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crack_van2007-08-01 12:06 am
gillyp.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2007-08-01 12:06 am
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The Portable Jack Kerouac by Martha (G)
Fandom: THE SENTINEL
Pairing: N/A
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author's website: Good Morning Sunshine
Why this story must be read: I’m a huge Kerouac fan and just loved this from the first time I read it. I love the way the quotes she selects are so right. To me, Jim’s a deep, dark character; on first impression, you’d never twig him for a Kerouac fan, and yet, Jack shared many of Jim’s characteristics.
I loved the passages Martha chose to reflect Jim’s character; Blair musing on what they mean to Jim, wondering if Kerouac, too, had been a Sentinel…
I love it that Naomi met Jack in San Francisco, though I wouldn’t have thought he’d be all that impressed with her! (Read ‘After Me the Deluge’ written by Kerouac in 1969, to see what Jack thought about hippies).
Like all of Martha’s stories, this is incredibly beautifully written. If you haven’t read this already, I highly recommend that you do.
This is my last rec this time around. I hope I found a few things you enjoyed.
The Portable Jack Kerouac
Pairing: N/A
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author's website: Good Morning Sunshine
Why this story must be read: I’m a huge Kerouac fan and just loved this from the first time I read it. I love the way the quotes she selects are so right. To me, Jim’s a deep, dark character; on first impression, you’d never twig him for a Kerouac fan, and yet, Jack shared many of Jim’s characteristics.
I loved the passages Martha chose to reflect Jim’s character; Blair musing on what they mean to Jim, wondering if Kerouac, too, had been a Sentinel…
‘“The taste
of rain
- Why kneel?"
…He looked up from the book across the open space of the loft for a moment. The light of sunset was golden and thick, pouring through the skylights like honey. All these poems about rain. Living in Cascade, how could they fail to touch Jim? He could practically see Jim, still in that imaginary rainstorm. The rain pouring down his face, on his lips.
Why kneel?
So did that line mean to Jim what it did to Blair? That the taste of the rain was religious in its power and meaning. No need to get down on one's knees to supplicate heaven, to speak to what lay beyond. The taste of the rain was enough.
The taste of rain to Jim's sentinel senses.”’
‘"I was smelling flowers in the yard," Kerouac had written, "And when I stood up I took a deep breath and the blood all rushed to my brain and I woke up dead on the grass."
Zone out, Blair thought. No, he didn't believe for one minute that Kerouac was a sentinel himself. Probably had been drunk or hung over when he stood up too fast and fainted. But though the cause was different, perhaps the effect was the same. Oh man, he'd been right about the rain haiku, hadn't he? More than right, and when he thought of Jim poring over these passages alone, he felt such tender protectiveness for Jim and his private quest for understanding that he had to swallow back the sudden lump in his throat.
The passage went on, "I had apparently fainted, or died, for about sixty seconds. My neighbor saw me but he thought I had just thrown myself on the grass to enjoy the sun. During that timeless moment of unconsciousness I saw the golden eternity. I saw heaven. It was perfect, the golden solitude, the golden emptiness, Something-Or-Other, something surely humble. There was a rapturous ring of silence abiding perfectly."
Blair realized he wasn't breathing, and he took a sudden gasp of air. His hands were trembling so he laid the book down carefully so he wouldn't lose his place. Golden solitude. Was that what a zone out was for Jim?...”
of rain
- Why kneel?"
…He looked up from the book across the open space of the loft for a moment. The light of sunset was golden and thick, pouring through the skylights like honey. All these poems about rain. Living in Cascade, how could they fail to touch Jim? He could practically see Jim, still in that imaginary rainstorm. The rain pouring down his face, on his lips.
Why kneel?
So did that line mean to Jim what it did to Blair? That the taste of the rain was religious in its power and meaning. No need to get down on one's knees to supplicate heaven, to speak to what lay beyond. The taste of the rain was enough.
The taste of rain to Jim's sentinel senses.”’
‘"I was smelling flowers in the yard," Kerouac had written, "And when I stood up I took a deep breath and the blood all rushed to my brain and I woke up dead on the grass."
Zone out, Blair thought. No, he didn't believe for one minute that Kerouac was a sentinel himself. Probably had been drunk or hung over when he stood up too fast and fainted. But though the cause was different, perhaps the effect was the same. Oh man, he'd been right about the rain haiku, hadn't he? More than right, and when he thought of Jim poring over these passages alone, he felt such tender protectiveness for Jim and his private quest for understanding that he had to swallow back the sudden lump in his throat.
The passage went on, "I had apparently fainted, or died, for about sixty seconds. My neighbor saw me but he thought I had just thrown myself on the grass to enjoy the sun. During that timeless moment of unconsciousness I saw the golden eternity. I saw heaven. It was perfect, the golden solitude, the golden emptiness, Something-Or-Other, something surely humble. There was a rapturous ring of silence abiding perfectly."
Blair realized he wasn't breathing, and he took a sudden gasp of air. His hands were trembling so he laid the book down carefully so he wouldn't lose his place. Golden solitude. Was that what a zone out was for Jim?...”
I love it that Naomi met Jack in San Francisco, though I wouldn’t have thought he’d be all that impressed with her! (Read ‘After Me the Deluge’ written by Kerouac in 1969, to see what Jack thought about hippies).
Like all of Martha’s stories, this is incredibly beautifully written. If you haven’t read this already, I highly recommend that you do.
This is my last rec this time around. I hope I found a few things you enjoyed.
The Portable Jack Kerouac
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"Jim looked down at the Kerouac book still his hands, turning it around so the cover was facing up. "Sure you didn't want to borrow it?" he asked at last. "I've read it already."
Thank you for the recs you made this month. I enjoyed them muchly.
I also really, really like your "panik" icon.
Pepper
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Ah, the icon - all my own work; it's my pen-name. (o:
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Pepper
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http://www.852prospect.org/archive/archive/3/distantjourney.html
It's very, very long and thoroughly wonderful.
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Pepper
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