Kerouac Speaks

[Fatality]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzCF6hgEfto]YouTube - Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show[/ame]

 

[Fatality]

Early morning yellow flowers, thinking about the drunkards of Mexico ~ Kerouac

 

[Fatality]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJdxJ5llh5A]YouTube - Jack Kerouac- American Haiku[/ame]

 

[Diuretic]

Great writer. I am a bit confused though as to the pronunciation of his name. I remember reading in one of his books where he discussed his ancestry. French-Canadian, his ancestors moved to Mass. when it was clear that the British had hammered Lower Canada and France was going to cede the territory to the British. But I also remember (perhaps wrongly) where he (in character) was telling another character in one of his books was saying it was pronounced, "Kerouwaaaaaaaay" or something similar.

And then lately there has been the claim that his "stream of consciousness" style of writing was in fact heavily edited so it wasn't as spontaneous as it seems. Not that I care, I like reading him and have for many years.

Great clip, thanks F.

 

[Fatality]

Great writer. I am a bit confused though as to the pronunciation of his name. I remember reading in one of his books where he discussed his ancestry. French-Canadian, his ancestors moved to Mass. when it was clear that the British had hammered Lower Canada and France was going to cede the territory to the British. But I also remember (perhaps wrongly) where he (in character) was telling another character in one of his books was saying it was pronounced, "Kerouwaaaaaaaay" or something similar.

And then lately there has been the claim that his "stream of consciousness" style of writing was in fact heavily edited so it wasn't as spontaneous as it seems. Not that I care, I like reading him and have for many years.

Great clip, thanks F.

i remember something along those lines as well (about the name thing) I dont remember which book though...satori in paris? i forget its been a while.

 

[Fatality]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKnK_X8r-Nc]YouTube - Jack Kerouac Bowery Blues[/ame]

 

[Fatality]

There was a little alley in San Francisco back of the Southern Pacific station at Third and Townsend in redbrick of drowsy lazy afternoons with everybody at work in offices in the air you feel the impending rush of their commuter frenzy and soon they'll be charging en masse from Market and Sansome buildings on foot and in buses and all well-dressed thru workingman Frisco of Walk-up truckdrivers and even the poor grime-bemarked Third Street of lost bums...and here's all these Millbrae and San Carlos neat-necktied producers and commuters of America and Steel civilization rushing by with San Francisco Chronicles and green Call-Bulletins not even enough time to be disdainful, they've to catch 130, 132, 134, 136 all the way up to 146 till the time of evening supper in homes of the railroad earth when high in the sky the magic stars ride above the following hotshot freight trains --

It's all in California, it's all a sea, I swim out of it in afternoons of sun hot meditation in my jeans with head on handkerchief or brakeman's lantern or (if not working) on books, I look up at blue sky of perfect lostpurity and feel the warp of wood of old America beneath me and have insane conversations with Negroes in several-story windows above which is so much like the alleys of Lowell and I hear far off in the sense of coming night that engine calling our mountains.
from Lonesome Traveler, by Jack Kerouac

 

[Diuretic]

I think Lonesome Traveller (our spelling) is my favourite. I remember reading about his journey with a tramp steamer across to Europe (via North Africa? It's been a while since I read it). But he differentiated the two iconic cities of Europe - Paris and London - so beautifully in his description (from memory and necessarily paraphrased) of Paris being a woman but London was a man in a bowler hat smoking a pipe. I also remember his description of listening to Bach's St Matthew Passion in a church in London. His writing sticks with you.

 

[editec]

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.”

Jack Kerouac

 

[Shogun]

I want to add this line to a book someday: "Jack Kerouac was not a hippy; a traveling companion, a muse, a prophet of a generation and product to be sold by friends - but never a hippy."

Have any of you checked out

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Kerouac-Selected-Letters-1-1940-1956/dp/0140234446]Amazon.com: Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 1 1940-1956 (9780140234442): Jack Kerouac, Ann Charters: Books[/ame]

interesting.

also, regarding the above line:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/When-Was-Cool-Kerouac-School/dp/006000567X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256398094&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: When I Was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School (P.S.) (9780060005672): Sam Kashner: Books[/ame]

 

[Fatality]

one of Kerouacs closest friends, john clelleon holmes

this is his book

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Go-Novel-John-Clellon-Holmes/dp/1560254246/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256413943&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Go: A Novel (9781560254249): John Clellon Holmes, Seymour Krim, Ann Charters: Books[/ame]

i got it a short time ago and have just begun it, great stuff, a precursor to Jack's On the Road.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(novel)

 

[Fatality]

I think Lonesome Traveller (our spelling) is my favourite. I remember reading about his journey with a tramp steamer across to Europe (via North Africa? It's been a while since I read it). But he differentiated the two iconic cities of Europe - Paris and London - so beautifully in his description (from memory and necessarily paraphrased) of Paris being a woman but London was a man in a bowler hat smoking a pipe. I also remember his description of listening to Bach's St Matthew Passion in a church in London. His writing sticks with you.

I haven't read Lonesome traveler yet, one of the few i have not read. though i have the readings from it on cd with tons of other stuff. youre right, his writing does stick with you like bits of lyric or melody from a tune.