solved It’s important to follow all of the numbered steps above

It’s important to follow all of the numbered steps above before posting to our learning community this week. I want everyone in the class to look up the word “moloch” in the expansive annotations at the end of the book (its meanings are discussed on pages 139-142). In addition to the original meaning of the word “moloch,” I want you to think about what allusions Ginsberg is making with this word in the poem. We’ve spent a lot of time in our class looking at who (and what) was excluded from modern progress and its ideologies: the uncritical belief that scientific, technological, and economic progress and development will, in and of themselves, inexorably lead to a better world. That things are just going to keep getting better as we seemingly move forward in time. This poem was written in the shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the dropping of the atom bomb) and the Holocaust, which completely shattered our shared narrative, inherited from the 19th century, that history is inexorably moving forward. Is it possible that Ginsberg’s poem is a howl, a scream, a cry against modernity itself? Is this word “moloch” used by Ginsberg as a stand-in for a modernity that sacrifices entire generations of people to its cause? What do you think this might mean? What other meanings or allusions do you think he is making with this word in the context of the poem?Finally, I want you to look up, in the expansive annotations, at least one other meaning of some aspect of the poem that wasn’t clear to you as you were reading and listening along. Something that is of particular interest to you. I want you to reflect on the poem while you are looking up that meaning and share that reflection and that meaning or word with all of us in our learning community. This is meant to be a creative and fun module. Moreover, it follows all of the work we’ve done to date in the course in thinking deeper about issues of modernism and modernity. Issues that we have looked at in different ways throughout the semester. Have fun with this work and enjoy the experience.