Tropical ginsberg

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By intentionally fusing these diverse elements,
“Batmacumba” suggests that products of the
multinational culture industry like Batman and
rock have been “Brazilianized” and, conversely,
that Afro-Brazilian religion is central to Brazilian
modernity and not to a folkloric vestige of a
premodern past. 213
Another characteristic of the 1950s and 1960s which can be seen
in Ginsberg’s poems and songs from the tropicalistas is the lack of
“traditional” chronology which the world began to experience. With the
advent of television, in which live programs were broadcast over a large
geographical area, giving the spectator the sensation of watching
someone who is not really there, the traditional notion of time-space
received another blow, perhaps as brutal as that given by Einstein’s
Theory of Relativity. With global live transmission of events – the
Vietanm war being the first televised war in history – things got even
more weird, as Americans could see American soldiers dying in
Vietnam, Vietnamese civilians dying, and all the monstrous reality of
wars, sitting comfortably on their couches, back in their hometowns.
In the meantime, in Brazil, the country had just built its capital in
the heart of the land, sparing no expenses, thus opening its arms for
foreign investments of all kinds. But the radiant dream of “progress”
and “order” was soon obscured by the omnipotent force of the military.
Thousands dissapeared, thousands were taken in broad day light, beaten
up, and released in the darkest hour of the night, and other thousands
were intimidated, subdued, punished in the most inhuman manners, and
silenced. Day to day life seemed to be a stream of inconclusive acts,
with no apparent chronology, and tomorrow’s skies seemed starless.
This lack of chronology can be seen very clearly in Ginsberg’s
poem, “America.” In it, Ginsberg exposes his complaints, praises, and
frustrations, in face of “America,” as well as misleading thoughts which
America somewhat imposed upon him. The poem follows no apparent
chronology, as the only time reference we have is in the second line,
which reads: “America two dollars and twentyseven cents January 17,
1956.” 214 From there on, Ginsberg begins a frenetic listing of things and
situations – assertions, demands, and curses – but with no noticeable
213 Dunn, Christopher. Brutality Garden: Tropicália and The Emergence of a Brazilian
Counterculture. North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press, 2001. 128.
214 Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and other poems. 40 th ed. Ed. Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Nancy J.
Peters. San Francisco: City Lights Bookstore, 1992. 39.