I'm bored with beat
Posted: February 7th, 2014, 11:12 am
The Beat women never intended to be the keepers of the flame. They were rebels themselves who left the fifties mentality of their parents' homes. Joan Vollmer left her home in Albany, New York, and the charmed life she had led in the suburbs, for Barnard College. Edie Parker left Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in favor of Columbia University, for the very same reason. Together they formed a sort of salon in their New York apartment. Joyce Johnson dropped out of Barnard because she felt she was merely living out her mothers dreams. Johnson befriended Elise Cowen and Hettie Jones because they all were writers. These women bonded in their new freedom from their family of origin. They made a bold move. In her novel Minor Characters, Joyce Johnson describes the heroism involved in the Beat women's rejection of the status quo.
Naturally, we fell in love with men who were rebels We fell very quickly, believing they would take us along on their journeys and adventures. We did not expect to be rebels all by ourselves; we did not count on loneliness. Once we had found our male counterparts, we had too much blind faith to challenge the old male/female rules. We were very young and we were in over our heads. But we knew we had done something brave, practically historic. We were the first ones who had dared to leave home.[4]Joyce Johnson in Women Of The Beat Generation