What Happened to Jack Kerouac's Beat Generation?
http://theminaretonline.com/2010/10/20/article13873
'On the Road' Author No Longer Resonates with Younger Audiences
October 20 2010
By Conner McDonough
If you drive across the bridge into St. Petersburg and somehow find
your way to 10th Avenue North, stop by the address 5169.
There you'll see a ramshackle home missing shingles from the roof,
piles of yellowed advertisements at the door and a lawn that hasn't
been groomed in what looks like years.
You'd never guess that you were standing in front of the last home of
one of the greatest American writers in the latter half of the 20th
Century: Jack Kerouac.
Stop anyone on the street today and only a handful will be able to
give you any information about Kerouac.
Who is Kerouac and why is he so important?
What could he possibly have to do with college students in the 21st Century?
In the 1950's, seemingly as a response to the mass-produced and
conformist lifestyle of the Eisenhower era, Kerouac, along with
fellow writers Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso
and John Clellon Holmes, founded a literary movement that would
change the course of the written word forever: the Beat Generation.
This new movement encompassed the rhythms of young Americabebop
jazz, spontaneous writing, drugs, casual sex, alcohol and alternative
sensibilitiesa veritable "out with the old and in with the new."
This was the new wave, the "it" thing for the young people growing up
in the doldrums.
Kerouac was uncomfortably placed as the figurehead of this movement:
"the King of the Beats."
His work can be found in every bookstore and library across the
country, ranging from his most famous novel, On the Road to other
classics such as The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Visions of Cody,
Mexico City Blues and Big Sur.
He influenced dozens of famous writers from the likes of Hunter S.
Thompson (of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) to Ken Kesey as well as
actors like Johnny Depp and musicians like Bob Dylan and John Lennon.
But what happened to Kerouac?
One would think that with a repertoire like that he'd be a household
name by now. Sadly that's furthest from the truth.
The obvious answer is he died.
A lifelong alcoholic, Kerouac lost his battle with the bottle on Oct.
21, 1969 in a St. Pete hospital from an internal hemorrhage caused by
cirrhosis.
Still there is a bigger question in need of asking: why isn't his
spirit still alive on college campuses?
There was a point in time when the name Jack Kerouac conjured up
images of youth in revolt, young men and women going out fulfilling
their lust for life, experiencing what it meant to be young and
alive, to be full of ideals and love and willing to go off in search
of adventure in true Beat fashion, that is, to be tired of the norm
and always ready to change it.
Aside from F. Scott Fitzgerald and his early stories and J.D.
Salinger with The Catcher in the Rye, Kerouac was responsible for
turning the young generations back on to literature by writing what
they wanted to read true stylistic and literary revolution.
Despite the impact he had during his time, it seems that Kerouac just
doesn't translate to the youth of today.
Are his works archaic or do we simply not understand them?
Regardless of whatever answers the previous questions might garner,
one thing remains true: Kerouac, even in this age, remains a beacon
of light in a sea of pop culture nonsense.
There's something about the youthful intensity and excitement in his
writing that seals itself into the pages of history more than any Top
40, frequent-airplay mega-hit or any sorry excuse for a novel on some
bestseller list.
Needless to say, Kerouac didn't churn out any Bible-sized pieces of
fan-fiction about teen vampires and werewolves in love.
He wrote about real people, real things and real feelings.
He had a unique understanding of the world that helped him craft a
generational movement: love everything, accept the madmen and
madwomen, embrace the role of pariah and resist the mold in any way,
shape or form.
Despite his drop in popularity over the years, Kerouac will always be there.
In his novel Big Sur, Kerouac claims he needs to make "one fast move
or I'm gone."
His ace in the hole is that his "fast move" is the ability to turn on
new generations of readers to his work and philosophy of life.
By doing this, Kerouac will never be "gone."
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Conner McDonough can be reached at [email protected]
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