Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON - Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Q: As a symbol of the 50's counterculture, do you care about winning establishment prizes like the lifetime achievement award you will be receiving from the National Book Foundation this month? Is it gratifying?
I hate to use a word like "gratifying," which sounds so fatuous. But it's wonderful to receive honors. And it's high time we honored this endangered species.
Which endangered species is that? Poets?
No, the literarians in the world, and there are millions of them. They are not considered the dominant culture in this country. What's called the dominant culture will fade away as soon as the electricity goes off.
Are you saying the word "literarians" refers to all readers of books, as opposed to people who prefer their culture plugged into an electric socket?
Yes. In the 60's, there was a famous slogan,"Be Here Now," which in fact was a best-selling book by Ram Dass. Today, with the cellphones, the fax, the Internet, the whole schmear - the slogan you have today is "Be Somewhere Else Now."
You, yourself, at age 86, are still in the same place, the legendary City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, which you opened with Peter Martin more than a half-century ago and which has somehow survived the proliferation of chain stores.
It helps to have low rent! We're still open seven days a week, until midnight. I live in North Beach, about 10 blocks away from the bookshop, and I ride my bicycle to work.
Some critics feel that the colloquial tradition in American poetry lives on most forcefully today in rap music. Do you consider Jay-Z and 50 Cent poets of any sort?
They do performance poetry, but the Beats did performance before the rappers did. The Beats believed that the oral message is what counted, and having your poem printed in a book was not as important.
For all their fabled openness to experience, the Beats were totally misogynistic, refusing to acknowledge any female poets besides Diana Di Prima.
That's true. I think Allen Ginsberg was afraid of women. He looked through them. If you read his "Kaddish," about his mother, he had a pretty terrible early childhood.
Now, of course, he is gone, as are Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and the other Beat writers you once published. To what do you attribute your longevity?
I once had a girlfriend who complained to me, "Boy, you sure are a straight arrow." Kerouac drank himself to death, and Burroughs, when he was young, thought the healthiest person was one who had enough money to stay on heroin all his life. I really never got into drugs. I smoked a little dope, and I did a little LSD, but that was it. I was afraid of it, frankly. I don't like to be out of control.
I see you just gave a few poetry readings in Italy.
I just got back from Europe. I found the house my father was born in, in a small town east of Milan. I rang the bell and tried to see into the lobby. People came to the door and were very hostile. They called the police. A car zooms up, and two poliziotti jumped out and asked for my papers and kept me standing there for three-quarters of an hour.
They mistook you for a burglar?
There's a climate of fear and paranoia since 9/11, and in this country it was generated by Bush.
But you can't possibly blame President Bush for fear and paranoia in northern Italy.
It's the same with Silvio Berlusconi in Italy. Is it true that Bush believes that anyone caught reading books should be banned from government?
That's such a flaky, California thing to say.
I made it up.
Are you a Democrat?
No. I am a member of the Green Party.
How would you like to be remembered?
I really can't worry about my reputation. It's a waste of time. Sterling Lord, the literary agent in New York who is a friend of mine — he has been after me for years to write an autobiography. But I don't have time to look backward.
Q: As a symbol of the 50's counterculture, do you care about winning establishment prizes like the lifetime achievement award you will be receiving from the National Book Foundation this month? Is it gratifying?
I hate to use a word like "gratifying," which sounds so fatuous. But it's wonderful to receive honors. And it's high time we honored this endangered species.
Which endangered species is that? Poets?
No, the literarians in the world, and there are millions of them. They are not considered the dominant culture in this country. What's called the dominant culture will fade away as soon as the electricity goes off.
Are you saying the word "literarians" refers to all readers of books, as opposed to people who prefer their culture plugged into an electric socket?
Yes. In the 60's, there was a famous slogan,"Be Here Now," which in fact was a best-selling book by Ram Dass. Today, with the cellphones, the fax, the Internet, the whole schmear - the slogan you have today is "Be Somewhere Else Now."
You, yourself, at age 86, are still in the same place, the legendary City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, which you opened with Peter Martin more than a half-century ago and which has somehow survived the proliferation of chain stores.
It helps to have low rent! We're still open seven days a week, until midnight. I live in North Beach, about 10 blocks away from the bookshop, and I ride my bicycle to work.
Some critics feel that the colloquial tradition in American poetry lives on most forcefully today in rap music. Do you consider Jay-Z and 50 Cent poets of any sort?
They do performance poetry, but the Beats did performance before the rappers did. The Beats believed that the oral message is what counted, and having your poem printed in a book was not as important.
For all their fabled openness to experience, the Beats were totally misogynistic, refusing to acknowledge any female poets besides Diana Di Prima.
That's true. I think Allen Ginsberg was afraid of women. He looked through them. If you read his "Kaddish," about his mother, he had a pretty terrible early childhood.
Now, of course, he is gone, as are Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and the other Beat writers you once published. To what do you attribute your longevity?
I once had a girlfriend who complained to me, "Boy, you sure are a straight arrow." Kerouac drank himself to death, and Burroughs, when he was young, thought the healthiest person was one who had enough money to stay on heroin all his life. I really never got into drugs. I smoked a little dope, and I did a little LSD, but that was it. I was afraid of it, frankly. I don't like to be out of control.
I see you just gave a few poetry readings in Italy.
I just got back from Europe. I found the house my father was born in, in a small town east of Milan. I rang the bell and tried to see into the lobby. People came to the door and were very hostile. They called the police. A car zooms up, and two poliziotti jumped out and asked for my papers and kept me standing there for three-quarters of an hour.
They mistook you for a burglar?
There's a climate of fear and paranoia since 9/11, and in this country it was generated by Bush.
But you can't possibly blame President Bush for fear and paranoia in northern Italy.
It's the same with Silvio Berlusconi in Italy. Is it true that Bush believes that anyone caught reading books should be banned from government?
That's such a flaky, California thing to say.
I made it up.
Are you a Democrat?
No. I am a member of the Green Party.
How would you like to be remembered?
I really can't worry about my reputation. It's a waste of time. Sterling Lord, the literary agent in New York who is a friend of mine — he has been after me for years to write an autobiography. But I don't have time to look backward.
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