Crimes of the Beats

by Unbearables and The Unbearables

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570270694
• ISBN13: 9781570270697
• Release Date: July 1998
• Publisher: Autonomedia
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.6" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A pure treat

The Unbearables have the best theorist -- Jim Feast -- and the best poet -- Mike Topp -- now writing. Their brilliance is couched behind an offhand style that seems to regard their own output with diffidence, but this is a massive shift in sensibility. From auto-reverence that the Beats served up, the Unbearables position perspective, humor, and a politics that can't be summed up easily. For this last reason they will take a lot longer to catch on than those movements that push a simplistic political agenda. The Unbearables are more like Kierkegaard -- or Diogenes -- taking out whole structures with an offhand comment. This is the group to watch, and the book to read, if you want to move past the Ginsberg-Burroughs mythos into something well, human.

Brilliance obscured by clouds of the uniniated

Anyone who's ever seen the Unbearables knows not to ponder them with great seriousness - they're masters at masking significant insights under prankish shrouds. Unbearable writer Sparrow stood on one leg, than the other for hours in NYC's Tompkins Square Park as part of his "campaign" for the US presidency in the early '90s. On one hand, it's just funny. On the other, he seemed to be saying he was capable of at least as much fortitude as any other candidate. Offhand brilliance frequently shines from this occasionally uneven group. I agree with the other reviewer who said they were one of the only groups of known writers to diverge from a syncophantic focus on the Beats. Just a look at the cover tells you that there's a joke here and that no one, not even the Beats, is above capitalism, sexism, alcoholism, etc. The reviewer who accused the Unbearables of jealousy is misinformed - unaware, for instance, that Tuli Kupferberg, one of the lesser-known Beats, has often taken part in Unbearables readings along with Taylor Meade and other venerables. Standouts include Sparrow's poetry, Hal Sirowitz's short essay, Mary Leary's chilling Burroughs poem, should-be-a-star Mike Topp's opening, understated line, Denise Duhamel's "Beatnick Barbie," Kerouac-oriented haiku by Michael Randall, and the illustrations, many of which are by talented, relatively unknown artists who've been publishing with the Unbearables for years. William Anthony's pics, for instance, are fantastic. Being published in this book was a risky endeavor for all involved, since it was released at the height of Springfield-type (Simpsons), lemminglike, Beat fervor. Doesn't shy away from homosexuality that's usually ignored, etc. Highly recommended, should turn into a classic/collectible.

This is a unique book! "Rollo Whitehead, thou art avenged!"

This is the only book you'll read that doesn't take the reverential, sycophantic and deluded view of the Beats that is held by academics and literary pundits alike. Instead, they point out the calculated commodification of the Beat mythos...from Beat cigarette lighters sold at the Whitney, to tantrum-throwing freak-outs by an over-the-hill ginsberg, to the exploits of proto-Beat, Rollo Whitehead. Whitehead's interview with Ann Charters, published for the first time in this book, will not be well-looked-upon by the mainstream because Whitehead makes a good and verifiable claim that he was the originator of such poems as Howl and Sunflower Sutra, and that the Beats emulated his guerilla poetry when they saw him reading poetry on the lawn at Columbia University in the 40s. Allen Ginsberg was once known to have assailed a person he thought to be Whitehead, shouting "you're trying to ruin my career!". But this was untrue as Whitehead was always squelched by the Beat propagandists in all the later anthologies and retrospectives. Older than Burroughs, Whitehead is still around and The Unbearables continue to be his strongest supporters. CRIMES OF THE BEATS is must-have reading! Though it takes you from somewhere to nowhere, the terribly intelligent yet unfashionable stance and clever writing will make an Unbearable out of you even if you don't know it yet.