(1) Transgression

The Beats made a point of doing what their fathers would not approve of and then writing poems and novels about their experiences. They were the boys your mother warned you about; their drinking, sexing, traveling, and criminal exploits exploits were no joke. This literary revolution was for real.

(2) Obscenity

Since the Beats were all about sticking it to the man and The Canon, they didn't believe in forbidden words. They fought censorship at every turn. As you might imagine, their use of vulgar language got them into a lot of trouble at times, but their writing changed the way we tell stories forever. If cussing makes you squeamish, you might want to read the Beat works with a bar of soap in hand. 

(3) Jazz

The improvisational riffs of jazz music are credited with inspiring the sounds and stream-of-consciousness style that came to define Beat poetry. These works are righteous, lyrical, spoken word pieces. So, dust off the bongos and the black berets Daddy-o, it's gonna get crazy cool up in here.

(4) Buddhism

You might want to practice your lotus position and study up on your Buddhism before getting too deep into the Beats. Much of this literature engages heavily with Buddhist principles, including tapping into the universal consciousness and letting go of individual ego. Get ready for the big mind, man.

(5) Drug use

Yeah, it's true; Beat authors were a little bit naïve, and lot bit reckless when it came to drug use. Abusing substances can cause a lot of problems, as we're sure your health teachers have told you. But the hallucinogen-addled brain can produce some really powerful poetry. We guess the Beats did the drugs so we don't have to. We can just read their work. Thanks, guys.

(6) Sexuality

Long before Salt 'n Peppa, the Beats wanted us to talk about sex. Libidos of all kinds run wild through Beat literature as it seeks to free us all from the cages of our sexual repression. Rawr.

(7) Cross-culturalism

The Beats were basically a bunch of white dudes, it's true. But they wanted the literary tradition open up and let in the rainbow: they wanted people of all genders, sexualities, races, socioeconomic classes, and so on to read and produce literature.

(8) Anarchy

Don't get the Beats confused with the hippies. The Beat Generation wanted nothing to do with any existing political party. They wanted change and they wanted it now, but they'd have been happy to burn down all political structures. Anarchy was more to their liking.

(9) Post-modernism

The modernists put the strangeness of the unrepressed unconscious into poetry, but the Beats took that weird and ran with it. Off a cliff. If we view modernism as opening the floodgates to the creative mind, the Beats were the flood that followed.

(10) Confessional intimacy

These guys aired their dirty literary laundry in public like no one had before. Some people were mortified, some were thrilled. Most were a little of both. But we owe the Beats some thanks for being some of the first lit-heads to tell-it-like-it-is.