So I have just started reading this really great book by James Clellon Holmes called "Go." It is the first book published in the beat generation. This book chronicles what life was like before Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Neal Cassady became known for their writings. It is like a journal of events for the generation that would be called "Beat." Now I know that this isn't everyones cup of tea, I happen to love this style of writing. There are times when I have to reread a paragraph to get what is going on, but isn't life like that sometimes. Don't you have to step back and try to replay something in your mind in order for it to make sense. This style of writing seems more to true to life than many others that are out there. I just discovered the beat generation when I checked "Dharma Bums" out from the library. Now I had always known that they were there, just never took the time to read. Once I started I was instantly hooked. I feel a connection on a deeper level to some of the ideas that are brought forth in this book ("Go"). I had not heard of this one until one of my co-workers mentioned it to me. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
"Now I want to write to you about the Beat Generation or simply the Beat Ones-your book. You did the honest thing, the big thing, the good thing."
-Jack Kerouac
If you are interested, definately give these books a shot. Don't think that because you read "On the Road" you have read it all. There are so many other books and authors from this generation out there. Go to any bookstore and you will find the many there to choose from.
There are many reasons to love the beat generation, here are a list of why I like the beat authors:
1. The gritty reality with which they all write.
2. The pure honesty that is portrayed in every book I have read
3. The ties to Buddhism and the Zen way
4. This one is personal, reminds me of my last days of college, with my friends;
Steph, Jeff, Sean, Kashi, Jason, there are more of you to name as well, but you
know who you are.
5. The language with which these books are written, pure magic (at least to me)
6. Jack Kerouac was a genius.
I have also put a couple links here, take a look see what this is all about.
The Beat Page
Jack Kerouac >> Official Web site
Skid Row Wine
I coulda done a lot worse than sit
in Skid Row drinking wine
To know that nothing matters after all
To know there's no real difference
between the rich and the poor
To know that eternity is neither drunk
nor sober, to know it young
and be a poet
Coulda gone into business and ranted
And believed that God was concerned
Instead I squatted in lonesome alleys
And nobody saw me, just my bottle
and what they saw of it was empty
And I did it in cornfields and graveyards
To know that the dead dont make noise
To know that the cornstalks talk (among
one another with raspy old arms)
Sittin in alleys diggin the neons
And watching cathedral custodians
Wring out their rags neath the church steps
Sitting and drinkin wine
And in railyards being divine
To be a millionaire and yet to prefer
Curlin up with a poorboy of tokay
In a warehouse door, facing long sunsets
On railroad fields of grass
To know that the sleepers in the river
are dreaming vain dreams, to squat
in the night and know it well
To be dark solitary eye-nerve watcher
of the world's whirling diamond.
-Jack Kerouac ("Pomes All Sizes")
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