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Kerouac RevisitedBy AAron A. StansberryJack Kerouac is dead; in life perhaps, but not on paper. Yet many will ask: Who Is Jack Kerouac?A Beat Generation pioneer, Jack Kerouac was the author of such prosaic narration as The Dharma Bums, On The Road, TheSubterraneans, Mexico City Blues, and Desolation Angels.He was a rebel. Kerouac openly disobeyed societal rules forbidding deviation from grammar, punctuation, or conventional morality. In his novels, if they may properly be described as such, Kerouac timely coined and typified the phrase The Beat Generation.He was one of the main spokesmen for this restless generation, Kerouac wrote about his wanderlust in and out of America’s underground. He wrote primarily of his journeys and observations driving and hitch-hiking across the U.S.A. and Mexico, Kerouac knew and understood many of the inner doubts, frustrations, and terrors of life. These were his themes.Kerouac wrote about man’s attempt to understand himself. He wrote of man—alone, standing defiantly in contemplation of existence itself,Kerouac stated that The Beat Generation is basically a religious movement, essentially a moral movement,” He maintained that Lifeis a vast wilderness, a world with a God, a world without meaning, without beginning or end. Kerouac felt that by understanding oneself the purpose of Life would be discovered, that a deity within oneself would be found.The late 1950’s and early 60’s were a time of question. The Beat Generation chose to reject the past and the future. The Beat philosophy: To face reality as it really is, living a day by day life,totally involved with the present. The Beat devotee dug everything, wanting nothing—for once he cared for anything, he could no longer dig—everything.Jack Kerouac died Alone; but he will live on, or, at least he will be remembered for his philosophical sidesteps and literary innovations. And, although his efforts have met with both lofty praise and lengthy condemnation, his works definitely leave a critical representation of the ideological concepts, and misunderstood lifestyle of The Beat Generation.He died Alone. Jack Kerouac died on October 21, 1969, in St. Petersburg, Florida. But, he will be remembered. He will live on—his name and life’s work will remain—on the sculptured sheets of type-set paper.Jack Kerouac’s prosaic pen is silenced forever; yet, he is not now Alone—in Death.
Newspaper Details
Billings Retort
Billings, Montana, US
Fri, Nov 07, 1969
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
MN, USA 12 Apr 2020
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