The New Beatdom

The Beat Generation is something people have trouble in defining. The participating members often later contested the name and their role within the group, and if we’re being strict and specific about it, one could boil the group down to a handful of writers.

More than that, the Beat Generation was an ethos. The Beats embodied a spirit that was created in reaction to their surroundings. They existed at a specific place in time and probably would not have existed elsewhere.

People become confused about who the Beats were. They might know a few names and facts, but often the word “Beat” or “Beatnik” is applied incorrectly.

Beatdom began as a literary journal devoted to the study of the Beat Generation. However, it has changed since then. Today more than 95% of submissions for Beatdom are poetry or short fiction. Also, the bulk of our fan mail is in praise of our poets and fiction writers.

It seems that our readers consider themselves modern Beatniks…

Which as I’ve noted is a silly notion. We are not Beatniks. We are something different. As the Beats recognised their influences, so shall we. We shall hold Ginsberg as our inspiration as he held Blake.

We can take their ethos and change it and apply it and become something significant in ourselves. The Beats sought to make their own special place in a cold, unforgiving world, and that is an important message. They sought to reveal their souls through their art, and that is something we can do.

We are not part of the Beat Generation. We may perhaps be a New Beat Generation or Beatdom Generation, but we are something different from our predecessors

And so Beatdom magazine will be different from our original ideas. We will no longer devote the majority of our pages to studies of the past, but instead focus on tying the past, the present and the future together with the Beat ethos.

Beatdom will publish more modern poetry and fiction, and help advance the cause of literature today.

In doing this, we need the help of our readers and contributors, so please see our new submission guidelines. .

On Green Publishing

When Beatdom was first published in the summer of 2007, we made sure that our magazine was an innovation in green publishing. We didn’t want to cut down trees to make magazines that no one wanted to buy, so we made Beatdom a print-on-demand operation.

Print-on-demand is not exactly the most popular option for publishing magazines. For one thing, it pushes printing costs higher. For another it brings with it the stigma of an ill-conceived, under-edited vanity operation.

But print-on-demand allows our readers to purchase a copy of Beatdom whenever they wish, anywhere in the world, simply by using the internet. Our magazine has maintained its professional standards, ultimately pushing the boundaries of print-on-demand publishing. We don’t believe that damaging the environment is necessary to prove that you have a quality product.

Furthermore, we are very much aware of the sensitive issue of price. Beatdom is an expensive magazine and we wish it wasn’t. In an ideal world it would be free, but we have to pay the printers. What we don’t do, however, is take a cut for ourselves. The editors and writers of Beatdom are unpaid. This is a non-profit organization.

Beatdom is available for free online – through Lulu, through our website, and through Google Books. We don’t make aim to make money – we just want people to read and enjoy our product without hurting the Earth.

If you like what you read online, we encourage you to buy a copy of Beatdom. But we won't stock our magazines in stores and let the trees that made them go to waste. When you are finished with Beatdom, we invite you to share your copy with your friends and family.

Tropic of Cancer Quotes

Sorry for not posting much on here, folks, but I’ve been a busy man. Issue Five is coming along nicely and I’ll keep you updated, but for now here are a few quotes from Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. I know it’s random, but they knocked me over as so damn brilliant I just had to share them.

When the tide is on the ebb and only a few syphilitic mermaids are left stranded in the much, and Dome looks like a shooting gallery that’s been struck by a cyclone. P161

There is a bone in my prick six inches long. I will ream out every wrinkle in your cunt… I will send you home… with an ache in your belly and your womb turned inside out… He knows how to build a fire, but I know how to inflame a cunt… I shoot hot bolts into you… I make your ovaries incandescent… I have set the shores a little wider, I have ironed out the wrinkles. After me you can take on stallions, bulls… I am fucking you… so that you’ll stay fucked. P.5

HST for Beginners

Beatdom is honoured to present "HST for Beginners" over at www.hstbooks.org. Several Hunter Thompson scholars and friends have gathered to offer their views of the separation of Hunter Thompson from his alter-ego, Raoul Duke.

This blog post marks a significant moment in the history of Gonzo. We are aiming to gather new fans, and to inform previous readers of Thompson's work of its true importance.

Hunter Thompson was, first and foremost, a serious writer. He deserves respect and a place in the canon of American literature. Hopefully this project will help him be remember the way he would have wanted - as a great writer, rather than a frat boy's hero.

http://hstbooks.org/2009/10/23/hst-for-beginners-part-1-the-separation-of-hunter-and-raoul/

Remembering Jack Kerouac

Forty years ago today (October 21st), Jack Kerouac died. Let’s celebrate his life by remembering the contributions he made to literature.

The fourth issue of Beatdom magazine was released earlier this year, but was a special Kerouac themed magazine, in celebration of the author’s life. We looked various books and poems by Kerouac, and considered his life and ancestry.

Issue Four is free to read online through Google Books or download. Or, if you want a printed copy, you can have that, too.

Let’s all remember Kerouac in his prime, as he wanted – as a truly great writer.

Paul Maher Jr. vs. Gerald Nicosia

A battled was fought in the wake of the Kerouac Estate verdict and that battle is was waged on the forum at Literary Kicks...

Paul Maher Jr. and Gerald Nicosia were fighting with vitriolic words over several issues relating to Jack Kerouac... Check it out and weigh in at http://www.litkicks.com/KerouacEstateBattleAgain/

A Beginners Guide to Hunter Thompson

The wonderful Martin Flynn at HSTbooks is honouring the late, great Hunter S. Thompson as he deserves to be honoured, by introducing a new generation of readers to the more serious side of the man's work.

"The aim will be to catch folks new to the HST world and steer them in the direction of his writing talent and away from the crazed loony side of the man."

A selection of scholars and friends will contribute to a series of blogs which will expose the truth behind the madness and the skill behind the free-wheeling and frantic prose.

Thompson always wanted his work to be taken seriously, and lamented that his books were popular largely among frat-boy types. He was known in his time for the wild excess of his alter-ego, and not for his intelligence or literary abilities.

It’s time for people to realise his genius, and this series should help to introduce his work in the right way so that he can truly be read as he intended.

Read about it here: http://hstbooks.org/2009/10/07/hunter-s-thompson-for-beginners/