"Howl," 1

       "Howl" is an imitative and expressive word.  It's also the name of a famous poem by Allen Ginsberg, which I heard Ginsberg deliver in New York City in 1957 or 58.  Howl is the title too of a wonderful 2010 documentary film on the poem, starring James Franco as Ginsberg.

       The film shows the trial of Lawrence Ferlinghetti for selling the book Howl in Ferlinghetti's City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, on the charge that he was selling obscene literature.  All the words in the film are those of the people being portrayed on the screen:  Ginsberg, judges, lawyers, witnesses.

       Ginsberg reading Howl, Ginsberg speaking to an interviewer, plus the images of a marvelous visual animation of Howl.  Franco is superb both reading and enacting Ginsberg.
                                     (Part 2 tomorrow)