Cezanne's Influence on Ginsberg's "Howl"
Allen Ginsberg had a great interest in the art of the post-impressionist painter Paul Cézanne.
“who dreamt and made incarnate gaps in Time & Space through images juxtaposed, and trapped the archangel of the soul between 2 visual images and joined the elemental verbs and set the noun and dash of consciousness together jumping with sensation of Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus”
Ginsberg “got all hung up on Cézanne” during his last year at Columbia, while taking a fine arts course (Moody 43).
In his paintings, Cézanne, a post-impressionist painter, juxtaposed patches of canvas that each contained only one color. {Tell why Cézanne does this} After seeing this, Ginsberg had the idea to use the same technique, except using words: to juxtapose words that aren’t normally written next to each other, words that don’t exactly go together, and as a result, the mind of the reader would fill in what is missing, fill in this "gap," with the “sensation of existence” (Moody 46)
One of his examples of this is when Shakespeare says, "In the dread vast and middle of the night" (Moody 46). Ginsberg asserts that, between "dread vast" and "middle," due to the fact that they do not logically follow each other, the mind fills in this space (Moody 46). The words create "a whole space of, spaciness of black night" (Moody 46). Both the phrase, "In the middle of the night" and the phrase, "In the dread [sic] vast of the night" would make sense standing alone, but the two phrases are combined in an illogical way (Moody 46). The word "and" here means "in addition." Because "dread vast" refers to the whole night, it already includes the "middle" of the night. The word "and" indicates that we are talking about not only the "dread vast" of the night, but also, in addition, "the middle" of the night; to combine the phrases "In the middle of the night" and "In the dread vast of the night," one would have to say, "In the middle of the dread vast night," but Shakespeare does not do this; two images are created, an image of the "dread vast" of the night, and an image of the "middle" of the night, but because both "dread vast" and "middle" describe the "night," the mind must force the two images together (Moody 46). Due to the inclusion of the word "vast," we know that the phrase "dread vast," refers not to just one part of the night, but the entire night (Moody 46). If one wanted to say that one part of the night was vast, then one would have to say, "In the vast part of the night;" although, since the night is one thing, and is not separated into different parts, this phrase would not make sense, as one part of the night can not be more vast than another.
Another Example is the line “winter midnight smalltown streetlight rain” (Moody 46). Because Ginsberg only uses nouns, the reader is given four images, and their mind automatically combines the images. Because of the omission of other parts of speech, the reader is given images alone, and the mind can seamlessly fuse the images in a way that words can not achieve. This effect is partly due to the fact that readers notice the unconventional style and understand that Ginsberg is trying to create something special and profound. The readers expect something great and so feel something great, in a kind of placebo effect. But the placebo effect is not the only reason that the juxtaposition of these nouns creates something special: {colon_or_semicolon?}removing dull words such as “at” and “in,” not only brings closer the nouns but also brings closer the mental images that one gets when reading the line.
“who dreamt and made incarnate gaps in Time & Space through images juxtaposed, and trapped the archangel of the soul between 2 visual images and joined the elemental verbs and set the noun and dash of consciousness together jumping with sensation of Pater Omnipotens Aeterna Deus”
Ginsberg “got all hung up on Cézanne” during his last year at Columbia, while taking a fine arts course (Moody 43).
In his paintings, Cézanne, a post-impressionist painter, juxtaposed patches of canvas that each contained only one color. {Tell why Cézanne does this} After seeing this, Ginsberg had the idea to use the same technique, except using words: to juxtapose words that aren’t normally written next to each other, words that don’t exactly go together, and as a result, the mind of the reader would fill in what is missing, fill in this "gap," with the “sensation of existence” (Moody 46)
One of his examples of this is when Shakespeare says, "In the dread vast and middle of the night" (Moody 46). Ginsberg asserts that, between "dread vast" and "middle," due to the fact that they do not logically follow each other, the mind fills in this space (Moody 46). The words create "a whole space of, spaciness of black night" (Moody 46). Both the phrase, "In the middle of the night" and the phrase, "In the dread [sic] vast of the night" would make sense standing alone, but the two phrases are combined in an illogical way (Moody 46). The word "and" here means "in addition." Because "dread vast" refers to the whole night, it already includes the "middle" of the night. The word "and" indicates that we are talking about not only the "dread vast" of the night, but also, in addition, "the middle" of the night; to combine the phrases "In the middle of the night" and "In the dread vast of the night," one would have to say, "In the middle of the dread vast night," but Shakespeare does not do this; two images are created, an image of the "dread vast" of the night, and an image of the "middle" of the night, but because both "dread vast" and "middle" describe the "night," the mind must force the two images together (Moody 46). Due to the inclusion of the word "vast," we know that the phrase "dread vast," refers not to just one part of the night, but the entire night (Moody 46). If one wanted to say that one part of the night was vast, then one would have to say, "In the vast part of the night;" although, since the night is one thing, and is not separated into different parts, this phrase would not make sense, as one part of the night can not be more vast than another.
Another Example is the line “winter midnight smalltown streetlight rain” (Moody 46). Because Ginsberg only uses nouns, the reader is given four images, and their mind automatically combines the images. Because of the omission of other parts of speech, the reader is given images alone, and the mind can seamlessly fuse the images in a way that words can not achieve. This effect is partly due to the fact that readers notice the unconventional style and understand that Ginsberg is trying to create something special and profound. The readers expect something great and so feel something great, in a kind of placebo effect. But the placebo effect is not the only reason that the juxtaposition of these nouns creates something special: {colon_or_semicolon?}removing dull words such as “at” and “in,” not only brings closer the nouns but also brings closer the mental images that one gets when reading the line.
Works Cited
The Paris Review and Moody, Rick. Beat Writers at Work. New York: Random House Inc. and Toronto: Random House of Canada Limited, 1999. Print.
written by Rehan Quraishi