R ) Tha t the reign o f usury still standing between man and

his desire and need to do a good job must finally come to an

end.

(S) Tha t the debate o f truth must be continuous and con-

consequential in die world o f acts, and diat survival at all costs

is too expensive for the present-day depleted state o f man’s

spiritual fund. It must be transformed into meaningfulness.

(T ) In die meantime, which gets meaner all die time, we will

231



continue to think with our hearts in what is seemingly today,

unfortunately, a foolish search for wisdom.’1

The squares exploded. Paolo, Alex, Marcus Field, DocHumes, Michael (Abdul Malik) De Freitas, Mike Horovitz,Pete Brown, Brian Patten, Harry Fainlight, Rosemary Tonks,Dan Richter and his wife, Earl Birney, TomMcGrath and I,amongst others whose signatures I can’t decipher, signed thestatement and sent it duly off to BuckinghamPalace. I believethere was no reply.

TomMcGrath sat on the stairs of the Park Hotel for longperiods of time. Dan and Jill had a terrible time with theirprescriptions. There was a remarkably beautiful dancer.

Back in London the sigma office was raided. Paolo waschased out of England. The party was, for the moment, over,and Criton and I pestered the sleeping revellers. Criton spentmuch of his time at the Kingsley Hall. He became very closewith David (I think it was David), a catatonic resident. Theman fromMillbrook we had met in Edinburgh the previoussummer and Alex passed their time in mutual euphoria. JohnMoore went into hospital for his second bout. Criton displayedthe maquette for his cage. In early 1966, about the same timeof year as we’d put up the sTigma in 1965, I started gettingcryptic postcards fromEurope appointing me president of theClifton de Berry for World President Campaign. They were

interspersed with mangled signallings fromCriton. I producedthe Clifton de Berry issue of M y Own M ag. Then I crackedup. Emerging fromthe crack-up, I discovered that the Cliftonde Berry letters came fromDan Georgakas, who had run theSmyrna Press in Italy. Much later, after I’d started the Cliftonde Berry strip inInternational Times I discovered that Cliftonde Berry was a coloured venerable Wobbly. I changed the

title of die strip to ‘Seedy Bee’. As for Criton’s letters, well,one night I got this phone call...

The duplicating I refused from Criton is eventually distributed.

It is an apology, but worded as though from the Philadelphia

Trust to the public.

1p a o l o l e o n n i , published in Residu, no. 2, ed. Dan Richter and Inter-

national Tim es, no. 5.

232



' - ■ ... . ' ■ "

*TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN ThePhiladelphia Association, founded by Dr R. D. Laing,

Dr Aaron Esterson, Dr Joe Berke, Dr Leon Redler, Mr

Raimond O’Connor, Mr Sidney Briskin and Miss Joan Cun-

nold aredistributingthis communication to Press, Members of theMedical Profession and other individuals in theway of an

apology/explanation for a farcical event staged under false

pretences by one of their ex-patients. False invitations weredistributed, webelieve, to various editors, doctors, patients of

mental hospitals, thepolice and other individuals, about an event which was to takeplace on thefirst of April 1966, between y and

8p.m. at Kingsley Hall, Powis Road, BowE.j. Needless to say such an event was not organised by thePhiladelphia Association and never took place here. However, to clear any misunderstandings weenclosea statement ofapology by theaforementioned patient by thenameof: Criton Tomagos

6, ElmCourt, Nether Street, N.j.

Further, to clarify any other mystifications, weencloseour own telephonenumber at Kingsley Hall: AD Vance2SJ2 and

our patient’s telephonenumber at his present address: FINchley

5149. Heis soon to receive treatment under our super vision.Oncemore: O U R S I N C E R E A P O L O G I E S

And then, overleaf:‘MY.O WN.APOLOGY iMY.OWN.APO-LOGY.

AP...P...APE...O...L.ORGY...ORGY-ORGY... from

NETHER.. .STREET.. .NETHERS... TREAT. ..EAT... EAT.. .ME. ..NOT NO W.’

Therefollows six pages of thechoicest psychic stew, pivoted

routid theintersection point of thename‘Mortimer’. Penelope Mortimer has written an articleabout Cooper’s Villa for the

S u n d a y T im e s . Fragments of her journalistic accoimt arecut in

with fragments of another articleby her about becomingmiddle-

aged. This is tied up with memories of Ruth Mortimer, a

patient-resident at Kingsley Hall, who is thecentre of thenetwork

I of identities with which Criton is obsessed:

233

Ml



■ f

‘(Got it my precious Ministers.'’)Oneof thebest experiences wehave is when thewholegroup (includingJoan Cun-nold-cun) gets into a terrificconflictful...

disintegration and then gradually.. .pieces itself. TOGETHER AGAIN. Tom( ?)aios is MAR V.ELLOUS ! at managingthis !

He’ll (HELL) comein and smash theWHOLE THING topieces and then (continued on page it)...all that can beseen of himis his hair and a hand never holdingbut holdinga cigarette.

Mary starves. Shecomes in and draws a Jinger through his eye! Tastes LOOOOVE...ly! Roger takes meback to the Art

Room., .heis 21.. .looks likethereal young snakeheis. ..wearinga gilt bracelet hestolefrom Harry Pincers during.. .holy communion...and threelarge, exactly spaced SAFETY PINS to hold his fly together (for Harry will NEVER LET FLY:

That’s why hegroans he’s SOOOOO RIDICULOUS all thetime...NO GUTS...TO LET FLY). When he...CAME

hehad a GUFFAR nowbroken ! A wrecked UPRIGHT piano,

crusty with PAIN, stands in themiddleof theart room. THE

NOISE produced by sweepingyour hand, or a stick, over theexposed strings is said, by SO AdE, to bemoresatisfactory than thenoises produced by hammeringtheKeys. WhoI John Keys, the well known...American poetI (NOTHING THAT I

SAID! exclaims Helen. I think thesounds 1. ..produce.. .arequie...quite...eh, Hell! SHIT! I never said such... A

SOUND)’

—And all this interspersed with fragments from Ronnie’s book T h e D i v i d e d S e l f together with violent attacks on thehypocrisies

and double-standards afflictingthewholePhiladelphia project:

‘ARE YOU ALL DRUIDS? You downright possessment by

thedevil.. you utter contempts of theearth that I CURSE AND

CURSE AND CURSE...1 merely want to knowwhether weshall have THE TRIBUNAL INQUISTTON AND

CRUCIFIXION ON THE DOWNS, OR DO. I. HAVE. TO. DO. IT. HERE?’

I takesomecomfort from this document that I was possibly only just in timeto interrupt Criton’s personal Golgotha.

234

■ ---------



----------------------------------------

Criton comes to see mesometimes on Sunday afternoons, sometimes with fellow patients. Heis excited about themadhouse. It is all there, hesays. No need to look around for deserted country mansions. Just a few crafty adjustments to theadministration of themadhouses, turn on thestaff a little, and thereyou are.

Every madhouse is already a university of inner space—and (Criton emphasises this point) a democratic oneat that, rwspecial priveleges for doctors and famous artists.

Then Criton is released and I, still wrestlingwith my problems,

hopethewholeaffair is over. Criton has neatly pinpointed theabsurd division between principle and desire. I haveinvalidated my principles. Criton has tapped out thevery sound—thevery intercompoetry—which is theunnervingvoice of our collective mind and wehavedenied it as, Criton claims, thedoctors at the Kingsley Hall deny their community ideal by increasingly wantingto live away from thecommunity. Noneof us wants what we

advocate. Criton has voiced, tested and discredited the IVeweare.

Onesunny morningin June of 1966 I amwalkingout in

Barnet—twelve months now since the Albert Hall reading, fourteen sincethesTigma. Thepassingpostman hands mea letter. My stomache lurches in anticipation on recognising

Criton s handwriting. It’s a magafine. A rich and powerful

gesture of honesty and complete disgust. It calls itself, theM o v i n g T i m e s , has a slice of theold sigma wall magazinefor a

front cover. It names its editors as Trocchi and myself. It is a mock M y O w n M a g,full of cut holes, with a burlesquefacsimile of theoriginal M y O w n M a g No. 1cover, saying‘Rest your shattered face in this you CUNT’. It has been sent to the

Director of Public Prosecutions, Scotland Yard, Her Majesty and PrincePhilip, Sir LaurenceOlivier, ‘with thecompliments

of theeditors’.Thereis a longletter to Aaron Esterson: ‘First an offer to stay

in Kingsley Hall—then a silent withdrawal of theoffer becausemy correspondence-outflowof my inner self—surrounded your halfhearted experiment with unpleasant odours...’ Hideously accuratequotes from my conversation. A second letter to Esterson. This timeback on thecollage

intercom. People’s problems recounted under thewrongperson’s

*35



name: 'Mr X. has risked his “sanity” beforereachinga viablecompromisebetween wife, children and mistress whilst a Mr X has reached no solution short of a cleavage from his family of six.. Fragments of quotes from old Mags and underground docu

ments sliced in with phrases from private letters. Anold letter from Esterson and Laingadvocatingmarihuana in place of alcohol. A letter to Dr Layland of Napsbury, bearing Maurice

Richardson s nameat thebottom. A forged letter to Critoti from Alex: ‘I was thereforeimpressed

with your timely “event” at Kingsley Hall, in which though

absent, I fully participated’—excludingCriton’s ‘Cage’ project from thesigma collection.

Artaud’s famous indictment of trivial form in art, attributed hereto Anthony Caro. Morecutup. My letter optingout of thewholeproject printed in full. A

cutup about castration. A letter from Phil Cohen: 'Watch that lovely God Jeff when

hespeaks from thefools mouth heturns.. .a littlenaasty !' Next a letter I havewritten to Criton tryingto te/l himof my

adherenceto thedreamand my belief in art, only addressed toGod and larded with sardonicJoyceanisms. It contains a pretty brutal condemnation of Criton’s sexual revulsion. All this is increasingly mangled by Criton as themessageof theoriginal letter is driven homeby me.

Then a scramble-up of Fainlight’s ‘Spider’. A letter from Carl Weissner. A forged letter from Cohen to me. A letter from God to Alex Trocchi about me: ‘I suggest the

LaughingCavalier of Nova breath throws somereal vitriol into Sara’s—Jeff’s daughter—face. Wecould tieJeff on a chair so that

hecould watch again with real eyes’. Thepoint beingthat my own methods areused against me.

A forged letter from DaveTrace. Finally a cut-up attributed to WilliamBurroughs composed of

every personal secret, our cowardices, pretensions and inadequacies stirred into a pungent curdleand thrown back in our

faces. Therearepictures, thenoblest sculptures of Bacchus and

236



Apollo sliced down themiddleand stuck onto burned figures—theatrocity photos from thesTigma. Old pages from theMagand Amaranth. Bomb drawings.

Thesun lurches about in my head from nausea and humiliation. 1 ringup RonnieLaing.

‘Didyou get thelatest MovingTimes?’

‘Ijust wanted you to knowI didn’t haveanythingto do with it. It was Criton.’

‘Well I guessed that.’'I don’t hww what to do.’‘ All youcan do,’ says Ronnie, ‘is spread theword around that

theguy’s a nut case.’

237



r

IV

T h is boo k is pr im ari ly for squares , for d ie mu m s and dads w ho

pretend the future is secure, for the politicians who can onlystop the dis integration o f their society b y bann ing the bom b,

for the Beatles fan who never l istened to Elvis , for the aging

ted w ho never lis tened to M ud dy W aters, for the Iv y Leagu e

,i hipster w ho nev er heard o f B ird, for the f low er child w h o never

read G insb erg and doesn’ t kn ow she ’s d isguised as Gin sbe rg ’ s

mother photographed at summer camp, for the anti-Vietnik

w h o n ever th inks ab ou t the B o m b , fo r the m icro -sk irted art

student who was never raped by Picasso, for the f inger

popping ad-men and the colour-supplement intel lectuals , for

the pseudo-Leavisites in the Universities and the u s a f folk-

groups. At different points throughout, the first person plural

refers to ‘ W e, the human b eings ’ , ‘W e, o f the post w ar genera

t ions ’ , ‘W e, o f the anti-bom b m ovem ent ’ , and f inal ly ‘ W e,

o f th e U n d e r g ro u n d ’ .

This last part is not addressed to squares. It ’s addressed to

the U nd ergro un d, the artists and al ienated thinkers o f four

y ears ag o w h ose id eas h ave run a w a y from under their feet.

T h at ’ s who I mean by ‘W e ’ in the ensuing chapter.

T o them I w ant to say that dru gs are an excel lent strategy

against society but a poor alternative to it . The same can be

said o f the nihilist elemen t in the ph ilosop hy and religion

accompanying the drug culture .

D ru gs and the subculture have been coun ter-enforcing one

another increas ingly over the post-Hiroshima years and s ince

1963 h avea ccellerated the on slaug ht that artists had been leve ll

in g at the established cu lture since de Sade.

Fo u r years ago the Underground was anx ious to b r ing about

the fol lowing developments on a large scale:

238



(a) T h e spread o f an ego-d isso lv ing d e lir ium wh erein a

tribal telepathic unde rstanding could g ro w up am ong men.

(b) T o re-ign ite an overw helm ing sense o f w onderment at

the U nive rse, to cultivate aesthetic perception in the face o f

utilitarian perce ption , to re-instate the metalled road as a silke n

ribbo n and the hyd raul ic w aterfal l as a gala xy o f light .

(c) T o expand the range o f human consciousness outs ide

the continuing and ult imately soul-destroying boundaries of

the p olitical/utilitarian frame o f reference.

(d) T o institute an international tribe or class ou tside thedestructive system o f the nations.

(e) T o outflank pol ice, educationists , m oralists through

w h om the death m achine w as/is m aintain ed.

(f ) T o release forces into the pre vai l ing culture diat w ou ld

dislocate soc iety, untie its stabilizing kno ts o f m orality,

pu nctual ity , ser vi l i ty , and p rop erty.

(g) T o institute a sense o f fest ivity into p ublic l ife w he reb y

people could fuck freely and gu ilt lessly , dance w ild ly and w ear

fancy dress all the time.

(h) T o eradicate utterly and fo reve r the Pau l ine l ie implicit

in C hristian c on ven tion, that peo ple neither shit , piss nor fuck.

T o set up a com m on pub lic idea o f w hat a hum an being is that

retains no hypocrisy or falsehood, and indeed, to reinstate a

sense o f health and beau ty pertaining to the genitals and the

arsehole.

W e th ough t th at i f w e w o rk ed hard w ith o u r d uplicators,

ou r m ovie cameras , ou r poe try readings , ou r happenings , ou r

jazz, ou r cutups, w e m igh t, in a decade o r tw o , set som e o f

these developments into motion, and we hoped desperatelythat that might be in time to stop the suicide.

I can rem em ber realizing these ideas for m yse l f in m y corner

o f the threatened w orld , as G insb erg, Sand ers, K u pfer be rg,

B u rro u gh s, Le ary m ust have d one in theirs— that a religion m ust

be instituted which each individual may enfuel and conduct

from his ow n utterly unique sensibi l ity , that the co rn y author

itarian G o d o f the churches must be dissolved to al low a man’s

life to gain meaning as an ecstatic sacrifice to Being, a sacrifice

r ichly prolonged through fourscore years . I rem ember w akin g



in my National Service wanking pit , with Nasser and Eden

fl ipping their idiot wigs on the radio networks and the Stron

tium 90 thickening in the atm osphere and seeing that w e w ere

fleeing from that human condition that we had already refusedby ou r p iddl ing fast id iousness , d iat, h aving made unm ention

able those al imentary and sexual functions by grace, yes

grace, o f wh ich w e are on eardt, having thus denied ou r

existence, we further sought to destroy it , to escape by

I nuclear suicide ou r ex istence w hich w e had com e to regard w idi

such lame distaste. I rem em ber seeing clearly that i f the doors

could be torn o ff the lavatories, o f f the birth cham bers, of f

the bridal chambers, of f the deadi chambers, i f those lost and

desperate rai lway station embraces I ’d seen so often during

die war could be carried through to a healthy public consum

m ation, i f w e could once again dance round the phallus and

grow golden corn f rom our dung, then that would be a

start.

In d ie Underground we groped towards that start . Pop

culture, l sd and the birth pi l l , with us prodding, proclaiming

and directing, and die squares displaying unprecedented

obscenity in Vietnam, made all these aims fans accomp/isin the

four br isk years f rom 1963 to 1967. There ’ s nothing cops nor

Underground nor Maf ia can do about i t now, d iank God.

The floral office girls, the tripped out engineering students,

the pot-gentle student-teachers, the prick-wise young labour

ers to w ho m amph etam ine is an old fam iliar , hav e outdistancedthe schools, the churches, the law and the intellectuals. The

psychedelic in-groups are an irrelevancy. What is happening

is large-scale and serious. There seems to be a chance.

In 1965 w e stood around in the half-built sT igm a and said,

‘For Christ ’ s sake let ’ s make something nice’, and not one of

us, no sol itary on e, unless it be Ke id i M us gro ve w ith his

feathered nest, could think o f anythin g w idi a degree o fpleasantry that we could make seriously and with conviction.

It ’s w arm ing to think that ou t o f that bleak sickn ess there

gre w a festival o f f low ers, that the w ord ‘L o v e ’ , to us an

embarrassment, would shortly be bandied about as a popular

slogan. Please don’t suppose I hold the Beatles ’ ‘Love ( is a l l

y a need)’ to be the gen uin e so u l-scrap in g article, but it does

240

I ______________



create an ambience in which the real emotion can f lower

w a rm ly , in stead o f h a v in g to stru gg le against law , prude,

schoolteacher, sexually embittered parent, and prevail ing

fashions in stoicism and ‘ toughness ’ .

The strategy then, has started to work but, being strategy,

presents no sol id achievem ent oth er than the erosion o f the

square soc iety . Bi l l Burroughs ’ ‘good pol iceman’ does h is

w o rk and go es a w a y . I t b eh oves us n o w to be som eth in g m ore

than a prevent ive force. The drugs , whi lst accelerat ing our

strategy, could create a vacuum as desolate as any H-bombcrater . T w o ‘heads’ have used the same ph rase to m e recently—

L y n , o f T h o m a s T ra h e r n e : ‘ W e ll w h a t w a s he o n ? ’ T im , o f

M ax Ernst : ‘W el l w hat was he on ? ’ I t ’ s c learly necessary now

to get f irm hold o f the fact that the nature o f vision is human

not chemical.

The scene, t i l l now, has been accumuladvely negative,

necessari ly so, d ie destruction o f the destroyers. H ideo us ly,

that destruction has been brought about by the exemplary

self-destruct ion o f the you ng , m any o f w hom no w espouse

that l imp concern for pure spirit that is as l i fe-destroying as

square materialism. T o dissolve d ie w o rld , die sel f, the eg o,

into the general vib ran cy o f the cosm os is to refuse the unique

function o f being p hysica l ( ‘ like a hum an’) . T h at the Id , theen ergies, the fundam ental self , is no thing m ore than a part o f

the sum o f cosm ic en ergy is , I bel ieve, t rue. T h at the con

scious, the sel f-conscious mind, the ego, die identity , is an

obstruction to one’s union widi the cosmos is a lso true.

I

W ha t is m issed b y d ie m ystics, h ow ev er, is that there is a

purpose, and a divinepurpose, to the human al ienation from

the cosm os. T h e recognition, defini tion o f B eing , in w on de r

ment and ecstasy can only be carried out by a conscious

entity alienated from the eternal totality. You can’t dig It

i f y o u areI t . N o man beholds h is ow n face.



the longing is to terminate wonderment and leave its cosmic

function unfulfilled.

T h e proper funct ioning o f wo nderment is enfuelled by that

continuous il lumination from the cosmic self , the quick, theautomatic spiritual self . In modern technological l iving die

spiritual cosm ic self has been so estranged that the wo nd er

ment faculty was near-complete ly numbed. You can not reg ard the w o rld in terms o f its utilitarian p otential, in terms

o f h ow w ell you can harness it to still yo u r petty fears, and, at

the same time, maintain your proper function as the agent of

w onderm ent. It w as, then, necessary to re-establi sh that

contact with the cosm ic sel f, to revive one ’s faculty o f w on der.

It w as necessary to turn to ‘ inner space’ , to bathe on ese lf in

the virulent music streaming like sperm and light from die

stratospheres o f the mind, l sd has brought this awareness

about.

It is now necessary to come back from inner space. Having

revived the faculty o f wo nderm ent it is necessary to app ly it,

to channel one’s cosm ic se l f through on e’s unique identity,

to il luminate and strengthen the currently despised ego and

thus to recognise the same cosmic energy manifest in the

splendours o f the outer material world. I f we cannot translate

die spiritual into terms o f con structive p hysical action, if

spiritual vision cannot inform ou r physical ocular vision, dien

die spiritual is none o f ou r damn business.

R . D . L ain g has often referred to but never defined diatpoint in histo ry w hen man became estranged from his m ind,

dial point to w h ich , he claims, w e m ust no w return to und o the

catastrophic errors o f m odern civi lization. I w ould sug gest

that that point was not a point in history, that it was a point in

evolution, that it was the point in evolution when the lumber

ing animal ape became aware o f him self , became responsible

for himself , became alienatedfrom the cosmic energies whichpropelled his animal existence, became alienated from his

cosmic self , became alienatedfrom his mind. I would suggest

that not only is this alienation from the cosmos the condition

w hich w e call hum an (to such an extent that ‘a lien ’ and ‘hum an’

are almost interchangable adjectives) but that such a separation

is a vital element in the cosmic pattern, diat man is naturally

242



— 1 1 " ■■■ " ....... M M — — — M 1 I U

un -natu ral and that this is an abso lute enrichm ent rather than apsychic tragedy. I would suggest that any wish to escape this

fundamental function is a wish to escape life, is adeath wish.

I am complet ing this in November, 1967. Before i t readies

print it w ill be ou t o f date and a lot o f the questions I ask h ere

w ill be answ ered , w h ich is fin e, because readers can then

ju d g e the accu racy o f m y assessm ents and the valu e o f m y

w o rd . A t the tim e o f w rit in g it seem s c lear that as fa r as the

U nd ergroun d is concerned the Freako ut is over . W e can leave

it to the kids with their longer breath and nimbler feet . The

v iru s w ill spread and n o b o d y can sto p it . l s d is too easily

manufactured . Mar ihuana i s too eas i ly grown. Everybody

knows not to use heroin now. Shortly die birth pil l wil l be

avai lable over the counter unless the government is com

pletely besotted. The Beatles and the Stones are st i l l young

and inc re a sing ly a w a re o f w h a t t h e y h a ve t o d o . T h e k ink y-booted pi l lheads who ‘Twisted and Shouted ’ at 16 are vot ing

age now: Says a Ca l i fornia po l iceman, ‘But now, goddamnit ,

it ’ s d if fe rent. Y o u never kn ow w hen some k id ’ s go ing to sw ing

on y ou , or pu ll a gun, o r m aybe jus t take o f f running . Th e badge

do esn’ t mean a damn thing to them. T h e y ’v e lost all respect

for it, a ll fear. H ell , I ’d rather bust a dozen H ell ’s A n ge ls

ev ery da y o f the w eek than have to break up one f ight in a b ig

high school beer pa rty . W ith the m otorcycle crow d yo u at

least know what you’re up against , but these kids are capable

o f an yth ing . I mean it they give m e the creeps. I used to

understand them, but not an y m ore.’ 1

Meanwhile it behoves the artists, the laboratory men, to

turn away fromthe Nothingness. They are equipped nowwitha range of exaltation and despair in their sensibilities unknownsince Shakespeare. They have been lower and higher than anygroup of men in the modern world. It is time they turned backto the engagement, to stress and struggle, will and ego. It’stime to apply their supremely informed sensibilities to action,decisive, constructive action that leaves behind it a concrete

achievement as testimony to its worth. It’s time to come awayfromthe mobile arts, poetry, jazz, theatre, dance, clothes.Too great apreoccupation with mobility constitutes a refusal' Quoted by h u n t e r s . Th o m ps o n in H ell’s A ngels, Penguin.

243



o f existence. M ovem ent, l ike d rug s, is goo d tactics but a poo r

alternative to the established cu lture. It is the tem po rary denial

o f existence and e xistence m ust be ou r ultimate p rovince.

Sartre says , ‘M otion is the upsurge o f the exter ior ity o f indifference at the ve ry h eart o f the in -its elf ’ , w hic h is to say that

motion is that Nothingness which Sartre elsewhere says is

‘curled l ike a w orm at the ve ry h eart o f B eing ’ .

Every artist worth his salt knows by now that in order to

produce an ything o f w orth he mu st lean on the cosm os and

let it ca rry him throu gh at least som e o f the w ay . It is t ime

that w e ga ve po w er and b od y to the true m us ic o f the god s bycultivating the craftsman in us. It is surely time we turned

aw ay f rom the Am er icans , a nat ion o f agoraph obic neurotics

w h o se o n ly native excellen ce lies in the sk ill and grace o f their

m ovem ent ( the benef it o f w hich the wor ld has fe lt) w ho are ,

in a ny case, in an irreco vera ble state o f civ ic rot, and called

upon the native E uro pe an sense o f classic form and rational

serenity. It is time the hipsters learned h ow to coun t. It is t ime w e asked o u rselves w h at w e are g o in g to do w ith a future

should we now, after die s ickness and the vis ion, gain one.

Ca n w e dev ise a f ine architecture o f ecstatic m uscle and

musical l ight? Can we apply a quivering phall ic strength to

our c iv ic organizat ion and our economy? Can we bui ld and

think and organ ize w ith the passions o f perpetual inner

il lumination?O f course we can. W e can beg in n ow . Let us take dow n o ur

improvisations so that they can be perfected by skil led

interpreters . Let us grab what land we can and build with

w h at w e can afford as Epstein bu ilt h is m assive m onum ents

■ I j o n a pittance in an o ld shack in E p p in g F o re st, as S im o n

R od ia bui lt his W atts T o w ers . Le t us bui ld adventures ,

environm ents, m azes and garden s w e can w alk in and be

reinform ed continu ou sly o f ou r fine v ita l ity . L et us turn aw ay

from the con tem plators and listen to the architects, the activists,

the engineers , the A rchigram G rou p w ith their P lu g-In C ity

scheme, Cedr ic Pr ice the Fun Palace des igner , Geoffrey Shaw

and his constructions in plastic, Keith Albarn and his furniture

sculpture . A nd let ’ s do i t of f ou r ow n b at , independently ,

l ike we did the movies and the mags, winning what we can on

244



-----------MM-----

casual jobs and confidence tricks, and never waiting for the

handout or die commiss ion.

L e t’s no t wa it for tho se cripples in the adm inistration to hand

ou t m on ey o r land, and let’s not w ait for them to gran t us the

future that they owe us . They won’ t . They can ’ t . Let ’ s s tart

thinking in terms o f perm anence now and bui ld our ow n

damn future.



Albam, Keith, 244

Alberts, The, 117, 120, 124 Aldcrmaston March, 40, 44-8, 50, 183 Alpert, Richard, 187, 188, 197 Amis, Kingsley, 34 Ancients, The, 68 Andrews, George, 172 Antrobus, John, 118 Apollinaire, Guillaume, 71, 77-84, 86 Approches, 175

Archigram, 204, 244 Armstrong, Louis, 38 Arrowsmith, Pat, 44, 50-1 Artaud, Antonin, 92, 93, 95, 99, 134,

236 Arts Laboratory, 130, 201 Arts Together, 148-50 Aspinwall, Dave, 47 Auerhahn Press, 162, 173 Ayler, Albert, 10

Bacon, Francis, 75, 139, 212Baez, Joan, 59, 165Balch, Anthony, 143-7, 171Baldwin, James, 62Ball, Hugo, 85, 87, 119

Barber, Chris, 39Barger, Sonny, 35Baudelaire, Charles, 72-3Bax, Martin, 150Beach, Mary, 155, 173, 178Beagle, Peter, 60Beatles, The, 34, 122, 123-4, 186,

192, 193, 199, 203>205, 229,238, 240, 243

Bechet, Sydney, 38, 39Becket, Samuel, 75Behan, Brendan, 55Beiderbecke, Bix, 9Benn, Gottfried, 54

Bentine, Michael, 116

Berge, Alban, 75Berke, Joe, 134, 198, 209, 220, 224,

227, 233Blake, Peter, 68, 120Blake, William, 68, 168, 183, 229Blazek, Douglas, 173, 178Blesh, Rudi, 37Bogart, Humphrey, 21Bondhus, Barry, 64

Boulez, Pierre, 122Bowles, Paul, 172Boyle, Mark, 119, 199, 200, 204Brady, Ian, 127-30Braine, John, 44, S3Brando, Marlon, 29, 31, 114Brecht, Bertold, 33Bremser, Ray, 101Breton, Andr6, 54, 85, 91, 92-3, 175

Brock, Edwin, 33, 108Brown, Arthur, 10, 118, 199, 204Brown, Kenneth H., 163Brown, Pete, 114, 181, 182, 232Bruce, Lenny, 107, 129, 219Burleson, Bob, 173Burroughs, William, 99, 107-8, 112,

118, 122, 136, 142-4, 145-7. '49.

' 54. ' 55. ' 59. ><>8>'7', '72, '78,181, 187, 202, 204, 205, 212, 218,219, 226, 236, 239, 241

Butler, Bill, 148, 177, 182, 224, 226

Cabaret Voltaire, 85, 87, 119Cage, John, 119Calder, John, 144, 150, 181, 229

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,46-9, 205

Camus, Albert, 37Cardew, Cornelius, 119, 204Carmichael, Stokeley, 63

247

INDEX OF SELECTED NAMES



Caroline, Radio, 121Carter, April, 44Cassady, Neal, 100, 102Cfeanne, Paul, 73, 81

Chandler, Terry, 51Chase, James Hadley, 21Cheyney, Peter, 21—2City Lights, 102, 161, 172Clapton, Eric, 204Clarke, George, 50, 51Cobbing, Bob, 142, 148, 150, 161,

182, 210, 214-17Cohn, Al, 102

Cohn-Bendit, Dany, 8Coleman, Ornette, 10, 183Collins, Canon, 43, 47, 48Coltrane, John, toColyer, Ken, 39Committee of 100, 49-51, 53, 139,

206, 212Concrete Poetry, 149Conner, Bruce, 118, 171, 173Conquest, Robert, 54

Cooper, David, 109, 211, 216-17,2H 233

Corso, Gregory, 101, 102, 172, 182,221, 229

Cousins, Frank, 49Crane River Jazz Band, 39Cream, The, 10, 204Crccley, Robert, 221Currel-Brown, Peter, 138, 140, 225

Davies, Cyril, 34Davie, Donald, 54Dean, James, 31, 42, 107Dcbray, Regis, 9Delaney, Shelagh, 55Dewy, Ken, 1:9, 224Diaghilcv, Serge, 80Diggers, Tile, 196-7Dine, Jim, 119Direct Action Committee, 44Donnegan, Lonnie, 40Dorn, Ed, 174Dribcrg, Tom, 44Duchamp, Marcel, 89, 118, 123

DufT, Peggy, 43, 48, >*4, 201Dutschke, Rudi, 8

Dylan, Bob, 59, 122, 165

248

Eden, Sir Anthony, 26, 43, 201, 240Eliot, T. S., 74Eluard, Paul, 92, 94Esam, John, 182

Evans, Mike, 124Exploding Galaxy, The, 200, 201, 203Expressionism, 75

Fainlight, Harry, 168, 182, 199, 232,236

Faithful, Mr and Mrs Glyn, 215-17Faithful, Marianne, 186Faulkner, William, 54

Fauves, The, 81Fearing, Kenneth, 99,100Ferlinghetti, Lawrence, 102, 172, 182,

•94Fiedler, Leslie, 197, 202Field, Marcus, 229, 232Fishwick, Gertrude, 43Fluxus, 119Foley, Del, 182

Foot, Michael, 48Francis, Sam, tooFreitas, Michael de, 199Froge, Gait, 171Fugs, The, 204Futurism, 75

Gaitskell, Hugh, 49Galanskov, Yuri, 176

Genet, Jean, 29, 122Georgakas, Dan, 177, 178, 220, 232George, Stefan, 74Gillespie, Dizzy, 24Ginsberg, Allen, 35, 57, 82, 99, 100-2,

107, 112, 113, 114, I22, 123, t49»164, 168, 172, 182, 183, X91, 192,197, 204, 218, 228-9, 239

Girodias, Maurice, 171Godwin, Anthony, 182, 224

Goon Show, The, 115-18Gosling, Ray, 28, 30, 33, 114, '42, 177Goya, Francesco, 68Grable, Betty, 21Grateful Dead, Tile 122, 195Greco, Juliette, 37Griffiths, Malcolm ‘Gas’, 211, 227

Grogan, Emmet, 195-7Grootveld, Robert Jasper, 179

Grosz, George, 91



Grove Press, 162Gruber, F., 75Guevara, Che, 9Gunn, Thom, 31, 53, 114Guston, Philip, 100Gysin, Brion, 118, 172

Haight-Ashbury, 172, 193-5, 200Haley, Bill, 28Hand, Alex, 177, 178Hansen, Al, 119Hansford Johnson, Pamela, 727, 130Happenings, 118-19Harwood, Lee, 148, 181Hausmann, Raoul, 92Hawkins, Spike, 181, 182Haynes, Jim, 182, 198, 201, 222Hell’s Angels, 35, 243Helms, Chet, 195-6Hendrix, Jimi, 10

Henri, Adrian, 119, 124, 222, 230Hesse, Herman, 98Herman, Woody, 24Hcrnton, Calvin, 147Hindc, Thomas, 53Hindley, Moira, 127-30Hiroshima, 20, 48, 50, 75Hockney, David, 120Hollo, Anselm, 142, 182

Holroyd, Stuart, 54Hopkins, Bill, 54Hopkins, John ‘Hoppy’, 199, 202, 204Horovitz, Mike, 114, 181, 182, 232Houd-dard, Dorn Pierre Sylvester, 149,

177Howlin’ Wolf, 29Huelsenbeck, Richard, 87, 88, 92

Hughes, Ted, 53

Huncke, Herbert, 102Hungry Generation, The, 176Hydrogen Bomb National Campaign,

43

Impressionism, 72Incredible String Band, The, 199, 204Institute of Direct Art, The, 119, 132International Times, The, 186, 197,

203, 204, 232

Jacob, Max, 71, 80 Jagger, Mick, 186, 202

Janco, Marcel, 87, 119 Jarry, Alfred, 71, 80 Jefferson Airplane, Tile, 122, 195 Jodorowsky, Alexandra, 175, 177 Johns, Jasper, 118 Jones, Leroi, 191 Jordan, Louis, 16 Joyce, James, 54, 85, 97

Kafka, Franz, 75, 214Kandinsky, Wassily, 96Kaprow, Allan, 119

Kienholz, Edward, 118Kerouac, Jack, 99, too, 101, 112, 114,

172Kesey, Ken, 35, 195Keys, John, 147, 207, 219, 227, 234Kinks, The, 34Kline, Franz, 100Komer, Alexis, 34, 39Kupferberg, Tuli, 168, 239

Kustow, Mike, 52, 228

Laccy, Bruce, 117, 144, 149, 162, 182,207, 222, 224

Ladd, Alan, 21Laforgue, Jules, 74Laine, Frankie, 25Laing, R. D., 81, 108, 109-12, 128,

149, 187, 197, 207, 211, 216-17,218, 221, 233, 237, 242

Lake, Veronica, 21Lamantia, Philip, 155Larkin, Philip, 53Lasslct, Gordon, 176-7Lasslet, Rhaunie, 199Latham, John, 119, 144, 149, 181, 202,

215-16, 222, 224, 229Lautr6amont, Comte de, 71, 73, 80,

109, 128Lavrin, Beba, 211Lea, Klaus, 183Leadbelly, 38, 40Leary, Timothy, 183, 187, 188, 190,

197, 201, 203, 205, 210, 239Lebel, Jean-Jacques, 119, 175, 230

Legman, Gcrshon, 135Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, 85Lennon, John, 124, 162, 229Leonni, Paolo, 230Lessing, D oris,41, 53

249



Lewis, George, 39Littlewood. Joan, 55, 150Living Theatre, Tile, 162-4, 179, 183,

196

Lomax, Alan, 38Lorca, Garcia, 54, 174Lucie-Smith, Edward, 53, 162Luter, Claude, 38Lyttleton, Humphrey, 38

MacBeth, George, 53, 108, 182, 222,226

McCartney, Paul, 186, 197, 229McClure, Michael, 102, 173

MacColl, Ewan, 39McGough, Roger, 124, 230McGrath, Tom, 128, 181, 1S2, 198,

203, 204, 214-17, 232Mailer, Norman, 15, 17, 62, 65, 82,

168Malcolm X, 63Marcuse, l ierbert, 9,37Marowitz, Charles, 224

Marzalek Bernard, 63Masson, Andrd, 92, 118Mayakovsky, Vladimir, 53, 73-6

Mayall, John, 10Medalla, David, 134, 200Melly, George, 44Metzger, Gustav, 119, 132Mctzner, Ralph, 187, 188Mezzrow, Mezz, 12, 14, idMichel, John, 9

Miles, 150, 181, 186, 198Miller, Henry, 99Milligan, Spike, 44, 80, 116-18, 124,

182Mingus, Charlie, 10Mitchell, Adrian, 108, 130, 227Moody Blues, The, 10Moore, Jack, 199, 222Moore, John, 148, 226, 228, 232

Morrison, Norman, 60Morton, Jelly Roll, 11,13, 38Mothers of Invention, The, 122, 204Motherwell, Robert, 100Mottram, Eric, 182Move, Tlie, 119, 199Mulligan, Gerry, 102Musgrove, Keith and Heather, 129,

144, 148, 136, 161, 209, 218, 219,220, 222, 224, 225, 240

250

Mustill, Norman Ogue, 173

Nadaism, 178National Liberation Front, 177

New Directions, 162Nietszclie, Friedrich, 71, 73, 73Norse, Harold, 133, 172, 174

Ohnesorg, Bcnno, 7Oldenburg, Claes, 119Oliver, King, 38Olson, Charles, 100Ono, Yoko, 119, 171, 202Operation Gandhi, 44Ortiz, Ralph, 119, 132Osborne, John, 42, 44, 33, 34Osborne, Mike, 204, 226, 227

Panassid, Hughes, 37PANic Movement, The, 177-8Parker, Charlie, ‘Bird’, 17, 20, 23, 53,

98, 107, 178, 238Patchen, Kenneth, 99Patten, Brian, 124, 230, 232Pauling, Linus, 44Peace News, 43, 184, 197Peace Pledge Union, 43Peanuts Club, 182Pdlieu, Claude, 133, 139, 172, 178Pelz, Werner, 44People Show, The, 200, 201, 204Philadelphia Association, The, 198,

211, 218, 222, 224, 232, 233Picabia, Francis, 90Picasso, Pablo, 54, 38, 71, 80-3, 142,

176Pink Floyd, Tlie, 10, 199Plymell, Charlie, 173, 178Pollock, Jackson, 100, 107Porter, Peter, 53, 108Portman, Michael, 172Pottle, Pat, 31Pound, Ezra, 34, 73Presley, Elvis, 28-30, 31, 33, 42, 238Pretty Things, The, 34, 120Prevert, Jacques, 89Price, Cedric, 244Propper, Dan, 122Provos, The, 179, 180

Quant, Mary, 121



■Randle, Mike, 44, 50, 51■.Rauschenberg, Robert, 1701 Ray, Johnny, 25, 31’ Reich, Wilhelm, 164

| Renshaw, Uncle John, 391Richter, Dan and Jill, 15s, 172, 182,

232Rilke, Rainer Maria, 74

[ Rimbaud, Arthur, 71, 72, 73, 81, 151IRobertson, Bryan, 141IRogers, Shorty, 102lRolling Stones, The, 34, 120, 243

■Rosenquist, James, 118, 120■Rosenthaal, Irvin, 102, 172IRothko, Mark, 100, 149■Rousseau, Henri, 83, 84IRowan, John, 144, 149, 1611Russell, Bertrand, 44, 49-32i Russian Underground, 176I Rustin, Bayard, 44, 59, 227

| Sade, The Marquis de, 70-1, 72, 73,77, 83, 98, 109, 127, 238

1Sanders, Ed, 59, 60, 167, 202, 239 j Sandys, Duncan, 261Sartre, Jean-Paul, 37, 75, 142, 218ISatie, Eric, 801Scaffold, The, 124ISchoenberg, Arnold, 74, 96

ISchocnman, Ralph, 50, 311Schwitters, Karl, 891Scott, Rev. Michael, 441Scragg, Sebastian, 177[ Secombe, Harry, 1161Seeger, Pete, 39, 59ISellers, Peter, 116IShaw, Geoffrey, t8o, 244IShcpp, Archie, 10

1Sigal, Clancy, 214-171sigma, 136-9, t8o, 182, 1871Sillitoe, Alan, 53, 114, 1271Situationists, The International, 119,

1741Smith, Jack, 143, 171, 172ISnyder, Gary, 102, 168, 191, 197ISocial Deviants, The, 199I

Soft Machine, The, 1991Sommerville, Ian, 172, 2211Soper, Donald, 43ISpock, Dr Benjamin, 7, 631Steele, Harold and Sheila, 44

Steele, Tommy, 40Stein, Gertrude, 81, 84Still, Clifford, tooStockhausen, Karlheinz, 119

Stravinsky, Igor, 58, 80Sutch, Screaming Lord, 117, 204

Tamla Motown, 124Temperance Seven, The, 117, 120Tennessee Ernie, 23Teufel, Fritz, 179Tomazos, Criton, 137-42, 144-5,

147-8, 149, 130-2, 184, 207-10,217-21, 222, 223-8, 232-7

Tomlin, Dave, 199, 228Tonk, 124, 223Trace, Dave, 137, 218, 220, 222, 224,

236Trocchi, Alexander, 102, 128, 133,

'44, 150, «5<5, ' 59, I?', '75, '79,

181-2,187, 204,213-17, 219, 221-3,226, 229, 232, 235, 236Turner, J. M. W., 70Tynan, Kenned', 54-5Tzara, Tristan, 83-7, 91, 93, 95, 98,

'49

UFO, 150, '99, 203

Underground Press Syndicate, 197,206

Valery, Paul, 73 Valoch, Jiri, 177 Van Gogh, Vincent, 72, 75, 109 Van Tijen, Tjeb, 180 Verlaine, Paul, 74 Vinkenoog, Simon, 171, 17S, 180 Vorticism, 75 Vostel, Wolf, "9, 179

Wain, John, 54Waller, Fats, 16Warhol, Andy, 169-71

Warren, Dave, 149Waters, Muddy, 13, 29, 238Watkins, Istwyn ‘Nick’, 144,149, 150,

156, 222, 224Watson, Leo, 16

251



Watters, Lu, 38Webern, Anton, 54Weissner, Carl, 153, 159, 178, 236Wesker, Arnold, 53, 55, 58, 150, 200,

212Westbrook, Mike, 204, 227Whalen, Philip, 102, 167, 168Who, Tlie, 119Wilcock, John, 186, 198Wilcocks, Dick, 144, 148, 178, 182,

209, 226Williams, Tennessee, 29, 115

Wilson, Colin, 54Wilson, Steve, 32Wright, Barbara, 149Wright, Mick, 47

Young, Lester, 32, 171

Zappa, Frank, 197Zero Dimension Group, 119, 176



P l a y p o w e r

‘This gaudy mosaic of anecdote, quotation, prophecy and wildunsupported assertion is by far the most comprehensive survey yet attempted of international underground culture ...enormously sane and healthily challenging...’

Kenneth Tynan OBSERVER

‘Coarse, shallowand nasty. . Merwyn Jones n ew s t a t e s m a n

‘A deeply felt and honourable book .. Mordecai Richler GUARDIAN

‘It’s witty, packed with information, crimson with the de-guttedentrails of odier underground books, and racily written by oneof the fewwriters on the inside really able to look out.’ p u n c h

‘Almost totally devoid of intellectual content.’SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

‘Fantastically brilliant.’ Abble Hoffman

‘The first international book on the underground - not writtenwith the phoney detachment of an academic, but written bysomeone who is an excellent journalist and is also someonetotally involved in what he has written ... McLuhan is dead —long live Neville.’ i n t e r n a t i o n a l t im e s

‘Aswitched on mole’s eye view of the sixties.’ s pe c t a t o r

‘(Neville’s) happy, innocent book contains the germs of a newfascism.’ Su n d a y t im e s

‘The best work yet on what in pleasanter days used to be calledthe Love Generation.’ r o l l i n g s t o n e

‘Play Power is the Mein Kam pf of an international conspiracy tooverthrowthe Anglo-Saxon way of life.’

Commander Rees Millington on ‘24Hours'

‘Should be read in every school, office, army hut or otherinstitution ...’ John Peel

‘The human story of a young Australian who comes to Londonand finds happiness by bringing out the worst magazine in thehistory of the world.’ p r i v a t e e y e



jComplete list o f Paladin titles

M A C H I A V E L L I : A D I S S E C T I O N S ydn ey Anglo

T H E Q U E S T F O R A R T H U R ’ S B R I T A I N ed. Geoffrey

Ashe

T H E I N F O R M E D H E A R T Bruno Bettelheim

T H E C H I L D R E N O F T H E D R E A M Bruno Bettelheim

T H E P A R A B L E O F T H E B E A S T J oh n Bleibtreu

T H E T R I A L O F J E S U S O F N A Z A R E T H

| S. G . F. Brandon

A S P E C T S O F T H E F R E N C H R E V O L U T I O N Alfred

! Cobban

D R U G S O F H A L L U C I N A T I O N Sidney Cohen

T H E P U R S U I T O F T H E M I L L E N N I U M Norman Cohn

A W O P B O P A L O O B O P A L O P B A M B O O M N ik C ohn

P S Y C H I A T R Y A N D A N T I - P S Y C H I A T R Y D av id

Cooper

T H E F A L L O F T H E B R I T I S H E M P I R E Colin Cross

T H E S T R A N G E D E A T H O F L I B E R A L E N G L A N D

1 George Dangerfield

T H E H I D D E N O R D E R O F A R T A nton Ehrenzweig

T H E E V E R - C H A N G I N G S E A D a v id B . Ericson &

Goesta Wollin

C R I M E A N D P E R S O N A L I T Y H . J . EysenckB L A C K S K I N W H I T E M A S K S F rantz Fanon

M A N ’ S R I S E T O C I V I L I S A T I O N Peter Farb

L O V E A N D D E A T H I N T H E A M E R I C A N N<3 V E L

Leslie A . Fiedler

T H E R E T U R N O F T H E V A N I S H I N G A M E R I C A N

J Leslie A . Fiedler

A D I C T I O N A R Y O F D R U G S Richard B .F ish er & George

, A . Christie

M A N M O D I F I E D D avid Fishlock

M A N A N D A N I M A L ed. Heinz Friedrich

D E C I S I V E B A T T L E S O F T H E W E S T E R N W O R L D

Maj.-Gen. J . F. C. Fuller, ed. John Terraine

T H E B O G P E O P L E P . V . G lob



A D I C T I O N A R Y O F S Y M P T O M S D r Joan Gomez

T H E F E M A L E E U N U C H Germaine Greer

S E X A N D R A C I S M Calvin C . Hernton

O N T H E T R A C K O F U N K N O W N A N I M A L S BernardHeuvelmans

J O U R N E Y T H R O U G H B R I T A I N Joh n Hillaby

T H E D E C L I N E O F W O R K I N G - C L A S S P O L I T I C S

Bar ry Hindess

H O M O L U D E N S Johan Huizinga

E X P L O I T A T I O N Robin Jenkins

O S C A R W I L D E Philippe Jullian

R U S S I A I N R E V O L U T I O N Lionel Kochan

M A R X I S M A N D B E Y O N D Leszek Kolakow ski

A N A T O M Y O F T H E S S S T A T E Helmut Krausnick &

Martin Broszat

T H E P O L I T I C S O F E C S T A S Y T im oth y L eary

T H E P S Y C H O L O G Y O F A N X I E T Y E ugene E . Levitt

T H E B R I T I S H S E A M A N Christopher L lo y d

T H E E N D O F A T L A N T I S J . V . LuceT H E B O R G I A S Michael Mallett

A N E W H I S T O R Y O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S Williar

Miller

P L A Y P O W E R Richard Neville

B O M B C U L T U R E Je f f Nuttall

R E N A I S S A N C E A N D R E N A S C E N C E S I N

W E S T E R N A R T E rw in Panofsky

C L A S S I N E Q U A L I T Y A N D P O L I T I C A L O R D E R

Frank Parkin

T H E M Y S T E R Y O F A N I M A L M I G R A T I O N Matthieu

Ricard

T H E S E X U A L R A D I C A L S Paul A . R obinson

P R E H I S T O R Y D erek R o e

T H E T R A D I T I O N O F T H E N E W Harold Rosenberg

T H E W A R O F T H E F L E A R obert TaberT H E W A R B U S I N E S S George Th ayer

B E F O R E T H E D E L U G E Herbert Wendt

T H E T R U M P E T S H A L L S O U N D Peter W ors ley

T H E D R U G T A K E R S J o c k Y o u n g

________ ___________ — —



T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M E L B O U R N E L I B R A R Y

T H I S B O O K M U S T B E R E T U R N E D

B Y T H E L A S T D A T E S H O W N B E L O W

2 1 NOV 1997

£661100 0 1

O A i t 7 U U J . J * J C . XI J - r



BOMB CULTURE

‘Fragment of autobiof»ranhv? Anarchist mani-festo? Slice of con the university of Melbourne library

Manual for young

war? The Underg; I I I I I I I I 111 1 I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ! I 5

in at its birth?Jeff 3 1290 01352 1794

more ... his book is a letter from a man who d t l t t h hi t ibl h li

Nuttall Jeff Bomb Culture Read 2

Documents

Transcript of Nuttall Jeff Bomb Culture Read 2