ERIK HAYDEN
STAFF WRITER
A certain reverence is associated with anniversaries, whether it is a marriage, war or civil holiday. But it’s hard for me to drum up enthusiasm for an anniversary associated with a book or movie. It just seems as if this is a ploy by booksellers and movie studios to milk more money out of a work of art from overly loyal fans.
This is so for “On the Road” and its emblematic author Jack Kerouac. Kerouac who was known as the cornerstone writer of the beat generation in the 1950s and 1960s is undergoing a posthumous makeover and push from publisher, Penguin Classics, to appeal to a new and eager generation of Kerouac fans. The occasion for such publishing enthusiasm is the 50th anniversary of “On the Road,” the book that propelled Kerouac into the limelight and hailed him as the spokesman for a new, counter-culture generation.
It should be no surprise that a book so popular and universally acclaimed has been relentlessly touted by its publisher at each and every anniversary. The 50th anniversary edition once again promotes on its Web site, “the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.” It seems as if Kerouac-mania has hit a fever pitch at the 50th anniversary of “On the Road.”
Kerouac’s hometown, Lowell, Mass., is an example of the mania that is being stirred up in the promotion of his books. The town has been offering tours of “Kerouac’s stomping grounds” and promoting a “Kerouac and Jazz” literacy festival with a special celebration of Kerouac’s birthday in March.
To be sure, it’s a book worthy of the praise that has been heaped on it for generations. It’s easy to be swept in the emotions of Kerouac. His writing in “On the Road” captures yearning for an open country, the ecstatic glories of experiencing the unknown, the thrill of living your life moment by moment.
A simple, yet so human, account of the cross-country road trips by the frantic Dean Moriarty and the inquisitive Sal Paradise (Kerouac’s alter ego) has captured the hearts of the dreamers and the youth in the United States since the time of its publication in 1957. “On the Road” has defined the beats and contributed to the rise of the hippie youth in the early 60s. It has also inspired subsequent generations to take to the open road and experience the chaotic, sepia-toned America of Kerouac’s pages.
In recasting this figure of the traditionally counter-culture into a promoter of literacy and commercialization, the legend and mythology of Kerouac the human being dies. The over inflation of his legacy that occurs when booksellers get geared up to celebrate any anniversary of Kerouac or recast his legacy with hip reinventions of book covers only demeans the legend that he completed by the end of his life.
The legend that I’m speaking of is “The Legend of Dulouz,” the completed semi-autobiographical works that Kerouac himself wrote from 1950 until his death in 1969. Included in these books are his complete story arc, from his early childhood in “Doctor Sax,” his angst-ridden high school years in “Maggie Cassidy,” his gallivanting years in “On the Road,” spiritual leanings in the “The Dharma Bums,” and worldly resignation in “Big Sur.”
This is the Kerouac who should be celebrated, his stories and his ideas in his own words, rather than the promotion and celebration of less meaningful anniversaries and revised editions. The Kerouac mythos of hitchhiking, exploring, wandering and adventuring should be preserved for future generations.
09-27-2007
