Madness and Meaning and Truth.

"After a year or two I came to realize it meant something clear, unconsciously...like a photograph developing slowly over time." Ch. 5, 40 minutes into the movie.

This scene in the movie is where Allen Ginsberg's character is discussing the motivation and meaning behind the writing of Howl. He begins with discussing the idea that at the start, even he himself did not fully understand what it was that he was writing. This idea comes to embody the emotional aspect of the poem Howl. Ginsberg wrote what he was feeling, as best as he could. He admits that it wasn't until later that the significance behind the words became known to him. He started the see his own work more clearly over time. I think this scene does well to highlight the insanity theme throughout the poem. Ginsberg is admitting that his work was not meant to make sense, that the madness portrayed by it is the end to a means, not the other way around. The madness and the emotion behind the words are what really matter, not the meaning behind them. Ginsberg eventually goes on to discuss the other end of the spectrum; the times when his poem makes perfect sense to him, and perhaps, those who read it. He remarks on the idea of truth, which I think is another theme in the poem Howl. Though full of "madness," the poem tells the truth and Ginsberg in this scene does a good job of glorifying that.

How is Ginsberg own confession of not actually understanding his own work as it was being written a clue, in many senses, into the "madness within" Howl's author? How does Ginsberg's thoughts towards his poem help the reader to better understand the context in which it was written, and in turn, better understand the poem as a whole?