On the Road - Part 2

This is the second part of the previous post about the book On the Road, Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation, kindly written by Ro, DL forum, at our invitation. Then, like Johnny Depp, we put on the road and learn a little more about this American literary movement.

THE AUTHOR Jack Kerouac

There's so much to say about the author and the "Beat Generation" will not have even the pretense of trying to synthesize.

Here only a few notions to guide the work addressed.

Lebris Jean-Louis Kerouac, born March 12, 1922 and died on October 21, 1969, better known as Jack Kerouac, was American, French-Canadian origin.

"... The search for a new way of saying things was pursued relentlessly, methodically and consciously by Jack Kerouac more than any other beat writer, through his literary experimentalism. He rejected the literature more intellectual force, (...) His method of creation had much in common with the way of WB Yeats write under trance, Charlie Parker improvise on your sax, and Jackson Pollock performing his action painting. " (Notebook Cultural)

Allen Ginsberg on Kerouac:

"I do not know another writer who was influential as productive as Kerouac, who opened his heart as a writer to tell as much of the secrets of his own mind."

BEAT GENERATION

It was in San Francisco, on October 7, 1955, held the event to identify the Beat movement, when a group of unknown poets decided to challenge what was conventional and made a free recital, defying an era of moral repression, war cold and hunt for communists. Amid so many, Allen Ginsberg, at twenty-nine, recited on this day, for the first time in public, that what is considered today the most famous poem and representative of the whole counterculture beat, "Howl for Carl Solomon" (Howl .)

After this event, has begun a sort of revival of poetry in San Francisco who achieved freedom of expression, free formalism University. Still, Ginsberg did not use the term "Beat Generation", which was only adopted in late 1957, after the release of "On The Road".

"Beat Generation is a term used both to describe a group of American artists, especially writers and poets, who came to be known in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the cultural phenomenon they inspired (...) as the Beatles, the hippie movement, and above all these, Existentialism, were part of a larger movement, now called "counterculture". " (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

"The word beat was first used in the book by Jack Kerouac" On The Road "as shorthand of beatitude, or beatific, referring to the state of mind that he and his companions sought. Others, mostly literary critics and scholars have attributed the term to the direct influence of jazz, responsible for many terms and slang that emerged in the counterculture of the time, so beat would refer to the accelerated beats bebop. Another possibility is the connotation of "loser for life," according to slang as "dead-beat" or "beat-up". Hence, joining the radical "beat" with the suffix of the Russian satellite Sputnik, was launched into space in 1957, with a connotation of movement, speed, came the term beatnik, which would be used to designate all the movement's followers. " (Cultural Notebook)

"Each of the writers identified as beat define the term differently, often under a personal prism. All, Kerouac was the first to make a point of dispensing more objective definitions, bothering to
using the word "beat" in different contexts, thus maintaining a indefinable aspect to the term. " (What is Beat? By Márcio Ribeiro)

CURIOSITY
Design for the cover of the paperback edition of On the Road proposal, 1952:

JOHNNY DEPP

Associations:
"I try to read as much as I can. On The Road, Jack Kerouac, is one of my favorite books. "Johnny Depp, December 1987. (Published in 1996 by Karen Hardy Bystedt.)

"Johnny Depp is another notorious admirer of Kerouac. In 1991, the star disbursed $ 50,000 to buy some items from the estate of the writer as a raincoat, a suitcase and a check without funds, among other items. " (Content Saraiva, André Bernardo)

"They (Depp and Winona) knew it was love when both confessed deep feelings for Salinger and the soundtrack of the film The Mission. Their first meeting a few weeks later, was at a party in Hollywood Hills home, the counterculture guru Dr. Timothy Leary, who is his godfather (Winona). "We were blessed like that," said Depp, a disciple Beat ... "(Rolling Stone, 10/01/1991, By Bill Zehme).

"... He (Depp) cites Jack Kerouac and JD Salinger, two idols often impressive. Your most valuable asset - and that cost him a good portion of his growing fortune - is a book about black culture on whose banks Kerouac wrote and drew. "It's a piece of history," he told me with reverence "I look at it every day." (Rolling Stone, 10/01/1991, By Bill Zehme)

"I was introduced to the work of Allen Ginsberg by my brother, my older brother, who since I can remember, has always been a writer and not going anywhere without at least three or four books in their hands. I was very young. I remember he hooked me in Kerouac "On The Road" at a very young age, and I remember him reading parts of "Howl" for me when I was about seven years ". Johnny Depp

Friendship, later fought between Johnny and Allen this very blog: Johnny and Gisnberg

Johnny Depp and Allen Ginsberg, Los Angeles, 1994

Documentary:

The Source (The Source), 1999 on the American literary beatnik movement. Shows like Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg met in the late '40s, the friendship between them, his travels and his creations. The film features archival footage, productions that reflect the influence of the beatnik culture and actors Dennis Hopper, Johnny Depp and John Turturro playing excerpts.

"I want to be considered a jazz poet, improvising a long blues jam session on a Sunday afternoon. My ideas vary and sometimes roll from chorus to chorus or half of a half of the chorus, "states Jack Kerouac in his Mexico City Blues: 242 Choruses, released in 1959. The book, which includes improvised verses, and gained pace in jazz voice actor Johnny Depp in 1995.

ON THE ROAD, THE MOVIE

Launched in May 2012, was directed by Brazilian Walter Salles, chosen by Francis Ford Coppola, copyright holder of the work, after seeing his film "The Motorcycle Diaries." (Wikipedia)

Unfortunately Johnny Depp was not part of the production as a day was his wish.
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Do not you think Johnny Depp would be perfect as Sal Paradise?

Sources:
1 - What is Beat? - Raw and biographies.
By Márcio Ribeiro.
2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
3 - Alexandre Carvalho dos Santos
4 - Cultural Notebook
5 - Needle Culture Magazine Claudio Willer

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