Various (Adamo, Christopher; Bolton, Michael Sean; Charters, Ann; D’Angelo, Ed; Elkholy, Sharin N.; Falk, Jane; Giannini Quinn, Roseann; Hayes, Josh Michael; Jones, Irwin; Lee, A. Robert et al.)

The Philosophy of the Beats

Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2012. First Printing. Hardcover. A deeply academic look at the Beat Generation, “The Philosophy of the Beats” brings together the kind of essays written by Ph.D’s that—for the most part, save an enterprising few—are meant to be read by fellow Ph.D’s (so specialized is the knowledge there invoked; the connections there attempted). The volume is the editorial work of one Sharin N. Elkholy, Assistant Professor at the University of Houston & author of “Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling: Angst and the Finitude of Being.” Corroborating this observation, the back flap relays the following: “This volume brings together noted Beat scholars and academics to illuminate the significance of the cultural movement through a range of philosophical perspectives.” The contributor list, in full, reads as follows: (1) F. Scott Scribner, “The Philosophy and Non-Philosophy of the Potato Salad”; (2) Roseanne Giannini Quinn, “Laugh of the Revolutionary”; (3) Christopher Adamo, “Beat U-topos or Taking Utopia on the Road: The Case of Jack Kerouac; (4) Josh Michael Hayes, “Being at Home: Gary Snyder and the Poetics of Place”; (5) Michael Sean Bolton, “From Self-Alienation to Posthumanism: the Transmigration of the Burroughsian Subject”; (6) Tom Pynn, “I am not an I: Performative Self-Identity in the Poetry of Bob Kaufman”; (7) our friend-&-colleague at the European Beat Studies Network, A. Robert Lee, “Tongues Untied: Beat Ethnicities, Beat Multiculture”; (7) Jane Falk, “Joanne Kyger: Descartes and the Splendor Of…”; (8) Ann Charters, “John Clellon Holmes and Existentialism; (9) David Sterrit, “Wholly Communion: Poetry, Philosophy, and Spontaneous Bop Cinema; (10) Erik Mortenson, “High off the Page”; (11) Marc Olmstead, “Genius All the Time”; (12) “Spontaneity, Immediacy, and Difference…” by David Need; (13) Andreas Seland, “Two Ways of Enduring the Flames: Bukowski and Kierkegaard”; (14) Ed D’Angelo, “Anarchism and the Beats”; (15) Paul Messersmith-Glavin, “Between Social Ecology and Deep Ecology: Gary Snyder’s Ecological Philosophy”; and finally, (16) Jones Irwin, “William Burroughs as Philosopher: from Beat Morality to Third Worldism to Continental Theory.” Enough to keep an academic going for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, I’d say. [ISBN: 978-0-8131-3580-9]. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: First Edition, although not explicated as such on copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. In strong fine condition with only minute shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine & some low-visibility exhibits of age-toning to select locales at/along same & some sparse spotting to text block. Dust-jacket in similarly strong fine condition with only moderate shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine, else pristine; a few (virtually invisible) nick-indentations & light rubbing to same. Fine / Fine. [Item #5355]

Price: $25.00