To read William Burroughs is to discover a different world where people speak a different language -- a world you thought existed but never knew you thought existed. It is a place where borders are temporary, even viscous: bodies ooze and slime, semen flows freely, erections leap across the pages, an

Beats, Cartoonish, Cyberpunk fiction, Distorted, Experimental, Funny, Grotesque, Improvised, Perverse, Postmodern fiction, Profane, Psychedelic, Quirky, Surreal

Robert Frank is among the most important living photographers, but to say this is to understate the self-evident. At the same time, it seems ironic to articulate the importance of an artist who is so indifferent to success and so suspicious of whatever is well regarded. Frank's work chronicles th

Beats, Contemplative, Documentary photography, Intimate, Melancholy, Minimal, Open-ended, Sublime

"I've got to keep experimenting. I feel like I'm just beginning. I have part of what I'm looking for in my grasp, but not all." John Coltrane's music is an experiment in emotional expression. He consistently pursued new domains of musical and spiritual intensity, and developed a style charged with pa

Beats, Distorted, Excessive, Experimental, Free jazz, Hard bop/post-bop, Improvised, Religious

With titles like "Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail," "Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness," and "Notes of a Dirty Old Man," Charles Bukowski's work is still the stuff that teenage poet-boys read on the bus. Bukowski is a movement-less poet: not a Beat or a Confes

Beat poetry, Beats, Gritty, In-your-face, Masculine, Minimal, Smoky, Wise assy