Carl Solomon (1928~1993)
: He was born in Bronx NYC. His father died when he was 9 and this profoundly affected his early life. Graduating high school at age of 15, he went to City College of NY and joined U.S. Marine around when he was 17. He met Allen Ginsberg at a mental hospital in NY. Through Ginsberg, Solomon gained fame. Their friendship lasted till their old age.
HOWL
: This poem is dedicated to seemingly insane or inept people who he saw around him in the mental hospital and in NY. While one of the stnazs is solely dedicated to Solomon ("who threw potato salad at CCNY lectureres...demanding instantaneous lobotomy"), because these desolate people lived rebellious and unprecedented life, Ginsberg points out at this unconventional yet discint way that he saw around him.
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ReplyDeleteI think most of this is true jeff, but I actually think that solomon was a lover of some kind since ginsberg wrote about him in a extremely harsh way on page 24
ReplyDeleteHowever, I believe that the reason why Ginsberg dedicated HOWL to Solomon is because that Solomon was madder than him mainly.
ReplyDeleteIs Rockland where the mental hospital was?
ReplyDeletethe poem covers not only NY but i think it covers people as a whole who are controlled and destroyed by industry in America, represented in HOWL by Moloch. "What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?"
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