>>7990137
why don't you ask your professor and see what he thinks?

>>7990139
she loves them
ive never read them
and id like to know what you memers think

>>7990142
random ramblings of a syphilitic bum

just visit Greenwich Village and buy some hobo artist a drink

>>7990137
>precursors to the hippies
>accomplish nothing
>only lasting anything is the first six lines of howl

Meme incarnate

>>7990137
I love the beats, it was culturally important because it more or less gave birth to the hippies and counterculture if you're into that
You'll like it if you're into "make your own way in life" existentialism
On the Road is one of my favorite travel / adventure books
and Naked Lunch is some of my favorite surrealism and satire

It's not for everyone, thats for sure. Especially if you sit on some kind of moral high horse about degeneracy and accomplishment or hold more traditional values

They were bums, homosexuals, wine-os and drug addicts but some of them were good writers.

>>7990147
Have you been to Greenwich Village in the last 20 years? There aren't any more hobo types there

>>7990137
The beats really did a fantastic job of capturing the spirit of a generation - especially Howl. They don't really say much that the Romantics didn't already say in more beautiful words IMO, but i wouldn't discount the cultural significance of what they did.

I'd rank them around the same level as Hunter S Thompson or Dorothy Parker in that they are a joy to read but don't have any real 'literary' significance other than being a snapshot of attitudes of a time gone by.