on with some of the movement’s main writers, like Kerouac and Burroughs, definitely had an impact of his own work, work that was similar to the Beats in that it attempted to influence culture and society. However, unlike the Beats, Corso’s work is less harsh and generally involves more of a tongue-in-cheek approach than, say, the raving social polemic of Ginsberg’s Howl. This is evident in Corso’s Marriage which though fanciful on the surface is layered with repeated barbs regarding the confining institution of marriage. Someone once asked screen legend Mae West when she would marry. Her often quoted response was, “Marriage is an institution. I’m not ready for an institution yet.” Corso’s poem is filled with the same kind of cynical implications regarding what 1950s America preached as a pillar component of the American Dream, marriage:
O but what about love? I forget love
it’s just that I see love as odd as wearing shoes—
I never wanted to marry a girl who was like my mother
And Ingrid Bergman was always impossible
And there’s maybe a girl now but she’s already married
Because what if I’m sixty years old and not married,
all alone in a furnished room with pee stains on my underwear
and everybody else is married! All the universe married but me!
This passage near the end of Marriage is extremely useful for demonstrating Corso’s attack on conventional social norms like marriage. It also demonstrates an attempt to shock conventional society, a typical technique used by many of the Beats in terms of language, topic and theme. For example, he takes a swipe at 1950s “leave it to beaver” mentality by saying Ingrid Bergman was always impossible. Many American’s of the 1950s measured their own values in terms of media ideals. He also broaches the topic of homosexuality by admitting he doesn’t like men, but by the admission he also suggests that if he did like men it woul...