Perhaps a tenuous link to begin with, I was nontheless amazed by the lack of parallels characterized between Punk subculture and beat ideologies. Despite often vague descriptions of both cultures, Punks, like the beats, are often invested in concepts punk politics include anarchism: Many would argue that SF beats were largely grounded in Ferlinghetti’s influence and exposure, especially after the formation of City Lights. Ferlinghetti himself was, infact, a self-declared anarchist. Anarchy is also a theme found in the likes of On the Road, and Howl.
anti-militarism and anti-capitalism are both topics popularized in such classics as a Ginsberg’s A Supermarket in California, and Dog. The latter of the two also envokes other popular ‘Punk’ ideologies of environmentalism, vegetarianism and animal rights.
Of the half dozen searches through even the University of California’s intellectual property databases, the connctions between the two genre/cultures was essentially limited to “San Francisco Beat: Talking to the Poets,” in which David Meltzer interviews Philip Lamantia. The full extent of their discussion on Punk is limited to the following:
However, searches for both publications only yielded a small amount of information about these tenous links between two very influential and, seemingly, ideologically similar subcultures.
