« The Donkey Whisperer | Main | Reagan's Son to Challenge Diane Feinstein »
September 15, 2011
A Specific Elsewhere
I talk to people sometimes and then when they talk...they say absurd things like "No, I've not seen the Oregon coast" and "Oh, I've not read 'On The Road' " or "I've never been to Vancouver" and I'm just not sure how to reach these people. Not sure how to explain to them how important it is to read On The Road and drive a motorcycle up the Oregon Coast. I just dunno about these things. They're beyond me. But I did want to share some gems I found in the book tonight on the plane:
Jack Kerouac, On The Road - Part 4, Chapter 2 - Sal Paradise
"Suddenly I had a vision of Dean, a burning shuddering frightful Angel, palpitating toward me across the road, approaching like a cloud, with enormous speed, pursuing me like the Shrouded Traveler on the plain, bearing down on me. I saw his huge face over the plains with the mad, bony purpose and the gleaming eyes; I saw his wings; I saw his old jalopy chariot with thousands of sparkling flames shooting out from it; I saw the path it burned over the road; it even made its own road and went over the corn, through cities, destroying bridges, drying rivers. It came like wrath to the West. I knew Dean had gone mad again."
Jack Kerouac, On The Road - Part 4, Chapter 4 - Sal Paradise
"Laredo was a sinister town that morning. All kinds of cab-drivers and border rats wandered around, looking for opportunities. There weren't many; it was too late. It was the bottom and dregs of America where all the heavy villains sink, where disoriented people have to go to be near a specific elsewhere they can slip into unnoticed. Contraband brooded in the heavy syrup air. Cops were red-faced and sullen and sweaty, no swagger."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/On_the_Road
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 15, 2011 at 10:00 PM
Comments