June 30, 2005

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Angel-Headed

So I’ve been running into this term ‘angel-headed’ recently. I saw it yesterday in The Onion, in a review of Miranda July’s new movie —

July’s strangely ingratiating dreamers, lost souls, and angel-headed dorks have to scream just to make their voices heard above the white noise of modern life.

— and it was finally too much. I had to Google it. And it turns out I’m a cultural illiterate; it’s from Allen Ginsberg in “Howl.”

He wrote:

…angelheaded hipsters, burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.

So what I want to know now is: Did Ginsberg coin the term? And what, exactly, do you think it means?

P.S. Also in this edition of The Onion: My rocker clone with a smart interview.