Wilson explores the rich landscape of San Francisco's spirit and ethos. The multitudinous references he weaves into his piece illustrate the cultural complexity of a city that is at once dedicated to the counter-culture movements of the Beat and hippie generations as well as poised to dominate the Pacific Rim.
With references to films such as Phych Out and Vertigo, and poets such as Alan Ginsberg, Wilson illustrates San Francisco's strong artistic capacity. At the same time, the wartime technology industry of Silicon Valley and San Francisco's economic interests over the Pacific (including GAP, Banana Republic, and Old Navy) bear witness to the extension of the American empire.
--Brent W.
San Francisco is definitely one of the most culturally diverse cities in California, if not the entire United States. It is the city of love, “open to the influence of Asia, Pacific, Latin America, and Europe. (Wilson 584)” This makes it the perfect place to support all trade in and out of the Asian countries and acts as a port to the world market. Wilson Talks about the Asian markets in San Francisco explaining their vast variety of cultures and the cuisine they present. He also uses crazy references to psychedelic hippie atmospheres showing the intense cultural rebel against the modern food system and “the man.” The people of San Francisco could be looked at as rebels but Wilson looks at them are people who express their own beliefs in extreme ways such as large protest against large food trends. People would eat rice and beans all day just to show the natural good of the food San Francisco has to offer. He makes good points comparing movies written about the city at the time confirming the accuracy and fallacies they present to the general public about the enthusiast of the time.
ReplyDelete-Josh R
“ The aim is to write beyond the self into another language and place of perpetual becoming of dispossession seems an act of vision, spectral eruption, lost certitude, syntactical torqueing; global /local finding. The goal is to write a generative vision- poetics- of Northern California … placed by the pacific and the golden gate bridge. “ (Wilson 215)
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion this quote represents the reading because it implies that current culture I Northern California is a vision of past generations of cultures. With every piece of history weather it is language, structural elements or migration is what gives California the verity of details in its culture. The reading implies a look at California provides a look into the cultural past of local and countries across the Pacific Ocean. I found Wilson approach to the culture in California identifying modern day clothing, television shows and mass production of look-a-likes profound but also adverse. I also agree with Wilson opinion of San Francisco fast history growth and how it has swallowed back into a abyss.
Yolanda B
"The San Francisco scene dominates world culture' in a nexus of post-beatnik transformation leading from California to Prague and Paris. 'Today we are all a part of the world literature, and we have a profound effect on world literature' Rexroth added, urging that 'the young people coming up' in San Francisco or elsewhere in the ever-provincial US, 'need to be reconnected with the avant-garde tradition of the world'(Wilson, 589)"
ReplyDeleteI feel that Wilson has created San Francisco as a self-absorbed province. As there are many stories and movies that are set in San Francisco, the scenes take on an appearance that can only be found in that city. The stories are not well related to the rest of the world and as world culture develops and expands, encompassing everywhere, San Francisco stands apart trying to create itself as a distant other. Although the city is great for telling stories and describing a perfect scene, I think Rexroth wanted to hear from the next generation a more influential strike from the San Francisco culture. Stories and proverbs that can be scaled out and developed as profound world literature rather then just works of San Francisco.
Jeff S
"is a way of calling "spectral" forces of San Francisco back from the past and out from the future, evoking the "spectral city" that is not so much ephemeral as waiting up ahead of us and lurking" (Wilson, 593)
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about San Francisco that makes it so unique? Are these forces the very history that has shaped what San Francisco is today? The history of political activism, hippies, genres of different art forms, and cultural migrations have made this city a thriving and very different city compared to others. Now the question is what direction will San Fran head as it goes into the future. Does the city rely on the past for inspiration or direction as a child would learn from their mistakes or does it continue also like it's history suggests and continue to be something different, always being at the forefront of different "revolutions". Only the inhabitants of this city can shape the future.
-Denny M.
"Since its global consolidation into a boom city during the Gold Rush Days and longstanding trafficking in Bohemian, mongrel, socialist, queer, and left-leaning energies in and beyond the Beat counter-cultural nexus of the 1960's"
ReplyDeleteThis quote represents this reading in many ways because it's a pioneer city that has its contrast of large "booming" corporations and a counter-culture unlike any other city in the US that involves being open minded, anti authority, and creative. I agree with the author because he loves San Francisco and it's beauty and it's poetics. He seems to really love the same aspects of it as Steinbeck did. This was an extrememly provoking piece that challenged me as a reader because of all the resources he refers to so that he can explain his point and in all of these resources that he uses it give a clear picture of what his vision of San Francisco really is.
Robbie B.
"'the young people coming up' in San Francisco or elsewhere in the ever-provincial US, 'need to be reconnected with the avant-garde tradition of the world'(Wilson, 589)"
ReplyDeleteRob Wilsons article on San Francisco describes the culture as ever changing and always willing to adapt new ideologies into it. San Francisco is just waiting for the new thing to come around to be added into its already complex spiral of diversity and culture. This quote seems important to me because it stresses the importance of the younger generations and how they have such a profound influence on cultures today. As someone who considers myself part of this generation it gives me hope that I could have such an influence on such a culture. Since San Francisco is always changing it really is the perfect society for young people like myself to express our ideas and get a chance to really have our voices heard.
Joe C.
"This poetics , in effect, is a way of calling the 'spectral' forces of San Francisco back from the past and out from the future, evoking the 'spectral city' that is not so much ephemeral as waiting up ahead of us and lurking in the palimpsests of place on every street corner and in the emergent energies of myriad poems..."(Wilson 215).
ReplyDeleteWilson is saying that by using poetry and other creative methods, inhabitants of San Francisco can remember the past and reminisce, but look forward to a bright future, knowing that previous generations faced the same struggles the current city's inhabitants are facing. Though the severity of many of California's issues are greater now than in the past, by using the arts and poetry especially, San Francisco's inhabitants will have a sort of guide to help them face the issues facing them in the present and near future.
This Northern California region and globalizing localized city and its huge contando that is commensurable with its edgy history and boom-and-bust dynamics of this much troped-upon city. Pg 593
ReplyDeleteThis quote and the entire conclusion of this piece expresses in relatively simple terms what the rest of this convoluted piece made seem of the utmost importance, "San Francisco is still cool." The article is an interesting look at the culture of San Francisco, but it really turns into a repetative outcry for people to still look at San Francisco as progressive, which most people do anyways. The article seems rather superfluous unless you are a San Franciscan intent on doting upon your native land. One redeeming point of this article is it's plea for would be writer's to preserve the culture of America in poetry.