Barbara Ehrenreich identifies two variants of the "Beat" movement in her book The Hearts of Men. The original "Beats" were the "hot" and "mad to live" rebels depicted in Kerouac's novel On the Road. And then, subsequently, there were the "beatniks" who were "cool" imitators. This latter strain was largely formed by media stereotyping.

A common thread uniting the original Beat aesthetic was its search for "honesty." Kerouac's spontaneous bop prosody which rejects revision is really a formal device directed at the true representation of the writer's vision.

This vision was consistent with the notion that mid-20th century American culture was homogenized, phony and corrupt. There was no truth to be found in the rows of ticky tack homes located along the pleasantly named roads and avenues in the regimented gloom of the glum suburbs.

The Beats thought that the honest truth was more likely to be found near the fringe, at the edge of society: in New York's Times Square with the junkies, in Mexico City with a prostitute or in Kansas where the hobos and other fellaheen rode freight trains out of Emerald City. The beatnik imitators found time on the weekends to complain about their routinized, sanitized, depersonalized weekday commute to and from convention in between backyard bar-b-queuing.

Each of the original Beat writers substantially and honestly rejected middle-class family conventions. Kerouac was a poor husband and a negligent father who rejected his daughter and avoided his financial obligations to her. Burroughs accidentally shot and killed his common-law wife and then spent much of his love life with men. Ginsberg announced his passionate homosexuality at a time when it was not politically correct. None of these men established conventional family structures.

There is at the moment a sort of Beat Regeneration occurring. It is fueled by the natural appeal the Beat aesthetic has for the young and restless at heart. It is manifested in the books, exhibitions, and CDs available for sale and the numerous websites on the internet dealing with Beat matters. Several biographies of Kerouac have been published in the last year. The recent deaths of Ginsberg and Burroughs within a short period of time of each other has further stimulated interest in the Beats both in the classrooms of high schools and colleges and in the minds of marketeers. What is motivating the regeneration? Is it the original strain or another mutant imitation that's regenerating?

Is the Beat Regeneration a hot passion for creative honesty and social nonconformity or is it just a cool thing to get into on the weekends?