open as opposed to closed form “If we have a field,
how can we throw out closed forms, they are only
forms within a field” (Hoover, 1994). A core idea
of Olsen’s was “Breath space” which is a device of
the line which Olson gives to his impression of
open fields. One can see how his ideas influenced
many beats (e.g. McClure, Snyder et.al) The beat
dictum was a return to the rhythm of the shaman,
a return to actual speech and raw vital energy,
what Olson called “the primitive abstract” to
replace the “classical-representational”
(Hoover,1994).
Olson also stated “Art does not seek to describe
but to enact”. Olson is strategist and leading
thinker of the beats to Ginsberg’s popular spiritual
leader. Olsen spoke of what he called “the
proprioceptive character of human speech”, he
defined this as the “pushing the line under the
hand of the moment”. Olsen is forever the
fatalist, in “In Cold hell, in thicket” he states
“wars get tossed up…to be knocked down”. He
has nothing to say, like Eliot, in the wake of the
horrors of war in the era of the early 20 th century
(e.g. WWII) “What has he to say?”. Olsen
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