2. 2 Jack Kerouac’s literary life
No matter how great Jack Kerouac was on the football team in the middle school, and no matter how strong his will was when he was a little boy, his achievements in literature is the most significant, which is the brightest light in his whole life. From his first book The Town and the City to the masterpiece On the Road, from Doctor Sax (1959) to Vision of Gerard (1963), from Beat Generation to Visions of Cody (1972), Kerouac’s brilliant gift is completely showed to all the readers.
2. 2. 1 Jack Kerouac’s style and innovations
Kerouac’s method was greatly influenced by the explosion of Jazz, especially the Bebop genre established by Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and others. Later, Kerouac would include ideas he developed in his Buddhist studies, beginning with Gary Snyder. He called this style Spontaneous Prose, a literary akin to stream of consciousness.
As the central features of this writing method, the ideas of breath, do not edit a single word, but improvise words over the inherent structures of mind and language. The elimination of the period was connected with his idea of breath, preferring to use a long, connecting dash instead. As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks. When spoken, the words might take on a certain kind of rhythm, though none of it pre-meditated.
It was at about the time that Kerouac wrote The Subterranean that he was approached by Ginsberg and others to formally explicate exactly how he wrote it, how he did Spontaneous Prose. Among the writings he set down specifically about his Spontaneous Prose method, a list of “essentials”.
1. Scribbled secret notebook, and wild typewritten pages, for your own joy
2. Submissive to everything, open, listening
3. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
4. You are a Genius all the time
5. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored and Angled in Heaven [9]
Kerouac is always considered to be the father of the Beat Movement, though he disliked such a crown actually. Some believed that sometimes Kerouac’s writing methods did not lead to lively or energetic prose. And even someone once said that his was not writing; it was only typing. In spite all this criticism, we should keep in mind that what Kerouac valued writing and how he wrote have to be seen separated.
2. 2. 2 Jack Kerouac’s influence
Kerouac is considered by some follows as the “King of the Beats”. His plain speak techniques of writing prose, together with his nearly long-form haiku style of poetry has inspired countless modern neo-beat writers and some artists, such as George Condo (Painter), Roger Craton (Poet and Philosopher), and John McNaughton (filmmaker). And the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University is named in his honor. In 2007, Kerouac was awarded a posthumous honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
3 Introduction to On the Road
On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s great Beat novel, a charming, honest and poignant story of a friendship, is the best piece of writing to come out of the Beat Generation. It has been considered to be the Bible of the Beat Generation, which vividly embodies most of the features of the Beat Generation, so through this excellent novel, we are able to grasp the essence of the philosophy of the Beat Generation and even can experience charm some of their pursuit.
3. 1 Content of On the Road
The whole story is based on four trips through America. It is a novel of experiences and traveling involving two main characters, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty.
The first trip is from New York to Denver to San Francisco then to Los Angeles. Sal tries to hitch out west alone, but doesn’t get very far in his first try. In the second time, he takes a bus to Chicago and hitches to Denver. There, he stays with Dean Moriarty, abandoning other friends. But there is only one friend who goes in the same style of Dean Moriarty, Carlo Marx who is Allen Ginsberg in reality. So Carlo and Sal, together with Dean, wander around Denver until Sal takes off for San Francisco to stay with Remi Bencoeur. But at last he returns to New York alone.
The second trip is from Virginia to New York then to New Orleans and to San Francisco at last. Sal does not leave Testament, Virginia until Dean comes. Together with Dean, come a girlfriend named Marylou and a friend named Ed Dunkel who has to meet his nagging wife at the home of Old Bull Lee who is William S. Burroughs in reality. Sal joins their joyride to New York and then to New Orleans. Later, they set out to San Francisco. There he decides to dispose of Marylou by setting her up with Sal. Dean seems to get a kick out of setting male friends up with his girlfriend, so Sal decides to go home.
The third trip is from New York to Denver to San Francisco and back again. In New York, Sal finds himself wanting to go to Denver because he misses Dean. He goes to San Francisco to find Dean and Camille in problems. But Sal’s arrival is the catalyst that breaks up their impromptu home life. The whole crowd goes to hear live jazz and Dean and Sal set off for the East Coast. They hitch to Denver where they give a thunbride to others and make the trip to Chicago. Hearing more live jazz in Chicago, they wander back to New York.
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