Snyder and Greatness in Practice
One would be remiss to ignore the prominent influence of European thought in the development of American literature and poetry. Prolonged and diverse histories converge to establish American values and ways of thinking — many of which are responses to and rebellions against the political limitations invoked upon individuals by a larger or greater power. Not all political powers or figures of authority labeled as possessing greatness have arrived at the same stature of greatness by the same means. William Shakespeare, in Twelfth Night, writes that “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em” (Twelfth Night 2.5.130–132). Greatness is accessed and experienced in different ways by different kinds of people, but the concept of greatness, as honorable as it may be, is merely subjective if one refuses to consider who in the equation is oppressed and who is the oppressor. This truth has not dissipated since the 1600s but has adapted to modern American society.
The Beat Generation writers began composing literature and poetry in the 1950s during a barrage of “tumultuous changes of their times: the historic events that began with America’s dropping the Atomic bomb on Japan to bring World War II to an end, and the political ramifications of the ensuing Cold War and wave of anti-communist hysteria that followed in the late 1940s and the 1950s” (Charters xvii). Repressive political powers beat down the generation and its prominent voices such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Gary Snyder, who experienced psychological changes that were both tiresome and debilitating. However, through the haze of repressive systems that valued a conglomerate, capitalist mentality more so than individual embodiment, the voices of the Beat Generation resounded to a degree of greatness (Pyyry 320). Their literary and poetic works evidence a deliberate challenge and counterattack on the conglomerate society through enacting the essential practice of maintaining individuality. Ginsberg acknowledges these individuals in his poem “Howl,” which begins, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked” (1). Peculiarly, Ginsberg’s summation that his generation’s best and greatest minds are those who are destroyed, mad, and hysterical juxtaposes the immaculate depiction of European royalty and political power, from Julius Caesar to King Louis XIV, to Napoleon Bonaparte. Thus, a shift occurs in the narrative of the Beat Generation; a reclamation of individual freedom becomes accessible to those who are beaten down and downtrodden because of the reversal of perspective and power that shifts from the oppressor to the oppressed. It is of utmost importance to consider what elements of the Beat Generation and their motives elevate them to a stature of greatness for their generation.
Gary Snyder’s “Note on the Religious Tendencies” outlines significant aspects of what occurred for the Beat Generation writers from both physical and metaphysical standpoints. Three primary tendencies Snyder points to are rooted in meaningful practice and personal experience: “Vision and illumination seeking,” “Love, respect for life, abandon, Whitman, pacifism, anarchism, etc.,” and “Discipline, aesthetics, and tradition” (306). For simplicity, these aspects are abbreviated respectively as contemplation, morality, and wisdom. Snyder argues that if “a person cannot comprehend all three of these aspects […] in his beat life, he just won’t make it” (306). Snyder’s phrase “to make it” is not merely synonymous with success; rather, Snyder’s phrase implies that one will survive in a hyper-politicized and repressive modern world only if the individual understands the concepts of contemplation, morality, and wisdom. For Snyder and other Beat writers, the practice of these aspects was enough to qualify for greatness. While each Beat writer accessed religious tendencies in their own way, Snyder’s poetry offers a precise and orderly glimpse into the practice of greatness as aligned with disciplinary ways of seeing the world through a Buddhist-influenced lens.
The first aspect of Beat mentality that Snyder outlines is “Vision and illumination seeking,” or contemplation. In 1955, Snyder worked as a trail crew laborer in Yosemite where he laid down rock pavement known as riprap to strengthen the integrity of the trails (Charters 288). His experience inspired the poem “Riprap,” first published in 1959. The poem begins with an instruction from the speaker, who says, “Lay down these words / Before your mind like rocks” (Snyder, “Riprap” 1–2). The introduction invites the reader to engage in the task, associating the words of the speaker with the rocks that make up the riprap along the trail. Like Snyder, the reader is meant to play the role of the trail crew laborer, who has autonomy as to where they should choose to place each individual word and rock (3–4). The practice of laying down by hand means that the laborer connects with the earth. Physical contact with the world around the speaker elevates the speaker’s body and mind connection with both space and time (5–6). From this point onward, the poem reads in association with Snyder’s aspect of “Vision and Illumination” as the speaker surveys the various connections between elements of his physical and mental environments in a seemingly aimless sense of observations.
Snyder formats the poem with alternating indented lines to accentuate the process of surveying the speaker engages in. The observations flow rhythmically back and forth with the indentations, mirroring the grabbing and placing of a rock in a riprap. With the second line of each pair always indented, the speaker observes what he calls a “riprap of things” (8). From the grandeur of the solar system to the minute details of life, the speaker collects visions of “Cobble of milky way, / straying planets […] / ants and pebbles / In the thin loam, each rock a word” (9–10, 19–20). These visions are rooted in a search for illumination and purpose by recognizing the interconnectedness of the planets, the pebbles, and the words humans use. Snyder articulates in his “Note on the Religious Tendencies” that vision and illumination-seeking is most often practiced by the Beats via experimenting with narcotics; however, Snyder admits that a perpetual high leads nowhere because of its lack of will and compassion (Snyder, “Visions” 306). However, intentional and intelligent use of narcotics does offer personal insight, according to Snyder, and has the potential to elevate connection and understanding of the “riprap of things.” For the Beats, contemplation was essential in their writings and navigation of the world; for, “Contemplation is what people who are serious about their spirituality do: they become open to love” (Finnegan 270). Panoramically, Snyder’s practice of placing rocks along a trail airs on the side of mundanity because the rocks are the very construct of the trail and environment, meaning that the laborer is simply rearranging small aspects of the environment that largely consists of other indistinguishable rocks. But it is in this detail that greatness is afforded to Snyder and others with his shared Beat mentality because of the gesture toward love and seeking illumination and purpose in the most mundane or the most limited aspects of life.
Snyder’s spiritual and moralistic influence derives predominantly from his study of Buddhism at the University of California in Berkeley and in Japan. Consequently, Eastern philosophy and concepts play prominent roles in the construction of Snyder’s poetry and influence Snyder’s words and thoughts which he says come “from a loving and open heart” (Snyder 306). The same is true for other Beat Generation writers who portray meaningful levels of greatness through the practice of the second aspect of Beat mentality: “Love, respect for life, abandon, Whitman, pacifism, anarchism, etc.,” or morality. Possessing a love and respect for all things requires great discipline and insight into one’s connectedness with all other things, living or not. In reference to the mundanity of the speaker’s rearranging of rocks to create a riprap along a trail, the process is not wearisome, but inviting and cathartic. German sociologist Georg Simmel argues in The Metropolis and Mental Life that the “deepest problems of modern life flow from the attempt of the individual to maintain the independence and individuality of his existence against the sovereign powers of society, against the weight of the historical heritage and the external culture and technique of life” (Simmel 11). Sovereign and oppressive powers fuel the mundanity of everyday life that inevitably degrades the modern person and, thus, takes the place of the enjoyment and cultivation of a worldly, humanistic connection. The Beat Generation writers found solace in the quiet, the simple, and in the rhythmic placing and replacing of words — or rocks. The speaker of “Riprap” acknowledges the small elements of his environment and extracts their histories and details that the average eye may not see or find significant. However, in a deliberate act of respecting life and abandoning modernity’s demands, the speaker highlights an integral influence present within both Beat aspects of illumination-seeking and morality: Japanese aesthetics.
In Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets, and Philosophers, Leonard Koren defines the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi as “a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” (7). The metaphysical, moral, and spiritual principles of wabi-sabi were first inspired by ideas about simplicity, naturalness, and acceptance of reality found in Taoism and Chinese Zen Buddhism (31). The coalescence of various wabi-sabi influences into a distinguishable Japanese synthesis and aesthetic dates back to the sixteenth century and continues to serve as a prominent influence on the expression of minimalism in the twenty-first century (Koren 31). Spiritually and morally, wabi-sabi aligns with the practices present within Snyder’s poetry.
Snyder’s embodiment of morality is evident in his poem entitled “Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout.” The poem is inspired by Snyder’s summers spent as a lookout ranger in the mountains of Washington (Charter 288–9). While the speaker of “Riprap” works on his knees and with his hands on the earth, “Mid-August’s” speaker sits atop a lookout, seeing for miles and miles in a panoramic view. The speaker observes, logs, and contemplates, “Down valley a smoke haze / Three days heat, after five days rain / Pitch glows on the fir cones / Across rocks and meadows” (Snyder, “Mid-August” 1–4). The speaker’s experiences are neither perfect nor imperfect; the tone of voice is once again merely like that of a surveyor, taking note of what is seen and felt. The contemplation of the speaker builds a level of absence between his position in the tower and all that he observes. The absence is evident in the brief mention of eight full days passing in a single line, minimizing the events of the days into general weather patterns, “heat” and “rain” (2). This absence emphasizes the focal point of Buddhist and wabi-sabi influence because of the speaker’s practice of abandon, or detachment, which “attenuates particularly when the attachment (or ‘attunement,’ when the connection has been transacted over mutual perception of a powerful term or event) has been transacted through the body, through an intersubjective process that transacts across tactile experience” (Hanlon). Buddhist monks as well as American writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman who influences Beat literature and poetry practiced detachment as a way to connect with the natural world. In many ways, this practice serves as a spiritual retreat away from the mundanity and complexity of the modern world. This frame of mind allows for contemplation to occur, morality to develop, and the third element of Beat mentality — “Discipline, aesthetics, and tradition,” or wisdom — to be gained.
The second stanza of “Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout” alludes to the psychological effects of detachment. The speaker admits, “I cannot remember things I once read / a few friends, but they are in cities” (6–7). The lookout forces the speaker to observe his surroundings to such a degree that his life apart from his immediate environment is nullified. The absence and abandonment are made clear by the juxtaposition between the wilderness and friends in cities which appear far removed from his panoramic view. However, the separation does not limit the speaker’s access to greatness or understanding of the modern world. Instead, the experiences upon the lookout illuminate and produce wisdom because of the stoic nature of the mind and body that Snyder experienced as a ranger. Wabi-sabi contributes to the aesthetic belief that beauty is present in the most imperfect parts of life, and “Greatness exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked detail” (Koren 50). Whether high up on the lookout tower or in the dirt placing rocks in a riprap, Snyder’s poetry elevates individual embodiment to a level of greatness through his dynamic observations and appreciation for the overlooked details in life.
By removing oneself from the context of the conglomerate society, Snyder and other Beat Generation writers were effectively able to develop an individual narrative through the lens of their collective generation. The speaker’s actions in “Mid-August” come from a simple place: “Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup ‘ Looking down for miles / Through high still air” (8–10). The imagery establishes an overview of the three aspects of Beat mentality: contemplation and physical space to think compassionately in the “high still air”; morality, through detachment and observation of the imperfection and impermanence of things out of love; and wisdom through the cultivation of discipline and practice of aesthetic traditions passed down by eastern philosophy.
Similarly, “Riprap’s” rhythm and indentations emphasize the practice of the aspects on a fundamental and practical level through the depiction of the speaker laboring and enacting productive change to his environment. Contemplation, morality, and wisdom are essential practices for members of the Beat Generation and lead to a level of greatness that is unprecedentedly different than the conglomerate, capitalist American society of the 1950s and 1960s. But greatness is a matter of perspective; for Snyder, if the aspects of Beat mentality are achieved and practiced well, the individual “may get pretty far out, and that’s probably better than mopping around classrooms or writing books on Buddhism and Happiness for the masses, as the squares… do” (Snyder 306). By moving against the grain, Snyder and other Beat writers were able to establish facets of greatness that influence individuals through promoting simplistic, yet intrinsically valuable means of action, recognition, and engagement with the modern world.
Works Cited
Charters, Ann. “Introduction.” The Portable Beat Reader, Penguin, London, 1992, pp. xv-xxxvi.
Finnegan, Jack. “Contemplation in Everyday.” The Furrow, vol. 58, no. 5, 2007, pp. 270–279. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27665535. Accessed 24 Aug. 2020.
Ginsberg, Allen. “Howl.” Howl and Other Poems. 1959. Print.
Hanlon, Chris. “Whitman’s Wandering Mind.” Commonplace, 12 May 2020, commonplace.online/article/whitmans-wandering-mind/.
Koren, Leonard. Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. Stone Bridge Press, 1994.
Norton, Jody, and Gary Snyder. “The Importance of Nothing: Absence and Its Origins in the Poetry of Gary Snyder.” Contemporary Literature, vol. 28, no. 1, 1987, pp. 41–66. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1208572. Accessed 21 Aug. 2020.
Pyyry, Noora. “From Psychogeography to Hanging‐out‐Knowing: Situationist Dérive in Nonrepresentational Urban Research.” Area, vol. 51, no. 2, 2018, pp. 315–323., doi:10.1111/area.12466.
Saito, Yuriko. “The Moral Dimension of Japanese Aesthetics.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 65, no. 1, 2007, pp. 85–97. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4622213. Accessed 24 Aug. 2020.
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. New Folger’s ed. New York: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, 1992.
Snyder, Gary. “Mid-August At Sourdough Mountain Lookout.” The Portable Beat Reader, edited Ann Charters, Penguin, London, 1992, pp. 289.
Snyder, Gary. “Note on the Religious Tendencies.” The Portable Beat Reader, edited Ann Charters, Penguin, London, 1992, pp. 305–6.
Snyder, Gary. “Riprap.” The Portable Beat Reader, edited Ann Charters, Penguin, London, 1992, pp. 290.
