"The government had tried to fight it, sent a thousand men in with pack string supply lines that then took three weeks from Marblemount fire camp, but only the fall rains had stopped that blaze and the charred snags, I was told, were still standing on Desolation Peak and in some valleys." (Kerouac, 227)
-This quote, although it could very possibly be an accident, is an interesting metaphor to the book. The way that the fire surges on destroying everything, and no one can stop it except nature could be related to the way that suburban culture expands and grows. The way the main stream rips through society kindof like a fire. I'm sure, of course, that this is mear coincidence but the quote still provokes an interesting thought. Because this quote is directly before when Smith is starting to work for old Happy in the mountains is this him giving up on trying to change things, giving in to the power of the fire?
"'And this is Japhy's lake, and these are Japhy's mountains,' I thought, and wished Japhy were there to see me doing everything he wanted me to do." (Kerouac, 229)
-The above quote is interesting because it shows how even though at some points in the book Smith disagrees with Japhy he ends up thinking of his quest around the mountains as a tribute to Japhy. The fact that Smith sometimes seemed to look down on Japhy shows that maybe in Japhy's absence Smith has has realized that he enjoys many of the things Japhy does, and even if he doesn't he respects them. Smith manages to make himself feel close to Japhy by just doing what Japhy wanted him to, it's as if Smith were looking for a way to get Japhy back, to reconnect to what seems to be the best friend he ever had.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
The Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses) 200-223
"I think death is our reward. When we die we go straight to nirvana Heaven and that's that." (Kerouac, 202)
-This is said by Smith when Japhy and him are discussing, like they frequently do, their different opinions on buddhist teachings, and their own opinions derived from them. Ray and Japhy have just had their huge 3 day send off party for Japhy and are also discussing why when everyone has so much fun, you wake up feeling "sad and seperate" from everyone else. The way that Smith thinks about death reflects the way he feels about life. He feels life is such torture that death is your reward for going through it. He also believes there is no judgement and that this "nirvana Heaven" reflects biblical heaven but without the pearly gates, and entrance requirements. This just shows his desire for unquestioned acceptance, and understanding that you see him struggling for throughout the book.
"Adoration to emptiness of the divine Buddha bead." (Kerouac, 219)
-This is the one prayer Smith says over the beads Japhy gave to him. He's on his way to his mountain and is hitchhiking through California and Oregon to get to the Cascade Range on the "skirt of Canada." This prayer pays tribute to the incredible nothingness of Buddha, and the simple emptiness that is Buddhism. The bead of course is not what is empty or divine, but what stands for buddhism. In buddhism everything is everything else, they are all the same, so therefore if one thing is empty so is the bead, so is Smith, so is Japhy. This prayer was appropriate because he's getting ready to go to "his mountain" and he needs to remember the importance of that emptiness and respect that when he gets to that mountain nothing will be there for him because everything is nothing, he is nothing.
-This is said by Smith when Japhy and him are discussing, like they frequently do, their different opinions on buddhist teachings, and their own opinions derived from them. Ray and Japhy have just had their huge 3 day send off party for Japhy and are also discussing why when everyone has so much fun, you wake up feeling "sad and seperate" from everyone else. The way that Smith thinks about death reflects the way he feels about life. He feels life is such torture that death is your reward for going through it. He also believes there is no judgement and that this "nirvana Heaven" reflects biblical heaven but without the pearly gates, and entrance requirements. This just shows his desire for unquestioned acceptance, and understanding that you see him struggling for throughout the book.
"Adoration to emptiness of the divine Buddha bead." (Kerouac, 219)
-This is the one prayer Smith says over the beads Japhy gave to him. He's on his way to his mountain and is hitchhiking through California and Oregon to get to the Cascade Range on the "skirt of Canada." This prayer pays tribute to the incredible nothingness of Buddha, and the simple emptiness that is Buddhism. The bead of course is not what is empty or divine, but what stands for buddhism. In buddhism everything is everything else, they are all the same, so therefore if one thing is empty so is the bead, so is Smith, so is Japhy. This prayer was appropriate because he's getting ready to go to "his mountain" and he needs to remember the importance of that emptiness and respect that when he gets to that mountain nothing will be there for him because everything is nothing, he is nothing.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
1st Paragraph for Dharma Bums Paper
Japhy in the book The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac is the leading spiritual voice in the book. However, Japhy has very conflicting ideas within his spirituality. Japhy tends to use some ideas selectively instead of the devout following of all of his beliefs, which he defends so exuberantly. Japhy does this because of his desire to become enlightened, like the people who’s philosophies he adopts. His impatience for a personal revelation is what brings him to constantly jump between realist and romantic personal views. He does however, try to defend every view he has ever adopted, because of his fear that it might be the one that in the end will lead him to enlightenment. This of course makes Japhy seem very hypocritical at times. Reading the book you see the tension within Japhy around the subject of his beliefs and which ones to follow at which times.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Notes for CCC
-Annual festival held week before labor day about 120 miles north of Reno, Nevada.
-"specatator free" zone, every person is expected to contribute to the community
-"Don't let it hit the ground" is a mantra to demonstrate the zero impact that the temporary city leaves on the desert, many stay to clean up after festival
-commerce-free community, no cash transactions, community relys on gifts/bartering only
-Began in 1986
-"specatator free" zone, every person is expected to contribute to the community
-"Don't let it hit the ground" is a mantra to demonstrate the zero impact that the temporary city leaves on the desert, many stay to clean up after festival
-commerce-free community, no cash transactions, community relys on gifts/bartering only
-Began in 1986
The Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses) 172-199
"I ate the banana and threw the peel away and said nothing. 'That's the banana sermon.'" (Kerouac, 174)
-This is something Smith says to Japhy when they're discussing nirvana. Smith thinks nirvana is simply there, unspoken, nirvana is in life itself. Japhy only partially agrees thinking that nirvana has a physical type of manifestation. Earlier he describes a monk reaching enlightenment through being pushed on the ground. Japhy thinks that nirvana is the same, is happens in response to some type of stimulation, while Smith thinks it is simply there in the absense of thought.
"Japhy was mad as hell and really jealous." (Kerouac, 185)
-This quote is Smith describing Japhy after meeting Japhy's sister's fiance. For some reason Japhy is very jealous and keeps trying to intimidate his sister's fiance. He talks quite a bit about their sex life which today would seem inappropriate. He also hints to having sex with his sister, which is probably just a crazy Japhy tactic of intimidation, but still very strange, and you can tell hes most likely on some kind of drugs, or just a little out of his mind with "freedom."
-This is something Smith says to Japhy when they're discussing nirvana. Smith thinks nirvana is simply there, unspoken, nirvana is in life itself. Japhy only partially agrees thinking that nirvana has a physical type of manifestation. Earlier he describes a monk reaching enlightenment through being pushed on the ground. Japhy thinks that nirvana is the same, is happens in response to some type of stimulation, while Smith thinks it is simply there in the absense of thought.
"Japhy was mad as hell and really jealous." (Kerouac, 185)
-This quote is Smith describing Japhy after meeting Japhy's sister's fiance. For some reason Japhy is very jealous and keeps trying to intimidate his sister's fiance. He talks quite a bit about their sex life which today would seem inappropriate. He also hints to having sex with his sister, which is probably just a crazy Japhy tactic of intimidation, but still very strange, and you can tell hes most likely on some kind of drugs, or just a little out of his mind with "freedom."
The Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses) 150-171
"Suddenly I was exhilarated to realize I was completely alone and safe and nobody was going to wake me up all night long." (Kerouac, 154)
-This quote is when Smith is by himself in the countryside traveling. It's a very different world he lives in where to be alone is to be safe. Today to be alone in the wilderness brings thoughts of Blair Witch and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Back then, however, to be alone was to be secure, ensured of an undisturbed existence which is in the end what Ray is searching for. However, Ray is searching for that in a working society, searching for the inner peace where he can be completely safe and secure and not technically alone.
"Inside I saw the beautiful simplicity of Japhy's way of living, neat, sensible, strangely rich without a cent having been spent on the decoration." (Kerouac, 164)
-Smith envies Japhy's life when he sees the way he lives. It's easier for Smith to think of Japhy's life as a type of chaos, with no happiness, no richness to it, just sex, ecclectic theory, etc. Now seeing Japhy's hut he realizes that while Japhy lives a strangely unorganized existence the shear simplicity of his life organizes it all for him. His happiness comes from having his studies, his neat living, and his unorganized mind.
-This quote is when Smith is by himself in the countryside traveling. It's a very different world he lives in where to be alone is to be safe. Today to be alone in the wilderness brings thoughts of Blair Witch and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Back then, however, to be alone was to be secure, ensured of an undisturbed existence which is in the end what Ray is searching for. However, Ray is searching for that in a working society, searching for the inner peace where he can be completely safe and secure and not technically alone.
"Inside I saw the beautiful simplicity of Japhy's way of living, neat, sensible, strangely rich without a cent having been spent on the decoration." (Kerouac, 164)
-Smith envies Japhy's life when he sees the way he lives. It's easier for Smith to think of Japhy's life as a type of chaos, with no happiness, no richness to it, just sex, ecclectic theory, etc. Now seeing Japhy's hut he realizes that while Japhy lives a strangely unorganized existence the shear simplicity of his life organizes it all for him. His happiness comes from having his studies, his neat living, and his unorganized mind.
Monday, April 16, 2007
the Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses) 120-149
"After all a homeless man has reason to cry, everything in the world is pointed against him." (Kerouac, 122)
-The above quote is a little contradictory to the way that Smith has thought in the past about being homeless. At the start of the book when Ray is traveling to Santa Barbara on the train he seems to think that being homeless is not only a good thing but that he chooses to be. This begs the question, why is he upset about being homeless later in the book. Could it be because he's no longer with Japhy, and has been changed by him?
"I felt I was a blank being called upon to enjoy the ecstacy of the endless truebody." (Kerouac, 142)
-This quote is a description of when Ray is spending all of his time meditating, "thinking nothing", and trying to be free. He likes the feeling of being nothing because then he doesn't have to aspire to being any one type of person. This nothingingness helps him start to reach what he describes as ecstacy. To Smith the "endless truebody" is a person so pure, and undisturbed that they are forever true and pure and spirtually at rest.
-The above quote is a little contradictory to the way that Smith has thought in the past about being homeless. At the start of the book when Ray is traveling to Santa Barbara on the train he seems to think that being homeless is not only a good thing but that he chooses to be. This begs the question, why is he upset about being homeless later in the book. Could it be because he's no longer with Japhy, and has been changed by him?
"I felt I was a blank being called upon to enjoy the ecstacy of the endless truebody." (Kerouac, 142)
-This quote is a description of when Ray is spending all of his time meditating, "thinking nothing", and trying to be free. He likes the feeling of being nothing because then he doesn't have to aspire to being any one type of person. This nothingingness helps him start to reach what he describes as ecstacy. To Smith the "endless truebody" is a person so pure, and undisturbed that they are forever true and pure and spirtually at rest.
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses) 94-120
"all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume..." (Kerouac, 97)
-This is a quote that shows the quintesential idea that the Dharma Bums had about modern society. It's such a one after the other, always the same, cookie cutter lifestyle. It imprisons people and makes them feel as if they're in a cage. It's the opposite of what Japhy and his community idealize, the complete freedom and spontanaeity.
"not the Zen intellectual artistic Buddhism he loved - but I was trying to make him see that everything was the same." (Kerouac, 115)
-This quote is when Ray is talking about San Francisco Chinatown and how Japhy for some reason doesn't embrace the buddhism because it is traditional. This kindof shows Japhy's confusion about his spirituality. Yes its not the weird "zen buddhism" he's used to but it's the basis for his "religion." Japhy seems to have an inate fear of anything that he can fail at. His buddhism is made up by him to cater his own life, so that he always is able to follow whatever guidlines because he makes them himself.
-This is a quote that shows the quintesential idea that the Dharma Bums had about modern society. It's such a one after the other, always the same, cookie cutter lifestyle. It imprisons people and makes them feel as if they're in a cage. It's the opposite of what Japhy and his community idealize, the complete freedom and spontanaeity.
"not the Zen intellectual artistic Buddhism he loved - but I was trying to make him see that everything was the same." (Kerouac, 115)
-This quote is when Ray is talking about San Francisco Chinatown and how Japhy for some reason doesn't embrace the buddhism because it is traditional. This kindof shows Japhy's confusion about his spirituality. Yes its not the weird "zen buddhism" he's used to but it's the basis for his "religion." Japhy seems to have an inate fear of anything that he can fail at. His buddhism is made up by him to cater his own life, so that he always is able to follow whatever guidlines because he makes them himself.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
The Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses) 72-94
"if you don't know how to handle a chopstick and stick it in that family pot with the best of 'em, you'll starve." (Kerouac, 73)
-This quote is the idea that if you can't figure out how to just go for something like everyone else. You can't live never getting involved, or committing yourself to anything. This relates to both Japhy and Smith because Smith needs to be able to let in Japhy, and Japhy as well needs to be able to let the world in. Both Smith and Japhy have issues with their personal lives because of their conflicting interests, they both have ideas that they go back and forth between.
"I looked and saw crazy Japhy who'd climbed for fun to the top of a snow slope and skied right down to the bottom, about a hundred yards, on his boots and the final few yards on his back, yippeeing and glad." (Kerouac, 87)
-The above quote shows Japhy's freedom with life, and his enjoyment of the smallest things. Smith wants to learn how to get such huge pleasure from such small, seemingly unimportant things. Japhy simply takes life as it is, he doesn't want to spend such a long time strenously hiking down in the snow so he slides. That is what it takes to just be able to watch life and love it as it goes by. Smith needs to learn that for his own sake because he is constricted, sexually, mentally, physically.
-This quote is the idea that if you can't figure out how to just go for something like everyone else. You can't live never getting involved, or committing yourself to anything. This relates to both Japhy and Smith because Smith needs to be able to let in Japhy, and Japhy as well needs to be able to let the world in. Both Smith and Japhy have issues with their personal lives because of their conflicting interests, they both have ideas that they go back and forth between.
"I looked and saw crazy Japhy who'd climbed for fun to the top of a snow slope and skied right down to the bottom, about a hundred yards, on his boots and the final few yards on his back, yippeeing and glad." (Kerouac, 87)
-The above quote shows Japhy's freedom with life, and his enjoyment of the smallest things. Smith wants to learn how to get such huge pleasure from such small, seemingly unimportant things. Japhy simply takes life as it is, he doesn't want to spend such a long time strenously hiking down in the snow so he slides. That is what it takes to just be able to watch life and love it as it goes by. Smith needs to learn that for his own sake because he is constricted, sexually, mentally, physically.
Monday, April 9, 2007
The Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses) 49-72
"and in that far-off look in his eyes, that secret self-sigh, I saw he was back home again." (Kerouac, 52)
-This quote describes Japhy's feeling at the sight of Matterhorn mountaiin. Ray is watching Japhy and sees him at the sight of Matterhorn remember his home and sees Japhy's vulnerability around that. The quote also shows just how emotionally invested Japhy is in these hikes, and how this is deeply part of his life. In the quote Ray is realizing how seriously Japhy takes these hikes, and how serious it is for him to do it first hand like he was the original adventurer.
"straggling a bit occupying side and center and other side of the road like straggling infantrymen." (Kerouac, 55)
-This quote shows the three men on their way up the mountain walking on the road to the trail. The way he describes them as infantrymen makes you think of them as attacking the mountain...making it theirs. It also shows the way that each of them is going for themself by straggling, occupying different sides of the road, it just shows how in this moment before the initial climb they are all seperately analyzing their goals. Each having seperate desires for the climb, seperate dreams.
-This quote describes Japhy's feeling at the sight of Matterhorn mountaiin. Ray is watching Japhy and sees him at the sight of Matterhorn remember his home and sees Japhy's vulnerability around that. The quote also shows just how emotionally invested Japhy is in these hikes, and how this is deeply part of his life. In the quote Ray is realizing how seriously Japhy takes these hikes, and how serious it is for him to do it first hand like he was the original adventurer.
"straggling a bit occupying side and center and other side of the road like straggling infantrymen." (Kerouac, 55)
-This quote shows the three men on their way up the mountain walking on the road to the trail. The way he describes them as infantrymen makes you think of them as attacking the mountain...making it theirs. It also shows the way that each of them is going for themself by straggling, occupying different sides of the road, it just shows how in this moment before the initial climb they are all seperately analyzing their goals. Each having seperate desires for the climb, seperate dreams.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
The Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses) 24-49
"It was the most amazing leap I ever saw in my life, except by nutty acrobats. Much like a mountain goat, which he was, it turned out." (Kerouac, 25)
-The above quote shows the ironical nature of the way that Kerouac describes Japhy. These two sentences are said right after Alvah and Smith go to Japhy's hut with wine for the night. The way that Smith describes Japhy shows his confusion about him, and his wonder at that. He sees him as something unhuman, and full of suprises that aren't actually that suprising because Smith has grown accustomed to suprise with Japhy.
"I regarded lust as offensive and even cruel." (Kerouac, 29)
-Smith shows the reader the he is starting to doubt his type of Buddism. Japhy's way of life is beginning to look very appealing to Smith. This quote is not just him describing lust but him describing his beliefs. At one point he believed that abstinence was good, as were his beliefs, now meeting Japhy and hearing Japhy's point of view he is realizing that lust isn't as bad, and by realizing he is thinking of lust as offensive and cruel he is also thinking of his views as offensive and cruel.
-The above quote shows the ironical nature of the way that Kerouac describes Japhy. These two sentences are said right after Alvah and Smith go to Japhy's hut with wine for the night. The way that Smith describes Japhy shows his confusion about him, and his wonder at that. He sees him as something unhuman, and full of suprises that aren't actually that suprising because Smith has grown accustomed to suprise with Japhy.
"I regarded lust as offensive and even cruel." (Kerouac, 29)
-Smith shows the reader the he is starting to doubt his type of Buddism. Japhy's way of life is beginning to look very appealing to Smith. This quote is not just him describing lust but him describing his beliefs. At one point he believed that abstinence was good, as were his beliefs, now meeting Japhy and hearing Japhy's point of view he is realizing that lust isn't as bad, and by realizing he is thinking of lust as offensive and cruel he is also thinking of his views as offensive and cruel.
Friday, April 6, 2007
research for CCC
www.burningman.com
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=635
http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/oldnews5/burningmanfestival.htm
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=635
http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/oldnews5/burningmanfestival.htm
The Dharma Bums-Jack Kerouac(Quote Responses)
"...a prayer by Saint Teresa announcing that after her death she will return to the earth by showering it with roses from heaven, forever, for all living creatures." (Kerouac, 5)
-This quote from the book Dharma Bums happens when the narrator is traveling to Santa Barbara and meets a skinny bum whom he gives food and later dubs the Saint Teresa Bum. This quote just shows how the narrator is taking all of his experiences with him. He references the quote about Saint Teresa many times later in the book. He does this because this quote is a quote that symbolizes hope. Saint Teresa is telling him that she will always be there in the roses, and always be there for all living creatures.
"I warned him at once I didn't give a goddamn about the mythology and all the names and national flavors of Buddhism, but was just interested in the first of Sakyamuni's four noble truths, All life is suffering." (12)
-The above quote explains the narrator's view on culture. To him he'd rather concentrate on the main ideas, and create his own. The quote shows that he is even slightly defensive and doesn't want to learn about the mythology of his beliefs. This is probably because he wants to create his own mythology, his own stories for why All life is suffering.
-This quote from the book Dharma Bums happens when the narrator is traveling to Santa Barbara and meets a skinny bum whom he gives food and later dubs the Saint Teresa Bum. This quote just shows how the narrator is taking all of his experiences with him. He references the quote about Saint Teresa many times later in the book. He does this because this quote is a quote that symbolizes hope. Saint Teresa is telling him that she will always be there in the roses, and always be there for all living creatures.
"I warned him at once I didn't give a goddamn about the mythology and all the names and national flavors of Buddhism, but was just interested in the first of Sakyamuni's four noble truths, All life is suffering." (12)
-The above quote explains the narrator's view on culture. To him he'd rather concentrate on the main ideas, and create his own. The quote shows that he is even slightly defensive and doesn't want to learn about the mythology of his beliefs. This is probably because he wants to create his own mythology, his own stories for why All life is suffering.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Are These Actual Miles? - Raymond Carver (Quote Responses)
"Leo tries to pull the two pieces of his shirt together, tries to bunch it into his trousers." (Carver, 589)
-Leo in the story, "Are These Actual Miles?", is a man whose life is completely out of control. This of course parallels him well to previous characters such as Neddy in "The Persistence of Desire", or the main character of "The Swimmer." All of these men have lost all control of their lives, they seem to be desperately grabbing at fragments of control and stability. When Leo tries to pull the remnants of his shirt into his trousers its a metaphor for him trying to pull his life together, just temporarily, all for appearances, so that the car salesman doesn't see how out of control he is. Leo is already so emascilated by Toni's disregard for him that he can't be set down another notch by having the man that slept with Toni think lowly of him. This theme of men having such masculinity issues may stem from the idea of the erupting feminism in that time, and the way that women were no doubtedly treating the men...with indifference that is.
"He remembers waking up the morning after they bought the car, seeing it, there in the drive, in the sun, gleaming." (Carver, 590)
-The love that Toni and Leo once had in this story is represented by the convertible. When he remembers the car, new and gleaming in the sun, it's Leo remembering how their life used to be so serene, gleaming, like that new car, not too exciting but enough that everything in comparison seemed obsolete, all the other cars didn't look as good. Now the car is being used against him. His love is being abused, his life is falling to shreds like his shirt.
-Leo in the story, "Are These Actual Miles?", is a man whose life is completely out of control. This of course parallels him well to previous characters such as Neddy in "The Persistence of Desire", or the main character of "The Swimmer." All of these men have lost all control of their lives, they seem to be desperately grabbing at fragments of control and stability. When Leo tries to pull the remnants of his shirt into his trousers its a metaphor for him trying to pull his life together, just temporarily, all for appearances, so that the car salesman doesn't see how out of control he is. Leo is already so emascilated by Toni's disregard for him that he can't be set down another notch by having the man that slept with Toni think lowly of him. This theme of men having such masculinity issues may stem from the idea of the erupting feminism in that time, and the way that women were no doubtedly treating the men...with indifference that is.
"He remembers waking up the morning after they bought the car, seeing it, there in the drive, in the sun, gleaming." (Carver, 590)
-The love that Toni and Leo once had in this story is represented by the convertible. When he remembers the car, new and gleaming in the sun, it's Leo remembering how their life used to be so serene, gleaming, like that new car, not too exciting but enough that everything in comparison seemed obsolete, all the other cars didn't look as good. Now the car is being used against him. His love is being abused, his life is falling to shreds like his shirt.
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