Jack Kerouac appreciation thread.

[Joe Fields]

I am a self-proclaimed Dharma Bum. I must give thanks to my older brother, who turned me on to Kerouac in the late '60's. Because of Kerouac, I was able to free my mind of conventional thinking, discover America, and discover who I am, in the process.

[Bassic]

1. Jack Kerouac fucking rocked.

On the Road and the Dharma Bums are two of the best books I have ever read.

[Joe Fields]

5. Well, he has been just about as much of an influence on my life,

as my parents have been.

[Magrittes Pipe]

2. That's not writing, it's typing.

;)

[begin_within]

13. You're just jealous, Truman.

[_testify_]

3. He might just be the coolest guy ever.

On The Road was a life-changing book for me.

The fact that he wrote his books on one long continuous sheet of paper still amazes me!

[Bassic]

4. Yeah, me too.

I'd like to see what that manuscript looks like.

[Joe Fields]

6. Pure genius. It shouldn't be too long, before we get to see the latest

edition of On The Road, as it was originally written.

[martymar64]

7. I loved Dharma Bums

Even more than On The Road.
It's makes me sad how his life ended. He had so much more to give but alcohol destroyed him before he could.

[SteppingRazor]

8. I owe him a lot...

I read "On the Road" in junior high, which then turned me on to Burroughs, Bukowski, Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson. All of which influenced me to become a writer. So, indirectly, I have Jack Kerouac to thank for the fact that I'm currently sitting in a newsroom, procrastinating an ever-closer deadline by typing this very post on DU.

[Joe Fields]

9. lol!

[fishwax]

10. I got to see the "On the Road" Scroll in Iowa City in march of '05

as it was touring the country. It was awesome. I just happened to be traveling through Iowa City on the day the exhibit opened at the U of I art museum. They had it laid out in a long display case in a room with a dark marble floor, so the scroll looked a little like a highway line. It was a very nice display, and it was cool to be able to walk along the display case searching for my favorite lines (the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live mad to talk, mad to be saved ...)

[Joe Fields]

11. How awsome that would have been.

I would have read the entire thing!

[fishwax]

17. I wish I could have

:) Alas, I had to be in Illinois that night, so I couldn't stay. But it really was cool. I don't know if the scroll is still on a traveling display or not, but if you ever get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it. You won't be disapointed.

[Joe Fields]

21. Oh, HELL NO, I won't be disappointed!

It will be in paperback, soon.

[begin_within]

12. And for just a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that

I always wanted to reach, which was a complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm, and the sensation of death kicking at my heels to move on, with a phantom dogging its own heels, and myself hurrying to a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of uncreated emptiness, the potent and inconceivable radiance shining in bright Mind Essence, innumerable lotus-lands falling open in the magic mothswarm of heaven. I could hear an indescribable seething roar which wasn't in my ear but everywhere and had nothing to do with sounds. I realized that I had died and been reborn numberless times but didn't remember because the transitions from life to death and back are so ghostly easy, a magical action for naught, like falling asleep and waking up again a million times, the utter casualness and deep ignorance of it.

[Joe Fields]

14. Go on, go on...!

[begin_within]

22. But now the bouncing (of the car) was no longer unpleasant, it was the

most pleasant and graceful billowy trip in the world, as over a blue sea, and Dean's face was suffused with an unnatural glow that was like gold as he told us to understand the springs of the car now for the first time and dig the ride. Up and down we bounced, and even Victor understood and laughed. Then he pointed left to show which way to go for the girls, and Dean, looking left with indescribable delight and leaning that way, pulled the wheel around and rolled us smoothly and surely to the goal, meanwhile listening to Victor's attempt to speak and saying grandly and magniloquently, "Yes, of course! There's not a doubt in my mind! Decidedly, man! Oh, indeed! Why, pish posh, you say the dearest things to me! Of course! Yes! Please go on! To this Victor talked gravely and with magnificent Spanish eloquence. For a mad moment I thought Dean was understanding everything he said by sheer wild insight and sudden revelatory genius inconceivably inspired by his glowing happiness. In that moment too, he looked so exactly like Franklin Delano Roosevelt - some delusion in my flaming eyes and floating brain - that I drew up in my seat and gasped with amazement. In myriad pricklings of heavenly radiation I had to struggle to see Dean's figure, and he looked like God. I was so high I had to lean my head back on the seat; the bouncing of the car sent shivers of ecstasy through me. The mere thought of looking out the window at Mexico - which was now something else in my mind - was like recoiling from some gloriously riddled glittering treasure-box that you're afraid to look at because of your eyes, they bend inward, the richness and treasures are too much to take all at once. I gulped. I saw streams of gold pouring through the sky and right across the tattered roof of the poor old car, right across my eyeballs and indeed right inside them, it was everywhere. I looked out the window at the hot sunny streets and I saw a woman in a doorway and I thought she was listening to every word we said - routine paranoic visions due to tea. But the stream of gold continued. For a long time I lost consciousness in my lower mind of what we were doing and only came around sometime later when I looked up from fire and silence like waking from sleep to the world, or waking from void to a dream, and they told me we were parked outside Victor's house and he was already at the door of the car with his little baby son in his arms, showing him to us.

[Joe Fields]

25. YES! ....YES!......I said, with my thumb stuck up in the air,

whirling about like a man gone mad.......

[begin_within]

15. Viking Press is planning to publish the uncensored version of On The Road

by the end of 2007. "Uncensored" meaning some parts restored that were considered "unpublishable" in 1957.

[Joe Fields]

18. Yes, I know, and I can't wait to see it.!

[southpaw]

16. Yeah you could say "Jack Kerouac" and turn your back

and I'd be gone!

-Steve Earle
"The Other Kind"

[Joe Fields]

19. Right fucking on!......

[southpaw]

26. Corrected lyrics... in more context...

You see it used to be I was really free
I didn't need no gasoline to run
Before you could say Jack Kerouac you'd turn your back and I'd be gone
Yeah nowadays I got me two good wheels and I seek refuge in aluminum and steel
Aw, it takes me out there for just a little while
And the years fall away with every mile

It's been years since I listend to that song. Thanks for bringing it back to mind.

[Joe Fields]

28. Thank You!....And, thank Jack.....

[JitterbugPerfume]

20. he opened a generations mind

to possibilities


I can hardly wait to read the "new " version of "On The Road"

[Bassic]

23. New version? nt

[JitterbugPerfume]

24. bad choice of word(s)

I should have said origional version

[Bassic]

27. Which is different from the one everyone know? nt

[JitterbugPerfume]

29. unedited

nt

[Joe Fields]

31. Well, we will have a better insight into his thoughts, with this new versi

[southpaw]

30. Hunter S. Thompson on Jack Kerouac (Audio)

http://460design.net/thisnthat/HSTodetoJack.mp3

[Joe Fields]

32. OMG! Love it! Typical Thompson.......

[JitterbugPerfume]

35. Damn

I could not down load the link. What did Hunter say?

[datasuspect]

33. he's pretty cool

but i heard he ended up a conservatard alky hack who disavowed the very hippies him and the beats gave birth to.

[JitterbugPerfume]

34. I just bought Jack Kerouac Windblown World

The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947--1954 edited by Douglas Brinkley .I can not wait to DIG IN


I just hope Brinkley did not ---uhhh--- over edit

has anyone read it?

[Joe Fields]

36. Have you ever read his poetry?

Typical Kerouac! Some of it obscure. Some of it brilliant!

[enigmatic]

37. "Big Sur" is my favorite Kerouac book

He's one of the people that made me want to become a writer; I'll drink some port for him this weekend:)