Upon The 50th Anniversary Of The Death Of "King OF The Beats" Jack Kerouac-On The 60th Anniversary Of Allan Ginsberg’s “Howl”Writer’s Corner- Jack Kerouac’s “The Dharma Bums” Hold Forth- A 40th Anniversary Re-Reading

Click on the title to link to a "Wikipedia" entry for Jack Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums".

Book Review

The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac, Viking, New York, 1958

Let me set the scenario. I first read Jack Kerouac’s “The Dharma Bums” in 1970 after racing though in one sitting his classic “beat” anthem, “On The Road”. I have read that novel many times since then, including a recent reading last fall to mark the 40th anniversary of his death. That physical and spiritual road "wanderlust" story affected me and my generation in more ways that it is necessary to mention here. As the headline notes, “Dharma Bums” has been gathering dust on the shelf lo these many years. Why the different response?

The difference is this. “Road” , its madcap wanderings, its setting its sights toward the expansive American West, any distance west as far as that goes,, its characters in search of some elusive meaning to life. Or maybe no meaning and the best bet is to hang out existentially hit nerve that many, including me, could relate to. In “Dharma” Jack and his madcap friends of this period (late 1950s) are already in the West and as a quick look at the map will show, you have to stop. Stop, at least physically if you want to stay in the continental United States. And that is where Jack, his spiritual search for his version of the meaning of existence, and I part company. Not because his search was worthless, but because that was not the type search that I needed to go on, then or now. Still, on those pages where he lets go and comes close to his vision of truth, he makes me wish that I could have gone with him, part of the way at least. I’ll put the difference in shorthand though. I relate to Jack's cruising off of Dean Moriarty’s hyper-energetic quest better than off of Japhy Ryder’s search for Zen balance.

Upon The 50th Anniversary Of The Death Of "King OF The Beats" Jack KerouacAs Hometown Lowell Celebrates -On The 60th Anniversary Of Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" (1957)-"When The Beatniks Were Social Lions"- An Article By Hunter S. Thompson On A Slice Of Post World War II Americana

Click on title to link to 1964 (pre-Gonzo) "The Nation" article by Hunter Thompson on the beat scene in San Francisco, "When The Beatniks Were Social Lions". This and other earlier articles compiled in "The Great Shark Hunt", Volume One, demonstrate for the millionth time that great talents that head in new directions(in Thompson's case, as a 'gonzo' journalist in the early days, if not later)must pay their dues by learning the basics of their craft. This article shows that he knew how to work the newspaper human interest story beat, even if a little off-beat. He mined that milieu his whole working career with varying amounts of success. Hell, this is just a good story about an interesting slice of bohemian Americana. Period.

Upon The 50th Anniversary Of The Death Of "King Of The Beats" Jack Kerouac-*Writer's Corner- From The 1960's Counterculture- Richard Brautigan's "Trout-Fishing In America"

Click on the headline to link to a "Wikipedia" entry for the 1960's countercultural writer, Richard Brautigan.

Book Review

Trout Fishing In America, Richard Brautigan, Four Seasons Foundation, 1967

I noted in a recent review of a film documentary about the literary exploits and influences of the “beat” generation of the 1950s on my generation, the “Generation of ‘68”, that we were a less literary generation. That was one of the things that drew me to the beat literary figures like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs, among others. Our generation was driven more by the sound of music and fury. Although I believe that statement holds up over time it is not true that there were no literary figures who tried to express for us what the landscape of mainstream American was like, and why it desperately needed to be changed. Enter one Richard Brautigan and his exploration on that theme, “Trout Fishing In America”

This little book drew my attention first for its cover (see linked “Wikipedia” entry for a view) more than anything literary since I was not then familiar with Brautigan’s name or work. However, the photograph of Brautigan and his “muse” showed me all I needed to know to go inside. He (and she) look exactly like the poster children for the San Francisco experience of the 1960s. And like god’s own vision of what the American West would have been populated with if the “greed heads” hadn’t gone and burned up, mined, polluted, and otherwise destroyed everything they could get their hands on (and more).

And that last statement can stand, my friends, for Brautigan’s motivation in writing this book. In a series of vignettes not, unfortunately, always creating a seamless plot Brautigan gives an alternative look at some funny, weird, crazy American types as he travels throughout the West in the early 1960s alone at times, and with wife and child at others. The title of the book recurs in several variations throughout (as sport, as a name, as a place, etc.). If you like a little off-beat theme, or are just curious about what those “hippies” were up to in the 1960s here is one of our own. Trout fishing, indeed.