Abstract

This paper claims, in the first part, that the arguments put forth by the Beat Movement, personified by writers such as Gary Snyder, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, have much in common with the positions of Internet pioneers, such as Vannevar Bush, especially in the text of 1945, As We May Think, and with Ted Nelson, with his never quite completed project, “Xanadu”. The second part of the paper explores oral and tribal experiences of contemporary critics such as Walter J. Ong and of Marshall McLuhan, whose claims for the existence of a global village in part has as its basis commonly shared with members of the Beat Movement ideas about orality. Finally, the center of gravity of the comments is explained as originating mainly in a twenty-five year period, from 1945 to 1970 but the discussion of these topics strays to the present.