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The women who come to West Venice, having forsaken radicalism, are interested in living only for the moment, in being constantly on the move.

Others who are attracted to this Mecca of the beat generation are homosexuals, heroin addicts, and smalltime hoodlums.

Those who are sexual deviants are naturally drawn to join the beatniks.

Since the homosexuals widely use marijuana, they do not have to be initiated.

Part of the ritual of sex is the use of marijuana.

As Lipton puts it: `` The Eros is felt in the magic circle of marijuana with far greater force, as a unifying principle in human relationships, than at any other time except, perhaps, in the mutual metaphysical orgasms.

The magic circle is, in fact, a symbol of and preparation for the metaphysical orgasm ''.

Under the influence of marijuana the beatnik comes alive within and experiences a wonderfully enhanced sense of self as if he had discovered the open sesame to the universe of being.

Carried high on this `` charge '', he composes `` magical '' poetry that captures the organic rhythms of life in words.

If he thus achieves a lyrical, dreamlike, drugged intensity, he pays the price for his indulgence by producing work -- Allen Ginsberg's `` Howl '' is a striking example of this tendency -- that is disoriented, Dionysian but without depth and without Apollonian control.

For drugs are in themselves no royal road to creativity.

How is the beat poet to achieve unity of form when he is at the same time engaged in a systematic derangement of senses.