Jack Kerouac himself explained the difference between the Beat (Beatific ) Generation and the Generation of the 20s.The 20s were looking for hedonistic escapism , whereas the beats were on a stimulation fueled search for meaning.
It is important to understand this as a lot of readers see the slightly mismonic title as an escapist drug trip with hedonistic superficial ambient pleasure-seeking celebrationist track.So much so even the Amazon Book description blurb confidently tells us " Their hedonistic search for release or fulfilment through drink, sex, drugs and jazz becomes an exploration of personal freedom, a test of the limits of the American dream.".And we also had a recent documentary revisiting the landmarks on the 50th Anniversary of the Novel being presented by a parody of faux-hedonism , comedian Russell Brand.
Alas this way of looking at the Novel seemed to be at variance of the self-description of Kerouac himself "Dean and I were embarked on a journey through post-Whitman America to FIND that America and to FIND the inherent goodness in American man. It was really a story about 2 Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God. And we found him."
On The Road should be looked on as an Account of a Pilgrimage of the Mind , and not necessarily a journey from inanimate location to another place and back on a road leading nowhere.
Though he is said to have written the main body of work in a feverish three week spell using a system he termed "kickwriting" , he would type and type until he reached a zone he would consider the real prose of his inner being , it was not unusual for him to generate rolls and rolls of joined paper stretching to over twelve feet in a single sitting, looking to create the emotional urgency of his actual experience at the time of the event in the form of an emotionally chromatic impressionist painting, the work was then tweaked and honed over a seven year process before he finally managed to get a publisher.
We also have from footage of Kerouac reading the manner to appreciate the diction of flow of reading his material.The narration voice takes the form of a jazz instrument in the context of a "spontaneous" performance.The video below gives a classic example to the tempo and delivery as he reads from the last page of the Book.
The Beat Generation and Jack Kerouac especially were a religious generation , the specific object of their quest was spiritual , without sounding like a cliche , the real journey was inward.
Below is an interesting lecture by Prof. Amy Hungerford on the Book and its place in post-war literature.
No comments:
Post a Comment