I'd like to talk about the evolution(devolution?) of Dean on page 188-89 (Part 3, Chapter 2), 147 (When Bull Lee talks to Sal about Dean in Part 2, Chapter 6), and especially in the final chapter. Is he just a madman, succumbing to psychosis? A product of his time and his family and his father? There's some connection between him and Sal that persists much longer than anything else in the novel.
"The night was getting more and more frantic. I wished Dean and Carlo were there--then I realized they'd be out of place and unhappy. They were like the man with the dungeon stone and the gloom, rising from the underground, the sordid hipsters of America, a new beat generation that I was slowly joining" (53-53, Part 1, Chapter 9).
I would like to discuss how Sal develops the characters on his group, those who will be considered the "beat generation." What do they have in common? What do they do differently? How does the word "beat" come to be defined throughout the novel? I am also interested in how this compares to "the best minds of our generation" in Ginsberg's "Howl."
"I looked up out of the dark swirl of my mind and I knew I was on a bed eight thousand feet above sea level, on a roof of the world, and I knew that I had lived a whole life and many others in the poor atomistic husk of my flesh, and I had all the dreams." (pg. 301)
I think this is such an interesting part because it's Sal's thoughts right before Dean leaves him in Mexico. He's sick and delusional, but he still imagines himself having this fulfilling life (which he still sees as following Dean around, being on the road), and he had all the dreams--everything he ever wanted laid out before him, any dream he'd ever had could come true. And then Dean leaves him, because Dean is a selfish character, and finally Sal has to confront the truth about what kind of person Dean really is.
"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 just didn't remember especially because the transitions from life to death and back to life 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." (173)
We have spent a great deal of time in class discussing the themes and historical context of this book. However, while reading this book, I have been shocked and astounded by the way it is written. The language is incredible and so different from anything I have encountered before. I think this passage is a great example of the language use in the novel, and I would like to take some time in discussion to appreciate and discuss the form and language in the book.
In class, Professor Posnock discussed the challenge of writing about an aesthetic of the unsustainable, arguing that it is impossible because of the inherent demands of the currency of words: that they provide some degree of shape. He claimed that Kerouac succeeded at making an attempted representation of "mad accounts of time" and yet could not actually do it for this very reason. I wonder what the word, as a medium, is capable of in terms of contributing to representational (aesthetic) attempts, as opposed to understanding the medium by its demands/limitations/restrictions. Is this where the expressive power of Kerouac's words and language decisions may come in?
I would like to discuss a quote we looked at in class in greater depth-
"There were plenty of queers. Several times I went to San Fran with my gun and when a queer approached me in a bar john I took out the gun and said, "Eh? Eh? What's that you say?"He bolted. I never understood why I did; I knew queers all over the country. It was just the loneliness of San Francisco and the fact I had a gun."
What does this quote say about Sal's sexual frustation? What about San Francisco brings it out of him?
I'd like to talk about the evolution(devolution?) of Dean on page 188-89 (Part 3, Chapter 2), 147 (When Bull Lee talks to Sal about Dean in Part 2, Chapter 6), and especially in the final chapter. Is he just a madman, succumbing to psychosis? A product of his time and his family and his father? There's some connection between him and Sal that persists much longer than anything else in the novel.
ReplyDeleteCorey Fernandez, Monday 4pm
"The night was getting more and more frantic. I wished Dean and Carlo were there--then I realized they'd be out of place and unhappy. They were like the man with the dungeon stone and the gloom, rising from the underground, the sordid hipsters of America, a new beat generation that I was slowly joining" (53-53, Part 1, Chapter 9).
ReplyDeleteI would like to discuss how Sal develops the characters on his group, those who will be considered the "beat generation." What do they have in common? What do they do differently? How does the word "beat" come to be defined throughout the novel? I am also interested in how this compares to "the best minds of our generation" in Ginsberg's "Howl."
"I looked up out of the dark swirl of my mind and I knew I was on a bed eight thousand feet above sea level, on a roof of the world, and I knew that I had lived a whole life and many others in the poor atomistic husk of my flesh, and I had all the dreams." (pg. 301)
ReplyDeleteI think this is such an interesting part because it's Sal's thoughts right before Dean leaves him in Mexico. He's sick and delusional, but he still imagines himself having this fulfilling life (which he still sees as following Dean around, being on the road), and he had all the dreams--everything he ever wanted laid out before him, any dream he'd ever had could come true. And then Dean leaves him, because Dean is a selfish character, and finally Sal has to confront the truth about what kind of person Dean really is.
Stacy Corich, Monday 11-11:50
"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 just didn't remember especially because the transitions from life to death and back to life 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." (173)
ReplyDeleteWe have spent a great deal of time in class discussing the themes and historical context of this book. However, while reading this book, I have been shocked and astounded by the way it is written. The language is incredible and so different from anything I have encountered before. I think this passage is a great example of the language use in the novel, and I would like to take some time in discussion to appreciate and discuss the form and language in the book.
In class, Professor Posnock discussed the challenge of writing about an aesthetic of the unsustainable, arguing that it is impossible because of the inherent demands of the currency of words: that they provide some degree of shape. He claimed that Kerouac succeeded at making an attempted representation of "mad accounts of time" and yet could not actually do it for this very reason. I wonder what the word, as a medium, is capable of in terms of contributing to representational (aesthetic) attempts, as opposed to understanding the medium by its demands/limitations/restrictions. Is this where the expressive power of Kerouac's words and language decisions may come in?
ReplyDeleteI would like to discuss a quote we looked at in class in greater depth-
ReplyDelete"There were plenty of queers. Several times I went to San Fran with my gun and when a queer approached me in a bar john I took out the gun and said, "Eh? Eh? What's that you say?"He bolted. I never understood why I did; I knew queers all over the country. It was just the loneliness of San Francisco and the fact I had a gun."
What does this quote say about Sal's sexual frustation? What about San Francisco brings it out of him?
Molly Speacht
Monday, 4-4:50