With a unique style of writing, a variety of choice words and some hilarious and interesting scenarios leaves a highly entertaining and historic story in its wake. Jack Kerouac is a writer that I recently heard of because a band that I thoroughly enjoy, Railroad Earth, was named after a short story written by Kerouac and brought to my attention by a vendor in Pike Place Market in Seattle as I wondered aimlessly with a Railroad Earth t-shirt on.
Essentially, The Dharma Bums, written in the 1950's, which closely resembles the life of Kerouac starts in San Francisco with a group of young men (who famously in real life become known as the beat generation) passing around a jug of wine performing their poetry to crowds at a bar when Ray (Kerouac) began to discuss with his best friend, Japhy, about Japhy's friend, Warren Coughlin:
...Warren Coughlin a hundred and eighty pounds of poet meat, who was advertised by Japhy (privately in my ear) as being more than meets the eye.
"Who is he?"
"He's my friend from up in Oregon, we've known each other for a long time. At first you think he's slow and stupid but actually he's a shining diamond. You'll see. Don't let him cut you to ribbons. He'll make the top of your head fly away, boy, with a few choice words."
These types of clever interactions between Ray and possibly my favorite character I have encountered through books or television, Japhy, are bound to keep the reader entertained.
The book continues with drunk nights amongst friends shouting haiku's in the hills of northern California overlooking the Pacific ocean, multiple cross-country trips traveling via hitch-hiking and train hoping, mountain climbing and finally ending in the secluded mountains of Washington State.
Kerouac seems to constantly be highlighting how living simply is a virtue:
"...he means that's the attitude for the Bard, the Zen Lunacy bard of old desert paths, see the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system or work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to the mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier..."
Kerouac later describes the cabin of Japhy outside of San Francisco on a large property with multiple cabins and also the setting of some interesting parties:
On the door was a board with Chinese inscriptions on it; I never did find out what it meant: probably "Mara stay away" (Mara the Tempter). Inside I saw the beautiful simplicity of Japhy's way of living, neat, sensible, strangely rich without a cent having been spent on the decoration. Old clay jars exploded with bouquets of flowers picked around the yard. His books were neatly stacked in orange crates. The floor was covered with inexpensive straw mats. The walls, as I say, were lined with burlap, which is one of the finest wallpapers you can have, very attractive and nice smelling. Japhy's mat was covered with a thin mattress and a Paisley shawl over that, and at the head of it, neatly rolled for the day, his sleeping bag. Behind burlap drapes in a closet his rucksack and junk put away from sight. From the burlap wall hung beautiful prints of old Chinese silk painting and maps of Marin County and northwest Washington and various poems he'd written and just stuck on a wall for anybody to read.
I look forward to reading more from Kerouac and hope and expect to find stories that provide insight in alternate ways of living compared to the popular way of consumption. The prompting of the self debate on when is enough actually enough is a topic that consumes my thought quite often and I believe that you can find a balance of purchasing quality products that you actually need and cutting the unnecessary junk that fills our garages and leads to countless hours of unnecessary stress at work. We truly can live rich like Japhy, by putting more thought into what surrounds us, and actually spend close to nothing and fall asleep with a relaxed smile.
Kerouac also brings to light the notion of being who you truly are. Collective thought in society can be quite imposing at times and living a life that causes constant internal conflict due to conforming to social norms can be burdensome and stressful. Kerouac asks us to embrace who we are, dress like it, act like it, live life to the fullest and give a little thought to the decisions we make and try doing so without unnecessary attachments.
The beautiful part of being alive is being ourselves.
