=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 17 Aug 1997 19:31:11 -0700

Reply-To:     stauffer@pacbell.net

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         James Stauffer <stauffer@PACBELL.NET>

Subject:      Re: Please Mr. Johnson, Hand Me a Winner

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Bentz,

 

I was reading too fast the first time this came through.

 

Was going through things to forward to a friend and reread it.

 

Flattered at being mentioned in such exalted company.

 

Nice work.

 

James

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 17 Aug 1997 23:15:03 +0000

Reply-To:     randyr@southeast.net

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Comments:     Authenticated sender is <randyr@pop.jaxnet.com>

From:         randy royal <randyr@SOUTHEAST.NET>

Subject:      unfair aurguments with existence

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hello all. just returned from a trip to new orkeans, and been

listening in some to know what's happening. picked up a cool little

ferlinghetti book, unfair aurguments with existence, it's some of his

drama. anyone know anything about it? i guess i will buy a copy of

naked lunch too, as that seems to be the current topic. anyone ever

listen to the movie's soundtrack? that is just phenomenal! one of my

favorite cds. is gregory corso still living in italy? i heard he

moved there for heroin cy~a randy

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:19:51 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Leon Tabory <letabor@CRUZIO.COM>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: drunkenness

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Just tentative impressions, not hard conclusions, but you asked for =

ideas. =20

 

Whiskey alcoholics generally more alive,  tend to act on their stirring =

impulses, to splash about vigorously except when approaching total =

collapse,  the periods of recuperation when they are totally passed out. =

Winos tend to be more slurred, defeated, drowning, vegetating, more =

inocuous, less combative, less aggressive acting outless destructive =

actions or poor judgement exercised, more chronically douzed, less =

alive, less effectively dangerous also.=20

 

----------

From:   Diane Carter[SMTP:dcarter@TOGETHER.NET]

Sent:   Sunday, August 17, 1997 5:38 AM

To:     BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

Subject:        On the Road: drunkenness

 

.  Why is a wine alcoholic worse than a

whiskey alcoholic?  Any ideas?

DC

.-

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 17 Aug 1997 23:40:09 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Sean Elias <SPElias@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Re: On death and dying........

 

In a message dated 97-08-15 14:39:05 EDT, you write:

 

<<  In retrospect, I do think it odd

 that I chose a sample of his ("When death becomes you...") as part of my

 contribution to a net-based tape loop project going on in the weeks just

 before his death. All those unsuspecting tape recorders playing this

 message, just before he died -- hmm, I wonder if he would have gotten a kick

 out of that. >>

Does anybody else think it odd, that having lost Uncle Bill, then a few days

later Fela Kuti, that I made a special visit to the Indian/Pakistani

neighborhood in Chicago,  to buy a hard to find variety of couscous and a few

CDs/cassettes by Nusfrat Fateh Ali Kahn (sp?),  to find _his_ obit in the

Sunday paper?????????

 

   Seems like all my heros are dropping like the flies........

 

                                                r.i.p. et.al..........

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 17 Aug 1997 23:40:10 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Sean Elias <SPElias@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Re: D & D

 

In a message dated 97-08-15 14:39:05 EDT, you write:

 

<<  I do think it odd >>

 

 

Can anyone give me a clue on the Burroughs track that I know I have but

cannot locate--on On-U records---a sample of him chanting "

pay it all back, pay it AAAAllllll back" (inimatable style).............

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 17 Aug 1997 23:42:59 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Bill Morgan <Ferlingh2@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Re: ferling, etc

 

Ferlinghetti's newest book "A Far Rockaway of the Heart" has been out for a

few months now from New Directions and it continues the tradition of "A Coney

Island of the Mind".  Well worth looking into, one of his better efforts of

late.

Yours,

Bill Morgan

=========================================================================

Date:         Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:53:57 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Leon Tabory <letabor@CRUZIO.COM>

Subject:      Re: [Fwd: Burroughs]

 

----------

From:   R. Bentz Kirby[SMTP:bocelts@SCSN.NET]

Sent:   Saturday, August 16, 1997 8:00 AM

To:     BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

Subject:        [Fwd: Burroughs]

 

Well, I have been scanning the Dylan list for some more good Burroughs

posts.  And I couldn't find anymore, so the action must have died down.

But since the beats play cosmic baseball on the net, and since the

action has dwindled, I did find this fine reference to Cal Ripken and

Eddie Murray.  Seems timely since Anaheim just cut Eddie.

 

I know, or at least believe Jack was

very much into baseball. How about Neal, or any others.

 

Neal didn't talk much about baseball. He followed races with intense

enthusiasm. Watched all the races he could on TV, kept track of outcomes,

drivers, etc.. Tried to make it to the horse races whenever he could. When

he worked in Los Gatos he tried to make it to all the Saturday afternoon

last races at Belmont which were free. He also collected all the Chronicle

Green Sheets with results from the horse races, compiling proof of his

theory that if you had simutaneously stationed people to bet on third

choice in all the races across the country that you would win big. Never

was able to convince enough investors to follow through, inspite of his

closet full Green pages that he used to try to prove his theory.

 

leon

 

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0```%````4D4Z( ````#4]@`'

`

end

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 01:30:11 -0500

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         RACE --- <race@MIDUSA.NET>

Subject:      Re: Naked Lunch: Chapter 1, up to Benway

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Diane Carter wrote:

>

> Maybe I'm missing something but where did this idea of the Big Lie come

> from?

Douglas was using it.

 

It seems to me that Burrough's notion of the universe is equal

> part big lie and big truth.  The notion of a creator playing with the

> creation comes to mind.  There's a natural order of things and an

> inversion of the natural order of things.

> DC

 

inversions twisting angles all seems good.  i think big lie probably

confuses things somewhat.  also humour especially dark-types is one way

to invert and twist the angles of truth and justice and american way and

whatnot to get all the shitout of the shithouse.  i believe that is

about all i have to say until i get the book tuesday or wednesday.

 

david rhaesa

salina, Kansas

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 00:50:18 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         runner <babu@ELECTRICITI.COM>

Subject:      don't go to sleep mad (was:  Naked Lunch)

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

who gave that advice?  And what was the second couplet line:  "just go

away..."?

 

I figure I oughta speak out, get what's off my chest before I went to

sleep.  Have been thinking about this for a while now.  Still not sure how

to accurately respond.  You ask me not to speak, not to post to the list.

Have been thinking about the obsecenity trials, about WSB's reflection on

Ginsberg and his fight against the big lies.  About the youth of America.

about my life.

 

Hopefully my dreams tonight will guide me to a better answer than this

rambling mess.  Have to ask "why go on?"  Love, I guess.  that helps.  But

it's more than that, I suppose.  Why creative types do what they do.

Popularity?  Control?  Fear? and back again to love, I guess, but eeew, who

wants to say that?

 

It's so simple, I guess.  My two best friends are out of town tonight.  I

wish I could call them and chit chat over all of this.  get some good

advice.  Started "western lands" tonight.  need to get back to Joyce and

Dali, too.

 

I don't have it in me to fight with you.  Just don't blame me for your

decisions to unsubscribe.  Don't make this into a popularity contest.  And

please, if you're gonna criticism my posts, please have the decency to read

them first.  but I'm not even sure I want you to do that.  It's obvious

we're not going to be much, friends.  But I'll tell you anyhow the "beat"

issues I'm currently dealing with:

 

        - the role of death in the joy/darkness paradigm (DC, Kerouac

discussion)

        - "Why go on?" (WSB, June 6)

        - the big lie, the green tit, and hole punching holy holy across

the sky (WSB, May 25)

        - WSB's relation to music and the arts (as exemplified by the LACMA

show)

        - the land of the dead, the western lands, the event horizon (what

are the links?)

        - soon, WSB's relation to James Joyce's "Bloom"

        - the paranoid-critical method of salvador dali

        - the "surrealist" landscapes of yves tanguey

        - the cut-up method, appropriation, escaping the vicious cycle

        - writing a way out of death

 

and then some.  Check out my home page for the visual interpretations.

Maybe we still have something to talk about??

 

and I kept thinking of what "cute" comment I'd make.  the snide jab.  The

best I could come up with is from WSB's New Yorker diary entry dated May

31, Saturday:

 

        <<snip>> "No letters.

 

        How good will it be to have total conformity?

        What will be left of singularity?

        And personality?  And you and me?"

 

That and how it relates to our new techno-email age.  Nobody writes letters

anymore (snail).  What will the historians of the future do with all this

"ink"?  And singularities, my god.   Soon, I will have an engine capable of

dealing with those entities.

 

oh, oh, oh.  Hopefully, I'll be able to fall asleep soon.

 

Douglas

 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

At 2:07 PM -0700 8/17/97, Diane De Rooy wrote:

 

 

> In a message dated 97-08-17 16:58:34 EDT, you write:

>

> <<  Who cares?!  I don't know.  Am glad that it ended when

>  it did, before someone pulled out the machete and started hacking their

>  computer to death.  Surprised James didn't write me personally and tell me

>  to shut the fuck up. >>

>

> Is this a disease of newsgroups? This pissy, petulant sarcasm launched

> against even the slightest of rubs?

>

> This is the kind of crap that has made me sign off three times so far.

>

> Douglas, shut the fuck up, okay?

>

> diane

 

 

http://www.electriciti.com/babu/        |   0   |               The map is

not the territory

                                |  { -  |                --Korzybski

        ---->                   |  /\   |

                                =========

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 11:02:40 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Eric Blanco <Chimera@WEBTV.NET>

Subject:      Re: Lou Reed and the Beats

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          Hello everybody:

I don't know if you would consider any

of the following a connection, buuuuutt...

according to the booklet that came with

the LR box set, "Between Thought And

Expression":

 

             In 1959, while at NYU, Reed was

an avid contemporary jazz buff, programming a jazz radio show, and into

the music of Monk, Coltrane and Coleman.

 

               He was a great admirer of the

poet, essayist and short story writer

Delmore Shwartz (In Dreams Begin

Responsibilities, pub.1937). Would he

be considered a Beat or an influence on

them? Shwartz inspired Reed to study the

works of Joyce and Keats, and it was

during this time that Lou wrote the Velvet

Underground classic "Heroin".

 

                   On the back cover of Reed's

"The Blue Mask" lp, Lou dedicated the

song "My House" to Shwatrz. Burroughs

might have been a big influence as well,

at least during Reeds' VU days.

"Waiting For The Man" ( "The man is never on time. This is no

accident."-taken

from the intro to NL), "Sister Ray", "Venus

In Furs", "The Black Angel's Death Song"

(his vocal delivery here, in fact, his way

of talk-singing in general, might be considered Beat-ish.), probably any

of

these songs, or the VU's first three albums, would make a terrific

soundtrack

to NL. Junky-according to the booklet that

came with the VU box set "Peel Slowly

And See"-thanks to WSB's confessional

style and wit (still going by the booket,

I haven't read Junky yet) inspired Reed

to write Heroin.

 

                     I'll be the first to say that I'm

reaching with all this, but any excuse to

talk about LR/VU is a good one. I wish

everyone on the list a wonderful week.

 

                                           Chimera

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 10:23:04 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         MATT HANNAN <MATT.HANNAN@USOC.ORG>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: drunkenness

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     No, I'm not starting my "alcoholic" diatribe again but I thought I'd

     respond to this.

 

     In the purest sense alcoholism is alcoholism; however, I will concede

     wine and whiskey do produce different "drunks" due to their chemical

     compositions.  Strangely enough whiskey and other hard liquor destroys

     the mucin lining the stomach at a quicker rate than wine.  So maybe,

     (or maybe not) if Jack had stuck to Tokay we would have had him around

     a little longer (probably not).  It's *my opinion* that wine is more

     aggravating to the system and hence produces more vomiting which would

     have lead to bleeding varicies in the throat and a hemorrage vs.

     destroying the mucin lining and dying of a "middle-gi" hemmorage.

 

     Jack was right, but he didn't know by how much.

 

     love and lilies,

 

     matt

 

 

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________

Subject: On the Road: drunkenness

Author:  "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> at Internet

Date:    8/17/97 5:38 AM

 

 

On the Road, pg. 39, when he is describing Dean's (Neal's) father,

Kerouac writes, "His father, once a respectable and hardworking tinsmith,

had become a wine alcoholic, which is worse than a whiskey alcoholic..."

 

>From Kerouac's descriptions in all the later books, he was himself always

drinking wine and not whiskey.  Why is a wine alcoholic worse than a

whiskey alcoholic?  Any ideas?

DC

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 10:25:58 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         MATT HANNAN <MATT.HANNAN@USOC.ORG>

Subject:      Re: Lou Reed and the Beats

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

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     Correct me if I'm wrong, oh those more knowledgeable than me" but

     didn't WSB hang out with Andy Warhol?  If so there's a connection, if

     not an influence.

 

     love and lilies,

 

     matt

 

 

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________

Subject: Lou Reed and the Beats

Author:  "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> at Internet

Date:    8/17/97 7:28 PM

 

 

What was the extent of the relationship with, or the influence of, the

beats and Lou Reed?

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 11:56:35 -0500

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         jo grant <jgrant@BOOKZEN.COM>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: drunkenness

In-Reply-To:  <01BCAB4B.0EFEAE80@mbay69.cruzio.com>

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

Whiskey is expensive. Whiskey alcoholics have more money. By the time the

alcoholic gets to wine he/she is usually close to the bottom of the

economic ladder.

 

j grant

 

 

>Just tentative impressions, not hard conclusions, but you asked for ideas.

>

>Whiskey alcoholics generally more alive,  tend to act on their stirring

>impulses, to splash about vigorously except when approaching total

>collapse,  the periods of recuperation when they are totally passed out.

>Winos tend to be more slurred, defeated, drowning, vegetating, more

>inocuous, less combative, less aggressive acting outless destructive

>actions or poor judgement exercised, more chronically douzed, less alive,

>less effectively dangerous also.

>

>----------

>From:   Diane Carter[SMTP:dcarter@TOGETHER.NET]

>Sent:   Sunday, August 17, 1997 5:38 AM

>To:     BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

>Subject:        On the Road: drunkenness

>

>.  Why is a wine alcoholic worse than a

>whiskey alcoholic?  Any ideas?

>DC

>.-

 

 

Small Press Authors and Publishers display books

                FREE

    http://www.bookzen.com/addbook-form.html

        375,913 visitors - 07-01-96 to 07-01-97

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 10:18:29 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Penn, Douglas, K" <dkpenn@OEES.COM>

Subject:      Re: Naked Lunch: Benway

MIME-Version: 1.0

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Diane writ:

 

<<

>pg. 37

>"Gentle reader, the ugliness of that spectacle buggers description.  Who

>can be a cringing pissing coward, yet vicious as a purple-assed mandril,

>alternating these deplorable conditions like vaudeville skits?  Who can

>shit on a fallen adversary who, dying, easts the shit and screams with

>joy? [this was reminiscent stanzas of Howl that all being with who,

>and especially where Ginsberg writes, "Who let themselves be fucked in

>the ass by saintly motorcyclists and screemed with joy"]  Who can hang a

>weak passive and catch the sperm in his mouth like a vivious dog?  Gentle

>reader, I fain would spare you this, but my pen hath its will like the

>Ancient Mariner.  Oh Christ what a scene is this!  Can tongue or pen

>accommodate these scandels?  A beastly young hooligan has gouged out the

>eye of his confrere and fuck him in the brain. 'This brain atrophy

>already, and dry as grandmother's cunt."

>>

 

Diane, as always, thanx for typin out all this.  My hands would hurt.

 

I especially liked the 'eye gouging' part.  So many poets have eye

fetishes.  The denigration of the bodily act, the removal from the body,

and it's associations with dark and perverted actions.  Then associating

all of this with different layers of meaning.  Goes back to the Oedipus

thoughts I had while watching the movie "event horizon".  One can also

get into dreams and their visions from here also.  Perhaps this is a

clue towards your questions of why Burroughs is always writing from the

outside <??>

 

<<

>You have to admire Burroughs vivid descriptions, although it's hard to

>figure out what brings about these visions where everything is out of

>Control:

>

>"Rock and Roll adolescent hoodlums storm the streets of all nations.

>They rush into the Louvre and throw acid on Mona Lisa's face.  They open

>zoos, insane asylums, prisons, burst water mains with air hammers, chop

>the floor out of passenger plane lavatories, shoot out lighthouses, file

>elevator cables to one thin wire, turn sewers into the water supply,

>throw sharks and sting rays, electric eels and candiru into swimming

>pools (the candiru is a small eel-like fish or worm about one-quarter

>inch through and two inches long patronizing certain rivers of ill repute

>in the Greater Amazon Basin, will dart up your prick or your asshole or a

>woman's cunt faute de mieux, and hold himself there by sharp spines with

>precisely what motives is not known since no one has stepped forward to

>observe the candiru's life-cycle in situ), in nautical costumes ram the

>Queen Mary full speed into New York Harbor, play chicken with passenger

>planes and buses, rush into hospital with white coats carrying saws and

>axes and scalpels three feet long; throw paralytics out of iron lungs

>(mimic their suffocations flopping about on the floor and rolling their

>eyes up), administer injections with bicycle pumps, disconnect artificial

>kidneys, saw a woman in half with a two-man surgical saw, they drive

>herds of squeeling pigs into the Curb, they shit on the floors of the

>United Nations and wipe their asses with treaties, pacts, and alliances."

>>

 

Have you ever been stuck in a bathroom line, Diane?  just holding it in,

watching all these men go ahead of you into their own stalls?  Questions

and visions such as those above begin to creep in.  Destroying the order

as it appears to you thru a yellow, jaundiced eye.  Rationalizing the

acts of madmen who do all these incalculable things.  Inverting the

natural order and following that back to it's source.  Makes me think of

the TV shows "x-files" and "millenium" (by Chris Carter).  Getting into

the mind of chaos, as burroughs says, unable to stop his pen or tongue

from writing all that out.  And I won't go as far as say that his

descriptions are an apology, are an act of "writing away death" per se.

I don't know.

 

and by the way, did you ever get a satisfactory answer to this question:

 

"Does the narrator have power in

his observations and the words he uses, or is he merely a scribe forced

to write about that which he cannot change?"

 

Douglas

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 11:14:44 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         MATT HANNAN <MATT.HANNAN@USOC.ORG>

Subject:      Re[2]: On the Road: drunkenness

Mime-Version: 1.0

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>Whiskey is expensive. Whiskey alcoholics have more money. By the time the

>alcoholic gets to wine he/she is usually close to the bottom of the

>economic ladder.

 

>j grant

 

     "...the bottom ofthe economic ladder."  To keep this within the

     framework of the BEAT-L list I'll phrase my reply this way.  Since

     Jack was never un-voluntarily homeless, always had *some* money, and

     most likely died from the consequences of alcoholism, you can draw the

     conclusion that there is no such thing as "economic alcoholism".

     Alcoholics come in all lifestyles, economic classes and ethnic

     backgrounds, from both genders.  While there probably aren't as many

     alcoholic millionaires as there are broke ones, the view that the only

     people suffering from alcoholism are "bums on the street" went out a

     long time ago.  Heck, I even know a recovering alcoholic who owns a

     computer :-)

 

     love and lilies,

 

     matt

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 14:12:15 +0000

Reply-To:     randyr@southeast.net

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Comments:     Authenticated sender is <randyr@pop.jaxnet.com>

From:         randy royal <randyr@SOUTHEAST.NET>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: drunkenness

MIME-Version: 1.0

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> Whiskey is expensive. Whiskey alcoholics have more money. By the time the

> alcoholic gets to wine he/she is usually close to the bottom of the

> economic ladder.

 

perhaps jack just liked wine?

 

>

> j grant

randy

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 15:47:28 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Richard Wallner <rwallner@CAPACCESS.ORG>

Subject:      Re: Lou Reed and the Beats

In-Reply-To:  <3F87BB00.@usoc.org>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

 

On Mon, 18 Aug 1997, MATT HANNAN wrote:

 

>      Correct me if I'm wrong, oh those more knowledgeable than me" but

>      didn't WSB hang out with Andy Warhol?  If so there's a connection, if

>      not an influence.

>

>      love and lilies,

>

>      matt

>

 

Actually, it was Allen Ginsberg who hung out with Warhol back in the 60's

when Warhol was hot.  Burroughs was living in London so wouldnt have met

Warhol until many years later when Warhol was past his "fifteen minutes"

of fame and past when Burroughs hadwritten mostof his works.  So Idont

think there was a direct influence.

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 13:34:28 -0600

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Derek A. Beaulieu" <dabeauli@FREENET.CALGARY.AB.CA>

Organization: Calgary Free-Net

Subject:      Hey Lew! Homage To Lew Welch (fwd)

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

 

yall

i thought that some of you might be interesteed in this, which i found on

alt.books.beatgeneration (man there is a lot of junk and trolling on that

newsgroup, egad!)

yrs

derek

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 12:48:34 -0700

From: Richard Hughey <rkhughey@pacbell.net>

Newsgroups: alt.books.beatgeneration

Subject: Hey Lew! Homage To Lew Welch

 

New book on Lew Welch: Hey Lew! Homage to Lew Welch.

Interviews, poems, biosketches, photos, drawings etc.

on S.F. BeatGen poet Lew Welch.

Edited by Magda Cregg, who lived with Lew 1964-1971.

Contributors: Snyder, Whelan, Creeley, Meltzer, Kyger,

McClure etc., also Peter Coyote and Huey Lewis.

Write Magda Cregg, Box 964, Bolinas CA 94924.

Copies: $12 post paid.

RKH

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 13:13:36 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         John Arthur Maynard <prinzhal@IX.NETCOM.COM>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: drunkenness

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

>>.  Why is a wine alcoholic worse than a

>>whiskey alcoholic?  Any ideas?

>>DC

>>.-

I think the high sugar content (seems to me Jack often refers to "sweet

port") tends to deliver more brain-mash effect than the same dose of alcohol

administered through whisky.  That would help explain why the big sellers on

skid row and in the inner city seem to be port, tokay and rotgut sherry.

Plus, since the alcohol content is lower than whisky, you can keep drinking

longer...

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 14:49:18 -0700

Reply-To:     vic.begrand@sk.sympatico.ca

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Adrien Begrand <vic.begrand@SK.SYMPATICO.CA>

Subject:      Re: Hey Lew! Homage To Lew Welch (fwd)

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

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Hi all,

 

I recently read Aram Saroyan's Genesis Angels (good book!) and it

mentioned something interesting. According to him, during Lew Welch's

last few days at an advertising agency he culled the famous Raid slogan:

'Raid Kills Bugs Dead.'

 

How true is this? I'd like it to be true, it'd be cool to know there's a

little conribution by Welch to 20th century pop culture.

 

Anyone know the truth behind this?

 

Adrien

 

Derek A. Beaulieu wrote:

>

> yall

> i thought that some of you might be interesteed in this, which i found on

> alt.books.beatgeneration (man there is a lot of junk and trolling on that

> newsgroup, egad!)

> yrs

> derek

>

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------

> Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 12:48:34 -0700

> From: Richard Hughey <rkhughey@pacbell.net>

> Newsgroups: alt.books.beatgeneration

> Subject: Hey Lew! Homage To Lew Welch

>

> New book on Lew Welch: Hey Lew! Homage to Lew Welch.

> Interviews, poems, biosketches, photos, drawings etc.

> on S.F. BeatGen poet Lew Welch.

> Edited by Magda Cregg, who lived with Lew 1964-1971.

> Contributors: Snyder, Whelan, Creeley, Meltzer, Kyger,

> McClure etc., also Peter Coyote and Huey Lewis.

> Write Magda Cregg, Box 964, Bolinas CA 94924.

> Copies: $12 post paid.

> RKH

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 14:59:30 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Levi Asher <brooklyn@NETCOM.COM>

Subject:      Re: Lou Reed and the Beats

In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SUN.3.91-FP.970818154533.29685A-100000@cap1.capaccess.org>

              from "Richard Wallner" at Aug 18, 97 03:47:28 pm

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

 

Well, Lou Reed was one of the speakers at the memorial

service for Ginsberg at St. Mark's Church this past

April.  He read "Magic and Loss."  I've often thought

of Lou as fairly Beat-like, tho I don't think there

are many actual connections.

 

------------------------------------------------------

| Levi Asher = brooklyn@netcom.com                   |

|                                                    |

|    Literary Kicks: http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/ |

|     (3 years old and still running)                |

|                                                    |

|        "Coffeehouse: Writings from the Web"        |

|          (a real book, like on paper)              |

|             also at http://coffeehousebook.com     |

|                                                    |

|                *--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*  |

|                                                    |

|                  "It was my dream that screwed up" |

|                                    -- Jack Kerouac |

------------------------------------------------------

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 15:16:51 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Timothy K. Gallaher" <gallaher@HSC.USC.EDU>

Subject:      Re: Slim Gaillard and Jack...and the hipsters

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

About the Slim Gaillard trivia question posed by Antoine Maloney,

 

I don't know.

 

That's why I didn't hazard a guess.

 

As I remember it was who is Slim famous musician son-in-law.

 

OK, times up I give and it seems like no one else is going to pose an answer

so...

 

OK,  who?

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 15:18:34 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Timothy K. Gallaher" <gallaher@HSC.USC.EDU>

Subject:      Re: Slim Gaillard and Jack...and the hipsters

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

Answer to my trivia question.

 

I asked what PBS show did Jack kerouac say the slim gaillard line "flat foot

floogie with the floy floy"?

 

If I am not mistaken I believe it was on William F. Buckeley's Firing Line.

 

Apparently Jack got up and said it somehwhat out of the blue.

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 00:38:12 +0200

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Rinaldo Rasa <rinaldo@GPNET.IT>

Subject:      Awww, mama... can this really... be the end...

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

        memphis blues again             by Bob Dylan

 

        oh the ragman draws circles

        up and down the block

        I'd ask him what the matter was

        but I know that he don't talk

        and the ladies treat me kindly

        and they furnish me with tea

        but deep inside my heart

        I know I can't escape

 

        oh mama can this really be the end

        to be stuck inside of mobile

        with the memphis blues again

 

        well shakespeare he's in the alley

        with his pointed shoes and his bells

        speaking to some french girl

        who says she knows me well

        and I would send a message

        to find out if she's talked

        but the post office has been stolen

        and the mailbox is locked

 

        mona tried to tell me

        to stay away from the train line

        she said that all the rairoad men

        just drink up your blood like wine

        and I said oh I didn't know that

        but then again there's only one I've met

        and he just smoked my eyelids

        and punched my cigarette

 

        grandpa died last week

        and now he's buried in the rocks

        but everybody still talks about

        how badly they were shocked

        but me I experienced it to happen

        I knew he'd lost control

        when he built a fire on main street

        and shot it full of holes

 

        now the senator came down here

        showing everyone his gun

        handling out free tickets

        to the wedding of his son

        but me I nearly got busted

        and wouldn't it be my luck

        to get caught without a ticket

        and be discovered beneath a truck

 

        now the tea pitcher looked so baffled

        when I asked him why he dressed

        with twenty pounds of headlines

        stapled to his chest

        but he cursed me when I proved to him

        then I whispered and said

        not even you can hide

        you see you're just like me

        I hope you're satisfied

 

        now the rainman gave me two cures

        and said jump right in

        the one was texas medicine

        the other was just railroad gin

        and like a fool I mixed them

        and it strangled up my mind

        and now people just get uglier

        and I have no sense of time

 

        when ruthie says come see her

        in her honky tonk lagoon

        where I can watch her waltz for free

        neath her panamanian moon

        and I say oh come on now

        you know you know about my debutante

        and she says your debutante just knows

        what you need

        but I know what you want

 

        now the bricks lay on the grand street

        where the neon madman climb

        they all fall there so perfectly

        they all seem so well timed

        and here I sit so patiently

        waiting to find out what price

        you have to pay to get out of

        going through all these things twice

 

        oh mama can this really be the end

        to be stuck inside of mobile

        with the memphis blues again

 

[Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde, 1966]

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 16:36:54 -0700

Reply-To:     stauffer@pacbell.net

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         James Stauffer <stauffer@PACBELL.NET>

Subject:      Re: Stuck inside of Mobile

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

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>         and I say oh come on now

>         you know you know about my debutante

>         and she says your debutante just knows

>         what you need

>         but I know what you want

>

 

Rinaldo,

 

Thanks for posting and refreshing the memory.  It is just unreal how

"on" Dylan was in Hwy 61 and Blonde on Blonde.  Wore a lot those records

out myself, as I imagine most of us did.

 

J. Stauffer

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 07:41:52 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Diane Carter <dcarter@TOGETHER.NET>

Subject:      Re: Naked Lunch: Benway

MIME-Version: 1.0

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> Penn, Douglas, K. wrote:

> Have you ever been stuck in a bathroom line, Diane?  just holding it

> in,

> watching all these men go ahead of you into their own stalls?

> Questions

> and visions such as those above begin to creep in.  Destroying the

> order

> as it appears to you thru a yellow, jaundiced eye.  Rationalizing the

> acts of madmen who do all these incalculable things.  Inverting the

> natural order and following that back to it's source.  Makes me think

> of

> the TV shows "x-files" and "millenium" (by Chris Carter).  Getting into

> the mind of chaos, as burroughs says, unable to stop his pen or tongue

> from writing all that out.  And I won't go as far as say that his

> descriptions are an apology, are an act of "writing away death" per se.

> I don't know.

 

No, never been stuck in a bathroom line waiting for the MEN to go in

before me.  But are you saying that Burroughs' descriptions in the quoted

paragraphs are just the kinds of things that come into people's head

every day as they run into things that make their bodies uncomfortable?

Is that equivalent to the discomfort of waiting for junk? Waiting for

anything? Waiting for Godot perhaps?  Dark humor.  A horror show in the

mind.  Burroughs seems to take us on a journey through the

deconstruction, perhaps de-structuring of society/the world through

horrific images but what does do his images actually evoke?  It seems

that this line of discovery would be important since individual words and

images are the only thing that hold together a work without any real

characters or progression of events.

 

> and by the way, did you ever get a satisfactory answer to this > question:

>

> "Does the narrator have power in

> his observations and the words he uses, or is he merely a scribe forced

> to write about that which he cannot change?"

 

No, I'm still waiting for ideas, I was going to say answers, but I don;t

think there are any.

DC

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 15:57:22 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Levi Asher <brooklyn@NETCOM.COM>

Subject:      Re: The Darkness of Buddishm.

In-Reply-To:  <3.0.1.32.19970816230359.006adf80@pop.gpnet.it> from "Rinaldo

              Rasa" at Aug 16, 97 11:03:59 pm

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

 

Slightly slow response on my part, but:

 

Rinaldo wrote:

> "A man who uses Buddhism or any other instrument to

> remove love from his being in order to avoid,

> has committed, in my mind, a sacrilege comparable

> to castration."-- William S. Burroughs' letter to Jack Kerouac.

> From "Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959."

 

As somebody who calls himself a Buddhist, I'd like

to say that Burroughs comments about the religion are

at least very intelligent.  He grasps the essence

of Buddhism, which is self-denial.  I like it

when somebody comes up with a *good* reason not

to be a Buddhist, and Burroughs' reasons are good.

 

Reminds me of when I first read Neitzsche's similar

scorching of the Buddhist religion in "A Genealogy

of Morals," when I was around 19 years old.  This

led me to a crisis of faith that lasted a couple of

years.  I respect Burroughs and Neitzsche for

understanding what Buddhism is and choosing to

position themselves against it.  That's better

than flimsily paying lip service to it, or

attacking it for misinformed reasons.

 

All I can really say in counterpoint is that we

all come up with our ways of dealing with "the

slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."  I've

written somewhere that Burroughs had "porcupine

skin" -- that was his defense mechanism.  Neitzsche

never got a good defense mechanism going, maybe

because he was schizophrenic, or maybe not, but

he lived the 2nd half of his life in horrible

misery.  The Buddhist practice is just another

way of surviving.  Ultimately I don't think

there's anybody in the world who hasn't sometimes

felt what Buddha felt when he said "All Life

is Suffering."   And I also don't think there's

any Buddhist out there who hasn't sometimes felt

that life was just peachy keen and a whole lot

of fun.

 

As for this though:

>         "When the Vietnamese communists

>         took Saigon in 1975, they put their "class

>         enemies" into re-education camps. In

>         neighboring Cambodia, Pol Pot built exter-

>         mination camps. Techears, doctors, people

>         who could speak a foreing language, even

>         people who wore glasses, were purged as

>         he sought to reduce all of Cambodia to the

>         level of the peasant class. The Vietnamese

>         could be cruel captors, but their Confucian

>         heritage left them open to educational re-

>         form. In Cambodia, by contrast, Buddhism

>         encouraged a belief in the ineluctability

>         of karma and the idea that evil suffered

>         is evil deserved. ''The idea of karma

>         goes very deep in this society, and I

>         think that was part of the mentality of

>         the Khmer Rouge when they were massacring

>         people,'' said Francois Ponvhaud, a priest

>         who first went in Cambodia in 1965. '' They

>         believed their victims had made errors,

>         political errors, and that killing them

>         would allow them to be reborn as better

>         people in their next lives''. Pol Pot has

>         admitted to some mistakes in the period

>         from 1975 to 1979, but in his eyes they

>         were mistakes of policy. About the million

>         dead, he has never expressed any remorse."

>         From "Terry McCarthy-- TIME,AUGUST 11,1997."

 

I'm sorry, this is what I'd call the kind of

misinformed criticism that *does* piss me off.

Cambodia and Vietnam were both Thereveda Buddhist

countries -- this notion that some vague threads

of Confucianism in Vietnamese culture were what

saved it from the evils that befell Cambodia

may make a nice little Time article, but is

way too flimsy to stand as a philosophical critique

of a religion.  And China was more Confician

than Vietnam -- how would he explain Mao's crimes

against humanity?  This just doesn't stand up,

it's just the kind of dull analytic blather

that keeps political pundits employed, in my

never-very-humble (but I'm trying) opinion.

 

------------------------------------------------------

| Levi Asher = brooklyn@netcom.com                   |

|                                                    |

|    Literary Kicks: http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/ |

|     (3 years old and still running)                |

|                                                    |

|        "Coffeehouse: Writings from the Web"        |

|          (a real book, like on paper)              |

|             also at http://coffeehousebook.com     |

|                                                    |

|                *--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*  |

|                                                    |

|                  "It was my dream that screwed up" |

|                                    -- Jack Kerouac |

------------------------------------------------------

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 17:50:08 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Timothy K. Gallaher" <gallaher@HSC.USC.EDU>

Subject:      Re: The Darkness of Buddishm.

Mime-Version: 1.0

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I wondered when or if anyone would comment about this.  Glad to see it.

 

I did note in Burroughs letter that he talks about Buddhism and then

mentions reading Theosophy tracts.  I think this is an indication of maybe a

watered down or distorted understanding or view because I don't think the

Theospophical Society has much relation to Buddhism really.  But, that's

another argument.

 

But as well another but, I hoped to make the same point about Vietnam and

Cambodia in light of Mao and China.

 

I don't know how confucian Cambodia was/is compared to Vietnam but China

certainly was confucian.  Interestingly Mao hated confucius more than anything.

 

Also, I wouldn't take at face value that the Vietnamese communists only

re-educated their enemies.  And also remember that they didn't "win" until

1975.  If they'd have come to power a decade earlier things would be very

different as well.

 

My in-laws are heavy duty Buddhist and one of the things I've noticed is

their Buddhism seems to be very different from the sort of dry and

intellectual or philosophical type of Buddism that you hear most about in

the US.  It would be interesting to hear about these differences between

"real" (real in quotes in quotes) Buddhists and American's who practice

Buddhism.

 

At 03:57 PM 8/18/97 -0700, you wrote:

>Slightly slow response on my part, but:

>

>Rinaldo wrote:

>> "A man who uses Buddhism or any other instrument to

>> remove love from his being in order to avoid,

>> has committed, in my mind, a sacrilege comparable

>> to castration."-- William S. Burroughs' letter to Jack Kerouac.

>> From "Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959."

>

>As somebody who calls himself a Buddhist, I'd like

>to say that Burroughs comments about the religion are

>at least very intelligent.  He grasps the essence

>of Buddhism, which is self-denial.  I like it

>when somebody comes up with a *good* reason not

>to be a Buddhist, and Burroughs' reasons are good.

>

>Reminds me of when I first read Neitzsche's similar

>scorching of the Buddhist religion in "A Genealogy

>of Morals," when I was around 19 years old.  This

>led me to a crisis of faith that lasted a couple of

>years.  I respect Burroughs and Neitzsche for

>understanding what Buddhism is and choosing to

>position themselves against it.  That's better

>than flimsily paying lip service to it, or

>attacking it for misinformed reasons.

>

>All I can really say in counterpoint is that we

>all come up with our ways of dealing with "the

>slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."  I've

>written somewhere that Burroughs had "porcupine

>skin" -- that was his defense mechanism.  Neitzsche

>never got a good defense mechanism going, maybe

>because he was schizophrenic, or maybe not, but

>he lived the 2nd half of his life in horrible

>misery.  The Buddhist practice is just another

>way of surviving.  Ultimately I don't think

>there's anybody in the world who hasn't sometimes

>felt what Buddha felt when he said "All Life

>is Suffering."   And I also don't think there's

>any Buddhist out there who hasn't sometimes felt

>that life was just peachy keen and a whole lot

>of fun.

>

>As for this though:

>>         "When the Vietnamese communists

>>         took Saigon in 1975, they put their "class

>>         enemies" into re-education camps. In

>>         neighboring Cambodia, Pol Pot built exter-

>>         mination camps. Techears, doctors, people

>>         who could speak a foreing language, even

>>         people who wore glasses, were purged as

>>         he sought to reduce all of Cambodia to the

>>         level of the peasant class. The Vietnamese

>>         could be cruel captors, but their Confucian

>>         heritage left them open to educational re-

>>         form. In Cambodia, by contrast, Buddhism

>>         encouraged a belief in the ineluctability

>>         of karma and the idea that evil suffered

>>         is evil deserved. ''The idea of karma

>>         goes very deep in this society, and I

>>         think that was part of the mentality of

>>         the Khmer Rouge when they were massacring

>>         people,'' said Francois Ponvhaud, a priest

>>         who first went in Cambodia in 1965. '' They

>>         believed their victims had made errors,

>>         political errors, and that killing them

>>         would allow them to be reborn as better

>>         people in their next lives''. Pol Pot has

>>         admitted to some mistakes in the period

>>         from 1975 to 1979, but in his eyes they

>>         were mistakes of policy. About the million

>>         dead, he has never expressed any remorse."

>>         From "Terry McCarthy-- TIME,AUGUST 11,1997."

>

>I'm sorry, this is what I'd call the kind of

>misinformed criticism that *does* piss me off.

>Cambodia and Vietnam were both Thereveda Buddhist

>countries -- this notion that some vague threads

>of Confucianism in Vietnamese culture were what

>saved it from the evils that befell Cambodia

>may make a nice little Time article, but is

>way too flimsy to stand as a philosophical critique

>of a religion.  And China was more Confician

>than Vietnam -- how would he explain Mao's crimes

>against humanity?  This just doesn't stand up,

>it's just the kind of dull analytic blather

>that keeps political pundits employed, in my

>never-very-humble (but I'm trying) opinion.

>

>------------------------------------------------------

>| Levi Asher = brooklyn@netcom.com                   |

>|                                                    |

>|    Literary Kicks: http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/ |

>|     (3 years old and still running)                |

>|                                                    |

>|        "Coffeehouse: Writings from the Web"        |

>|          (a real book, like on paper)              |

>|             also at http://coffeehousebook.com     |

>|                                                    |

>|                *--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*  |

>|                                                    |

>|                  "It was my dream that screwed up" |

>|                                    -- Jack Kerouac |

>------------------------------------------------------

>

>

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 18:14:50 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Penn, Douglas, K" <dkpenn@OEES.COM>

Subject:      Re: Naked Lunch: Benway

MIME-Version: 1.0

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Diane writ:

 

<<

>Burroughs seems to take us on a journey through the

>deconstruction, perhaps de-structuring of society/the world through

>horrific images but what does do his images actually evoke?  It seems

>that this line of discovery would be important since individual words and

>images are the only thing that hold together a work without any real

>characters or progression of events.

>>

 

Well, let me steal some words from "Surrealists and Surrealism" (pg34)

to answer your question of what his images actually invoke:

 

<<

A trite phrase or an illustration from a mail-order catalogue:  this

external element was essential, but as a starting point, not as an end

in itself.  A bulwark set up to stem the unwanted influx of the

conventional, the aesthetic, the bogus and the shallow, its function was

to get the self-imposed censor out of the way.  And because we come

smack up against that commonplace or that borrowed drawing (or

whatever), the cloud bursts and manna comes down.  The familiar, the

already seen, the already read, crumples up and reveals the never yet

seen, the never yet read.  But the operation would not come off if it

were merely a montage of external elements:  for those externals to be

seen through, they have to be shifted into the realm of mirages.  The

disconnected words will only cast their spell if borne aloft on the

breath of poetry.  The fixed planes of the collage are the unpredictable

episodes of a film whose inner impetus alone keeps the machinery turning

over.

 

We are as yet only in 1919, and these initial soundings of the depths

may be mistaken for the unsubsided effervescence of Dada, on which

Aragon commented: "Anyhow the world gets a good laugh out of their

antics."

>>

 

Thus, if I'm translating correctly, his images [nouns] of junk, society,

and (please add here) (a) remove the censor, (2) reveal the unseen in

the seen, (3) and translate the commonplace into poetry, (4) reveal the

"fixed" planes of his cross topics, and (5) give a clue to the "inner

impetus" of "the machine".

 

But what his inner impetus is, or what the machine actually does,

well,...??

 

and then there's the idea that the medium is the message (Marshall

McCluhen).  That the collage technique that WSB uses is meant for a

specific purpose.  That besides the basic organization of the novel,

it's possible to use the resultant chaos to interpret words, characters,

scenarios in new ways.  New ways to write a novel, ways to live, to get

junk (in a non-physical way), and to escape death??

 

and lastly:  humour.

 

 

BUT:  the surrealists were always using "commonplace" items and

subverting them.  WSB and the associated images seem to be starting from

the opposite, with "highly charged" subculture items and working them

back to commonplace ideas.  I could be absolutely wrong here, but it's a

theory to work with at least.

 

- not just rebelling against the ordinary

- not just organizing and editing the surreal

- not just idealizing the possibilities

- but starting with the idea of a fucked up universe and working

backwords in a purifying manner to a universe which contains it's

[opposite]???

 

[[I'd really like to pass the painter Yves Tanguey thru WSB, but can't

find a book!!]]

 

and if I had WWW access, I'd give you a link to a Robert Williams or

S.Clay Wilson graphic.  Same ideas, me thinks.  I DON'T KNOW.  I should

spend more time building the engine than analyzing the race.  Going home

now...

 

>> DC

 

Douglas

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 22:19:50 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "P.A.Maher" <mapaul@PIPELINE.COM>

Subject:      Enlightments by Kerouac

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

Coming soon:

 

     On The Kerouac Quarterly web page, paintings based on Kerouac's

"Enlghtments" in POMES ALL SIZES. . . .as they are completed..these oils

will be photographed, posted and auctioned off (with a set ceiling price of

$50.00) and minimum bid feom $5.00. If you like the paintings try for them,

if you thinkthey suck wellll. . .. .don't.

 

http://www.freeyellow.com/members/upstartcrow/page1.html

 

For an example of the kind of art they will look like go see "The Flood of

Dr.Sax" go to:

 

http://www.freeyellow.com/members/upstartcrow/page2.html

 

I want these paintings to be low-priced and accessible, not a ton of money.

Because art, like the magic muse that inspires them, should be free like air. .

 

1st Enlightment: When you become enlightened you will know that you've been

enlightened all along. (Jack Kerouac, page 66 POMES ALL SIZES). . .

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 20:06:49 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         runner <babu@ELECTRICITI.COM>

Subject:      Re: Naked Lunch: Benway (Sekhu Surface I)

In-Reply-To:  <33F85F30.E1E@together.net>

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

At 7:41 AM -0700 8/18/97, Diane Carter wrote:

 

> Burroughs seems to take us on a journey through the

> deconstruction, perhaps de-structuring of society/the world through

> horrific images but what does do his images actually evoke?  It seems

> that this line of discovery would be important since individual words and

> images are the only thing that hold together a work without any real

> characters or progression of events.

>

 

At 3:57 PM -0700 8/18/97, Levi Asher wrote:

 

All I can really say in counterpoint is that we

all come up with our ways of dealing with "the

slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."  I've

written somewhere that Burroughs had "porcupine

skin" -- that was his defense mechanism.  Neitzsche

never got a good defense mechanism going, maybe

because he was schizophrenic, or maybe not, but

he lived the 2nd half of his life in horrible

misery.  The Buddhist practice is just another

way of surviving.  Ultimately I don't think

there's anybody in the world who hasn't sometimes

felt what Buddha felt when he said "All Life

is Suffering."   And I also don't think there's

any Buddhist out there who hasn't sometimes felt

that life was just peachy keen and a whole lot

of fun.

 

> DC

 

------------------------------------------------------

| Levi Asher = brooklyn@netcom.com                   |

|                                                    |

|    Literary Kicks: http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/ |

|     (3 years old and still running)                |

|                                                    |

|        "Coffeehouse: Writings from the Web"        |

|          (a real book, like on paper)              |

|             also at http://coffeehousebook.com     |

|                                                    |

|                *--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*  |

|                                                    |

|                  "It was my dream that screwed up" |

|                                    -- Jack Kerouac |

------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Douglas

 

 

http://www.electriciti.com/babu/        |   0   |               The map is

not the territory

                                |  { -  |                --Korzybski

        ---->                   |  /\   |

                                =========

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 20:32:53 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         runner <babu@ELECTRICITI.COM>

Subject:      (Sekhu Surface II)

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

At 7:41 AM -0700 8/18/97, Diane Carter wrote:

At 3:57 PM -0700 8/18/97, Levi Asher wrote:

 

 

is Suffering."   And I also don't think there's

any Buddhist out there who hasn't sometimes felt

> that this line of discovery would be important since individual words and

way of surviving.  Ultimately I don't think

of fun.skin" -- that was his defense mechanism.  Neitzsche

he lived the 2nd half of his life in horrible

all come up with our ways of dealing with "the

> characters or progression of events.

>

> images are the only thing that hold together a work without any real

never got a good defense mechanism going, maybe

 

> Burroughs seems to take us on a journey through the

 

> deconstruction, perhaps de-structuring of society/the world through

All I can really say in counterpoint is that we

> horrific images but what does do his images actually evoke?  It seems

slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."  I've

written somewhere that Burroughs had "porcupine

because he was schizophrenic, or maybe not, but

misery.  The Buddhist practice is just another

there's anybody in the world who hasn't sometimes

felt what Buddha felt when he said "All Life

that life was just peachy keen and a whole lot

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 06:50:11 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Marie Countryman <country@SOVER.NET>

Subject:      "it's all right ma, i'm only lurking

In-Reply-To:  <3.0.1.32.19970819003812.006870dc@pop.gpnet.it>

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

in the midst of post  bashing and furious reading of many texts this past

month, i find myself uncharacteristcally silent. if i have sent this over

the list before, please fogive my lousy mailer and memory. just wanted to

say hello to all.

mc

 

on not writing

 

i have not been writing

i have been painting

i have not thought of words,

but rather of

colors, shapes,

        blending, edging,

worlds building on the page

is it sleep

is it dreaming

who is doing the painting?

landscapes of the mind

appear regularly as if

plucked out of thin air.

no memory

        beyond the intent to paint

dreams of eternal landscape

        building word less poems

not asleep

        nor waking.

mc

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 06:57:12 -0500

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         RACE --- <race@MIDUSA.NET>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: Young adult fiction???? and Chapter 1

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Diane Carter wrote:

>

> Is anyone ready to discuss books yet?

 

I just got OTR from the salina public library yesterday (is a public

library more communistic, socialistic, cooperative or what??? never

mind) . . .

SHOCKING.  They have a sticker on it as Young Adult Fiction.

Now part of me drew back in horror at the thought of them doing this to

a wonderful book

but a sinister and subversive side of me likes very much that this book

will be in the young adult section.  i may even begin to roam the

shelves of the fiction section and make other suggestions for Young

Adult classifications of REAL authors.

 

I have started Chapter One.

I guess it is sort of beating a dead mule but i'm asking myself about

JK's treatment of the character MaryLou.

The most troublesome thing to me is not that the character is described

as dumb and as a whore and whatnot.  The most troubling thing is that

the character is compleatly silent - voiceless.  Some woman - and

perhaps MaryLou will be one of them - are dumb and whores (just as many

men are).  But the dismissing of the first woman in a voiceless manner

is troublesome.

 

I am not dwelling on this though and will continue to plow forward.

 

david rhaesa

salina, Kansas

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 08:39:44 -0400

Reply-To:     Greg Elwell <elwellg@voicenet.com>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Greg Elwell <elwellg@VOICENET.COM>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: Young adult fiction???? and Chapter 1

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HA!  This makes me remember back to when I was in eighth grade, and a

classmate did a book report on OTR.  This was back before I was into

Kerouac, so I didn't know much.  All I can remember from his report is:

"This book really isn't about anything.  It's just this dude driving across

the country."

Greg Elwell

elwellg@voicenet.com || elwellgr@hotmail.com

<http://www.voicenet.com/~elwellg>

 

-----Original Message-----

From: RACE --- <race@MIDUSA.NET>

To: BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Date: Tuesday, August 19, 1997 7:59 AM

Subject: Re: On the Road: Young adult fiction???? and Chapter 1

 

 

 

>Diane Carter wrote:

>>

>> Is anyone ready to discuss books yet?

>

>I just got OTR from the salina public library yesterday (is a public

>library more communistic, socialistic, cooperative or what??? never

>mind) . . .

>SHOCKING.  They have a sticker on it as Young Adult Fiction.

>Now part of me drew back in horror at the thought of them doing this to

>a wonderful book

>but a sinister and subversive side of me likes very much that this book

>will be in the young adult section.  i may even begin to roam the

>shelves of the fiction section and make other suggestions for Young

>Adult classifications of REAL authors.

>

>I have started Chapter One.

>I guess it is sort of beating a dead mule but i'm asking myself about

>JK's treatment of the character MaryLou.

>The most troublesome thing to me is not that the character is described

>as dumb and as a whore and whatnot.  The most troubling thing is that

>the character is compleatly silent - voiceless.  Some woman - and

>perhaps MaryLou will be one of them - are dumb and whores (just as many

>men are).  But the dismissing of the first woman in a voiceless manner

>is troublesome.

>

>I am not dwelling on this though and will continue to plow forward.

>

>david rhaesa

>salina, Kansas

>

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 15:05:11 +0200

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Rinaldo Rasa <rinaldo@GPNET.IT>

Subject:      Re: The Darkness of Buddishm.

In-Reply-To:  <199708182257.PAA12729@netcom18.netcom.com>

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hello all beat friends,

 

                        --**--

i was *alot* staggered by the TIME article (quoted in the

previous post), the Pol Pot *violence with charm*,

the only XXme siecle utopia realized (1975-1979)

& one million dead, (Pol Pot was in childhood educated to

become a buddhist monk, & was a gentle schoolboy),

 

                        --**--

the beat's acceptance of buddishm & the Jack Keroauc's tragic death.

JK shifts from the catholic religion to buddishm as better resource for

a safe life. But at the end JK undermined himself, i think,

& i maybe wrong, that Eastern Lands aren't the response anyway...

 

                        --**--

 

Levi Asher wrote:

[excuse me for snippin' for brevity]

>I've written somewhere that Burroughs had "porcupine

>skin" -- that was his defense mechanism.  Neitzsche

>never got a good defense mechanism going, maybe

>because he was schizophrenic, or maybe not, but

>he lived the 2nd half of his life in horrible

>misery.

 

        The "porcupine skin" was an apologue written by

        Arthur Schopenhauer (Nietzsche's master of philosophy),

        the first western philosopher who studied & embraced

        the eastern thought (id est, ''Parerga e Paralipomena''),

        also Freud at last quoted the "porcupine" in his

        thougth 'bout "the discomfourt in the society". Both

        Schopenhauer & Nietzsche promoted having for

        themself darkness & pain. Perhaps giving unconscious thread to

        future nazi ideology... pain as a value in itself without

        any salvation.

 

>The Buddhist practice is just another

>way of surviving.  Ultimately I don't think

>there's anybody in the world who hasn't sometimes

>felt what Buddha felt when he said "All Life

>is Suffering."   And I also don't think there's

>any Buddhist out there who hasn't sometimes felt

>that life was just peachy keen and a whole lot

>of fun.

 

        "Vistors to Cambodia have come away charmed by the lush

        beauty of the countryside and the smiling people.

        But the violent side and the Cambodian life can manifest

        itself without warning.

        ''Cambodian have this darkness, which is part of the

        shadow of their sweetness,'' says David Chandler, who has

        written a biography of Pol Pot and several histories of

        the country. ''Many of us who keep going there still hard

        to understand.'' Chandler observes that Pol Pot, with his

        gentle voice, never failed to charm those he met. He

        liked to quote French poetry. This was the same man who had

        his staff executed after his house in Phnom Penh had

        power failure."

 

 

>And China was more Confician

>than Vietnam -- how would he explain Mao's crimes

>against humanity?  This just doesn't stand up,

>it's just the kind of dull analytic blather

>that keeps political pundits employed, in my

>never-very-humble (but I'm trying) opinion.

>

 

        "Ancient violence takes on new forms: the

        practice of setting fire to brides because of

        the inadequacy of their dowries is on increase,

        there is terrifying evidence that ritual child

        sacrifice is being practiced by some followers

        of the cult of goddess Kali, and communal violence

        erupts regularly" -- Salman Rushdie, 1997.

 

 

saluti,

Rinaldo.

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 08:36:34 -0500

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         RACE --- <race@MIDUSA.NET>

Subject:      Re: The Darkness of Buddishm.

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Rinaldo Rasa wrote:

>

> Levi Asher wrote:

> [excuse me for snippin' for brevity]

> >I've written somewhere that Burroughs had "porcupine

> >skin" -- that was his defense mechanism.  Neitzsche

> >never got a good defense mechanism going, maybe

> >because he was schizophrenic, or maybe not, but

> >he lived the 2nd half of his life in horrible

> >misery.

>

>         The "porcupine skin" was an apologue written by

>         Arthur Schopenhauer (Nietzsche's master of philosophy),

>         the first western philosopher who studied & embraced

>         the eastern thought (id est, ''Parerga e Paralipomena''),

>         also Freud at last quoted the "porcupine" in his

>         thougth 'bout "the discomfourt in the society". Both

>         Schopenhauer & Nietzsche promoted having for

>         themself darkness & pain. Perhaps giving unconscious thread to

>         future nazi ideology... pain as a value in itself without

>         any salvation.

 

i've had the feeling many times that WSB lived in many ways a form of

buddhist life without claiming it - or perhaps explicitly denying it -

and being willing to cut off the arm of youngsters who claimed this

connection.  at the risk of my arms i'm throwing this out.

 

david rhaesa

salina, Kansas

>

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 10:05:37 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Tony Trigilio <atrigili@LYNX.DAC.NEU.EDU>

Subject:      Re: The Darkness of Buddhism.

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Hi Levi--Good to have you back on the list (my own slow response, I know).

I agree with you that Burroughs's comments on Buddhism are intelligent

rather than purely misinformed.  I do think some questions of accuracy

remain, however:

 

>Slightly slow response on my part, but:

>

>Rinaldo wrote:

>> "A man who uses Buddhism or any other instrument to

>> remove love from his being in order to avoid,

>> has committed, in my mind, a sacrilege comparable

>> to castration."-- William S. Burroughs' letter to Jack Kerouac.

>> From "Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959."

>

>As somebody who calls himself a Buddhist, I'd like

>to say that Burroughs comments about the religion are

>at least very intelligent.  He grasps the essence

>of Buddhism, which is self-denial.

 

I've never had the impression that this "self-denial" is the "essence" of

Buddhism.  What seems denied in Buddhism is a belief in an essential,

unchanging self--a self independent of and unencumbered by historical and

material conditions.  Buddhism denies this kind of self, sure, as much as it

denies the opposite idea of selfhood:  a self so mutable and changeable that

it cannot account for (and be responsible for) the joys and pains it creates

in the mind.

 

Then there are ascetic forms of self-denial or self-aversion (the "world" is

"illusion" and "I" cannot have "pleasure"--and suddenly every means of

experiencing the world is framed by scare quotes), which is what I think

most folks think of (wrongly) when they consider Buddhist self-denial.  But

you countered this asceticism best in your closing words:

 

>Ultimately I don't think

>there's anybody in the world who hasn't sometimes

>felt what Buddha felt when he said "All Life

>is Suffering."   And I also don't think there's

>any Buddhist out there who hasn't sometimes felt

>that life was just peachy keen and a whole lot

>of fun.

 

What has always motivated me about Buddhism is the Madhyamika (sp?)

"middle-way" school, in which both self-cherishing *and* self-aversion are

considered dangerous extremes.  I find that too often in the West, we focus

on Dharma teachings about self-cherishing without adding that the Buddha

also cautioned against self-aversion.  The two, for me, seem inseparable.

 

>I like it

>when somebody comes up with a *good* reason not

>to be a Buddhist, and Burroughs' reasons are good.

 

I also like it when one finds *good* reasons not to be a Buddhist.  What I

like in the quotation Rinaldo posted was that Burroughs was not reading

against Buddhism so much as against how one *practices* Buddhism.  If the

core of many Buddhisms is non-violence and altruism--and I think it is--then

Burroughs is right on the mark, and is speaking against those who misuse

Buddhism when he says, "A man who uses Buddhism or any other instrument to

remove love from his being in order to avoid, has committed, in my mind, a

sacrilege comparable to castration."  The little I know of the many

Buddhisms in the contemporary world suggests to me that any person who uses

Buddhism to "remove love" from one's own being--rather than habituate

oneself to love--is indeed committing oneself to a form of self-aversion

that is a sacrilege.

 

So, what I see in the Burroughs quote, isn't so much a good reason not to be

a Buddhist, but a good caution against how a religious practice such as

Buddhism could be misused.

 

(Life *is* peachy today--my cat-skratch'd-infected thumb is healing [I can

hit the spacebar with hardly any pain], and a big old cup of coffee solved

the suffering of waking . . .)

 

Tony

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 22:54:41 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Diane Carter <dcarter@TOGETHER.NET>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: Young adult fiction???? and Chapter 1

MIME-Version: 1.0

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> RACE wrote:

> I have started Chapter One.

> I guess it is sort of beating a dead mule but i'm asking myself about

> JK's treatment of the character MaryLou.

> The most troublesome thing to me is not that the character is described

> as dumb and as a whore and whatnot.  The most troubling thing is that

> the character is compleatly silent - voiceless.  Some woman - and

> perhaps MaryLou will be one of them - are dumb and whores (just as many

> men are).  But the dismissing of the first woman in a voiceless manner

> is troublesome.

>

> I am not dwelling on this though and will continue to plow forward.

 

I think I've read five Kerouac books in a row and unfortunately this is

the way he portrays all women, except for the one at the end of Big Sur,

who actually was given to philosophical dialogue.  I think in On the Road

this type of woman characterization is more prevelant too because he

spends most of his time trying to imitate Cody's relationship with women,

which in the across the country scenes is no more than random sex in

different cities.  I've decided the best way to get past Kerouac's

attitude toward women is to ignore it, believing that in great writing,

there is no male or female anyway, only the experience of what it means

to be human.

DC

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 10:52:24 -0400

Reply-To:     paw8670@mailer.fsu.edu

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Preston Whaley Jr." <paw8670@MAILER.FSU.EDU>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: Young adult fiction???? and Chapter 1

MIME-Version: 1.0

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David Rhaesa,

 

Your post touches on my own problems with JK's mysogyny.  Visions of

Cody is particularly egregious.  Nevertheless, I still think VC is one

of the most forward looking works I've ever read.  I take the sexism and

its result -- inability to hear the woman's voice -- to be a confession,

driven by the artistic need to exorcise bigotry, i.e. blockages. Kerouac

acknowledged the problem of patriarchy somewhere.  He said bad gender

relations are man's fault.  I think it's in On the Road, but I can't

find it. If any one knows please share.

 

glad to be in the circle,

 

PW

=========================================================================

Date:         Mon, 18 Aug 1997 23:09:07 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Diane Carter <dcarter@TOGETHER.NET>

Subject:      Re: The Darkness of Buddishm.

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> Rinaldo Rasa wrote:                         --**--

> the beat's acceptance of buddishm & the Jack Keroauc's tragic death.

> JK shifts from the catholic religion to buddishm as better resource for

> a safe life. But at the end JK undermined himself, i think,

 

I don't think that JK's shift to Buddhism ever held up well, or got him

anywhere, it was only one more thing to try in his search for meaning.

Perhaps the new book will prove differently, I'm beginning more to think

that he found that there was no earthly use for any religion for none

could prevent death, He goes on and on about what is the point of life,

birth, or anything in view of the fact that we are all going to die.  It

seems also that the more he tried to get into Buddhism, peeling off

layers of self, the more he found self-hatred.

DC

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 11:14:32 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Chris Dumond <dumo13@EROLS.COM>

Subject:      Wino -- more darkness

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Hi.  Finally something I can (maybe) sink my teeth into?

 

Jack's LOVE of wine...

It's just one part of Jack's search for his truth.  Many of you who have

read VISIONS OF CODY and other of Jack's books will recall his disgust

towards the American dream and how he says that it robs people of their

instinct, how it makes them forget what true happiness is... Well, it's

my belief that Jack found the most beat characters he could find and

emulated them in hope of finding satori or whatever.  An aspect of this

was the wino.  Jack loved winos!  He really didn't have to be poor... he

could've gone along with the MEAT WHEEL but he didn't.  He intentionally

dressed like a bum, hung out with bums (in back alleys of redbrick

drinking WINE)... it's kind of a retarded version of Sidhartha (please

excuse my spelling) and his quest for enlightenment -- when he became

(crap! I forget what they're called!) one of those little indian guys who

sits by the river and doesn't eat and seeks enlightenment thru it and he

realizes that it's a whole bunch of bull to keep tortureing yourself and

eventually becomes the Buddha.  Well, this was Jack's road too, forcing

himself into the bottom of society... except that while Jack had his

enlightenment he was too addicted to the lifestyle to ever enjoy the

satori of the good life.

 

The Naked Lunch being like a movie comment was right on!  I've always

thought of that book as a sick movie/dream inside Bill's head... being

directed by little globs of heroin... it even literally becomes a movie

during the middle of the book.

 

Chris

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 11:17:55 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Chris Dumond <dumo13@EROLS.COM>

Subject:      one more thing...

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Sorry, I forgot to tack this onto my last post:

 

What is up with Jack Kerouac and the use of his word "redbrick"?  I mean,

in VOC he uses it maybe a million times!  It's also persvasive in his

poetry.

 

Chris

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 11:23:57 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Alex Howard <kh14586@ACS.APPSTATE.EDU>

Subject:      Re: Mysgogyny (was On the Road: Young adu....)

In-Reply-To:  <33F9B328.552E@mailer.acns.fsu.edu>

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On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, Preston Whaley Jr. wrote:

 

> Your post touches on my own problems with JK's mysogyny.  Visions of

> Cody is particularly egregious.  Nevertheless, I still think VC is one

> of the most forward looking works I've ever read.  I take the sexism and

> its result -- inability to hear the woman's voice -- to be a confession,

> driven by the artistic need to exorcise bigotry, i.e. blockages.

 

The sexist attitudes of many of the beats is a real stumbling block for me

when it comes to talking about and teaching the beats.  One of my friends

gave up completely on the beats because of this after reading Dharma Bums

and Tristessa.  Trying to get people to look past that is sometimes like

trying to knock down a brick wall with your head.  And its hard to

contradict those attitudes when you only have a handful of really

productive women whose work you can showcase.  Even then most of them came

later on.  In the beginning it was Jack and Neal and  the boys and that's

about it except for the girlfriends who rarely lasted that long.

 

------------------

Alex Howard  (704)264-8259                    Appalachian State University

kh14586@acs.appstate.edu                      P.O. Box 12149

http://www.acs.appstate.edu/~kh14586          Boone, NC  28608

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 11:36:57 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Antoine Maloney <stratis@ODYSSEE.NET>

Subject:      Re: Slim Gaillard and Jack...and the hipsters

Mime-Version: 1.0

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Answer to Quiz #2:

 

Slim's son-in-law was Marvin Gaye, one of the crown princes of soul music.

He had Slim Gaillard sit in on the album "Midnight Love"; he added

hand-clapping!?!

 

Anybody know if Kerouac - Cassady were into doowop, Rhythm 'n blues or soul?

 

Antoine

 

        **********

>About the Slim Gaillard trivia question posed by Antoine Maloney,

>

>I don't know.

>

>That's why I didn't hazard a guess.

>

>As I remember it was who is Slim famous musician son-in-law.

>

>OK, times up I give and it seems like no one else is going to pose an answer

>so...

>

>OK,  who?

>

 Voice contact at  (514) 933-4956 in Montreal

 

     "An anarchist is someone who doesn't need a cop to tell him what to do!"

                        -- Norman Navrotsky and Utah Phillips

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 08:50:40 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Timothy K. Gallaher" <gallaher@HSC.USC.EDU>

Subject:      Re: Slim Gaillard and Jack...and the hipsters

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

>Answer to Quiz #2:

>

>Slim's son-in-law was Marvin Gaye,

 

Wow!  That's big time.

 

 

 

>one of the crown princes of soul music.

>He had Slim Gaillard sit in on the album "Midnight Love"; he added

>hand-clapping!?!

>

>Anybody know if Kerouac - Cassady were into doowop, Rhythm 'n blues or soul?

>

>Antoine

>

>        **********

>>About the Slim Gaillard trivia question posed by Antoine Maloney,

>>

>>I don't know.

>>

>>That's why I didn't hazard a guess.

>>

>>As I remember it was who is Slim famous musician son-in-law.

>>

>>OK, times up I give and it seems like no one else is going to pose an answer

>>so...

>>

>>OK,  who?

>>

> Voice contact at  (514) 933-4956 in Montreal

>

>     "An anarchist is someone who doesn't need a cop to tell him what to do!"

>                        -- Norman Navrotsky and Utah Phillips

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 18:33:57 +-200

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Arno Neele <arnoniem@TIP.NL>

Subject:      AW: On the Road: Young adult fiction???? and Chapter 1

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"The truth of the matter is we don't understand our women; we blame on them and

 it's all our fault." (OTR, page 122)

 

 

Maybe this is what you were looking for.

arno

----------

Van:    Preston Whaley Jr.[SMTP:paw8670@MAILER.FSU.EDU]

Verzonden:      dinsdag 19 augustus 1997 16:52

Aan:    BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

Onderwerp:      Re: On the Road: Young adult fiction???? and Chapter 1

 

David Rhaesa,

 

Your post touches on my own problems with JK's mysogyny.  Visions of

Cody is particularly egregious.  Nevertheless, I still think VC is one

of the most forward looking works I've ever read.  I take the sexism and

its result -- inability to hear the woman's voice -- to be a confession,

driven by the artistic need to exorcise bigotry, i.e. blockages. Kerouac

acknowledged the problem of patriarchy somewhere.  He said bad gender

relations are man's fault.  I think it's in On the Road, but I can't

find it. If any one knows please share.

 

glad to be in the circle,

 

PW

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 10:09:12 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         MATT HANNAN <MATT.HANNAN@USOC.ORG>

Subject:      Re[2]: The Darkness of Buddishm.

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

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My in-laws are heavy duty Buddhist and one of the things I've noticed is

their Buddhism seems to be very different from the sort of dry and

intellectual or philosophical type of Buddism that you hear most about in

the US.  It would be interesting to hear about these differences between

"real" (real in quotes in quotes) Buddhists and American's who practice

Buddhism.

 

     There are many schools of Buddhism.  The theology heavy schools of

     Tibetan, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. are very different than the Zen

     Schools of China and Japan, as different as Catholicism and the

     "lighter" shades of Protestantism.

 

     matt

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 12:54:29 -0400

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         "Dawn B. Sova" <DawnDR@AOL.COM>

Subject:      Re: On the Road: Young adult fiction???? and Chapter 1

 

David R. noted that the public library has OTR classified as "Young Adult

Fiction."  I had to comment --- and hold onto your hat when you hear this.

 

Just completed for reference publisher Facts on File, Inc., two volumes of a

four-volume set on censorship --- my two volumes were books that have been

censored/banned/challenged for "Social" content and for "Erotic" content

(summaries/case histories, etc.).  Couldn't find my copy of NAKED LUNCH, so I

ordered a copy through interlibrary loan from another public library in the

county system here in  New Jersey.  NAKED LUNCH is  classed as "YA" in at

least 5 of those libraries!!!  (Of course, many others have "lost" it.)  Know

something??  I laughed, and felt very subversive as I said NOTHING!

 

I'd be curious if other Beat books are similarly classified.  What a

wonderful way to let the system open minds.

 

Dawn

=========================================================================

Date:         Tue, 19 Aug 1997 09:45:32 -0700

Reply-To:     "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

Sender:       "BEAT-L: Beat Generation List" <BEAT-L@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>

From:         Leon Tabory <letabor@CRUZIO.COM>

Subject:      Re: The Darkness of Buddishm.

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

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----------

 

Rinaldo Rasa wrote:

 

i've had the feeling many times that WSB lived in many ways a form of

buddhist life without claiming it - or perhaps explicitly denying it -

and being willing to cut off the arm of youngsters who claimed this

connection.  at the risk of my arms i'm throwing this out.

 

David

 

Am I too literal here? Not literary enough?  David, I can hardly believe it? You

 mean it?

 

leon

 



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