Howl

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What Hacker News says

• mountbranch · May 11, 2018 · Recommends

  - Gödel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter - Principles, Ray Dalio - L'Etranger, Albert Camus - Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire - The Dao of Capital, Mark Spitznagel - Howl, Allen Ginsberg - On the Road, Jack Kerouac I could go on and on...

  on “Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?” ↗
• michaelwww · Sep 26, 2022 · Recommends

  I think davidro80's comment was too black or white and an attempt to shut down discussion. Those type of comments usually get downvoted on HN. I can admire Ginsberg's "Howl" without approving of his personal life, but I understand some can't get past it.

  on “David Byrne, Philip Glass, Allen Ginsberg on the outsider art of Arthur Russell” ↗
• Allocator2008 · Oct 24, 2008 · Recommends

  BTW, how is (1925 - 1942) the "silent" generation? Alan Ginsberg, my favorite poet, who wrote 'Howl', one of the greatest epic poems ever, was born in 1926. In fact most of the beats probably fall into that category. They can hardly be called "silent".

• Loughla · Nov 19, 2018 · Recommends

  …few authors who need to be read out loud (preferably by someone on speed) to be appreciated the way I assume he wanted it to be. Not to get too far afield, but I would put Ginsberg on the same list. Howl is a great epic poem, until you hear it screamed out loud over a crowd by someone with an attention disorder. Then it's transcendental. To get even further removed, if you struggled with the translation…

  on “All of Life Is Creation: Jack Kerouac’s Art” ↗
• kragen · Apr 6, 2022 · Recommends

  There's a great book about it called On The Road. I can also recommend Ginsberg's Howl, which Kerouac gave its title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-P2fILsLH8 > I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness > Starving hysterical naked

  on “Kerouac and Buddhism” ↗
• falcor84 · Jun 13, 2025 · Recommends

  Just to expand upon the reference, the comment you responded to is the first stanza of Allen Ginsberg poem "Howl" [0] published in 1956, which is what Hammerbacher paraphrased in the quote that I shared. "Howl" is amazing on its own though, and I highly recommend that people read the whole thing and/or watch the…

  on “Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure” ↗
• binarymax · Apr 4, 2025 · Recommends

  This is from Allen Ginsberg's Howl. A must read.

  on “Bored of It” ↗
• javajosh · Mar 21, 2022 · Mentions

  …machine would function smoothly with or without any life on the 3rd planet. Capitalism is much like this. Institutions of a certain size can be like this. Being stuck in a machine is the context of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg [0]. It is also the subtext of the remarkable "Blame!" anime, a drama that takes place among humans and robots that live as vermin in an automated city that takes little notice of them…

  on “On Tolkien and Orwell” ↗
• kleer001 · Apr 3, 2020 · Mentions

  …with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war, who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull," Howl by Allen Ginsberg: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl

  on “How we recovered $300k of Bitcoin” ↗
• Loughla · Jun 20, 2019 · Mentions

  This may not be the best forum for this, but I actually have a (what I believe to be) really good story about consuming books. The first time I read Howl by Ginsberg, it was a copy given to me by someone who, as I look back now, was trying to guide my life away from its trajectory at the time. I was young, had, again as I look back now, an un-diagnosed…

  on “How I Consume Books” ↗
• hugh3 · May 13, 2011 · Mentions

  I looked it up, and "Howl" was eventually allowed through on the grounds that the courts decided it was of "redeeming social importance". In other words, since Ginsberg is actually good, they were willing to let it pass. From…

  on “Indie Comics Seized by Customs Agents at US-Canada Border” ↗
• rquantz · Jan 21, 2013 · Mentions

  …generation are thinking about how to make people click ads," he says. "That sucks." http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b42250609... Which, I hope not coincidentally, echoes Allen Ginsberg's Howl.

  on “Why the Fuck?” ↗
• hluska · Sep 11, 2015 · Mentions

  …particular piece. One of the rules of studying literature is that you're always welcome to disagree, but that you need evidence if you want to go against the prevailing opinion. You're welcome to think that Howl is about an acid trip Ginsberg had where he thought he was a wolf, but if you want an A, you better have some letters he wrote to Kerouac about it. :)

  on “The Most Misread Poem in America” ↗
• binarymax · May 13, 2011 · Mentions

  Alan Ginsberg's HOWL was seized by customs in the 1950s when being imported into the US from the foreign printer. He had his day and court and the obscenity charge was overturned. So it is possible that the Canadian courts…

  on “Indie Comics Seized by Customs Agents at US-Canada Border” ↗
• konzepz · Oct 10, 2011 · Mentions

  To whom it may concern; I've published a Kaddish for Steve Jobs which is actually a literary masup work using mainly Allen Ginsberg's materials (Kaddish for Naomi and Howl). Hope you find some, if any, interest reading it. http://ikaddsh.com

  on “iKaddsh - A Kaddish Mashup (for Steve Jobs)” ↗

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