MLK

Reading Baldwin's account of his acquaintance with King was interesting and reminded me of Holmes' writing on Kerouac. Baldwin truly admired King, and his memory of meeting MLK is illustrated as a cherished moment. All of the readings in this section support King's efforts and ideals. I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X recently, which helped me understand the extent of King's argument that fighting for the same cause in different ways can produce a lot of negativity. He and Malcolm both wanted the African American race to have true freedom, but they disagreed upon the method of reaching their shared goal. King's nonviolent approach clashed with Malcolm's nationalism. I definitely understand King's viewpoint more than Malcolm's, but in particular points of these readings, I found King's nonviolence approach to be surprisingly extreme. Parks recounts watching King suffer physical harm without making an effort toward defending himself. He publicly asked onlookers to pray for the man who struck him, in order to save him from hatred. While King relayed a beautiful and inspiring message during his life, I find it hard to imagine watching something like this happen. His dedication is admirable and his writing is eloquent, although I'm sure it nothing compared to how he spoke.

Reading Response

The readings in Portable appear abstract and nontraditional. I liked reading the different styles and formats unique to each author. I found Bukowski the easiest to read, even though there were irregularities in grammar and sentence structure. I found it really interesting that Holmes kept a journal on his friend Kerouac. I've always been interested in biographical writing, so this was easy to read as well. I was somewhat confused by Brautigan's "surreal fantasy" writing style. What does he mean???
In the Hippie reading, I liked learning about aspects and beginnings of the popular rock bands that are not usually explicitly discussed. I was shocked when reading about Leary...associations with Harvard, involving his kids with smuggling drugs, etc. He had a lot of connections with musicians and writers during this era. The mention of "Sandoz" caught my eye. This was the only other time I remember seeing this name besides on the track list "Girl Named Sandoz" of one of my favorite cds.
There are a few questions I'm turning over as I read this material...
Difference between beat and hippie?
The meaning of the American flag image used in the counterculture? I first began thinking about this after watching Easy Rider, the movie I want to use images from for my iconography paper.