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Unfair Arguments with Existence
Drama, Plays, Literature
1 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
4 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
258 books648 followersA prominent voice of the wide-open poetry movement that began in the 1950s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has written poetry, translation, fiction, theater, art criticism, film narration, and essays. Often concerned with politics and social issues, Ferlinghetti’s poetry countered the literary elite's definition of art and the artist's role in the world. Though imbued with the commonplace, his poetry cannot be simply described as polemic or personal protest, for it stands on his craftsmanship, thematics, and grounding in tradition.
Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers in 1919, son of Carlo Ferlinghetti who was from the province of Brescia and Clemence Albertine Mendes-Monsanto. Following his undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II as a ship's commander. He received a Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1947 and a Doctorate de l’Université de Paris (Sorbonne) in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, when he settled in San Francisco, he taught French in an adult education program, painted, and wrote art criticism. In 1953, with Peter D. Martin (son of Carlo Tresca) he founded City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country, and by 1955 he had launched the City Lights publishing house.
The bookstore has served for half a century as a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals. City Lights Publishers began with the Pocket Poets Series, through which Ferlinghetti aimed to create an international, dissident ferment. His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl & Other Poems in 1956 led to his arrest on obscenity charges, and the trial that followed drew national attention to the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat movement writers. (He was overwhelmingly supported by prestigious literary and academic figures, and was acquitted.) This landmark First Amendment case established a legal precedent for the publication of controversial work with redeeming social importance.
Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various galleries around the world, from the Butler Museum of American Painting to Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. He has been associated with the international Fluxus movement through the Archivio Francesco Conz in Verona. He has toured Italy, giving poetry readings in Roma, Napoli, Bologna, Firenze, Milano, Verona, Brescia, Cagliari, Torino, Venezia, and Sicilia. He won the Premio Taormino in 1973, and since then has been awarded the Premio Camaiore, the Premio Flaiano, the Premio Cavour. among others. He is published in Italy by Oscar Mondadori, City Lights Italia, and Minimum Fax. He was instrumental in arranging extensive poetry tours in Italy produced by City Lights Italia in Firenze. He has translated from the italian Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Poemi Romani, which is published by City Lights Books. In San Francisco, his work can regularly be seen at the George Krevsky Gallery at 77 Geary Street.
Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind continues to be the most popular poetry book in the U.S. It has been translated into nine languages, and there are nearly 1,000,000 copies in print. The author of poetry, plays, fiction, art criticism, and essays, he has a dozen books currently in print in the U.S., and his work has been translated in many countries and in many languages. His most recent books are A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), and Americus Book I (2004) published by New Directions.
He has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Award, the BABRA Award for Lifetime Achievement, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Award for Contribution to American Arts and Letters, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco’s first poet laureate.
Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers in 1919, son of Carlo Ferlinghetti who was from the province of Brescia and Clemence Albertine Mendes-Monsanto. Following his undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II as a ship's commander. He received a Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1947 and a Doctorate de l’Université de Paris (Sorbonne) in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, when he settled in San Francisco, he taught French in an adult education program, painted, and wrote art criticism. In 1953, with Peter D. Martin (son of Carlo Tresca) he founded City Lights Bookstore, the first all-paperbound bookshop in the country, and by 1955 he had launched the City Lights publishing house.
The bookstore has served for half a century as a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals. City Lights Publishers began with the Pocket Poets Series, through which Ferlinghetti aimed to create an international, dissident ferment. His publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl & Other Poems in 1956 led to his arrest on obscenity charges, and the trial that followed drew national attention to the San Francisco Renaissance and Beat movement writers. (He was overwhelmingly supported by prestigious literary and academic figures, and was acquitted.) This landmark First Amendment case established a legal precedent for the publication of controversial work with redeeming social importance.
Ferlinghetti’s paintings have been shown at various galleries around the world, from the Butler Museum of American Painting to Il Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. He has been associated with the international Fluxus movement through the Archivio Francesco Conz in Verona. He has toured Italy, giving poetry readings in Roma, Napoli, Bologna, Firenze, Milano, Verona, Brescia, Cagliari, Torino, Venezia, and Sicilia. He won the Premio Taormino in 1973, and since then has been awarded the Premio Camaiore, the Premio Flaiano, the Premio Cavour. among others. He is published in Italy by Oscar Mondadori, City Lights Italia, and Minimum Fax. He was instrumental in arranging extensive poetry tours in Italy produced by City Lights Italia in Firenze. He has translated from the italian Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Poemi Romani, which is published by City Lights Books. In San Francisco, his work can regularly be seen at the George Krevsky Gallery at 77 Geary Street.
Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind continues to be the most popular poetry book in the U.S. It has been translated into nine languages, and there are nearly 1,000,000 copies in print. The author of poetry, plays, fiction, art criticism, and essays, he has a dozen books currently in print in the U.S., and his work has been translated in many countries and in many languages. His most recent books are A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), and Americus Book I (2004) published by New Directions.
He has been the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Kirsch Award, the BABRA Award for Lifetime Achievement, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Award for Contribution to American Arts and Letters, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award. Ferlinghetti was named San Francisco’s first poet laureate.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 7, 2012
It was a fun break from 'Ulysses.' I think the reason that I enjoy Ferlinghetti's writing so much is that his voice is very much like my own. Many of the poems/plays/novels he writes have a very similar sound to my own writing. In this collection, I enjoyed the Brechtian sense of alienation given to the central characters. I was fondest of 'Three Thousand Red Ants' and 'The Alligation.' The obviously false elements of theatre were what stuck out to me most (e.g., the six foot long alligator, Shooky), and recalled to mind a recent 'Paris Review' interview with Tony Kushner. My least favorite play in this collection was 'The Customs Collector in Baggy Pants,' which was really nothing but a very brief (though darkly humorous) monologue.
May 12, 2021
This was an enjoyable trip down memory lane to that time when "experimental" was an attractive adjective. Not all successful, and some places where it felt unfortunately dated, but some interesting investigations into what "theater" can hold.
December 7, 2021
Strange and exuberantly weird little plays from a strange and exuberantly weird author. Not all of the five have aged particularly well, but they make for a fascinating look into the experimental theater of half a century ago.
December 16, 2024
A strange group of plays. Beckett reminiscent & nearly claustrophobic with the dialogue and direction.
August 23, 2024
it's unreal how well crafted and deep the characterization is in shooky being that he is a 6-foot long alligator with no lines.
February 21, 2017
55 years have not been kind to these short plays.
September 9, 2016
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Unfair Arguments with Existence (New Directions, 1963)
[originally posted 17Sep2001]
Five very short plays (despite the subtitle on some books) by A Coney Island of the Mind author Ferlinghetti, who believes that classic drama has "fatal flaws." Judging by the way he attempts to right said flaws, those flaws have much to do with plot, theme, and dialogue. All five of these plays tend to focus on a specific character, who's given to long monologues that stutter on, going nowhere and not really enjoying the journey too much.
Two are noteworthy, however. One, "The Victims of Amnesia," does have enough dialogue between characters to keep it interesting, and is based on Ferlinghetti's amusing conjunction of two completely unrelated scenes in Andre Breton's classic novel Nadja (one of them also, it can be assumed, the genesis for the film Memento). The final image in this mini-play is definitely one that sticks with the reader. The final play, "The Customs Collector in Baggy Pants," takes the same approach as the others, and in fact has only one visible person throughout (and one speaking part), but for once, the speaker doesn't stutter, cut himself off, or otherwise interrupt his wildly careening flow of thought, and it makes the play much easier to read and visualize.
These two are worth the price of admission, if you can pick this up for two bucks somewhere; the rest can fade into well-deserved obscurity. **
[originally posted 17Sep2001]
Five very short plays (despite the subtitle on some books) by A Coney Island of the Mind author Ferlinghetti, who believes that classic drama has "fatal flaws." Judging by the way he attempts to right said flaws, those flaws have much to do with plot, theme, and dialogue. All five of these plays tend to focus on a specific character, who's given to long monologues that stutter on, going nowhere and not really enjoying the journey too much.
Two are noteworthy, however. One, "The Victims of Amnesia," does have enough dialogue between characters to keep it interesting, and is based on Ferlinghetti's amusing conjunction of two completely unrelated scenes in Andre Breton's classic novel Nadja (one of them also, it can be assumed, the genesis for the film Memento). The final image in this mini-play is definitely one that sticks with the reader. The final play, "The Customs Collector in Baggy Pants," takes the same approach as the others, and in fact has only one visible person throughout (and one speaking part), but for once, the speaker doesn't stutter, cut himself off, or otherwise interrupt his wildly careening flow of thought, and it makes the play much easier to read and visualize.
These two are worth the price of admission, if you can pick this up for two bucks somewhere; the rest can fade into well-deserved obscurity. **
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January 15, 2009picked up at last weekend's estate sale.
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June 2, 2012
One star is too much. For proof, see if you can last long enough to read "The Nose of Sisyphus," the last of the seven "plays" collected here.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews