This was fantastic! I share your grief at seeing how "safe" people often play it these days, bowing to conformity and orthodoxy. It's anodyne and soul-crushing.
I'm almost 70. I remember the 1950s as a man who was little boy then would. And I know all about the sociopathic Joseph McCarthy and Hollywood blacklisting. But any comparison of the 1950s with the 2020s in terms of "soul-crushing" pressure to conform shows me only that the person who is making the comparison really doesn't know much about the 1950s.
Kerouac, the rebel, the wanderer, the moonbeamy poet, was great fodder for all sorts of people; insolent kids, admonishing editorial writers, Protestant pastors in desperate need of a sermon topic, Steve Allen. ( I think the segment, which is so cool, man, is still on YouTube. ) It made him a star. Rebelliousness, however faux, however based on appearance and photogenecity, was as intrinsic to his success as it was to Brando's.
Consider the ease with which America absorbed these celebrity artsy types into its view of itself. Elvis Presley, videos of whose performances on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 shock me because of the then - 21 year old kid's magisterial ease in such an intense situation, would be similarly indulged. ( There were four Beatles, who could and did pick one another up when necessary, but The Bill Black Combo - wasn't that its name? - weren't going to pick Elvis up. The Hillbilly Cat was essentially out there on his own in front of scores of millions of Americans. )
In 1952, Chris Jorgensen went to Scandinavia, and returned as Christine Jorgensen. The press interviews with Jorgensen at Idlewild Airport are also on YouTube. All of the reporters are respectful.
The things I've cited militate strongly against the idea which seems almost universally held by Americans that the 1950s were a decade of smothering conformity.
Compare them and the ease with which they were incorporated into America's understanding of itself with what happens now when a celebrity makes an unintentional mistake in prescribed speech, or someone not meaning any harm tells a joke which The Wokeroti ( "Meanwhile, the Twitterverse exploded in outrage..." ) finds racist sexist homophobic genderist transphobic or Christian ( ! )
John Wayne said of Rock Hudson: "I don't care if he is queer, he plays a damned good game of chess."
I didn’t see the date on the post admittedly but it wasn’t that long ago. My timespan and therefore perspective is likely a bit different.
So let’s shoot for consensus.
The youth don’t seem too concerned about data collection a la apps like tik-tok or whatever have you. What you describe is evolution and yes, the corporations are placing themselves in a position to create trends and demand and then profit from it. In that way they are very smart. Are the shareholders concerned about anything but returns? No. So they are complicit. And so is anybody who consumes it.
This is just the new war. I have never seen a time when there wasn’t a war. Are things getting less real? I think so but there is little I’m going to do about except to find a place to hole up.
I think it was in ‘65 when a young Cohen said, “There is something arrogant and warlike about putting the world in order. Then he comes around to say that he just tries to find a personal state of grace which I think he did fairly well in achieving. Better than most anyway.
It’s life in the chaos and entropy in an expanding universe. What’s not to like? Speaking of entropy, I have a long list of things to fix. Pleasure to chat with you Kev. You are a positive force in all this.
I see it different Kevin. I’m seeing a lot of respectful young people around who hold a door open for an old man who may or not at any given time look like a garden gnome with full white beard and all. I’m encouraged and they’re a lot smarter than I was back then. I’m not saying you are wrong in what you see but it won’t hurt to hear a different perspective. They perform the menial little jobs at the fast food dives with dignity and that’s all I want to see. I give them all the encouragement I can, read their name tags and use them like I’ve known them forever. Are things sliding? Maybe, but it’s not a Sisyphean feat to shore them up. In fact, it does an old man good to let them know they are doing a great job. See ya around Kev!
Fair points, but if memory serves, I was responding/reacting to this from Ted:
"Everything seems joined together in a monolithic and monochrome culture, and nothing is less cool or hip or fashionable than going against the grain. Even the youth movement, where we would naturally seek a counterculture, is caught up in fear and avoidance of anything that might genuinely break out of the mold. Escape no longer involves a risky journey on the road, but a corporately-controlled sinking into a phony, pre-fab Metaverse, where even hitchhiking requires an avatar and subscription account."
I'm genuinely happy to hear that people holding doors open and the like, but that's separate from the issue I was raising. See ya around! :)
A terrific piece of writing. Thank you. The desire to just do things, crazy things, as exemplified by Neil Cassidy (what a wild figure, if there has ever been one), is no longer there or maybe it’s just changed.
A thoroughly moving, marvelous essay. I am experiencing varying waves of nostalgia, romance, and wistfulness for a past that isn't what it used to be. Thank you.
Thank you! I loved Kerouac growing up, and I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of this two-part post. I would love to hear your thoughts about Kerouac's treatment of women (both in life and writing). It took me most of my twenties to figure out that gender was at the root of a lot of the alienation and distance I felt from many of my favorite books and authors, particularly Kerouac. I'm eager to hear a take on Kerouac that can accommodate both his genius and the complicated legacy he leaves for female readers like myself.
This was a great piece. I was especially pleased to see the mention of Big Sur. The house where Jack wrote that is now the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida and it serves as a writer's residency. (We even have the chair that Jack drank himself to death in while he was in St. Petersburg.)
I was fortunate enough to be the Spring 2016 writer-in-residence at the house, and now sit on their board of directors. I even got to visit Lowell, Mass. a few years ago for their annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival where I got to speak a couple times about my experience at the house and what we're doing as a board. It's great to see that he's still getting so much attention. Thank you for a great piece, Ted!
Wonderful, just wonderful write up, Mr. Gioia! I have always carried Kerouac in my heart since reading "On The Road" and "Dharma Bums" in high school in the early 80s and feeling like I too was Beat and looking for that endless road.
I think I identified with Kerouac and Sal Paradise so strongly because I didn't want to BE Dean Moriarty but I definitely wanted to be along for the ride.
I wanted to meet and be around those: "the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles"
The definition of that changes as we grow older, but we bums still look for it. He was a beautiful soul, and inspired so many.
Hi ,Ted. Excellent article. I would just like to comment that I miss a reference to Henry Miller, who, (it seems to me) really conquered Kerouac's dream of individual and revolutionary liberation, and, on top of that, wrote much better. Despite his bravado anti-Americanism, Henry Miller has always struck me as the true heir of Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau, the epitome of individualistic (and democratic) American freedom.
A wonderful piece. I read On the Road when I was 15. Three years later my friends and I were hitchhiking up and down California imagining ourselves on that joyous quest. We were the hippies that grew out of the beats. For short time it was magical.
Seventy - five pages in, I wondered why I was reading On the Road. It seemed as if it were the diary of an Irish Setter ( known to run up to 400 miles a day if possible ) - went here, went there, back 'n' forth - and with not much more depth than an Irish Setter diarist would manifest. But somehow, the book deepened, and it has some great segments: the account of their trip on the turnpike system leading to Chicago, their night at Anita O'Day's club in Chicago, their matinee at the movie theater in Detroit. It also has a last page which I think is as remarkable as the last page of The Great Gatsby. Still, the whole seems less than the sum of its parts. And I think he was just damned irresponsible in not doing what almost every other able bodied man of his generation did, looking for a steady job which would lead to a career. I couldn't care less how unhip that sounds. There's nothing more unhip than a healthy man's shirking - oh yes - responsibility. As if Kerouac were the only man of his generation who might have needed to have a day job to support himself, his dependents, and his quiet desperation, which he could have fought off in writing. Your statement that he had little real imagination explains the impossibility of that, I guess. He needed to be unemployed in order to go rambling. So, he had those outbursts of activity and spent the rest of his life doing what, exactly?
He's quoted, I suppose accurately, as saying to a friend, "Isn't it interesting how all the great writers know one another?" which is as psychologically revealing a comment as could be.
I'm sorry. There was real talent there, but to me, he remains the lifelong wannabe, the 17 year old kid you're thrilled to be on somewhat personal terms with when you're 16 because he seems just the coolest guy you could imagine.
It's funny to me that Kerouac:
1. was convinced The Beatles had copped the basis of their name from him, and
2. was born the same year as Bob Dole.
Did Brando ever reply to Kerouac. I'd guess not. One great poseur would have recognized another.
Kerouack probably changed the names of his friends in his books due to legal reasons. Hunter Thompson was forced to do the same with the name of the real Dr. Gonzo.
This was fantastic! I share your grief at seeing how "safe" people often play it these days, bowing to conformity and orthodoxy. It's anodyne and soul-crushing.
I'm almost 70. I remember the 1950s as a man who was little boy then would. And I know all about the sociopathic Joseph McCarthy and Hollywood blacklisting. But any comparison of the 1950s with the 2020s in terms of "soul-crushing" pressure to conform shows me only that the person who is making the comparison really doesn't know much about the 1950s.
Kerouac, the rebel, the wanderer, the moonbeamy poet, was great fodder for all sorts of people; insolent kids, admonishing editorial writers, Protestant pastors in desperate need of a sermon topic, Steve Allen. ( I think the segment, which is so cool, man, is still on YouTube. ) It made him a star. Rebelliousness, however faux, however based on appearance and photogenecity, was as intrinsic to his success as it was to Brando's.
Consider the ease with which America absorbed these celebrity artsy types into its view of itself. Elvis Presley, videos of whose performances on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 shock me because of the then - 21 year old kid's magisterial ease in such an intense situation, would be similarly indulged. ( There were four Beatles, who could and did pick one another up when necessary, but The Bill Black Combo - wasn't that its name? - weren't going to pick Elvis up. The Hillbilly Cat was essentially out there on his own in front of scores of millions of Americans. )
In 1952, Chris Jorgensen went to Scandinavia, and returned as Christine Jorgensen. The press interviews with Jorgensen at Idlewild Airport are also on YouTube. All of the reporters are respectful.
The things I've cited militate strongly against the idea which seems almost universally held by Americans that the 1950s were a decade of smothering conformity.
Compare them and the ease with which they were incorporated into America's understanding of itself with what happens now when a celebrity makes an unintentional mistake in prescribed speech, or someone not meaning any harm tells a joke which The Wokeroti ( "Meanwhile, the Twitterverse exploded in outrage..." ) finds racist sexist homophobic genderist transphobic or Christian ( ! )
John Wayne said of Rock Hudson: "I don't care if he is queer, he plays a damned good game of chess."
I didn’t see the date on the post admittedly but it wasn’t that long ago. My timespan and therefore perspective is likely a bit different.
So let’s shoot for consensus.
The youth don’t seem too concerned about data collection a la apps like tik-tok or whatever have you. What you describe is evolution and yes, the corporations are placing themselves in a position to create trends and demand and then profit from it. In that way they are very smart. Are the shareholders concerned about anything but returns? No. So they are complicit. And so is anybody who consumes it.
This is just the new war. I have never seen a time when there wasn’t a war. Are things getting less real? I think so but there is little I’m going to do about except to find a place to hole up.
I think it was in ‘65 when a young Cohen said, “There is something arrogant and warlike about putting the world in order. Then he comes around to say that he just tries to find a personal state of grace which I think he did fairly well in achieving. Better than most anyway.
It’s life in the chaos and entropy in an expanding universe. What’s not to like? Speaking of entropy, I have a long list of things to fix. Pleasure to chat with you Kev. You are a positive force in all this.
I see it different Kevin. I’m seeing a lot of respectful young people around who hold a door open for an old man who may or not at any given time look like a garden gnome with full white beard and all. I’m encouraged and they’re a lot smarter than I was back then. I’m not saying you are wrong in what you see but it won’t hurt to hear a different perspective. They perform the menial little jobs at the fast food dives with dignity and that’s all I want to see. I give them all the encouragement I can, read their name tags and use them like I’ve known them forever. Are things sliding? Maybe, but it’s not a Sisyphean feat to shore them up. In fact, it does an old man good to let them know they are doing a great job. See ya around Kev!
Fair points, but if memory serves, I was responding/reacting to this from Ted:
"Everything seems joined together in a monolithic and monochrome culture, and nothing is less cool or hip or fashionable than going against the grain. Even the youth movement, where we would naturally seek a counterculture, is caught up in fear and avoidance of anything that might genuinely break out of the mold. Escape no longer involves a risky journey on the road, but a corporately-controlled sinking into a phony, pre-fab Metaverse, where even hitchhiking requires an avatar and subscription account."
I'm genuinely happy to hear that people holding doors open and the like, but that's separate from the issue I was raising. See ya around! :)
Thank you Ted. I think it is now time for me to dig out the old copy and read it again afresh.
Was thinking I might do the same!
A terrific piece of writing. Thank you. The desire to just do things, crazy things, as exemplified by Neil Cassidy (what a wild figure, if there has ever been one), is no longer there or maybe it’s just changed.
A thoroughly moving, marvelous essay. I am experiencing varying waves of nostalgia, romance, and wistfulness for a past that isn't what it used to be. Thank you.
fantastic
Amen
Thank you! I loved Kerouac growing up, and I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of this two-part post. I would love to hear your thoughts about Kerouac's treatment of women (both in life and writing). It took me most of my twenties to figure out that gender was at the root of a lot of the alienation and distance I felt from many of my favorite books and authors, particularly Kerouac. I'm eager to hear a take on Kerouac that can accommodate both his genius and the complicated legacy he leaves for female readers like myself.
This was a great piece. I was especially pleased to see the mention of Big Sur. The house where Jack wrote that is now the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida and it serves as a writer's residency. (We even have the chair that Jack drank himself to death in while he was in St. Petersburg.)
I was fortunate enough to be the Spring 2016 writer-in-residence at the house, and now sit on their board of directors. I even got to visit Lowell, Mass. a few years ago for their annual Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival where I got to speak a couple times about my experience at the house and what we're doing as a board. It's great to see that he's still getting so much attention. Thank you for a great piece, Ted!
Just wanted to say that this blog has been a great follow. Came for the music business analysis, got hooked by the literature discussion.
Wonderful, just wonderful write up, Mr. Gioia! I have always carried Kerouac in my heart since reading "On The Road" and "Dharma Bums" in high school in the early 80s and feeling like I too was Beat and looking for that endless road.
I think I identified with Kerouac and Sal Paradise so strongly because I didn't want to BE Dean Moriarty but I definitely wanted to be along for the ride.
I wanted to meet and be around those: "the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles"
The definition of that changes as we grow older, but we bums still look for it. He was a beautiful soul, and inspired so many.
Beautiful. Thank you.
Hi ,Ted. Excellent article. I would just like to comment that I miss a reference to Henry Miller, who, (it seems to me) really conquered Kerouac's dream of individual and revolutionary liberation, and, on top of that, wrote much better. Despite his bravado anti-Americanism, Henry Miller has always struck me as the true heir of Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau, the epitome of individualistic (and democratic) American freedom.
Dizzy Gillespie - Kerouac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2EMH02JhBg
A wonderful piece. I read On the Road when I was 15. Three years later my friends and I were hitchhiking up and down California imagining ourselves on that joyous quest. We were the hippies that grew out of the beats. For short time it was magical.
Seventy - five pages in, I wondered why I was reading On the Road. It seemed as if it were the diary of an Irish Setter ( known to run up to 400 miles a day if possible ) - went here, went there, back 'n' forth - and with not much more depth than an Irish Setter diarist would manifest. But somehow, the book deepened, and it has some great segments: the account of their trip on the turnpike system leading to Chicago, their night at Anita O'Day's club in Chicago, their matinee at the movie theater in Detroit. It also has a last page which I think is as remarkable as the last page of The Great Gatsby. Still, the whole seems less than the sum of its parts. And I think he was just damned irresponsible in not doing what almost every other able bodied man of his generation did, looking for a steady job which would lead to a career. I couldn't care less how unhip that sounds. There's nothing more unhip than a healthy man's shirking - oh yes - responsibility. As if Kerouac were the only man of his generation who might have needed to have a day job to support himself, his dependents, and his quiet desperation, which he could have fought off in writing. Your statement that he had little real imagination explains the impossibility of that, I guess. He needed to be unemployed in order to go rambling. So, he had those outbursts of activity and spent the rest of his life doing what, exactly?
He's quoted, I suppose accurately, as saying to a friend, "Isn't it interesting how all the great writers know one another?" which is as psychologically revealing a comment as could be.
I'm sorry. There was real talent there, but to me, he remains the lifelong wannabe, the 17 year old kid you're thrilled to be on somewhat personal terms with when you're 16 because he seems just the coolest guy you could imagine.
It's funny to me that Kerouac:
1. was convinced The Beatles had copped the basis of their name from him, and
2. was born the same year as Bob Dole.
Did Brando ever reply to Kerouac. I'd guess not. One great poseur would have recognized another.
The guy should have become a Trappist monk.
Kerouack probably changed the names of his friends in his books due to legal reasons. Hunter Thompson was forced to do the same with the name of the real Dr. Gonzo.