Poetry for Southern California

 

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Welcome to Poetix 2/2012

COVER STORY

By Richard Modiano

 

 

 

 

Spontaneous Bop Prosody

The expression is Jack Kerouac’s. Prosody of course refers to the rules governing the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry. Bop here denotes be-bop, a particular style of jazz characterized by rhythmic and harmonic complexity, improvised solo performances, and virtuosity of execution.

But when we come to the word spontaneous confusion sets in. 

There can be few words more misused in poetry than the word "spontaneity". The word is often used to denote something that seems to happen without obvious cause, without apparently being the result of previous preparation. In the sense of "an effect without a cause" there is probably no such thing as "spontaneity"—either in poetry or in life. Human behavior is always influenced by previous experience. If a person is not consciously aware of why she is acting in a particular way, this does not mean that there are no causes for what she is doing. It only means that causes elude her.

Kerouac does not use the word "spontaneity" in this crude and unre­flecting way. It is important to stress this semantic point. Spontaneity is not mere impulse. Spontaneity is behavior, feeling and thought that is free of the external con­straint of imposed restrictions. It is not an uncontrolled effluvium of passion and action. Insofar as the individual removes the fetters of domination that have stifled her self-activity, she is acting, feeling and thinking spontaneously.

The word "spontaneity" in this usage is somewhat akin to the meaning of "auton­omy.” Literally speaking, autonomous means "which makes its own laws" and there­fore, by implication "which acts in its own interests.”

Full autonomy has both organizational and aesthetic implications. Spontaneity does not preclude organization and structure, contrary to a very widespread distortion of Kerouac’s meaning. Spontaneity, in the sense in which he uses the term ordinarily yields non-hierarchical forms of organization and composition. We would go perhaps further, and stress that no creative autonomy is mean­ingful which does not have organizational repercussions. Autonomous activity and life—whether in the realm of poetry or in the realm of ideas—is impossible in hier­archically-structured forms.

The main impact of Kerouac’s dictum is however on the need for aesthetic autonomy, for breaking all the intellectual fetters of the past, for sweeping the cob­webs away that still clutter so much of the thinking of writers. Kerouac’s poetics takes the whole discussion into areas largely avoided by many writers, and challenges many of their most fundamental assumptions. In this his own writing is a vindication of his belief in a creative, conscious and coherent spontaneity. Consciousness has its own history within the material world, and increasingly gains sway over the course of material reality. The poet or prose writer is capable of transcending the realm of blind necessity, and is capable of giving her work direction and purpose within the realm of spontaneous bop prosody.

This kind of message must be taken seriously and its implications thought out. For all those who, whatever their age, are not suffering from a harden­ing of the categories, Kerouac’s views are an important contribution to an ongoing debate.

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