The Beats sought the grit and grim of urban life, the poverty and pathos of black existence. Their solution is to be beat. Now cross on over to the outcast side of the street to where the hip folk and the jazz folk live, for the way your life is now is the way their lives have been for years. And life is Holy. And this is the meaning of words.
Life is holy, and the journey is Now.
This interpretation of Beat life by Warren Tallman synthesizes the attitude that the Beats held towards the abject lifestyle prescripted to black jazz musicians. The Beats, overwhelmingly white, and college-educated, foregoed their inherited social status for a romanticized vision of a bohemian lifestyle. The above passage also reveals the intricate relationship between the language used by the Beats and the lifestyle they emulated, both summarized by jazz music. Many similarities have been drawn between the musician and the writer. As both make art, many individuals have progressed or alternated between one medium and another.