‘Go F*** Yourself with Your Atomic Bomb’: Variegated Patriotism in the Principal Beat Works

This undergraduate senior thesis is a comparative study of patriotism in the key works of the 1950s Beat Generation. The essay argues that the writers are too frequently collated into a single ideology and that each demonstrated a unique perspective regarding their relationship to America. As such, I offer a taxonomic system that delimits their methods, foregrounding both distinctiveness and permeability while relying on Schatz et. al.’s paradigm of critical vs blind patriotism as a baseline. First, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem “I am Waiting”nd selections from his novel Her provide a control for comparison by positing a critical patriotism I term to be a constructive critical approach. Next, I examine the three most famous Beat works: Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl, Jack Kerouac’s travel narrative On the Road, and William S. Burroughs’ surreal sketch novel Naked Lunch. Ginsberg and Burroughs each practiced critical patriotism, offering two very different ways in which an individual can cope with or subvert America’s norms and institutions-defined here as the spiritual critical and individual radical approaches, respectively. Finally, Kerouac differed from his peers as the only writer to subscribe to blind patriotism. Though he had offered rare and brief criticism, his work is ultimately informed by his belief in American exceptionalism and his affinity for the 1930s-Kerouac’s patriotism utilized a nostalgic passive approach. Providing a more complex understanding of the Beat Generation’s relationship to America, this essay supports future scholarship of the Beats and beyond.

I. Hello, my project is titled “‘Go F Yourself with Your Atomic Bomb’: Variegated Patriotism in the Principal Beat Works.” It was written in Spring 2023 under the advisement of Dr Eric Eisner. My research was spurred by a statement I often read, applied to the beats in various forms, that would say something like “they were disillusioned with post-world War II America.” How, I wondered, could an entire generation with such a diverse literary output be encapsulated by a single understanding of their relationship to country? Utilizing some of the most popular works, I developed a taxonomy that delimits their unique approaches to patriotism while leaving room for overlap exception and nuance.
II. Drawing from the early works of Lawrence Ferlingetti, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs, I propose four unique approaches to patriotism in literature. In his 1958 poem “I am Waiting” Ferlinghetti practices an optimistic version of patriotism I term the constructive critical. Throughout the poem, he reimagines history in order to achieve a desired future. His “reconstructed Mayflower” suggests the country should have been founded for more than just white people. His “sweet desegregated chariot” suggests that it is not too late to change America’s ethos. The approach is critical because he’s clear-eyed about both past and present. It’s constructive because he is optimistic about the possibilities of future change.
III. Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl posits a patriotism that I term the spiritual critical. He mythologizes America–imagines the country in terms of internal spiritual struggle of good versus evil. In this line he defines America by its economic system. The “who” of the first word, are he and the other Beats– what he calls “the best minds of his generation.” They struggle helplessly against being inundated by cigarettes– products of capitalism. They burn the cigarette holes in their arms in symbolic protest, but also, I suggest they use the physical pain to distract from the emotional and existential pain they feel the country is wrought upon them. Ginsberg is pessimistic about the Beats being able to win any ideological battle, but he finds catharsis in keeping record and indicting the evil that he sees.
IV. Jack Kerouac’s approach to America is the sole patriotism of the beats that I turn to be a critical or what’s sometimes called “blind patriotism.” In his own biography, he idealized the 1930s and espoused American exceptionalism– his writing reflects this in a mode that I call the nostalgic passive. In this passage from his travelogue On the Road, he’s willing to overlook the obvious unhealthiness of apple pie in what works as a metaphor for his own willingness to overlook the country’s flaws. To Kerouac, how can apple pie or America be bad for him when both provide him with opportunities for self-gratification? Nostalgic passivity, then, fails to critique America unless some aspect of the country negatively affects the practitioner personally and immediately.
V. Lastly, William S Burroughs’ disposition toward America exemplifies an approach I term the radical individual. Burroughs considered all existence to be determined by an invisible control paradigm. America and all other countries function as parts of that paradigm. In this line from Naked Lunch, Dr Benway’s description of an “arduous and intricate bureaucracy” mirrors Burroughs’ own feelings about America. To him, country is just another means of control. Acts of subversion using drugs, sex, or violence become patriotic because they temporarily reclaim control for the individual American. Like the spiritual critical, the radical individual concerns itself with temporary relief from an otherwise inescapably oppressive country. In conclusion, while it may be fair to say that all the Beats were disillusioned with America, it is more useful to examine how they differed in their concepts of what precisely constitutes America and the resulting relationships to that country.
VI. By creating a comparative system that recognizes these similarities and differences, I hope to contribute to the scholarly conversation in a meaningful way. Thank you.