I've no idea why I thought it appropriate or necessary to quote Allen Ginsberg, especially to quote a poem that is unflattering toward America. Because dude, I am lovin' on the good ol' US of A right now. It's so clean, so quiet, so shiny, so soft, so cool, so calm, so full of cheerios and Dr. Pepper and fancy lettuces with balsamic vinagrette.
I've always liked those two lines from "America", and I could never put my finger on what it was about them, but having spent the last two months in India, however else I would describe it and however much I would deride some things about it, "naked" and "angelic" seem like utterly apt descriptions, both for what India is like in some meta-sense and how India is different than America, beyond the obvious rich/poor thing. I don't think America will ever be angelic or take off it's clothes, and I think that's okay with me. This is my home, my decadent, effortless home, and I will always love it and want to return to it. But leaving is so good; the alternating waves of idealistic love and self-righteous scorn I've felt for India have been so good.
I've been up since 5 a.m. I'm jet-lagged and nutty. I promise no more pretentious, self-important posts that quote poetry, at least not for a while.
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4 comments:
those are my favorite ones, though. seriously! :)
It's hardly Polari, but given the socio-cultural milleu within which Ginsburg wrote the poem, "angelic" could be read as a coded reference (and I would argue, likely refers, given the following line) to homosexuality -- as in, "[America,] when will you be queer?" One online dictionary of queer slang identifies "angel" as meaning "the client of a prostitute," tho the sense more applicable to the tenor of Ginsburg's reference is, essentially, "sugar daddy." (Incidentally, this might modify my earlier interpretation somewhat, tho not that substantially...)
"Angelic" could also be read as a reference -- oblique, perhaps -- to "beatitude," which was of course one of the possible origins of the term "Beat."
I'd argue that these two (potential) meanings aren't exclusive of one another...
Incidentally, I think more discussion of poetry is always welcome. Also, I think that "America" is a VERY strange poem to think of when "lovin' on the old US of A..." [insert winky face here]
Oops -- it occurs to me that the recurrence of "angelic" later in the poem might complicate my reading, tho I don't think it discounts it entirely...
J - when will you be angelic... when will you take your clothes off... when will you update your blog?
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