What is Moloch in Allen Ginsberg?

Moloch was an ancient idol of the Middle East, consisting of a large mouth of fire into which parents threw their young daughters. This both was said to please Moloch and those wanting a strong male society, as opposed to what they saw as a “weak, female one.

Who is Allen Ginsberg talking about in Howl?

Carl Solomon
Ginsberg dedicated Howl to Carl Solomon, a writer he met during the eight months he spent at the Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric Institute. Ginsberg had been deeply disturbed to learn that Solomon had undergone shock therapy to treat his depression (source).

Why does Ginsberg say that the best minds of the generation have been destroyed?

This poem will be about a group of brilliant people—”the best minds of [the speaker’s] generation”—who were “destroyed by madness,” driven insane to the point where they found themselves desperate and degraded (“starving hysterical naked”).

What is the sphinx of cement?

What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination? Moloch! Solitude!

In which city is most of Howl set?

Their time in the Bay Area is cemented within San Francisco’s most famous beatnik landmark: City Lights Books, which doubles as the publishing house that released Ginsberg’s “Howl and Other Poems” in 1956.

Why is Howl so important?

Alongside Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel, “On the Road,” “Howl” helped launch the Beat Generation into the public consciousness. It was the first major post-WWII cultural movement in the United States and it later spawned the hippies of the 1960s, and influenced everyone from Bob Dylan to John Lennon.

Why was Howl considered obscene?

“Howl,” for all its affirmations, is a profoundly oppositional poem, and it counts on being opposed.… It’s a radically offensive poem, or used to be—offensive even to received notions of what poetry is, and it needs offended readers whose fear and outrage bring it most fully to life.

What is Ginsberg criticizing in Howl Carl Solomon?

Dedicated to Ginsberg’s friend Carl Solomon, who had been confined to a psychiatric institution, the poem is a lament for “the best minds of [Ginsberg’s] generation,” whom it portrays as having been “destroyed by madness.” But it’s also a tribute to rebellious artists, thinkers, and hipsters and an attack on the …