*sigh*

Tom the Dancing Bug is on the web HERE.

Till our legs take root

"As we turn every corner of the Narrow Road to the Deep North, we sometimes stand up unawares to applaud and we sometimes fall flat to resist the agonizing pains we feel in the depth of our hearts. There are also times when we feel like taking to the road ourselves, seizing the raincoat nearby, or times when we feel like sitting down till our legs take root, enjoying the scene we picture before our eyes."  ~Matsuo Basho, (1644-1694)

We Could Be Heroes

From (of all places) Rotten.com:

In fact, (Jack) Kerouac too styled his friend a hero, specifically the “new American Hero”. Recall that in the 50s and 60s, many young people felt smothered by the American Dream. Adult America was obsessed with living the Good Life, and with protecting the American way of life -- rescued from the teeth of the depression, fought for in World War II -- from communism. The role model they held up to their kids was basically: get a good job, get lots of stuff, impress the neighbors, have kids, drop dead. That was it.

Normal people just weren’t supposed to deviate from this goose-stepping road to nirvana. So it took an abnormal person like Neal Cassady to give young Americans a sense that life could actually be something worth staying awake for. Cassady’s rip, rolling ride through life, following the beat of his own inner impulses (captured in literature in “On The Road”), inspired young people to set aside their inherited mental programming and set out on a path of exploration – first calling themselves the Beat generation, and later the Hippies.

In that light, it's easier to be charitable towards some of their behavior. It's almost always mistake to judge previous generations by current standards.  Abraham Lincoln, considered too progressive on racial issues in his time, would be considered the worst kind of racist today (and would be excoriated on the internet).  So I'm doing my best to keep an open mind.

What still bothers me, though, are passages like this one:

It was horrible to hear Camille sobbing so.  We couldn't stand it and went out to buy beer…

"Camille" was Carolyn Cassady, Neal's then three-months pregnant wife.  It's hard to imagine such calloused indifference, in any generation.

It doesn't seem possible to have an unquenchable lust for life that doesn't also include love for your fellow human beings.

(You will either be delighted or horrified to know that I do have two more Kerouac books on the way- thank you for the recommendations, V. Alarcón-Córdoba!- so there will be more ruminations on the Beats to come.)

Lucille

And yet another excerpt from On The Road by Jack Kerouac, ©1955:

I brought Lucille and her sister to the biggest party. When Lucille saw me with Dean and Marylou her face darkened-- she sensed the madness they put in me.

"I don't like you when you're with them."

"Ah, it's all right, it's just for kicks. We only live once. We're having a good time.

"No, it's sad and I don't like it."

I've read this book several times, and obviously the book hasn't changed so it must be that something in me has.

This time I agree with Lucille.

Wait: You did what, now?

Another excerpt from On The Road by Jack Kerouac, ©1955:

I went out to the cemetery and climbed a tree.  In the tree I sang “Blue Skies.”  Terry and Johnny sat in the grass; we had grapes.

There are certain passages in this book that sound like they’re straight out of Zippy the Pinhead.

Lover Man

[embed]https://youtu.be/iBanjMmV6zQ[/embed]

Excerpt from On The Road by Jack Kerouac, ©1955:

I huddled in the cold, rainy wind and watched everything across the sad vineyards of October in the valley.  My mind was filled with that great song "Lover Man" as Billie Holiday sings it; I had my own concert in the bushes.  "Someday we'll meet, and you'll dry all my tears, and whisper sweet, little things in my ear, hugging and a-kissing, oh what we've been missing, Lover Man, oh where can you be…"  It's not the words so much as the great harmonic tune and the way Billie sings it, like a woman stroking her man's hair in soft lamp-light.  The winds howled.  I got cold.

(Full song lyrics HERE.)