It’s been decades since I read On The Road, but I do remember my impressions if not the storyline. I felt that Jack (Sal) oscillated between admiration and jealousy of Neal (Dean). The negative introvert who wanted to live vicariously through his friend who seemed to have a charmed existence. Even when there was no charm in Neal’s often selfish “care-free” actions. No amount of mind altering substances could free Jack of the obsession or inability to just let go, perhaps because Jack was simply wired to resist change (which reminds me of psychological studies of conservatism).
Thought: Maybe the hippies confused Jack, the anti-hero, with the true hippie hero (Neal) because Jack penned the narrative. If so, perhaps Jack was bitter that all these hippies could embrace and live free from convention and guilt when he could not. And Jack would be right— in that sense, they were disconnected from him and he deserved no more credit than being the messenger.
Of course, it’s just an impression and I could be totally wrong.
Hi, Thea. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on my piece--it is greatly appreciated. I have not considered the thoughts that you discuss here, and I think there may be something to that. I always considered the generational difference between Kerouac and Kesey to be somewhat responsible for their different approaches, but of course Jack and Neal were closer to the same age.
I had a great chat with Denise Kaufman, or perhaps you may know her as Microgram Mary. She talked about her days with the Merry Pranksters and where life has taken her since— including a stunning revival of her music career. Here is the link:
Living here in Oregon, it is steeped in the legacy of Kesey and the Grateful Dead. The Oregon Country Fair that the Dead famously played in August 1972 still lives on in merriment, with 'Furthur' parked out front (not the original, but a bold statement of the psychedelic history and what to expect inside the Fair).
The endless Grateful Dead tribute or jam-based bands that play both Eugene and Portland, mainly to an audience of aging doctors, lawyers, and venture capitalists who bust out their tye-dyes for the gig, mixed with younger kids enjoying legalized weed with their bluegrass sounds, contributes to the enduring influence the Dead have on this part of the US.
Kesey and his pranksters loved a party and wanted to have fun. They were completely different than Leary and Alpert, who saw the psychedelic experience as a way to channel and expedite spirituality through chemistry. When Kesey and the Pranksters showed up in Millbrook, it was the perfect example of stuffy East Coast psychedelic spiritual academia vs. West Coast psychedelic Animal House lunacy.
Thanks for your comments, Michael. As you can probably tell, I admire Ken Kesey greatly--both his writing (especially 'Sometimes A Great Notion' and his 'comeback' book 'Sailor Song') and his social influence in the sixties and seventies.
Alcohol was Kerouacs demon, sad. His politics and spiritual self was different than Ginsberg and that crowd. He was ok in the early NY 50s - but the Beat thing drove him over the cliff. An interesting read are his “Letters” He was also struggling to get paid after his “overnight” success. BaDaBoom
Excellent article. The 60s were definitely an interesting time for sure. So many different groups of people.
Kesey's, Merry Pranksters, should definitely get more of a look than what is mentioned in, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. They symbolized something quite amazing and altogether interesting.
If you haven't read the above book or listened to the album, The Acid Tests, it is eye opening.
Makes me wonder how much ground Kesey would have made up if he didn't get arrested and thrown into jail or if LSD didn't get outlawed in England and the US.
I agree that Kesey doesn't get enough coverage, especially as a writer. He wrote three really great novels, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', 'Sometimes a Great Notion,' and 'Sailor Song.' and is one of the more important American literary figures of the last fifty years of the 20th century.
I have read Tom Wolfe's book, and it is a solid work on its own merits.
I agree that Kerouac's position in "Beat" culture is generally misunderstood, but I think any understanding of what he was trying to do has to start from the reality that his formative years were at Columbia in a time that wasn't some sort of beatnik idyll, but was very complicated. You had guys like Huncke slinging heroin around Morningside Heights, and manufacturing the image of the hip criminal that never really went away, and you also had Ginsburg engaged in what continues to be a very under-studied correspondence with Lionel Trilling about art and life. I don't know that Kerouac ever genuinely found a place for himself in that milieu. What he did do is set out on the road, create several novels which should at minimum be regarded as minor masterpieces, and return eventually to eastern Massachusetts embittered by what he experienced during his travels. If I had to guess, I'd say his difficulties getting along with Rexroth and Ginsburg and the other people depicted fictionally in "The Dharma Bums" (among others, and merely as examples) have a fair amount to do with his estrangement from the vibrant literary cultures that existed in SF and NYC for a substantial period, and had to color his relationship with then and explain to a significant extent his eventual withdrawal into a social conservatism that was presumably was there all along, and can't be whiffed aside as a consequence of alcoholism or a microcosm of post-'68 disappointment.
Hi, Darren. I appreciate your comments. The ideas you discuss surrounding Kerouac's alienation from the literary milieu at Columbia and in SF and NYC in general ring true, and I agree that he may have always had a more conservative bent than others in the Beat group--I tried to suggest that in the piece, but may not have articulated it well enough. I don't think his alcoholism helped much, but as you suggest it may have exacerbated what was already there.
In his history of the Beats that he wrote for the Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Ginsberg said, "If anyone really wanted to emulate the Jack Kerouac I knew, they would spend 24/7 at the library or in front of a typewriter."
I enjoyed this article, but it should be noted that the people of Bethel and surrounding areas - mostly fairly conservative - came to the aid of Woodstock when it was clear it was teetering on a catastrophic failure of basic resources. It was not just a coming together of "the kids" attending the concert, there's an even bigger tale to be told here that transcends socio-political ideology.
Hi, Ken. Thanks for your comments. It is true, as I have read in other sources as well, that the people surrounding Bethel provided a great deal of aid, without which there would have been disaster. I would probably consider editing this piece to make that point.
It’s been decades since I read On The Road, but I do remember my impressions if not the storyline. I felt that Jack (Sal) oscillated between admiration and jealousy of Neal (Dean). The negative introvert who wanted to live vicariously through his friend who seemed to have a charmed existence. Even when there was no charm in Neal’s often selfish “care-free” actions. No amount of mind altering substances could free Jack of the obsession or inability to just let go, perhaps because Jack was simply wired to resist change (which reminds me of psychological studies of conservatism).
Thought: Maybe the hippies confused Jack, the anti-hero, with the true hippie hero (Neal) because Jack penned the narrative. If so, perhaps Jack was bitter that all these hippies could embrace and live free from convention and guilt when he could not. And Jack would be right— in that sense, they were disconnected from him and he deserved no more credit than being the messenger.
Of course, it’s just an impression and I could be totally wrong.
Hi, Thea. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on my piece--it is greatly appreciated. I have not considered the thoughts that you discuss here, and I think there may be something to that. I always considered the generational difference between Kerouac and Kesey to be somewhat responsible for their different approaches, but of course Jack and Neal were closer to the same age.
I had a great chat with Denise Kaufman, or perhaps you may know her as Microgram Mary. She talked about her days with the Merry Pranksters and where life has taken her since— including a stunning revival of her music career. Here is the link:
https://www.herizonmusic.com/p/ace-of-cups-denise-kaufman-and-her-3b0
Living here in Oregon, it is steeped in the legacy of Kesey and the Grateful Dead. The Oregon Country Fair that the Dead famously played in August 1972 still lives on in merriment, with 'Furthur' parked out front (not the original, but a bold statement of the psychedelic history and what to expect inside the Fair).
The endless Grateful Dead tribute or jam-based bands that play both Eugene and Portland, mainly to an audience of aging doctors, lawyers, and venture capitalists who bust out their tye-dyes for the gig, mixed with younger kids enjoying legalized weed with their bluegrass sounds, contributes to the enduring influence the Dead have on this part of the US.
Kesey and his pranksters loved a party and wanted to have fun. They were completely different than Leary and Alpert, who saw the psychedelic experience as a way to channel and expedite spirituality through chemistry. When Kesey and the Pranksters showed up in Millbrook, it was the perfect example of stuffy East Coast psychedelic spiritual academia vs. West Coast psychedelic Animal House lunacy.
Thanks for your comments, Michael. As you can probably tell, I admire Ken Kesey greatly--both his writing (especially 'Sometimes A Great Notion' and his 'comeback' book 'Sailor Song') and his social influence in the sixties and seventies.
Alcohol was Kerouacs demon, sad. His politics and spiritual self was different than Ginsberg and that crowd. He was ok in the early NY 50s - but the Beat thing drove him over the cliff. An interesting read are his “Letters” He was also struggling to get paid after his “overnight” success. BaDaBoom
Very interesting piece! I know so little about Kerouac. Thanks for sharing so many details!
Excellent article. The 60s were definitely an interesting time for sure. So many different groups of people.
Kesey's, Merry Pranksters, should definitely get more of a look than what is mentioned in, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. They symbolized something quite amazing and altogether interesting.
If you haven't read the above book or listened to the album, The Acid Tests, it is eye opening.
Makes me wonder how much ground Kesey would have made up if he didn't get arrested and thrown into jail or if LSD didn't get outlawed in England and the US.
I agree that Kesey doesn't get enough coverage, especially as a writer. He wrote three really great novels, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', 'Sometimes a Great Notion,' and 'Sailor Song.' and is one of the more important American literary figures of the last fifty years of the 20th century.
I have read Tom Wolfe's book, and it is a solid work on its own merits.
I agree that Kerouac's position in "Beat" culture is generally misunderstood, but I think any understanding of what he was trying to do has to start from the reality that his formative years were at Columbia in a time that wasn't some sort of beatnik idyll, but was very complicated. You had guys like Huncke slinging heroin around Morningside Heights, and manufacturing the image of the hip criminal that never really went away, and you also had Ginsburg engaged in what continues to be a very under-studied correspondence with Lionel Trilling about art and life. I don't know that Kerouac ever genuinely found a place for himself in that milieu. What he did do is set out on the road, create several novels which should at minimum be regarded as minor masterpieces, and return eventually to eastern Massachusetts embittered by what he experienced during his travels. If I had to guess, I'd say his difficulties getting along with Rexroth and Ginsburg and the other people depicted fictionally in "The Dharma Bums" (among others, and merely as examples) have a fair amount to do with his estrangement from the vibrant literary cultures that existed in SF and NYC for a substantial period, and had to color his relationship with then and explain to a significant extent his eventual withdrawal into a social conservatism that was presumably was there all along, and can't be whiffed aside as a consequence of alcoholism or a microcosm of post-'68 disappointment.
Hi, Darren. I appreciate your comments. The ideas you discuss surrounding Kerouac's alienation from the literary milieu at Columbia and in SF and NYC in general ring true, and I agree that he may have always had a more conservative bent than others in the Beat group--I tried to suggest that in the piece, but may not have articulated it well enough. I don't think his alcoholism helped much, but as you suggest it may have exacerbated what was already there.
In his history of the Beats that he wrote for the Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Ginsberg said, "If anyone really wanted to emulate the Jack Kerouac I knew, they would spend 24/7 at the library or in front of a typewriter."
I enjoyed this article, but it should be noted that the people of Bethel and surrounding areas - mostly fairly conservative - came to the aid of Woodstock when it was clear it was teetering on a catastrophic failure of basic resources. It was not just a coming together of "the kids" attending the concert, there's an even bigger tale to be told here that transcends socio-political ideology.
Hi, Ken. Thanks for your comments. It is true, as I have read in other sources as well, that the people surrounding Bethel provided a great deal of aid, without which there would have been disaster. I would probably consider editing this piece to make that point.