The Beats, named for their feelings of despair, were a group of disenfranchised young, white, educated writers in New York and San Francisco who created a new American literary movement dealing with rebellion against the status quo. Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs were two writers from this group who created this new form of expression because they felt the traditional forms were not suitable for what they wished to express.
For these men, the shifts in public perception of gender and race necessitated adjustments to the structure of the novel. The growing technology of radio and television also influenced their thoughts on new methods of discourse. The effect this technology had on their thoughts of discourse and rhetoric can be compared to the effect the Internet has on current thoughts of rhetoric. The Internet opens doors for the creation of new ways to write.
Jack Kerouac known as the founder of the Beat movement wrote several novels. Rice focuses his discussion on Kerouac’s novel The Subterraneans, and the rhetorical style utilized by the author. The prose is unique in this novel in that Kerouac writes sentences that run into one another and his ideas switch quickly with little transition. He called this style ” spontaneous writing.” He wrote whatever came into his mind as quickly as he could. Though this style seemed to be spontaneous, it was actually deliberately crafted and edited. This style of writing commented on the social attitude of the time in relation to the rapid growth of technology in the 50’s and 60’s. This prose style creates a sense of mental rambling and assumes the reader is aware of the inner workings of the writer’s (Kerouac’s ) mind. Digression is key in this prose style and offers revealing information.
This style can also be very effective when writing for the web. Chain-formed writing is the result where the writer takes an image, switches to a related image, back to the previous image, then to another related image and so on. This non-linear progression of ideas can create powerful images, as long as the reader is culturally aware. Kerouac uses this approach to describe the interracial love affair between Leo and Mardou. Affection switches to racial prejudice and back again to affection. Racial prejudice in this novel is based on the popular perceptions of racial stereotyping. Kerouac’s story complicates the question of race and treats city life as the background of emotional tribulations, not necessarily race.
Another rhetorical form Kerouac employs is the use of nostalgia. Nostalgia is the act of longing for a romanticized version of the past, even if that past never actually occurred. Effective nostalgic writing creates in the reader a desire to relive the past, to experience something from the time period the writer refers to. In Kerouac’s novel Visions of Gerard, he positions the 1930’s as the ideal era. He tells the story using memory to recreate the past. This interpretation of the past is dependent on how the narrator sees the past and how the reader interprets it.
Rice points out here that in the past, computer technology was criticized for distancing people and distorting reality. It was feared that people would become reliant on machines instead of people. It was thought that using computer technology for writing would not be as effective as writing done by pencil or pen. These types of critiques using comparisons of the past and present are nostalgic forms.
Rice also shows how Kerouac’s usage of nostalgia is used in cool writing today as shown in the 2002 Nike commercial “The Harlem Years: 1975”. This commercial highlights the golden years of the NBA with images of basketball players in a game of pick-up basketball wearing the 70’s style short-shorts, knee-high socks and Afros. (Those were the days!). Vince Carter is the only one not dressed like this, but he is wearing the latest Nike Shox VC. The message of the commercial is if you wear this shoe, you will be like one of the great 1970’s basketball players.
Another Beat writer William S. Burroughs was concerned about the strong influence of the media and government on culture and how it dictated the way people dressed, lived, thought, etc. He believed the way to counter this influence was through writing. He created the writing style of the cut-up. This style of writing uses material that is considered controlling and turns it back on itself to create a new counter message. The method involves cutting up the original material and rearranging it to create a new message with new meaning that is resistant to the original text. Burroughs thoughts were that people are desensitized to and take for granted technology and media, not realizing the affects it has on cultural behavior. He thought it important for people to be aware of the textual construction of media and understand that policies and ideologies can be promoted through digital manipulation.
Rice comments on how advertisers use the cut-up method and he cites the example of SUV commercials that show a vehicle covering rugged terrain with ease. If consumers see this type of image as natural, then they are duped into thinking the event actually took place. Rice says that instead of using this technique for advertising, cool writers should try to apply this strategy to creating critique.
Rice also discusses Burroughs’ novel Nova Express and the character, The Subliminal Kid who tapes sounds and conversations in various bars and cafes and then plays them back in juxtaposition with one another in a different order constructing new ideas about contemporary issues. Rice discusses juxtaposition and how this method employs cutting up text and images that are not related to one another and rearranging them in order to create new ideas and foster creative thinking about familiar concepts. This mix of voices talking at once encourages the thinking process and shows how everyday language can be a comment on what is happening politically and socially.
In Chapter 12, Rice discusses information technology and how it is a very broad term. Technology can be anything from a pen, pencil, and the eraser to the computer. Computers employ various forms of writing applications such as word processing, power point, email and hypertext, just to name a few. In order to be effective writers, we must learn how to use this type of technology and keep current on the development of new technology.
Electronic writing uses technology to create anything from a website to a word processing document. In the early 80’s, concern arose that students would become too dependent on computers for writing and would possibly eliminate the personal involvement that writing with a pen or pencil involves. However, despite these fears, computers are used as the primary source for writing today. Word processing programs have eliminated the use of the typewriter, but have been widely accepted because the finished document has the same look as a document created on a typewriter. The cut and paste ability in word processing programs allows for the writer to use the cut-up method of writing and juxtaposition in creating documents. This form is rather easy to use as it utilizes writing in a way that is familiar. However, a more difficult form of electronic writing is hypertext. This uses alphabetic characters that are familiar, but puts them to use in an unfamiliar way to create text.
Another form of electronic writing used in Hip-Hop is skratching. This form of composition uses familiar technology in music, turntables and mixers, and utilizes them in a different way to create new sounds. Skratching has formed a new type of literacy and forces new thinking on how technology shapes expression by integrating the tools of technology (records and turntables) into the actual process. Skratching can be compared to the typewriter (old technology) and the word processor (new technology). Skratching takes the old technology (the turntable), blends it with new computer technology and turns it into something new creating Skratchadelia. Rice compares skratchadelia with the writing process. We the writers have various ideas that we want to convey, but we aren’t sure how to record them so that they make sense to the reader. He calls this “internal writer noise.” Educator Peter Elbow suggested that the way to get around this problem is to basically write down all your ideas at once and then sort through them later for a coherent idea. He called this process “freewriting” and it is analogous to skratching.
Literacy is the understanding of language and how it conveys meaning. Technology directly impacts literacy. Rice discusses how technology works in this way by citing the example of the printing press and how it made information more available to the masses. Today, the widespread use of the computer has created a new way of communication. Using the computer to create rhetoric requires computer literacy. A person must be knowledgeable of computer applications in order to use this type of technology. Hip-Hop uses this type of literacy through digital sampling, which allows music to be saved and then manipulated into new sounds.
Skratching involves the use of breaks and cuts, which break associative links to the previous recording. In this way Skratching becomes relevant to writing in that we construct ideas and arguments based on culturally formed assumptions and associations that we assume to be correct. Stereotypes are born from these culturally formed assumptions, such as the “angry black male” and the “self-made man”. The “self-made man” motif is based on the American cultural idea that if you believe in yourself and work hard to achieve your goals, you will be successful. But this assumption disregards factors that can be counter-productive to this theory. Race, gender, and other prejudices, economic disadvantages, health problems or issues, oppression or political situations and lack of educational access for whatever reason can have a negative impact on this definition of how to succeed. Rice claims that if you cut your associations with the phrase “self-made man”, you are being critical by “skratching” the phrase.
He continues by saying that throughout “Writing About Cool” he has asked us to cut our associations linked to the word cool and not refer to an object or person who is of high esteem and value as cool. This act is actually skratching the word cool. He challenges us to also scratch previous conceptions of literacy and to consider that by cutting our associations, engaging in critique and creating alternate viewpoints, we can see how skratching becomes a literate practice. However, he points out that skratching also needs a way to be recorded so that it can be repeated, kept alive and developed into new ideas. DJ Radar created such a writing system for skratching. This is another way that skratching has become another form of literacy.
Rice concludes the chapter by suggesting we take chances in our writing and apply skratching to our own writing practices.
