Howl the movie

“We all talk among ourselves: we have a common understanding, we say anything we want to say. We talk about our assholes, we talk about our cocks, we talk about who we fucked last night, or who we’re gonna fuck tomorrow or what kind of love affair we’re in, or when we got drunk and had a broom stick shoved up our ass in the Hotel Ambassador in Prague. I mean, everyone tells one’s friends about that, right? So, the question is, what happens when you make a distinction between what you tell your friends and what you tell your muse? The trick is to break down that distinction, to approach your Muse as frankly as you would talk to yourself or to your friends. It’s the ability to commit to writing, to write the same way that you are.” (17’)

This passage is a part of Allen Ginsberg’s interview. It follows the reading section of the poem that goes: “who let themselves fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy, who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors, caresses of Atlantic and Caribbean love”.

I think this passage helps the reader to understand the poem and the way Allan Ginsberg wrote it. The author explains that he does not think that literature should be restricted to certain themes: literature should reflect casual conversations, the kind of conversations everyone would have with their friends, because it is this kind of conversations that reflect who you are and what you care about. Ginsberg explains that he wants his poem to be inspired by his own life: that’s how he wrote his poem, by letting himself be completely natural and unrestricted in the themes he explored. That’s why homosexuality and madness are dominant themes and that’s why he explicitly wrote about Carl Salomon: all these aspects were essential in his life and helped shape his life. He explains how you have to be completely honest with yourself and with the others in order to be able to produce literature.