What is Beatnik?
1.
a 50's group of young men after the war looking for atction and excitement, created art and roamed around countries looking for truth, were taught by zen Buddhist, ate Bacon Egg and Cheese sandwhiches. they were, as Cassidy would say "It". Their poetry often resembles Rimbaud, Blake and Whitman.
Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, Huncke and Cassidy headed for San fransico with a napsack and a thumb.
2.
cool 50's youth culture. Wore berets and polo necks. Hung out in coffee shops playing bongos and reciting poetry and experimenting with marijuana.Pre-dates the hippie movement by about 10-15 years.
Alen Ginsberg and Jack Keruoac were beatniks. Man, they were some cool cats!
See
3.
Jazz hippies in berets.
"Like. . . .wow daddio." Beatnik speak.
See
4.
A member of the Beat Generation (late 50's - early 60's), a nonconformist in dress and thought. Often reknowned for wearing black turtleneck sweaters, stove-pipe trousers, dark glasses and berets. They used to hang out at coffee shops where they would recite poetry (sometimes accompanied by bongo drums), and talk about jazz or the people/society/regimes that are oppressing them and trying to make them conform.
"Oh, man! Ned spilled ink all over my poems. He's a real flat tire, I mean a cube, man. He's putting us on the train to Squaresville" - Ned Flanders' beatnik father
"I'm really diggin' this jaaaazz, maaan! This cat is really hip! Far out daddy-o!" (clicks his fingers repeatedly)
See
5.
A conformist to the Beats. They irritated Jack Kerouac (founder of the beats) to the point where he said he hated them.
"I am not a beatnik, I am a Roman Catholic." - Jack Kerouac
See
6.
as the first person said, pre-date hippies by about 20 years, were interested in poetry, art, literature.
On the Road, by Jack Keourack, if thats how its spelled.
See
7.
A group of models dressed in black that possed for life magazine in the late 50's under the heading "Beatniks". It was the mainstreamization of the beat culture, and was the end of the genuine beat underground.
Jack Kerouac was not a beatnik he was a beat.