The White Negro

1. The White Negro Superficial Reflections On The Hipster By Norman Mailer

2. Hipsters, Jazz, and Orgasm

3. For The Hipster, What Makes You Feel Good “Therefore Becomes The Good.” In the article, Mailer writes the “Negro” has to create his own happiness because in the world around him happiness is non-existent. This happiness comes from what makes the “Negro” feel good.

4. Is This Accurate? • Based on the novels that we have read, is this what appeals to the outlaw? • Do they do this to find happiness, or are there ulterior motives?

5. “For Jazz is orgasm, it is the music of orgasm, good orgasm and bad, and so it spoke across a nation, it had the communication of art even where it was watered, perverted, corrupted, and almost killed, it spoke in no matter what laundered popular way of instantaneous existential states to which some whites could respond, it was indeed a communication by art because it said, ‘I feel this and now you do too.’” We see this in Jake in “home to Harlem” and sal in “on the road.”

6. On the Road is a novel that definesthe beat generation. Critics compare this book to jazz music in that it improvises and just goes with the flow through Kerouac’s unique writing style. Keeping this in mind, how can Sal relate to the hipster?

7. Psychotic “The patient is indeed not so much altered as worn out—less bad, less good, less bright, less willful, less destructive, less creative. He is thus able to conform to that contradictory and unbearable society which first created his neurosis. He can conform to what he loathes because he no longer has the passion to feel loathing so intensely.”

8. If we buy this, is Jake “worn out” at the end of Home to Harlem, or is this conformity what he was searching for the whole time?

9. The Hipster tries to locate his identity through his actions. This is often referred to as their “swing,” or “the rhythm of one’s own being.” This is one’s ability to learn to adapt to any situation as they “go with the flow.”

10. How do you think this concept relates to each of the characters in the novels we have read?-The Virginian.-Jake.-Sal.

11. The White Negro Tries to Mimic Black Culture. To the “Hipster” this is accomplished through art. Mainly through the art of Jazz music

12. Conclusion This article relates to the central characters in each of the three novels we have read and examined. A “Hipster” goes against the grain of society in a search for their inner being and a sense of individuality.