A Howling Groin Kick
I must say that Howl did catch my attention. Most poetry I have read (must emphasize the most part so as not to anger our poet teacher) has been merely cheesy, sappy, cute, butterfly filled crap that just makes me want to… well, howl. Before this past semester, I had never really read any poetry (Linh Dinh) that made me want to read more.
Howl has that certain something. It kicks you in the balls and doesn’t take the time to censor itself. What makes it stand out and appeal to most people is the gritty surreal world he shows them. Sure, most people have tried a little pot and maybe a little bit of alcohol, but for today’s generation, guzzling down the harder drugs is not something that is common among the literate educated class. Acid, PCP, Methamphetamine, Coke, Crack, Heroin, Mushrooms; they just aren’t part of the daily lives of the masses. They alter your mind in ways that can be damaging, but the experiences can, to some, seem enlightening; it can sometimes give them an ungodly feeling of being close to heaven. This is one glimpse of insanity Howl gives the reader.
Another glimpse of insanity is in the mental institution in the final part of the poem. Most people have never been incarcerated in one. To read about it is interesting because most people do not know how they are run or what it is like to be in one.
The point was made in class that it is similar to prison. I have to kindly disagree. It is nothing like prison. Yes, you are incarcerated, but that is where the similarities end. I have visited people in these places. In a mental hospital, the patients are forced to take mind-altering drugs. They are forced to go through intense and dangerous therapies. They are processed through them like factories. Pharmacology has been studied and advanced, but today it is still tiny stabs in the dark that mostly turn out to only be stopgap measures when they do work. People with actual mental illnesses can be drugged up for the rest of their lives, but they will never be as normal as the rest of us. Drugs only sedate the patients and unfortunately “cures” for mental illnesses have not been found. The psychiatric community as a whole has given up on finding cures or innovative treatments and merely repeats the same chop-shop methods. Even outdated treatments, such as shock therapy, have come back into popular use. Whether or not they have “perfected” shock therapy, they are still shooting the patient in the head with a strong blast of electricity to try to shock the crazy out of them.
Howl has that certain something. It kicks you in the balls and doesn’t take the time to censor itself. What makes it stand out and appeal to most people is the gritty surreal world he shows them. Sure, most people have tried a little pot and maybe a little bit of alcohol, but for today’s generation, guzzling down the harder drugs is not something that is common among the literate educated class. Acid, PCP, Methamphetamine, Coke, Crack, Heroin, Mushrooms; they just aren’t part of the daily lives of the masses. They alter your mind in ways that can be damaging, but the experiences can, to some, seem enlightening; it can sometimes give them an ungodly feeling of being close to heaven. This is one glimpse of insanity Howl gives the reader.
Another glimpse of insanity is in the mental institution in the final part of the poem. Most people have never been incarcerated in one. To read about it is interesting because most people do not know how they are run or what it is like to be in one.
The point was made in class that it is similar to prison. I have to kindly disagree. It is nothing like prison. Yes, you are incarcerated, but that is where the similarities end. I have visited people in these places. In a mental hospital, the patients are forced to take mind-altering drugs. They are forced to go through intense and dangerous therapies. They are processed through them like factories. Pharmacology has been studied and advanced, but today it is still tiny stabs in the dark that mostly turn out to only be stopgap measures when they do work. People with actual mental illnesses can be drugged up for the rest of their lives, but they will never be as normal as the rest of us. Drugs only sedate the patients and unfortunately “cures” for mental illnesses have not been found. The psychiatric community as a whole has given up on finding cures or innovative treatments and merely repeats the same chop-shop methods. Even outdated treatments, such as shock therapy, have come back into popular use. Whether or not they have “perfected” shock therapy, they are still shooting the patient in the head with a strong blast of electricity to try to shock the crazy out of them.
posted by Joshua at 10:08 PM
3 Comments:
Depends on the illness, Joshua. I suffer major depression and have been treated successfully for 20 years (in the 50s I would have been with Carl at Rockland). But schizophrenia, and some versions of bipolar and unipolar illness cannot be treated very well, even now. There's hope, if Tom Cruise doesn't win his quest to take all the meds away....
Damn you Tom Cruise! Always one step ahead of me.
Ya, I have a family member that suffers from bipolar disorder and it is pretty much a shot in the dark when they give him meds. And they have to change his meds every couple of years because he builds up tolerances to them. Or they just like to mess with him. :-P
As for your treatment, you are still on the ati-depressants. They just give pills to patients of mental illnesses. They don't actually cure the illness. That is merely treating the symptoms and not curing the illness. It would be like giving someone a pill that would bring their fever down when they have a virus. Instead of giving them something to help combat the virus, they merely stop the symptoms from occuring.
Yes, Joshua, but better to have one's symptoms treated than not! Gene therapies may help "cure" mental illness, but until then, medications are the best many of us have.
Susan
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