Thought it about time I acknowledge my blog name. Thing is, I'm not a particularly vocal fan of the beats, or Jack Kerouac. I thoroughly reject anyone who tries to place Bukowski or Brautigan in with them; time period is not enough. They are unto themselves. In any event, I just always liked Kerouac's pen name. And I like cats (yeah, well ...). And, when I came around to putting together this little space, having already established my online moniker, what else could I call this blog? What, frankly, is more vain than a blog? And next to Visions of Gerard my favorite Kerouac novel is Vanity of Duluoz. Preferred when he was being sentimental than when powered by alcohol or speed. Although his high-flying lament over the murder of a mouse in Desolation Angels is purely tragic.
Considered this a convenient time to remark on this because I recently read that the New York Public Library purchased the archive of William S. Burroughs. Looking forward to seeing it next year. I remember going to the Kerouac Archive exhibition and having a lot of fun with it. Seeing the manuscript for On the Road in its endless ream (I admit fully to never having been able to finish it ...). Much more exhaustive, was Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965, at the Whitney back in November 1995 (g*d was that really over ten years ago ... I sadly sometimes still wear a t-shirt I bought that day). It was the only time I ever really enjoyed being at the Whitney, despite [the] hoi polloi and their background noise. It was an
incredible collection of ephemera. Not just the scripts, but the music and film, art and correspondence, and creative mish-mash of the time. Wonderful. I wish I enjoyed the writers more. I have a soft spot for Burroughs (always tend to crush on the outsider) and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, but the rest? Eh.I don't subscribe to it, but it is all over my life. My father enjoys telling the tale of how, after having read some of his poems, way back when, he rode down in an elevator with Allen Ginsberg. And Ginsberg recognized him (for his hat) and let him know how much he liked the poems ... and later, much, I was lucky enough to have copyedited Ginsberg's last book, and yes, I'm pretty happy about that. Somehow, though, I don't know, for all the connection, there are none that capture me as much as others that are less entwined.
But, enough about me (pics here are courtesy of mom ... hi mom).
2 comments:
Ginsberg must have got around a lot -- I heard lots of Ginsberg sightings back in the day. I saw him myself once, riding a bike along CPW. Here in LA it's Quentin Tarantino, everybody's seen him, too. (Used to be the Governator in his blasted Hummer, but he's busy with other stuff right now).
Must have been fun to have edited his book. Did he take to it kindly?
Ginsberg did like to float around a lot, didn't he? I have this image of him playing maracas with the Clash in concert--totally not my memory, but one overheard many times listening to my parents enjoy the retelling of. I enjoy (the stories of) his character more than his writing, although "Kaddish" is an incredible poem, and a personal favorite. Find your comparison between him and Tarantino and "Ahnold" hilarious--the exhibitionists of their generation and how we have fallen ...
He had unfortunately died by the time "Death & Fame" was put into manuscript and prepared for pubbing (1998-1999), but I worked with his longtime agent/editor and it was all very careful and nice. I wouldn't have dared touch it too much, naturally. I was just thrilled to have the opportunity.
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