THE WRITERS OF “THE BEAT
GENERATION”
I
John Wieners was the typical outsider, a poet
on the margins, the definitive “wounded healer”
or shaman styled poet. Ginsberg empathised
greatly with his condition and gave him the
highest accolade, calling him, a poet of “Keatsian
eloquence, pathos, and substantiality” (Hoover,
1994). Wieners spent time in a mental institution
and a lot of time ingesting narcotics. Both of these
elements equate with the shaman. In the Jungian
worldview, mental-illness became associated with
the shaman and shamanic traits. The shaman is
also associated with imaginal trance, journeying
and soul projection, often through ingesting of
entheogens. Such individuals are considered
“Psychonauts” (Harvey & Wallis, 2007). Both
these elements apply in the instance of Wieners.
The shaman often does battle with benevolent and
malevolent spirits and this is certainly true of
many beat generation poets (e.g. Ginsberg,
Wieners, McClure etc….). In Wieners case these
spirits are malevolent (like Moloch), nevertheless
he vows in "poem for the insane"…"I do not split
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