By Art Chantry (art@artchantry.com)
diane di prima was (along with singer juliet greco), the prototypical stereotype for the classic “beatnik chick.” whenever you think of a beatnik chic, there are two types of women you classically conjure up in your mind. one is that svelt lanky gal in a leotard and a surfer shirt (ala edie sedgewick), wearing dark glasses and beret and a short pageboy ‘bob’ haircut. they are usually gorgeous and sophisticated eurotrash as well. this is the juliet greco stereotype ‘beatnik chick’ you saw in a lot of b-movies.
---AC...it was in a collection of short stories by beat writers called 'the moderns.' i'd go look it up, but the book got lost in my last move. it had to do with a group of people in a car wreck. one of them was dressed like a clown....
the other, more realistic and believable stereotype was the diane di prima model. she was short, darkly ethnic, longhaired, thin, darkly attractive. she also wore the classic beret and dark glasses often. usually a cigarette, too. again with the dark leotards, but with a bulky sweater and a pleated ‘school girl’ style generic skirt. and this stereotype ‘beatnik chick’ was FEROCIOUSLY intellectual and opinionated and independent. in other words a real lioness. and diane di prima was a lioness.
of all the early beat writers, she seems to have been the lone female voice that ever received any national attention. her writings were polemic and beautifully crafted. one of her short stories so impacted me that i go back and re-read it every decade or so. as a result of her writing and her persona, i’ve always had a sort of crush on her. strange but true. she seems like a hero to me (or perhaps, heroine.)
this little volume of her writing is a good case in point. it’s published and designed by lawrence ferlinghetti by his ‘city lights’ books imprint. it’s a small book (about the same size as that all time classic edition of ginsberg’s ‘howl’). but, unlike so many of the city lights books, this one jumps off the shelf and smacks you in the face. ferlinghetti obviously knew how to design for his specific subject matter.
lawrence ferlinghetti’s little bookstore – city lights books (founded in 1953) – was actually the first exclusively paperback book shop in america. his first book (the publishing company was started in 1955) was a volume of his own work. but, he quickly began to publish his pals and became the prime clearing house for a generation of outsider hipster writers and artists. it was a DIY effort that took off quickly and became an institution.
one of the interesting things about a lot of ferlinghetti’s city lights publications is that he seems to have done most of the design work himself. this little volume is a stark and wonderful example of that DIY spirit and what sort of powerful results it can produce. when a non-designer decides to sit down and really express his thoughts in visual language, perhaps the very best graphic design is actually created. it gets extremely difficult to write any sort of history of visual design without recognizing the DIY hand in the creation of it’s most iconic work. yet, academia does it’s best to ignore it entirely.
the DIY impulse in visual language has long been derided and scolded by professionally trained graphic designers. but, the reality is that everybody KNOWS graphic design already. the shared visual language we all speak (and don’t realize we speak it) is something that is not the private domain of the professionally trained graphic designer. the mere existence of so much truly breathtaking and important and just plain brilliant graphic design created by total non-’graphic designers’ speaks far more profoundly than any academic pontiff can scream.
COMMENTS
