Kerouac's use of Time in his book on the road to define th..

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The Unbiased Moment of Everything:
An analysis of Jack Kerouac's use of time in the book On the road to
define the essence of his "beat generation"
By Asa Kitfield



As a jazz musician lets his music guide of the notes he is about to
play, Dean Moriarty lets the infinity of time and the preciseness of
the moment direct in his path of life. Jack Kerouac; in his book On
the Road; uses his characters like Dean Moriarty to show his audience
a new and extensive perception as well as contradiction of the
dimension of time. This new view of time runs parallel, and possibly
defines the word that was Kerouac's generation; beat. Through
comparisons to jazz, cultural life styles, and death, he constructs a
vision of what time should be in an era controlled by it.
  The concept of time is everywhere in On the Road. The story line and
structure of the book even impacts on the concept time. Starting with
the title, there is almost always this feel of motion. The characters
are always going somewhere or talking about where they have been.
Kerouac wrote in a style that had different speeds or flows that
mimicked the speed of travel or motion. There are even Paragraphs up
to two pages long, with run on sentences of slow inner monologues. For
example, when Sal starts to slow down a little toward the end of part
one, and starts to feel as a husband figure with terry, the flow and
speed of Kerouac's writing slows down. When the pace of Sal's travels
pick up, the sentences become short and quick. Kerouac writes "…my bus
was zooming... Then we swung north to the Arizona mountains,
Flagstaff, clifftowns… Every bump, rise, and sketch in it mystified my
longing." This shows the speed of the bus with rhythmic and jumpy
lines. The characters, setting, and writing flow all move together
along a plain of time.
  Dean Moriarty, Sal's ever disappearing companion, constantly is
talking about time. Beat is how Dean lived his life. He lived to the
very definition of the word, but what was that? Dean was almost always
on the go. He was always running from one side of the country to the
other, girl to girl, and even spoke with an excited and fast paced
tone. He would talk of how "there were so many things to do,"(4) while
acting like, as Sal described him, an "overexcited nut". His lifestyle
was not normal of the late 1940's. On the Road takes place during the
days of the clean cut business man who wore a grey flannel suit to
work, working on a conservative set schedule. The dictionary
definition of beat is to strike repeatedly. So in a sense, the name
‘beat' better describes the lifestyle of the clean cut business man
rather than the sporadic bum.
  Dean's traveling and scattered behavior shows his disregard for the
constraints of structure and time. He seems to be trying to almost
conquer his time, or as he describes it, "know time!" Dean is always
living moment to moment. "Now is the time…" he proclaims on multiple
occasions. He is always in a rush because of the infinite amount of
life that he feels there is to be experienced, in a limited amount of
time. This is why he must "know time", so there can inevitably be "no
time." Earlier in the book dean does as he pleases creating his own
path or "road" only thinking of the moment. Later in the book he ends
up contradicting himself. While Sal and dean are catching up on the
year they spent apart, dean explains his new belief of partial fate.
He says that one's destiny is not solely decided on the spur of the
moment but is constructed from the past and the future. "And of course
now no one can tell us that there is no God. We've passed through all
forms. Troubles, you see, is the generalization-word for what God
exists in. … We passed a little kid who was throwing stones at the
cars in the road. ‘think of it,' said Dean. ‘One day he'll put a stone
through a man's windshield and the man will crash and die—all on
account of that little kid…. God exists without qualms." (121) Here
Dean is realizing a connection between a predestined path and the
power of the moment. He knows that everything can not be predetermined
but the moment can not exist with out the past and the future.
"Everything since the Greeks has been predicted wrong. You can't make
all this with geometry and geometrical systems of thinking. It's all
this!' He wrapped his finger in his fist…. We give and take and go in
the incredibly complicated sweetness zigzagging every side."(121)
Dean is beginning to know time. He begins to belief that a single
moment is not comparative to any time before or after, making it free
of quantitative constraints and beautiful only because it is the
purest form of itself. Although at the same time, time must be aware
of the past and the future simultaneously or it can not exist.
  While Dean is focused on the moment throughout the book, Sal has an
infatuation with death or likewise, the end of time. There is a
moment when Sal is in San Francisco tired, hungry and beat, when he
ponders his desires of death. He describes death as a "…complete step
across chronological time into timeless shadow…and myself hurrying on
a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of
uncreated emptiness,…" To Sal death is a place of fresh nothingness.
He feels that with nothing, an ideal purity can be achieved. In
nothing, there are no limits, no comparisons better or worse; there is
just purity. It is important to compare Sal's ideas with Dean's. They
share a common ground free of constraints and measure, in essence,
both displaying attributes of the idea Dean calls "IT".
  Jazz music defines the way Dean wants to live every waking moment.
"That Rollo Greb is the greatest, most wonderful of all. That's what I
was trying to tell you—that's what I want to be. I want to be like
him. He's never hung-up, he goes every direction, he lets it all out,
he knows time, he has nothing to do but rock back and forth. Man, he's
the end! You see, if you go like him all the time you'll finally get
it."(127) Jazz demonstrates the "IT" that the main characters have
been moving toward and searching for. The explanation of "IT" is can
be found in the actual process of live jazz. Jazz is, for the most
part, completely improvisational. This does not mean stringing any
combination of notes together will create jazz. There are certain
scales and combinations of notes that a musician will not strictly
adhere to, but merely use as a guide. Once a person has practiced the
art long enough, he or she begins to feel the music or "IT" and the
notes begin to flow together. That person can begin to almost feel the
notes before he or she plays them. This is not to say that the notes
are planned out, but this feeling acts as an invisible hand, ushering
the music in a general direction. There is an indescribable appeal and
beauty to jazz that flows and works. Depending on the moment, the
musician will push or pull with ‘the hand', creating raw expression
that remains in the realms of flowing jazz.* As mentioned before,
Dean described this same idea when he was discussing destiny with Sal.
He said "We give and take and go in the incredibly complicated
sweetness zigzagging every side." When Dean says "every side", he is
describing the same idea of the "invisible hand" that guides or
suggests and does not confine. He talks of "zigzagging" off the
different sides, which can be compared to the pushing or pulling with
the feelings while playing jazz. True jazz is decided only in the
moment, but must never be unaware of its past and future. Being in the
moment for a jazz musician, Dean and or a beat, is the active and
passive awareness of all time at the one point. This is how Dean
"knows time". At each point in life, location, girl, and friend, he
tries to live this way.
One note by itself is hardly considered jazz, but with two it is
grounded, and three exhibits direction and the beginnings of
definitive mood. This is true for rhythm as well better described as a
beat. . Kerouac defined his "beat" generation with the idea of time.
The definition of the word ‘Beat' even draws closely to the concept of
time. It can be seen as a measure of time, but Kerouac's idea of
‘beat' presents a new way of measure. It entails viewing each moment,
situation, person, or thing in comparison only to itself while at the
same time, be actively and passively aware of its surroundings, future
and past.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->

noscoobie.DeleteThis@budweiser.com (Noscoobie) wrote in message news:<44e85756.0310161400.10e5ecac.DeleteThis@posting.google.com>...
 > Tell me what you think..... lets talk about this concept...
 >
 >
 > The Unbiased Moment of Everything:
 > An analysis of Jack Kerouac's use of time in the book On the road to
 > define the essence of his "beat generation"
 > By Asa Kitfield
 >
 >
 >
 > As a jazz musician lets his music guide of the notes he is about to
 > play, Dean Moriarty lets the infinity of time and the preciseness of
 > the moment direct in his path of life. Jack Kerouac; in his book On
 > the Road; uses his characters like Dean Moriarty to show his audience
 > a new and extensive perception as well as contradiction of the
 > dimension of time. This new view of time runs parallel, and possibly
 > defines the word that was Kerouac's generation; beat. Through
 > comparisons to jazz, cultural life styles, and death, he constructs a
 > vision of what time should be in an era controlled by it.
  > The concept of time is everywhere in On the Road. The story line and
 > structure of the book even impacts on the concept time. Starting with
 > the title, there is almost always this feel of motion. The characters
 > are always going somewhere or talking about where they have been.
 > Kerouac wrote in a style that had different speeds or flows that
 > mimicked the speed of travel or motion. There are even Paragraphs up
 > to two pages long, with run on sentences of slow inner monologues. For
 > example, when Sal starts to slow down a little toward the end of part
 > one, and starts to feel as a husband figure with terry, the flow and
 > speed of Kerouac's writing slows down. When the pace of Sal's travels
 > pick up, the sentences become short and quick. Kerouac writes "?my bus
 > was zooming... Then we swung north to the Arizona mountains,
 > Flagstaff, clifftowns? Every bump, rise, and sketch in it mystified my
 > longing." This shows the speed of the bus with rhythmic and jumpy
 > lines. The characters, setting, and writing flow all move together
 > along a plain of time.
  > Dean Moriarty, Sal's ever disappearing companion, constantly is
 > talking about time. Beat is how Dean lived his life. He lived to the
 > very definition of the word, but what was that? Dean was almost always
 > on the go. He was always running from one side of the country to the
 > other, girl to girl, and even spoke with an excited and fast paced
 > tone. He would talk of how "there were so many things to do,"(4) while
 > acting like, as Sal described him, an "overexcited nut". His lifestyle
 > was not normal of the late 1940's. On the Road takes place during the
 > days of the clean cut business man who wore a grey flannel suit to
 > work, working on a conservative set schedule. The dictionary
 > definition of beat is to strike repeatedly. So in a sense, the name
 > ?beat' better describes the lifestyle of the clean cut business man
 > rather than the sporadic bum.
  > Dean's traveling and scattered behavior shows his disregard for the
 > constraints of structure and time. He seems to be trying to almost
 > conquer his time, or as he describes it, "know time!" Dean is always
 > living moment to moment. "Now is the time?" he proclaims on multiple
 > occasions. He is always in a rush because of the infinite amount of
 > life that he feels there is to be experienced, in a limited amount of
 > time. This is why he must "know time", so there can inevitably be "no
 > time." Earlier in the book dean does as he pleases creating his own
 > path or "road" only thinking of the moment. Later in the book he ends
 > up contradicting himself. While Sal and dean are catching up on the
 > year they spent apart, dean explains his new belief of partial fate.
 > He says that one's destiny is not solely decided on the spur of the
 > moment but is constructed from the past and the future. "And of course
 > now no one can tell us that there is no God. We've passed through all
 > forms. Troubles, you see, is the generalization-word for what God
 > exists in. ? We passed a little kid who was throwing stones at the
 > cars in the road. ?think of it,' said Dean. ?One day he'll put a stone
 > through a man's windshield and the man will crash and die?all on
 > account of that little kid?. God exists without qualms." (121) Here
 > Dean is realizing a connection between a predestined path and the
 > power of the moment. He knows that everything can not be predetermined
 > but the moment can not exist with out the past and the future.
 > "Everything since the Greeks has been predicted wrong. You can't make
 > all this with geometry and geometrical systems of thinking. It's all
 > this!' He wrapped his finger in his fist?. We give and take and go in
 > the incredibly complicated sweetness zigzagging every side."(121)
 > Dean is beginning to know time. He begins to belief that a single
 > moment is not comparative to any time before or after, making it free
 > of quantitative constraints and beautiful only because it is the
 > purest form of itself. Although at the same time, time must be aware
 > of the past and the future simultaneously or it can not exist.
  > While Dean is focused on the moment throughout the book, Sal has an
 > infatuation with death or likewise, the end of time. There is a
 > moment when Sal is in San Francisco tired, hungry and beat, when he
 > ponders his desires of death. He describes death as a "?complete step
 > across chronological time into timeless shadow?and myself hurrying on
 > a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of
 > uncreated emptiness,?" To Sal death is a place of fresh nothingness.
 > He feels that with nothing, an ideal purity can be achieved. In
 > nothing, there are no limits, no comparisons better or worse; there is
 > just purity. It is important to compare Sal's ideas with Dean's. They
 > share a common ground free of constraints and measure, in essence,
 > both displaying attributes of the idea Dean calls "IT".
  > Jazz music defines the way Dean wants to live every waking moment.
 > "That Rollo Greb is the greatest, most wonderful of all. That's what I
 > was trying to tell you?that's what I want to be. I want to be like
 > him. He's never hung-up, he goes every direction, he lets it all out,
 > he knows time, he has nothing to do but rock back and forth. Man, he's
 > the end! You see, if you go like him all the time you'll finally get
 > it."(127) Jazz demonstrates the "IT" that the main characters have
 > been moving toward and searching for. The explanation of "IT" is can
 > be found in the actual process of live jazz. Jazz is, for the most
 > part, completely improvisational. This does not mean stringing any
 > combination of notes together will create jazz. There are certain
 > scales and combinations of notes that a musician will not strictly
 > adhere to, but merely use as a guide. Once a person has practiced the
 > art long enough, he or she begins to feel the music or "IT" and the
 > notes begin to flow together. That person can begin to almost feel the
 > notes before he or she plays them. This is not to say that the notes
 > are planned out, but this feeling acts as an invisible hand, ushering
 > the music in a general direction. There is an indescribable appeal and
 > beauty to jazz that flows and works. Depending on the moment, the
 > musician will push or pull with ?the hand', creating raw expression
 > that remains in the realms of flowing jazz.* As mentioned before,
 > Dean described this same idea when he was discussing destiny with Sal.
 > He said "We give and take and go in the incredibly complicated
 > sweetness zigzagging every side." When Dean says "every side", he is
 > describing the same idea of the "invisible hand" that guides or
 > suggests and does not confine. He talks of "zigzagging" off the
 > different sides, which can be compared to the pushing or pulling with
 > the feelings while playing jazz. True jazz is decided only in the
 > moment, but must never be unaware of its past and future. Being in the
 > moment for a jazz musician, Dean and or a beat, is the active and
 > passive awareness of all time at the one point. This is how Dean
 > "knows time". At each point in life, location, girl, and friend, he
 > tries to live this way.
 > One note by itself is hardly considered jazz, but with two it is
 > grounded, and three exhibits direction and the beginnings of
 > definitive mood. This is true for rhythm as well better described as a
 > beat. . Kerouac defined his "beat" generation with the idea of time.
 > The definition of the word ?Beat' even draws closely to the concept of
 > time. It can be seen as a measure of time, but Kerouac's idea of
 > ?beat' presents a new way of measure. It entails viewing each moment,
 > situation, person, or thing in comparison only to itself while at the
 > same time, be actively and passively aware of its surroundings, future
 > and past.

Time out of mind... well written.
Will<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->