BoomerZoo Almanac for March 25-31, 2007: Waffling over the meaning of obscene
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry
fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the
starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
[From “Howl” by Alan Ginsberg http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15308 ]
On March 25, 1957, the U.S. Customs service seized copies of Alan Ginsberg’s “Howl,” a poem that the government claimed was obscene. You want obscene?
Ignore the very reasonable Acheson-Lilienthal report*—released on March 28, 1946, and advocating for an open policy regarding nuclear power, nuclear weapons and the materials needed to develop the latter; have some Rosenbergs** (convicted of espionage on March 29, 1951) sell this information under the table to the Soviets; mix in the shoe-banging premier Nikita Khruschev, who became the Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party on March 27, 1958.*** And what is the result? Half a generation of baby boomers hiding under their desks!
It’s enough to make you want to howl—or maybe just move to Sweden, where you could be celebrating International Waffle Day.
*http://www.learnworld.com/ZNW/LWText.Acheson-Lilienthal.html
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg
*** http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0327.html#article
