Saturday, September 20, 2014

The Beat Goes On: Joyce Johnson


The beat goes on. Enchanting harmony flows through pen to paper as the locution of Joyce Johnson comes forth bringing to light the strength of womanhood. The preacher  of empowerment delivers divine dreams of possibility into a world of misogynistic notion. Johnson brings to light a writing style never before seen. In a world where man is “blind to the truth he can’t foresee the end”(Johnson). Johnson’s “cool” style of writing renders the the fallacy of the American Dream in terms of the nuclear family and stay at home wife. Woman are strong. Woman are capable. Johnson capitalizes on her self-possessed style to omit the delusion of the superiority complex in the male figure. 

What is the Beatnik methodology? Johnson conforms her works not only to that of femininity, but on a level of human acceptance. The Beatdom was an era of heightened psychological hallucinogens, alcohol abuse and casual intercourse. Freedom was a sensory exploration(www.drugabuse.org). The elixir to knowledge simulated an odyssey of discovery. Johnson, too, desired to attain the cognizance of mysticism. A formal proclamation by Johnson expounds prejudices in saying “tolerance is learned and intolerance the same. Parents of impressionables, don’t be the ones to blame for making racism and others, a means to spread your hate”(Johnson). Just as Ginsberg and Kerouac, Johnson yearns to bring forth the abhorrence found entangled amongst the cross-grain of Civil liberty.  As temperance ensues through her writings, it is at times difficult to deduce that she too exudes a Beatnik style. Johnson’s design is simply to promote a sense of justice and emotional ratification for the female psyche. Is Johnson effective in her presentation of Beatnik opposition? Does Johnson hold validity in the Beat Generation? 

Michael Bowen 

1 comment:

  1. I think Johnson is a valid part of the Beat generation and movement. She and other women writers of the beat movement helped to contribute to a new way of viewing woman. Opening the door to thinking about woman in a new way. All woman did not want to be stay at home moms living a conventional middle class lifestyle. Some woman wanted to have the freedom to act and behave as man had been able to without being judged by society.

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