... poets, writers, thinkers, and philosophers who emerged on the hip scene in the 1940s and ballooned into the San Francisco Renaissance and beyond. It describes how even though the original beats were few in number, many "movements" in literary history often happened when a cluster of a few writers, tied together by time more than space, uncovered a new path or road of writing style and content. This is ... what the beats did: they went against mainstream, traditional writing, but not because they were rebellious. They simply developed a new way of writing, a "New Vision" while in search ...

• Word Count: 974
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... trade in for being cooped up in a split level tract house with only the companionship of a vacuum cleaner and a screaming five year old. To the Beats the only solution to a life of domestic stagnation was to pack up and let life lead you down one winding road after another. There was a certain comfort in the unknown. Ambiguity turned survival into a triviality, while one could find ... the deepest meaning in chance and whimsy. When mere existence doesn't seem to be guaranteed it's the little moments of perfection that become one's focus. No other Beat poet understood that concept as well...

• Word Count: 1018
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... traveled all over China, Tibet, and Mongolia really appealed to Snyder. One day Snyder said to Kerouac "real Buddhists are able to walk around the countryside (Snyder on Kerouac)-. Kerouac agreed and they went on one final trip of the season out into the mountains. A great amount of emphasis was put on Eastern religions and thought by Snyder and his peers. In his essay "What Poetry Did in China ... idea of legalizing hitch-hiking in "Four Changes-, suggesting that there be hitch-hiking stations on the sides of highways to limit the number of cars on the road, a similar idea to our curre...

• Word Count: 2488
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School