Driving around in San Francisco today, I passed by a small, modest hair salon by the name of Watermelon Sugar Salon. On the salon's website there is no mention of Richard Brautigan or his book In Watermelon Sugar, which I found rather curious. I feel that the name's significance, whether used for a salon or a book, produces many interpretative possibilities, but Brautigan's sardonic wit, coupled with the book's apocalyptic motifs however seem to be on a different part of the spectrum than a hair salon.
But the salon did redeem its choice of a post-beat title by informing its customers that the salon was established "on the principle of creating something small and personal in a time where everyone else seems to be going big and corporate." This seems more like Kerouace/Ginsberg/Ferlinghetti beattitude as opposed to Brautigan's post-beat, environmental focus. In Watermelon Sugar as a name defers any reader's suspicions that this book exhibits apocalyptic modes and discusses violence. The book also discusses the ways in which nature and technology are related, a mode that seems closer to the type of mantra a hair salon might flaunt - natural look with the newest technology. Still, the name of the book definitely does not imply sweetness, and its possible and likely that their name choice had nothing to do with Richard Brautigan. But maybe these hairdressers did know what they were doing in choosing a name, and maybe this rejection of all that is rigid and boxed off is exactly what Kerouac and Ginsberg had in mind.
–Edan Sberlo
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