EXCERPT FROM 'This is the Beat Generation' BY JOHN CLENNON HOLMES

Any attempt to label an entire generation is unrewarding, and yet the generation which went through the last war [WWII], or at least could get a drink easily once it was over, seems to possess a uniform, general quality which demands an adjective ... The origins of the word 'beat' are obscure, but the meaning is only too clear to most Americans. More than mere weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of mind, and, ultimately, of soul; a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness. In short, it means being undramatically pushed up against the wall of oneself. A man is beat whenever he goes for broke and wagers the sum of his resources on a single number; and the young generation has done that continually from early youth.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

beautiful word clouds


A fellow L'Abri alumni turned me on to this really cool website called wordle. It takes text that you give it and makes word art out of it. I put in a journal entry I wrote just before going to L'Abri and here is the result:
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