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Scriptures for a Generation: What We Were Reading in the '60s
At the heart of Scriptures for a Generation are dozens of detailed entries discussing individual writers and the particular importance of their texts - bona fide '60s classics ranging from The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five to Carlos Casteneda's The Teachings of Don Juan and the Boston Women's Health Book Collective's Our Bodies, Ourselves. Represented as well are such works of revered elders as Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf and Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Beidler's coverage also extends to works of the early '70s that are clearly textual and spiritual extensions of the '60 the Portola Institute's Last Whole Earth Catalog, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and others. An overview of reading and writing as both a product and prime mover of '60s culture precedes the main section. In his conclusion Beidler highlights the most notable efforts to document and interpret the era.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
May 31, 2010
Addictive, especially if you love the sixties as much as I do. Some of the glosses are fabulous, such as the one on Germaine Greer (it's so depressing that the inspiring vision she projected seemed to fail her).
However, as you read a gradual frustration begins to gnaw. So much hinting at exciting possibility, so much vagueness in describing or defining those possibilities. It's as if (many, not all!) Sixties authors wasted massive amounts of words trying to describe something they could not put into words. Perhaps they were chasing shadows. Perhaps they lacked the wisdom of a Montaigne. Perhaps silence would best express what they were seeking. Or perhaps the message is best conveyed by rock n roll -- a song like "Lather" by the Jefferson Airplane. It's as if the words of Michael McLure concerning LSD could just as easily apply to this book: At first you think it's an answer, but the more you keep returning to that road, the less you get in return.
However, as you read a gradual frustration begins to gnaw. So much hinting at exciting possibility, so much vagueness in describing or defining those possibilities. It's as if (many, not all!) Sixties authors wasted massive amounts of words trying to describe something they could not put into words. Perhaps they were chasing shadows. Perhaps they lacked the wisdom of a Montaigne. Perhaps silence would best express what they were seeking. Or perhaps the message is best conveyed by rock n roll -- a song like "Lather" by the Jefferson Airplane. It's as if the words of Michael McLure concerning LSD could just as easily apply to this book: At first you think it's an answer, but the more you keep returning to that road, the less you get in return.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review