Minor Characters

"Minor Characters" resonated on a deep level with me.  The feeling of excitement and eagerness over being a writer, being a female writer, only to be told you're too late, the men have already done it better.  Told be told to go out into the dangerous world, a place far more dangerous for you than it was for Kerouac, Twain, London, any of the rest - go out and "live" because nothing about your life is interesting enough yet, there's no way you're good enough on your own.  Once you do of course, once you take up or pack up, once you move or leave everything behind, suddenly the questions come.  The concerned glances and fearful leading questions, "You're not running from something are you?", like when the super asks her mother if she's pregnant (3001).  I feel such a kinship towards her and her bravery is inspiring.  This move of hers was a true movement, in every sense of the word.  Young women leaving their homes, taking charge of themselves; this wasn't an en mass bra burning or march on Washington, these women weren't trying to be political, they were trying to live for themselves.  Unlike men such as Kerouac and Burroughs, leaving comfort for the thrill of a fabricated adventure, these young women were in danger of being completely cast out by their families, many moved to dangerous neighborhoods or couldn't find work.  They made real sacrifices following their dream.  Why then are they not remembered?  

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Joyce Johnson Minor Characters

The Beat movement may have been apolitical but the female writers of this movement-whether intentional or unintentional-helped to fuel the desire for change for women.  To be able to contribute a female voice to a male-dominated style of writing-the Beat movement, Johnson knew she would need to share in the same experiences.  She would need to live on her own and go on the road with all that that implies, drugs, unmarried sex, alcohol.  Most of those ideas do not seem so radical now. But, as Johnson writes in, Minor Characters, about living on her own, "Everyone knew in the 1950s why a girl from a nice family left home.  The meaning of her theft of herself from her parents was clear to all-as well as what she'd be up to in that room of her own."  Her need to write from a new female perspective had her living like her male counterparts from the Beat movement and not one of "good" girl who lived at home until she marries and the living under her husband's roof and obeying him.  She lives a unconventional life for a woman in the 1950s and shares those experiences through published writings.  She, as well as other female writers of the Beat movement, gave women of the time a new way of living their lives. 

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From Door Wide Open

The letter presented, from the collection of correspondents between Jack Kerouac and Joyce Johnson, is truly an enticing read. Joyce, while never fully achieving a status as legendary as Kerouac, spent time writing to Jack as they moved from affair to fading into solely friendship. To me, this is an amazing look into the life of a woman in the Beat movement; while she writes in the confessional, tell-all manner of the Beats, she still manages to give a glimpse at being a young woman in the 50's. This is an era that is depicted nowadays through television shows such as Leave It to Beaver, etc. The idea of women being more like a servant (cooking, cleaning, raising the children) is usually the idea conveyed through the media of the time—did June Cleaver have any personal interests? Yet, through her letter, Johnson managed to completely throw that idea out the window. Her letter to Kerouac shows a young Bohemian love, one where the modern convictions of the time did not drown out their detail on how they felt. In a time where women were not treated as equals (not that they are entirely now, but it was much more severe) she shines through, showing her intelligence; not just in what she has learned, but what she has discovered about herself. The most empowering part of this letter was for me is just how much she cares for Jack, and you can see it throughout. Whether it be her praising of On the Road (2998) or her beautiful confessions, "I remember walking with you at night through the Brooklyn docks and seeing the white steam rising from the ships against the black sky and how beautiful it was and I'd never seen it before—imagine!—but if I'd walked through it with anyone else, I wouldn't have seen it either" (2998), she makes her point clear and shows how strong and dedicated she is.

Another thing that this letter had me thinking about is if this would have been seen as unorthodox. Women were not always seen as the ones to express themselves so forwardly. Of course, it's been around all throughout history, but in the 1950's, I can't help but feel people might have been a little off-put by a woman being so open, and so expressive. Many may argue it shows weakness, vulnerability; I, however, think that this shows more strength than anything. 

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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 

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Door wide open

"Yes I will come to Mexico!"
Johnson starts off this reply with an enthusiastic expression seemingly desperate to go somewhere that isn't where she is now.  Immediately after though she takes a different tone, scolding and comforting Kerouac for calling himself a bum while assuring him he is not.  Hobo is better put, as said in previous works. Traveler, journeyman. This adventure she is about to embark on really is making her excited about what the future holds, and thinking of the past and how things ended up for her and her friends gets her reminiscing and missing her old friends who have gone off to different parts of the world.  All of that seems to not matter because she is excited to get to Mexico, where she doesn't know what the weather is like.  It is clear how much she likes him, when she writes how only he can make her feel safe in an otherwise "bad neighborhood". He puts a change in her, something only he can do.

I don't really get where she fits in with the Beat style, I see that she is "cool" compared to Ginsberg and the others, but I'm not sensing beat in these writings.  When describing the marriageable middle-class white woman, she makes it out to be a negative thing, or at least that is what I am getting.  Can't it just be "not for everyone" instead of all around bad? I am sure lots of women don't want or consider to get out and write on their own.  I do see the pros of being able to be out on your own, make your own rules, live according to no one but yourself, but lots of people like structure in their lives.

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