Reflections on "The Cleaveland Wrecking Yard"

My first impression of this text written by Richard Brautigan was one of confusion. I found it to be both bizarre and interesting. It’s bizarre because it talks about extremely uncommon topics that are hard to make sense of, and it’s interesting because I had the feeling of anticipation that made me want to keep reading. Something about these weird scenarios he mentions, such as going to purchase a trout stream, are so intriguing because the narrator has such a genuine curiosity and excitement for these objects, including his friend’s purchases of a window and a roof… I can’t imagine caring enough about a window or a roof to want to share this with the rest of the world. That’s what makes these concepts so interesting because I figure there must be some kind of meaning to this all. Then when he goes on to browse the “Family Gift Center” he appears to be in a frenzy of exploration and search for something. At this observation I am able to try to make some sort of sense out of the reading by making a connection to similar themes in our other readings from The Portable Sixties Reader.
There is recurring theme of both exploration and search as we look into the counter-culture movement of the sixties. This is apparent in Brautigan’s writing especially though the experimentation of unusual ideas such as the purchasing of a trout stream and waterfalls. A sense of these weird concepts also is seen in Bob Kaufman’s poem, “Grandfather was Queer, Too.” There is this strange personification of animals such as the “intellectual lobster playing chess.” The imaginative concepts in these writings are hard to make sense of but they reflect the breakaway from mainstream culture during the sixties. The theme of search also hints towards the identity crisis which seemed to be an issue especially for teenagers who were striving to stand out as different- more interesting, experimental, imaginative in contrast with conservatives of the time period. Also, I’m thinking the peculiar situations might also reflect the drug and alcohol use of the sixties.

"Power to the imagination, all power to the people." - the Berkeley Liberation Program, 1969