Strathairn: “Do you understand what ‘angel-headed hipsters yearning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night’ means?”
Schorer: “Sir, you can’t translate poetry into prose. That’s why it is poetry.” (0:22)
This excerpt is from one of the courtroom scenes, in which the prosecution questions experts on the literary quality of "Howl." I think this quote represents the failure of the prosecution to understand poetry as an art form; throughout the trial, they continuously ask whether certain "obscene" words or elements are "necessary" to qualify the poem as literature, as if that was Ginsberg's sole purpose in writing it. True art, however, is greater than the sum of its parts. As Ginsberg later explains in an interview, his poetry is the linguistic manifestation of an impulsive feeling - such emotion is too complex to be broken down and explained in common language. The film gives us a social and biographical context for "Howl" that helps us to better understand it, but (thankfully) makes no attempt to explicitly define its meaning. Even the artistic visuals that accompany James Franco's reading of the poem are abstract enough to avoid restricting the audience's personal interpretation; they merely serve as a backdrop to enhance Ginsberg's words.
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