Sunday, April 15, 2012

“Kerouac on the Road: Giving, Misgiving, Forgiving” (3 of 3)

REFERENCES

For people interested in more black and Latino perspectives, here are the sources I refer to.  The first one doesn’t relate to Kerouac, just to stereotypes relating to Latinos.

The third link references the remarks by James Baldwin and Eldridge Cleaver.

There is much more to say about Kerouac.  The racial issues alone demand more examination.  On The Road mentions many racial, social, and ethnic groups, including Indians, Jews, Southerners, gangsters, gays, and Arabs.  Arabs in particular occupy a shadowy, mythic place in the novel.  One of the most startling references, for me, in listening to the audiobooks, is as Kerouac and Cassady are driving towards New York.  “He said we were a band of Arabs coming in to blow up New York.”   What would have prompted Cassady to say this in 1948?  The Arab-Israeli War was raging, but On The Road is notoriously apolitical.

Anyway, I recommend the book, the scroll, and the audio recordings.  And here are those references.

Ruben Navarrette,  “A Texas Mayor, a Mural, and a Mexican Stereotype,” http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/23/opinion/navarrette-mexican-mural/

Joe Olivera, “Jack Kerouac as a Mexican,” http://newspapertree.com/features/1045-jack-kerouac-as-a-mexican

Ellis Amburn, Subterranean Kerouac, http://books.google.com/books?id=bN0PJn6VCNIC&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=kerouac+negro+eldridge+cleaver&source=bl&ots=7MiyUvdke7&sig=kW34zn5Nmf80mQzFpY7zLRpLzXs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AHF3T-_1H5LZiQLmrdGnDg&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=kerouac%20negro%20eldridge%20cleaver&f=false

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