Walt Whitman

How is Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" holding up on your scales these days?

Perfect timing for me, as Walt is getting some good press these days with his inclusion in Joseph Epstein’s selection of 25 writers of Literary Genius: 25 classic writers who define English & American Writing. The Whitman essay is written by Justin Kaplan, who lauds the lecher for his viscous, vital egoism – and yes, Leaves of Grass just gets better with age – a funny paradox, because the same can’t be said of the very physical acts, longings, and body parts it so ecstatically describes.

I also, just finished reading the chapter that Jonah Lehrer wrote on Whitman in his recent Proust was a Neuroscientist. Lehrer discusses Whitman’s ‘fusion of body and soul’ as an unprecedented event in letters, and an event that precipitated the modern tendency to root everything in biology and explain every mood and behavior as an act of neurotransmission.

So, the poet I once called the poster child of self-absorbed slackers really does have some heft, some gravitas, after all. I find it so, so funny that his reputation built as his body decomposed. I think that thought might even make Emerson chuckle – or at least crack a smile. But maybe I’m flattering myself…

Touchstones...not working.

I always considered Kerouac to be the poster child for "self-absorbed slackers" and armchair idealists. ha

I've always seemed to carry a little affection for Mr. Whitman, while Kerouac makes me want to slap the nearest twenty-something, fake-bohemian guy living in his parents' garage apartment, but that could very well just be me.

Oh, no, I'm with you on Kerouac (and Capote is with us, so we know we are right).

Mr. Whitman could at least pull off some beauty.

You can sniff out the Kerouac poseurs a mile away ... looking for the scroll, man. If I could make my eyes roll any louder, I would.

It's still a great read for me, thanks.

Enevada, Justin Kaplan is Whitman's most-hardcore biographer, so having him be the one to write that essay makes perfect sense.

Kerousuwac, as one of my friends called him, had his place and time. I hardly think his work, or any of the Beats, except a few pieces from Ferlinghetti, particularly Coney Island of the Mind # 5 and Howl by Ginsburg even approach the kind of universality necessary to provide legs to a work.

Most Beat stuff, especially Kerouac's prose are personal stories of grasping life by the throat after several years in Hell, and asking the BIG questions.

There is nothing here that's new or unique, in fact On the Road was compared to The Sun Also Rises when it was published. Just another Lost Generation burning it's candle at both ends. People who "discover life" via Kerouac most likely suffered through the American High School Learning Experience in which they were taught little about life and lots about the value of belonging. When they discover Kerouac and the Beats they just wig out about how cool it is. For many of them it may be their first experience with eastern spiritual themes, but it is certainly not the best place to go for enlightenment.

"Get your motor runnin',
Head out on the highway,
Lookin' for adventure,
And whatever comes our way. . ."

The essay is wonderful. I've never read a biography of Whitman because, well, I just felt like I get plenty of him in Leaves of Grass. Plenty. The cup runneth over, in fact...

But I do read Leaves often, several times a year. I like it better as we both age, which amuses me.

I've often thought that Leaves of Grass would be a great foundational text for a religion.

I read the final verse as a eulogy of sorts at a friend's memorial service last month. High praise that, of both my friend and Whitman.

I suffered through the entire Leaves of Grass. Psycho-homo-erotic-babble, with a touch of patriotism. I'd rather watch a 90-minute Village people concert on an aircraft carrier.

>10 Sandydog1: Just watch this 23 times. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw&feature=kp

LOL, my favorite Central American Lepidopterid.

My ol' man, a Canuck curmudgeon (who thought the rendition of "One Toke Over the Line" on the Lawrence Welk Show was a Gospel song) also thought the Village People were THE most wholesome, wonderful, patriotic, heterosexual group in the world.

Now I've got to clear my head and submit myself to at least a dozen doses of this mother-son (Elijah Blue on guitar) ditty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsKbwR7WXN4

>12 Sandydog1: I couldn't believe it about "One Toke over the Line." But it's true. It's "a modern spiritual." *snorts*

Lawrence Welk. This is beyond surreal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tdmaEhMHE

LOL!!!!

Understanding Walt Whitman's personal background may explain a lot:

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v60/profmadhatter/nguyen1.jpg

I hope that paper earned at least a B+.

(That was hilarious!)

Don't forget Whitman's eye witness accounts of 'historical' events he witnessed--as a war nurse, describing Lincoln arriving in NYC as president-elect and facing a silent crowd who had gathered to see him. My favorite portion of his writings.

>8 Sutpen: Just found this thread. And Leaves of Grass are the expressions of someone very much influenced by the religion of his parents. http://fgcquaker.org/

Whitman is one of the three writers who made me want to be a poet. I don't write like any of them that I can see, but without their influence, I likely wouldn't be writing at all.

>18 Diane-bpcb: So I'm not the only one? Memoranda During the War (often included as part of Specimen Days, but I've seen it on its own) is my favorite Whitman.

Yes, the poetry is beautiful and expresses some wonderful democratic (small "d") ideals, but Memoranda is where Walt rolls up his sleeves and puts his ideals into action. That he visited Confederate wounded (he called them "secesh," short for "secessionist") as well as Union seems to me the embodiment of Leaves of Grass.

LOL at snotty people dismissing Whitman here.