Mar
16
Additional Readings for Miller and Viegener
March 16, 2015 | Comments Off on Additional Readings for Miller and Viegener
Elise Cowen and Allen Ginsburg
I was drawn into the Miller article for three main reasons, I work at Hunter College, I love memoirs and as a precocious young teen I spent a lot of time reading the Beats. As Miller concludes, “ the six degrees of separation that mark the distance from your life to another’s are really, as it turns out, degrees of connection. And my memoir is also about you.” Reading about Joyce Johnson, Elise Cowen and Diane Di Prima brought me instantaneously back to my experience reading these women during High School.
Women of the Beat Generation by Brenda Knight is a quick and dirty primer on the women who were part of the Beat scene. It provides photos and short bios coupled with samples of work from the three women listed among others. It is a great first introduction into the lives of the women who drove the scene.
While reading Viegener, I was struck by the poetry of his lists. It reminded me of the lyricism in Patti Smith’s Just Kids. In Just Kids, Smith details her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Both authors use words to work through grief and tell the stories of loved ones who altered their life.
— Melissa
