I finally finished On the Road (yes, it took me some time, I put it aside some time ago and forgot about it). I think it is a great book, just totally crazy. Dean Moriarty kept surprising me with his actions. On the one hand, he's searching for something to hold on to in his life, but he just can't resist the call for adventure, to explore the world, meet new people. It's sad to see how he wants people to understand him, although he isn't a person who wants to explain what's going on inside of him. It seems that the only woman who's capable of understanding Dean is Camille - and luckily Sal Paradise knows that. Dean is cursed - or blessed - because he has never had any future. Sal is a writer, a veteran; he has a steady income, and an aunt waiting for him. Dean has nothing. He has wives, and kids, no parents (although Dean Moriarty Senior must be out there), he has to take care of them, instead people taking care of him. But he could also be lucky to be so free. He has a lot of talents. He is the one who can - or better: believes he can - take risks, leave everything, everyone behind, travel the world, experience his youth. Sal is always 'gone', he has a home. When he travels to Mexico, he knows he's travelling, cuz he is away from home. Dean has no real home. Mexico can be his 'home'; Denver can be his 'home'.
Dean is always, On the Road.
I could go on and on and on about this book, but I think this is enough (for now)
It's interesting actually when you break down the name 'Dean Moriarty', from Kerouac's perspective. 'Dean' meaning 'teacher' and 'Moriarty' as Sherlock Holmes arch-nemesis.
I didn't know that! Awesome
In Desolation Angels Kerouac crashes in on Cassady trying to hold down a job and take care of his family. Especially crusty bittersweet because Kerouac never bothered to do either.
If I understand it correctly, Sal Paradise was actually a synonym for Jack Kerouac. Than who's Laura, at the end of the story? Was she the future wife of Sal, and by that, the future wife of Jack Kerouac?
Ah, I don't remember details.
Here:
http://cob.montevallo.edu/SimmonsRE/time.html
Married Joan Haverty in New York in 1950, so I'd guess that might be Laura. Daughter Jan born in 1952. Desolation Angels picks up in 1954 (I think -- or is that Dharma Bums?) with no mention of wife and kid. I heard the Jan spoke bitterly about the "movement's" treatment of women at a conference on the Beats in New York in the mid '90s.
Yeah, Dharma Bums picks up around 1954, Desolation Angels around 1956 or 1957 -- I think. It's been a while...
Wow, do I have those years jumbled up...
What I find strange about the book is also the fact that on the one hand, the persons in the book really just want to have fun, adventure, in their lives, but on the other hand, they don't want to neglect the deeper meaning of life, they want to explore that too, they have great interests in other people's experiences (although in the case of Dean Moriarty, that means the experiences of the men he meets, not the women he meets). Throughout the book, I also got the feeling Dean knows what Sal is heading for, without Sal ever realizing it; the fact that Sal will eventually go back to "old traditions", the old meaning of how to spend the rest of your life - in a modern way YES, but as I said, Dean knows that eventually Sal will be a father, a husband, a "suburbian". Sal sees his experiences with Dean no more than an adventure, but eventually, he KNOWS he can retreat and spend the rest of his days as a "normal" person, a person society wants. It was so obvious that Sal would be friends with Remi after all, even when it turns out Remi has become "a snob", who does not want Dean - with his turbulent life - to remind him of his old days. Sal accepts that; Dean - although he doesn't show it - will certainly not.
Quote:Sal sees his experiences with Dean no more than an adventure, but eventually, he KNOWS he can retreat and spend the rest of his days as a "normal" person, a person society wants.
This is funny -- and sad... Kerouac spent his last several years living with his "sainted mother" and drinking himself to death.
Which is what it's about, for me -- and why I end up thinking that Angels is the superior book -- it's largely an internal struggle, Kerouac still trying to have adventures while other people are busy doing their own things (working, studying, writing, dying). On the Road is a kick, but Angels gets into Kerouac's sad, aching loneliness amidst all of these people who he would eventually alienate, seeing that they are more mature and sophisticated than he is. (Dharma Bums was written for a deadline, is pretty fatuous and insubstantial -- though it does have some good descriptions of the area of California where I grew up before it grew up.) (Big Sur touches on some of the darker themes, too, and has some vivid moments that highlight Kerouac's antipathy toward women -- which really is central to his work, given the ongoing obsession with Memere...)
I'll search for the book patiodog, Angels. I do look Kerouac as a writer (although On the Road is his first book I've read so far).
Now my analysis does not represent reality (concerning the future I had in mind for Sal Paradise, and what actually happened to Jack Kerouac), but the feeling (and that's important) that I got when I read the end of the story was as I said - that Paradise was really heading for a life in the well-known suburbs, with (basically) a wife, two children, and a dog :wink:
Dr. Sax is also pretty internal, and would make a nice companion read to Desolation Angels. I mentioned the book earlier. Check this out, it's interesting:
http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=587
Thanks for the link. BTW, it was also nice to read on a link of patiodog that Jack Kerouac was born in a family of French Canadians.
He claimed that he didn't learn English until he was 6.
(Not meaning to beat up on your reading of the book at all -- it's kind of dead on line, actually, and I think the guy was a lot more positive about things before On the Road was published and he became a big star. He writes a bit later about kids coming to his house looking for "the beat writer" and not believing that it was actually Kerouac; they wanted somebody young and cool, and he looked like an old alcoholic bum.)
You have that right patiodog. I can't remeber what documentary it was, but I saw a clip of Kerouac being interviewed just before he died, on some television show, and he was a mess.
What happened to Kerouac's wife 'Georgia Sampas'?
Quick Google:
http://www.roadratroberts1.bravepages.com/JACK%20KEROUAC%202.htm Her name was Stella, but she was born in Georgia.
Thanks Cav. I knew John Sampas - he was an antique dealer of sorts - he used to bring stuff into the antique/junk shop I used to manage on Columbus Avenue in Boston.
John told me that Jack K. and Stella were childhood sweethearts and that when they did marry, she was possibly in her 40's that she was a virgin = and on their wedding night she ended up in the hospital from her deflowering.
And everyone thinks that Lowell, MA is a dull town?
