As I said in my last post, my motto for 2012 is "Read more, write more, walk more". So in order to kick start that mantra I will begin with a post on the iconic Jack Kerouac novel "On the Road".
Published in 1957, it was originally written around 1951 by Kerouac. It is an account of his travels across America between 1947 and 1949 with real life friend Neal Cassady. In the book Cassady is portrayed as the character "Dean Moriarty" and Kerouac is the protaganist "Sal Paradise". It is kind of a who's who of figures from the so-called "Beat" movement of the 1950's. Kerouac is credited with coining the term "Beat Generation". Allen Ginsberg (most famous for his poem "Howl") is also featured in the character of Carlo Marx and William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) is dubbed "Old Bull Lee".
As for the copy pictured, I bought it back in the late '80's. I had forgotten most of the story and as I was spending a lot of November "on the road" myself (albeit mainly for work) the book came back to mind and so I took it with me. I have always liked the very last paragraph and though I had not read the book in a long time I have frequently turned to the back page and read those immortal words "I think of Dean Moriarty". Incidentally there is a video of Jack Kerouac on the Steve Allen show reading the last paragraph that is available on YouTube.
My thoughts on the book now, 20 years after I first read it surprised me somewhat. Like many young people I was attracted to the book because I viewed it as rebellion, about a couple of guys living a wild life with no cares and no sense of responsibility. Just look at the cover: "The Beat generation's classic novel of sex, jazz and freedom". On this read though I felt myself thinking "What are these guys trying to accomplish?" and "What is this all supposed to be about?". I found the character of Dean Moriarty was way over the top, though by accounts of the real life Neal Cassady the portrayal is not too far off. I wondered why Sal kept seeking him out even though he proved to be an unreliable companion who seemed to only pursue his own interests. Interests that by the end of the novel had alienated him from Sal and from the circle of friends they had. I suppose his fascination with Dean can be summed up in the line: "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn,burn....."
To read it in that context is to realize that the road of excess does not lead to the palace of wisdom (to paraphrase William Blake), but instead leaves nothing but an empty shell of a man.
So why would so many hold this book up as something to strive for? The story seems sad to me. In the final scene Sal is off to a Dizzy Gillespie concert. They leave Dean on a rainy New York street corner and can't even offer him a ride to the bus station. This would seem to be what the "road of excess" instead leads to.
I read a really good biography of Kerouac written by Gerald Nicosia many years ago. Kerouac ended up dying in 1969 from complications due to a life of alcoholism. YouTube has a few scenes of him visibly drunk on television. Another tortured soul who felt life too deeply I suppose.
Kerouac wrote what he called "spontaneous prose", a form of stream of conciousness writing. He was known to tape pages together in long rolls and use rolls of teletype paper so that he would not have to interrupt his train of thought by having to replace the paper in his typewriter. I think he would have enjoyed using the computer to write out his works!
In real life he was a merchant seaman, railroad brakeman, fire tower watchman and numerous other odd jobs. I have another book of his, a collection of short stories called "Lonesome Traveller". Here he tells about a few of these jobs and his adventures. I would recommend "Alone on a Mountain Top" and "October in the Railroad Earth".
"On the Road" is a must read in the category of American literature, if only for the style it is written in and a feeling for what post WW2 America was like. Will it make you want to drop out and live a life of freedom?
Well, I guess that is up to you!
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