今年经典译文之亚文化—垮掉的一代（４）_文学文化

transition to the "hippie" era

some time during the 1960s, the rapidly expanding "beat" culture underwent a transformation: the "beat generation" gave way to "the sixties counterculture", which was accompanied by a shift in public terminology from "beatnik" to "hippie".

this was in many respects a gradual transition. many of the original beats remained active participants, notably allen ginsberg, who became a fixture of the anti-war movement -- though equally notably, kerouac did not remain active on the scene: he broke with ginsberg and criticized the 60s protest movements as "new excuses for spitefulness".

the beats in general were a large influence on members of the new "counterculture", for example, in the case of bob dylan who became a close friend of allen ginsberg.

the year 1963 found ginsberg living in san francisco with neal cassady and charles plymell at 1403 gough st. shortly after that ginsberg connected with ken kesey's crowd who was doing lsd testing at stanford, and plymell was instrumental in publishing the first issue of r. crumb's zap comix on his printing press a few years later then moved to ginsberg's commune in cherry valley, ny in the early 1970s. (the plymells never lived at the farm, just visited there; although they remained in cherry valley.)

according to ed sanders the change in the public label from "beatnik" to "hippie" happened after the 1967 human be-in in san francisco's golden gate park (where allen ginsberg, gary snyder and michael mcclure were leading the crowd in chanting "om").

there were certainly some stylistic differences between "beatniks" and "hippies" — somber colors, dark shades, and goatees gave way to colorful "psychedelic" clothing and long hair. the beats were known for "playing it cool" (keeping a low profile) but the hippies became known for "being cool" (displaying their individuality).

in addition to the stylistic changes, there were some changes in substance: the beats tended to be essentially apolitical, but the hippies became actively engaged with the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. to quote gary snyder in a 1974 interview (collected in the beat vision):

... the next key point was castro taking over cuba. the apolitical quality of beat thought changed with that. it sparked quite a discussion and quite a dialogue; many people had been basic pacifists with considerable disillusion with marxian revolutionary rhetoric. at the time of castro's victory, it had to be rethought again. here was a revolution that had used violence and that was apparently a good thing. many people abandoned the pacifist position at that time or at least began to give more thought to it. in any case, many people began to look to politics again as having possibilities. from that follows, at least on some levels, the beginning of civil rights activism, which leads through our one whole chain of events: the movement.

we had little confidence in our power to make any long range or significant changes. that was the 50s, you see. it seemed that bleak. so that our choices seemed entirely personal existential lifetime choices that there was no guarantee that we would have any audience, or anybody would listen to us; but it was a moral decision, a moral poetic decision. then castro changed things, then martin luther king changed things ...

drug usage

the original members or the beat generation group — in allen ginsberg's phrase, "the libertine circle" — used a number of different drugs.

in addition to the alcohol common in american life, they were also interested in marijuana, benzedrine and, in some cases, opiates such as morphine. as time went on, many of them began using other psychedelic drugs, such as peyote, yage (also known as ayahuasca), and lsd.

much of this usage can fairly be termed "experimental", in that they were generally unfamiliar with the effects of these drugs, and there were intellectual aspects to their interest in them as well as a simple pursuit of hedonistic intoxication.

benzedrine at that time was available in the form of plastic inhalers, containing a piece of folded paper soaked in the drug. they would typically crack open the inhalers and drop the paper in coffee, or just wad it up and swallow it whole.

opiates could be obtained in the form of morphine "syrettes": a squeeze tube with a hypodermic needle tip.

as the beat phenomenon spread (transforming from beat to "beatnik" to "hippie"), usage of some of these drugs also became more widespread. according to stereotype, the "hippies" commonly used the psychedelic drugs (marijuana, lsd), though the use of other drugs such as amphetamines was also widespread.

the actual results of this "experimentation" can be difficult to determine. claims that some of these drugs can enhance creativity, insight or productivity were quite common, as is the belief that the drugs in use were a key influence on the social events of the time (see recreational drug use).