Biljo White wrote:
> Guys - yes, on the road was very much revised and polished. Later,
kerouac
> came out in favor of spontaneous prose. my theory: that by that
time the
> booze had gotten to him to the extent that he couldn't revise, just
slap
> it down, and he created the 'spontaneous' rap to justify it.
And what a "rap" it is:
ESSENTIALS OF SPONTANEOUS PROSE
Jack Kerouac
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
SET-UP The object is set before the mind, either in reality. as in
sketching
(before a landscape or teacup or old face) or is set in the memory
wherein
it becomes the sketching from memory of a definite image-object.
PROCEDURE Time being of the essence in the purity of speech, sketching
language is undisturbed flow from the mind of personal secret
idea-words,
blowing (as per jazz musician) on subject of image.
METHOD No periods separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily
riddled
by false colons and timid usually needless commas-but the vigorous
space
dash separating rhetorical breathing (as jazz musician drawing breath
between outblown phrases)--"measured pauses which are the essentials of
our
speech"--"divisions of the sounds we hear"-"time and how to note it
down."
(William Carlos Williams)
SCOPING Not "selectivity' Iof expression but following free deviation
(association) of mind into limitless blow-on-subject seas of thought,
swimming in sea of English with no discipline other than rhythms of
rhetorical exhalation and expostulated statement, like a fist coming
down on
a table with each complete utterance, bang! (the space dash)-Blow as
deep as
you want-write as deeply, fish as far down as you want, satisfy
yourself
first, then reader cannot fail to receive telepathic shock and
meaning-excitement by same laws operating in his own human mind.
LAG IN PROCEDURE No pause to think of proper word but the infantile
pileup
of scatological buildup words till satisfaction is gained, which will
turn
out to be a great appending rhythm to a thought and be in accordance
with
Great Law of timing.
TIMING Nothing is muddy that runs in time and to laws of
time-Shakespearian
stress of dramatic need to speak now in own unalterable way or forever
hold
tongue-no revisions (except obvious rational mistakes, such as names or
calculated insertions in act of not writing but inserting).
CENTER OF INTEREST Begin not from preconceived idea of what to say
about
image but from jewel center of interest in subject of image at moment
of
writing, and write outwards swimming in sea of language to peripheral
release and exhaustion-Do not afterthink except for poetic or P. S.
reasons.
Never afterthink to "improve" or defray impressions, as, the best
writing is
always the most painful personal wrung-out tossed from cradle warm
protective mind-tap from yourself the song of yourself, blow!-now!-your
way
is your only way-"good"-or "bad"-always honest ("ludi- crous"),
spontaneous,
"confessionals' interesting, because not "crafted." Craft is craft.
STRUCTURE OF WORK Modern bizarre structures (science fiction, etc.)
arise
from language being dead, "different" themes give illusion of "new"
life.
Follow roughly outlines in outfanning movement over subject, as river
rock,
so mindflow over jewel-center need (run your mind over it, once)
arriving at
pivot, where what was dim-formed "beginning" becomes
sharp-necessitating
"ending" and language shortens in race to wire of time-race of work,
following laws of Deep Form, to conclusion, last words, last
trickle-Night
is The End.
MENTAL STATE If possible write "without consciousness" in semi-trance
(as
Yeats' later "trance writing") allowing subconscious to admit in own
uninhibited interesting necessary and so "modern" language what
conscious
art would censor, and write excitedly, swiftly, with
writing-or-typing-cramps, in accordance (as from center to periphery)
with
laws of orgasm, Reich's "beclouding of consciousness." Come from
within,
out-to relaxed and said.
-----------
--
"Not blood. Red." -Jean Luc Godard
The Shadowville/Netherlands project:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.kannibaal.nl/shadowville.htm" target="_blank">http://www.kannibaal.nl/shadowville.htm</a>
"Mirror Twins":
<http://www.lulu.com/items/29000/29085/preview/Will_Dockery_-_03_-_Track__3.mp3>
"Black Eagle Lady" by Will Dockery & Henry Conley:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.lulu.com/items/84000/84578/1/preview/Henry_Conley_-_06_-_Black_Eagle_Lady.mp3" target="_blank">http://www.lulu.com/items/84000/84578/1/preview/Henry_Conley_-_06_-_Bl..._Eagle_</a>
> peter DeleteThis @cara.demon.co.uk (Peter Ceresole) wrote:
> > Michael Pedersen <mikeped DeleteThis @softhome.net> wrote:
> >
> > > I was wandering if Kerouac actually managed to create spontanous
prose,
> > > as he wanted to? I have read On the Road and it seems to me that
> > > although some episodes seem spontanous, even spontaneity has a
basic
> > > structure. What du you think?
> >
> > It seems to me that 'On The Road', as published, wasn't spontaneous
at
> > all. It had spontaneous-sounding *bits*, but I've always felt that
it
> > was a rather carefully worked piece. And all the better for it. I
don't
> > think that it's any coincidence that it's the most popular and
durable
> > of all Kerouac's writing.
> >
> > I read somewhere that it was fairly extensively rewritten for
> > publication- at the publisher's request. Is that true?
> >
> > I know Dave Moore knows...<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
>> Stay informed about: Kerouac and spontanous prose 
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