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I'm in love with another Jack! Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"
Front-Ranger:
After many adventures and meeting several colorful people, Jack finally arrives in Colorado. But it is still quite some time before he reunites with his new friend Dean. He tracks Dean down through their mutual friend Carlo Marx, who is actually the poet Allen Ginsberg. Here is the description of the reunion of Jack and Dean:
"Carlo knocked; then he darted to the back to hide; he didn't want Camille [Dean's new lover] to see him. I stood in the door. Dean opened it stark naked. I saw a brunette on the bed, one beautiful creamy thigh covered with black lace, look up with mild wonder. 'Why, Sa-a-al!' said Dean. 'Well now--ah--ahem--yes, of course you've arrived--you old sonumbitch you finally got on that old road. Well now, look here--we must--yes, yes, at once--we must, we really must! Now Camille--' and he swirled on her. 'Sal is here, this is my old buddy from New Yor-r-k, this is his first night in Denver and it's absolutely necessary for me to take him out and fix him up with a girl.' "
fernly:
Saw this, and thought you might be interested, Lee.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/30/BAG4NOUONC1.DTL&hw=kerouac&sn=001&sc=1000
Front-Ranger:
Thanks, fernly. That's an interesting article about the drive to conserve some of the Beat poets old haunts, this one's in San Francisco near the City Lights bookstore.
I was looking around downtown Denver tonite for the Jack Kerouac lofts on Huron Street but I couldn't get too close to them due to street construction. Just pre-empting his name means little though, in the long run. It's amazing the range of ideas baby boomers have about Kerouac. He stands for whatever was wild and free in their youth, and that differs greatly from person to person.
Reading On the Road tonite, I was struck by how Jack is taken in by Dean, but yet he knows that he is a con-man, yet he in a way embraces the idea of being conned.
Front-Ranger:
My April Fool's name is Two Jacks and if you're reading this, I'll bet you can guess who those two Jacks might be!!
Here are some thoughts about On the Road from Jim Irsay, owner of the scroll (he also owns the Indianapolis Colts!)
"It's one of those great books. It's a must-read. There are just some books and novels that are kind of timeless. For me, it's just about this wonderful notion of youth and freedom in a certain period of time. I went on the road with my friends, and I think most people do. We're all looking for the magic."
Front-Ranger:
More from On the Road:
"At lilac evening I walked with every muscle aching among the lights of 27th and Welton ... in Denver ... feeling that the best ... (my) world had offered (me) was not enough ecstasy ... not enough life, kicks, darkness, music, not enough night."
Kerouac was the one who named his group of artists "The Beats." There is mystery surrounding this term. Many people suppose it refers to a drum or heartbeat, and referred to the rhythm of the poetry, which is very similar to the hip-hop artists of today. But Kerouac actually called his friends the Beats as a short form of beatific, which was the kind of ecstacy that he and his friends strove to achieve and what they were really looking for as they wandered on the road of life.
From page 54, Jack is on a trip to the mountains for five days without Dean and Carlo, and he's missing them immensely, "They were like the man with the dungeon stone and the gloom, rising from the underground, the sordid hipsters of America, a new beat generation that I was slowly joining." This may be the first use of the words beat generation.
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