Know your Molech

Hi Melissa,

I would like to point out a few things based on your insight.  First, art is not limited to the message  or intent of the artist.  It is through individual interpretation that art impacts throughout society.  In the case of “Howl”, there may even be a question of whether any of us have understood his intent.  We assume based on context, content, and our own accumulation of experience and knowledge, but who can say if he had something else or something more in mind.  This is the power of poetry.  I suppose that if he could give us his own explication, we might learn that we have been wrong, at least on a few points.  So, one of the sections that clawed at me from the pages of this work was section 2.  Ginsberg’s reference to Molech while is somehow related to the Bible, and by extension, the conservative world-view, has a specific parallel to our society in spite of its anachronistic timing.  The worshippers sacrificed their children.  Let’s not mince words, their children died a cruel and unusual punishment of death who had done no harm to merit such a doom on the whims of and devotions of their parents.  Like it, love it, hate it, or reject it, Our society has done the exact same.  I know that this is not the proper forum to discuss the semantics of this social issue, so I won’t argue the validity of the points.  I will simply say that millions of children have lost their lives at the hands of their mothers.  We have yet to see the full repercussions.