Investigation: Whitman in Pop Culture

1. Pearls Before Swine comic strip

(Image found from http://mikechasar.blogspot.com/) 

I was really happy to find that Stephan Pastis brought Walt Whitman into his comic -- something I find myself dabbling into whenever I come across a cute GIF of Pig. Regardless...
Rat, a narcissistic, sarcastic sort-of character who tends to be insulting and insensitive, at first, seems to really have done a mean thing to have messed with Whitman's poetry, especially making a sort of remark about the lack of brevity in his poems. Also, why restrain the expansive, fluid Whitman? One cannot tame such a beast. At the same time, however, would Whitman have been insulted? If his poetry had been "twittified", perhaps it could have made sharing his works and messages so much easier, gaining more readers and eyes -- culture and literary expectations, aside anyway, unless that same break from it is even more shock factor to his radicalism. After all, look at how absorbed many people are with "txt talk" and the like -- shortened messages are not only easier to write out, but they're more "portable", if you will, and are easier to share. Whether or not Rat was making a silly jab at Whitman's work or subversively suggesting that such compactness could have actually worked, there is a sense of reworking messages and text to the people and readers, and maybe Whitman would have seen humor or perhaps celebration to such a thing.

2. Breaking Bad quoting of Walt Whitman's poem, "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"

(Video found from http://mikechasar.blogspot.com/)

While I have never heard of this show before I found this clip, I get the feeling that the characters have reached a new bond after the recitation of the poem. From what I found, here, the main character, Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer, has acquainted himself with Gale, a lab assistant for a meth lab of a drug kingpin. Walt has turned to selling the drug as a way to secure his family's financial future for when he dies. As the two men converse and Gale looks back to his thoughts of how he got to where he is, they begin to relate to each other about the magic of chemistry, a passion each of them share -- that sets the stage for Gale's recitation of the poem.
The poem itself seems to make a distinction between the rules, lessons, figures, and details of the mathematics and the awe-inspiring wonder of one experiencing the vastness of the subject -- between the inside and outside, to experience things with one's own senses, to reach that higher level of understanding etc. Walt and Gale seem to share that desire and perspective to embrace the magic of chemistry and marvel at its wonder, and from there the two bond and become closer to each other. It is here that Whitman sort of brings in that "Disney magic" without breaking into song, as blogger Mike Chasar would say. I feel like, here, Whitman's message of people coming together and also of finding the beauty in the universe -- sure, meth isn't exactly natural, but chemistry does root from taking sources and forces that sort of come from it first.

3. Allen Ginsburg's poem, "A Supermarket in California"

Ginsburg, one of the leading poets of the "Beat Generation", drew plenty of inspiration from Walt Whitman for his poetry, including for one of his famous pieces, "Howl". In a way, he was regarded as the American poet of his time, emulating a similar feel of being free and to find the truth of experience in the world.

I feel like, in this poem, Ginsburg relates to Whitman as an equal, close family figure or a close friend. Together, they go through a sort of adventure through a supermarket within the dreams of the speaker just from having touched Whitman's book. While Whitman may feel quiet and almost even a mundane sort of figure, there is still the otherworldly wonder he possess in finding meaning in getting intimate with his surroundings. There is also a respect for the poet, as the speaker regards Whitman as "dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher"; while again a bit calm and tame for the radical and yawping figure, nevertheless, Ginsburg acknowledges his utmost point of having looked up to Whitman as a source of inspiration, a phenomenal role model for American poets, and also a figure that shares the same radical views Ginsburg may have.