Allen Ginsberg on Jack Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues continues from here
AG: The next one is … there’s one footnote. 46th Chorus.
” I had a dream that Bill..” – (Bill Garver) – “I had a dream that Bill/ G. here, was lying on his bed/ talking to me in a room/ in Mexico City on a/ horrible afternoon, as/he mumbles information/ about the crossroads of the world” – (Because Garver was an old bore, you know. He was just reciting long passages out of H.G. Wells about the crossroads of the world – “Arabia was the crossroads of the world, Jack, and don’t ever forget that.”
I had a dream that Bill/ G. here, was lying on his bed/ talking to me in a room/ in Mexico City on a/ horrible afternoon, as/he mumbles information/ about the crossroads of the world/I wander like a Giggling Ling/ Chinese boy without rice/ in a Fog Over Grass/ Land vast and like life,/ – in my thoughts – but/ return to re-listen to what/he was saying, about loaning/ money on interest, Christians,/ Medicis, Churches, therefores,/ Coats of Arms, Balls,/ Bridge Post Pots, Guards,/ I realize I am dreaming/ In beginnings already/ And ending’s nowhere/ To be seen/Yet forgotten- / Is all”
So Garver is going on the nod, as junkies do, just talking. And his list of the talk is “money on interest, Christians,/ Medicis, Churches, therefores,/ Coats of Arms, Balls,/ Bridge Post Pots, Guards..” Actually there seems to be some theme running from the guard on the bridge of Arkansas (45th Chorus) – probably some anecdote – about a euphonious phony guard who spoke in (a) good southern accent on an Arkansas Bridge, probably telling Garver about that, and Garver probably went on to say, “Well, you know, they never used to tax people – what they used to do with the Medici banks is they’d loan money on very low interest for public works projects or things that were considered useful to the country.” And that’s a theme taken over by Ezra Pound later on a lot. The notion of interest and the role of the state in backing the banks, which loan money back to the state, and the vast con of banks. So he’s saying about loaning money – “.. Christians,/Medicis, Churches, therefores,/ Coats of Arms, Balls,/ Bridge Post Pots..” – (Just pots on bridge posts. Where does the bridge guard take a pee? “Bridge Post Pots, Guards” – so it actually is back (and) continuing a theme.
And then his comment on all this kind of thinking and all this afternoon boring discussion, horrible afternoon – “I realize I am dreaming/ In beginnings already/ And ending’s nowhere/ To be seen/Yet forgotten – / Is all”.
Oh, “Giggling Ling” – the “Giggling Ling” – Kerouac wrote a book in 1946, a little imitation Chinese novel about the Ling family. And then there was Han Ling who was the old grandfather and he had many children and he had Chur Ling and Gah Ling. And then the grandson was called “Giggling Ling.” And he showed it to Mark Van Doren, who was a professor at Columbia, he showed (him) the story, and Jack told me that Doren was reading it and he came to that line and he looked up at Jack and said, “Giggling Ling?” And Jack said, “Giggling Ling.” And Van Doren said, “A Giggling Ling?” And the reason I’m repeating this story is that it’s a peculiar eccentric turn of pure fanciful language – “Giggling Ling” – that Kerouac was good at. And Van Doren, reading this very supposedly-serious Chinese story, got to the point when he saw “Giggling Ling.” And Kerouac said, “Yes, a Giggling Ling,” instead of a very serious Ling or just I guess it’s the all-American, Salingerean high school humor of that as a basis of Kerouac’s poetry. In other words, high school jack-off humor as the basis of poetry – just the pure hysterical fun of making strange sounds like – “Eastern be Western,” “Aurorum showing his.. Moon Magic/ in Stardom and Starland (Constellative Stardom)/ of/ Gazers/ in Mock Roman (and Giggling Ling)/ Arabian Kimonos” – In other words, you can throw in everything that’s in your mind, or add alluvials, as Kerouac said. Add the rest of the vowels left over in your mind to fill out the breath. And it’ll always turn out to have some meaning, whether you plan it or not. You don’t have to have to plan the meaning, just trust the mind. Because the deep mind always has a connection, like from one poem to another there is this connection of the gate, the Arkansas euphonious phony to taxes to the Medici banks.
Anyway, that’s where the “Giggling Ling” came from – ” …as/ he mumbles information/ about the crossroads of the world/ I wander like a Giggling Ling/ Chinese boy without rice/ in a Fog Over Grass/ Land vast and like life”
I think the role of the Giggling Ling, it was this hierarchical Chinese society and there were generations and the Giggling Ling was the idiot Chinese boy that just couldn’t get anything straight, but was considered the Zen holy fool. The Giggling Ling. Like later on when we got a little bit more sophisticated, we did run into the Zen lunatics, or Han Shan. Han Shan insured the people … like in the paintings where you see broom sweepers standing with their brooms leaning against their shoulders reading a long scroll and giggling together and laughing. I think that’s where he got it, actually. Probably some Chinese painting of a Zen master sweeping the kitchen also reading a scroll with his friend looking over his shoulder and both of them with big, round, saucer eyes, laughing, with giant ears.
Seven o’clock. Okay.
Are you continuing to write a poem for class Kerouac style? Because we’ll take them up maybe next time. And I may have heard again from Gregory (Corso) by next time, but I don’t know what the fate of that will be.
If these explanations are incomprehensible, stop me.
Student: I’m going to go see if my (class is…)
AG: Okay. Well, it’ll be after nine o’clock.
Student: Oh, it’ll be after nine o’clock then?
AG: Well, you have a class 7.30 to 9.
Student: Okay.
Editorial note – tape concludes here There is a further tape labeled 6/20/81 in the Naropa Library. Unfortunately it is in such bad shape (the label says it was under-recorded due to a low microphone battery) that it cannot be transcribed.
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately sixty-one-and-a-half minutes in and concluding at the end of the tape