I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion
Running from one falling star to another till I drop
Everything was being mixed up, and all was falling. I knew my affair with Lucille wouldn’t last much longer. She wanted me to be her way. She was married to a longshoreman who treated her badly. I was willing to marry her and take her baby daughter and all if she divorced the husband; but there wasn’t even enough money to get a divorce and the whole thing was hopeless, besides which Lucille would never understand me because I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.
by Jack Kerouac(March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969)
from On the Road
Part Two, Chapter 4
image – cogdogblog
Happy Birthday to Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was born March 12, 1922. This quote is from his seminal work On the Road, first published in 1957. Did you read today’s passage and react to it? Love On the Road or hate it, Jack Kerouac’s frank, stream-of-consciousness, speaking-at-ground-level work gave us an up front and personal look at the the heart and soul of his generation.
America was on the edge of change in the late 50’s. We’re always at the edge of change, but not like this. The leap between what came in the decade just before and after 1957 was more like plates re-aligning during a major tectonic shift.
More from the Beat Generation
- The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved
by Jack Kerouac
from On the Road (1957)
bonus: YouTube video with Jack Kerouac’s voice - I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future
by Jack Kerouac
from On the Road (1957) - I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness
by Allen Ginsberg
from Howl (1955)
Introducing Howl – this is one of my favorite posts. - My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them
by Allen Ginsberg
from The book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems
Journal entry from Ginsberg’s college years, summer 1947
March 12th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’-by Jack Kerouac
I like this quote it reminds me of those people you meet that excite all your senses….not in a strange way…but in an WOW you are really INTERESTING TO ME kind of way…Yeah..I have one of those in my life- thankfully!