Jack Kerouac and Navy Yard–Ballpark station: Difference between pages

Revision as of 01:13, 25 October 2005

Revision as of 00:21, 14 November 2005

Line 1:

{{WMATA infobox

[[Image:Jack-Kerouac.jpg|right]]

|name = Navy Yard

|picture = Navy_yard.jpg

|opened = [[December 28]], [[1991]]

|platform = Center platform

|RTU = -

|line info = {{WMATA line|previous=[[Anacostia (Washington Metro)|Anacostia]]|line=Green|next=[[Waterfront-SEU (Washington Metro)|Waterfront-SEU]]}}

|}}'''Navy Yard''' is a [[Washington Metro]] station in [[Washington, DC]] on the [[Green Line (Washington Metro)|Green Line]]. The station is located in [[Washington DC (southeast)|Southeast Washington]], with entrances on M Street at Half Street and New Jersey Avenue.

The station is named for the nearby [[Washington Navy Yard]]. The industrial neighborhood is a focus for redevelopment; the Arthur Capper and Carrollsburg Dwellings, nearby [[public housing]] projects, are scheduled for demolition. The Southeast Federal Center, a U.S. government office complex built on the former Navy Yard Annex, opened in [[2000]]; the station serves many commuters to the new headquarters of the [[United States Department of Transportation]] and other agencies. The main tourist attraction is the [[Navy Museum]], on the grounds of the Navy Yard.

'''Jack Kerouac''' ([[March 12]], [[1922]] – [[October 21]], [[1969]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[novelist]], [[writer]], [[poet]], [[artist]], and part of the [[Beat Generation]].

Plans for a [[Washington Nationals#The_Ballpark_Controversy|new baseball stadium]] for the [[Washington Nationals]] also call for expansion of the station to serve game-day crowds.

==Life==

==History==

Kerouac was born '''Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac''', in [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], to a family of Franco-Americans. His parents, Leo-Alcide Kerouac and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, were natives of [[Quebec|the province of Quebec]] in [[Canada]]. Like many other [[Quebecer|Quebecers]] of their generation, the Lévesques and Kerouacs were part of the [[Quebec emigration]] to [[New England]] to find employment. Jack didn't start to learn [[English language|English]] until the age of six. At home, he and his family spoke [[Quebec French]]. At an early age, he was profoundly marked by the death of his elder brother Gérard, later prompting him to write the book ''Visions of Gerard''.

A station serving the Navy Yard area existed in original plans for Metro; however, the routing of the Green Line below proved controversial. In [[1976]] the original routing was rejected as too costly and disruptive. A new study proposed a more westerly path which would move the Anacostia station west, replace the Good Hope Road station with one at [[Congress Heights (Washington Metro)|Congress Heights]], and terminate at Brinkley instead of [[Branch Ave (Washington Metro)|Branch Ave]]. In December [[1977]] public hearings this route was criticized as disserving poorer landowners in the area, but WMATA approved the western route in [[1980]], scheduled to open in [[1986]]. Supporters of the Branch Avenue route then took the case to the [[U.S. District Court]].

The court ruled in February [[1981]] that the 1977 hearings were invalid, as insufficient public notice had been given, and issued an injunction halting construction below the [[Waterfront-SEU (Washington Metro)|Waterfront station]]. New hearings were held in June [[1982]], but the court again ruled against WMATA in October [[1983]]. A third set of hearings in July [[1984]] finally selected the present route, allowing constructon to commence.[http://www.roadstothefuture.com/Metro_Branch_Ave_Opening.html]

Later, his athletic prowess led him to become a star on his local football team, and this achievement earned him scholarships to [[Boston College]] and [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City|New York]]. He entered [[Columbia University]] after spending the scholarship's required year at [[Horace Mann School]]. It was in New York that Kerouac met the people with whom he was to journey around the world, and the subjects of many of his novelst: the so-called [[Beat Generation]], which included people such as [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Neal Cassady]] and [[William S. Burroughs]]. Kerouac broke his leg playing football, and he argued with his coach; his football scholarship did not pan out. He joined the [[Merchant Marine]] in [[1942]]. In [[1943]], he joined the [[United States Navy]], but was discharged during [[World War II]] on psychiatric grounds---he was of "indifferent disposition."

Navy Yard is the last station prior to crossing the [[Anacostia River]]; the tunnel below the Anacostia was the first drilled with a [[tunnel boring machine]] in the United States. Service to the station finally began on [[December 28]], [[1991]] with the extension of the Green Line to [[Anacostia (Washington Metro)|Anacostia]].

During Kerouac's time at [[Columbia University]], Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder; this incident formed the basis of a mystery novel the two collaborated on in 1945 entitled ''[[And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks]]'' (the novel was never published, although an excerpt from the manuscript would be included in the Burroughs compilation ''Word Virus''). In between his sea voyages, Kerouac stayed in [[New York]] with friends from [[Fordham University|Fordham]]. He started writing his first novel, called ''[[The Town and the City]].'' It was published in [[1950]] and earned him some respect as a writer.

==References==

Kerouac wrote constantly, but did not publish his next novel, ''[[On the Road]]'', until 1957. It was published by [[Viking Press]]. Narrated from the point of view of the character Sal Paradise, this mostly autobiographical work of fiction described his roadtrip adventures across the [[United States]] and into [[Mexico]] with [[Neal Cassady]], the model for [[Dean Moriarty]] in the book. In a way, the story is an offspring of [[Mark Twain]]'s classic ''[[Huckleberry Finn]]'', though in ''On the Road'' the narrator (Sal Paradise) is twice Huck's age, and Kerouac's story is set in the America of about a hundred years after. The novel is often described as the defining work of the post-World War II [[jazz]]-, [[poetry]]-, and [[drug]]-affected [[Beat Generation]]; it made Kerouac "the king of the beat generation." Using [[Benzedrine]] and coffee, Kerouac wrote the entire novel in only three weeks in an extended session of spontaneous prose, his original writing style, heavily influenced by Jazz (especially BeBop), and later Buddhism. Kerouac was hailed as a major American writer, and reluctantly as the voice of the [[Beat Generation]]. His fame would come as an unmanagable surge that would ultimately be his undoing.

* RoadstotheFuture.com: "[http://www.roadstothefuture.com/Metro_Branch_Ave_Opening.html Metrorail Branch Avenue Route Completion]"

==External links==

His friendship with [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[William Burroughs]] and [[George Whitman]], among others, defined a generation. Kerouac also wrote and narrated a "Beat" movie titled ''[[Pull My Daisy]]'' in [[1958]]. In [[1954]], Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard's ''A Buddhist Bible'' at the [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] Library, which then marked the beginning of his studies of [[Buddhism]] and his own personal quest for [[Enlightenment (Buddhism)|enlightenment]]. He chronicled parts of this, as well as some of his adventures with [[Gary Snyder]], in the book ''[[The Dharma Bums]]'', set in [[Northern California]] and published in [[1958]]. Kerouac developed something of a friendship with the scholar [[Alan Watts]] (cryptically named Arthur Wayne in Kerouac's novel ''Big Sur'', and Alex Aums in ''[[Desolation Angels (Novel)|Desolation Angels]]''). He also met and had discussions with the famous [[Japan|Japanese]] [[Zen Buddhism|Zen Buddhist]] authority [[D.T. Suzuki]]. At some point in his life Kerouac wrote ''Wake Up'', a biography of [[Siddhartha Gautama]] (better known as the [[Buddha]]) that remains unpublished. Kerouac died prior to finishing his "''Duluoz Legend''" project, which exists only as an incomplete autobiographical manuscript. Shortly prior to his death Kerouac told interviewer [[Joseph Lelyveld]] of the [[New York Times]], "I'm not a beatnik. I'm a Catholic." After pointing to a painting of [[Pope Paul VI]], Kerouac noted, "You know who painted that? Me."[http://partners.nytimes.com/books/97/09/07/home/kerouac-obit.html]

* WMATA: [http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/Stations/station.cfm?station=84 Navy Yard Station]

* Stationmasters.com: [http://www.stationmasters.com/System_Map/NAVYYARD/navyyard.html Navy Yard Station]

* world.nycsubway.org: [http://world.nycsubway.org/us/washdc/green/wmata-green-navy.html Navy Yard Station]

* The Schumin Web Transit Center: [http://transit.schuminweb.com/rail/washington/stations/green/navy-yard.asp Navy Yard Station]

[[Category:Washington Metro stations]]

He died on [[October 21]], [[1969]] at St. Anthony's Hospital in [[Saint Petersburg, Florida|St. Petersburg]], [[Florida]], from an internal [[hemorrhage]] at the age of 47, the unfortunate result of a life of heavy drinking. He was living at the time with his third wife Stella, and his mother Gabrielle. He is buried in his home town of [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]].

==Career==

While enjoying popular but little critical success during his own lifetime, Kerouac is now considered one of America's most important authors. Kerouac's spontaneous, confessional language style inspired other writers, including [[Tom Robbins]], [[Richard Brautigan]], [[Hunter S. Thompson]], [[Ken Kesey]], and [[Bob Dylan]]. Most of his life was spent in the vast landscapes of America. Faced with a changing country, Kerouac sought to find his place, eventually bringing him to reject the values of the [[fifties]]. His writing often reflects a desire to break free from society's mould and to find meaning in life. This search may have led him to experiment with drugs (e.g. he once tried [[psilocybin]] with [[Timothy Leary]]), to study spiritual teachings such as [[Buddhism]], and to embark on trips around the world. His books are sometimes credited as the [[catalyst]] for the [[1960s]] [[counterculture]]. Kerouac's best known work is ''[[On the Road]]''.

Kerouac realized his desire to be a writer when he was in his teens, probably influenced by his father, a linotypist with a command of words. His unique style of writing wouldn't emerge until after his college years, after he wrote his first novel, "The Town and the City". He would often write while intoxicated with some substance, usually Benzedrine strips he would purge from over-the-counter inhalers, marijuana, and alcohol. He claimed that they---particularly "Bennies"---enhanced his writing by giving him the tremendous energy that this kind of writing required. Kerouac is considered by some as the "King of the [[Beatniks]]" as well as the "Father of the [[Hippie|Hippies]]".

Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of Jazz, but especially the BeBop genre championed by [[Charlie Parker]], [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Thelonious Monk]], and countless others. Later he would include ideas he developed in his Buddhist studies. He called it [[Spontaneous Prose]]. Kerouac's motto for the style was "first-thought=best thought". It would be the style that he wrote many of his books in, including ''On the Road'', ''Visions of Cody'', ''Visions of Gerard'', ''Big Sur'', and ''The Subterraneans''. The central feature of the writing method was the idea of breath (borrowed from Jazz), improvising words over the inherant structures of mind and language, and not editing a single word. Connected with his idea of breath was the elimination of the period, and using a long, connecting dash instead. The phrases that would occur between dashes would be akin to improvisational jazz licks. When spoken, they take on a certain kind of rhythm, though none of it pre-meditated.

He would go on for hours to friends and strangers about his method, often drunk, which wasn't well received by Ginsberg, who had an acute awareness of the need to sell literature (to publishers) as much as write it; though he'd later be one of its great proponents. It was at about the time that Kerouac wrote ''The Subterraneans'' that he was approached by Ginsberg and others to formally explicate exactly how he wrote it, how he did Spontaneous Prose. Among the writings he set down specifically about his Spontaneous Prose method, the most concise would be [[Belief and Technique for Modern Prose]], a list of thirty "essentials".

*1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy

*2. Submissive to everything, open, listening

*3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house

*4. Be in love with yr life

*5. Something that you feel will find its own form

*6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind

*7. Blow as deep as you want to blow

*8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind

*9. The unspeakable visions of the individual

*10. No time for poetry but exactly what is

*11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest

*12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you

*13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition

*14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time

*15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog

*16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye

*17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself

*18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea

*19. Accept loss forever

*20. Believe in the holy contour of life

*21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind

*22. Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better

*23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning

*24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge

*25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it

*26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form

*27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness

*28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better

*29. You're a Genius all the time

*30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

A [[DVD]] entitled "Kerouac: King of the Beats" features several minutes of his appearance on ''[[Firing Line]]'', [[William F. Buckley]]'s television show, during Kerouac's later years when [[alcoholism]] had taken control. He is seen often incoherent and very drunk. Books also continue to be published that were written by Kerouac, many unfinished by him. A book of his [[Haiku|haikus]] and dreams also were published, giving interesting insight into how his mind worked. In [[August 2001]], most of his letters, journals, notebooks and manuscripts were sold to the [[New York Public Library]] for an undisclosed sum. Presently, [[Douglas Brinkley]] has exclusive access to parts of this archive until [[2005]]. The first collection of edited journals, ''[[Wind Blown World]]'', was published in [[2004]].

==Quotes==

*"I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down."

:— Jack Kerouac

*"If you're working with words, it's got to be poetry. I grew up with [the books of Jack] Kerouac. If he hadn't wrote ''On The Road'', the Doors would have never existed. [[Jim Morrison|Morrison]] read ''On The Road'' down in [[Florida]], and I read it in [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]]. That sense of freedom, spirituality, and intellectuality in ''On The Road'' — that's what I wanted in my own work."

:— [[Ray Manzarek]], [[The Doors]]' keyboard player

*"I read ''[[On the Road]]'' in maybe [[1959]]. It changed my life like it changed everyone else's."

:— [[Bob Dylan]]

*"Once when Kerouac was high on psychedelics with [[Timothy Leary]], he looked out the window and said, 'Walking on water wasn't built in a day.' Our goal was to save the planet and alter human consciousness. That will take a long time, if it happens at all."

:— [[Allen Ginsberg]]

*"The world that [Kerouac] trembling stepped out into in that decade was a bitter, gray one".

:— [[Michael McClure]], San Francisco poet

*Kerouac was "locked in the [[Cold War]] and the first Asian debacle" in "the gray, chill, militaristic silence, [...] the intellective void [...] the spiritual drabness".

:— [[Michael McClure]], San Francisco poet

:— [http://www.quotationsbook.com/authors/4010/Kerouac_Jack more]

* [[Wikiquote]] link: [[Wikiquote:Jack Kerouac]]

==Bibliography==

'''Prose'''

*''[[Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings]]'' (ISBN 0670888222)

*''[[Visions of Gerard]]'' (ISBN 0140144528)

*''[[Doctor Sax]]'' (ISBN 0802130496)

*''[[The Town and the City]]''

*''[[Maggie Cassidy]]'' (ISBN 0140179062)

*''[[Vanity of Duluoz]]'' (ISBN 0140236392)

*''[[On The Road]]'' (ISBN 0140042598)

*''[[Visions of Cody]]'' (ISBN 0140179070)

*''[[The Subterraneans]]'' (ISBN 0802131867)

*''[[Tristessa]]'' (ISBN 0140168117)

*''[[The Dharma Bums]]'' (ISBN 0140042520)

*''[[Desolation Angels (Novel)|Desolation Angels]]'' (ISBN 1573225053)

*''[[Big Sur (Novel)|Big Sur]]'' (ISBN 0140168125)

*''[[Satori in Paris]]'' (ISBN 0394174372, out of print; currently available in ISBN 0802130615)

'''Poetry, Letters, Audio Recordings and Other Writings'''

*''[[Book of Haikus]]''

*''[[Good Blonde and Others]]''

*''[[Some of the Dharma]]''

*''[[Old Angel Midnight]]''

*''[[Heaven and Other Poems]]''

*''[[Scattered Poems]]''

*''[[Book of Blues]]''

*''[[Mexico City Blues]]''

*''[[Pomes All Sizes]]''

*''[[Safe In Heaven Dead]]''

*''[[Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road from Sf to Ny]]''

*''Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1940-1956''

*''Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1957-1969''

*''[[The Scripture of the Golden Eternity]]''

*''[[Departed Angels: The Lost Paintings]]''

*''Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac''

*''[[Pic (Novel)|Pic]]'' (ISBN 0704311224, out of print; currently available in ISBN 0802130615)

*''[[Orpheus Emerged]]'' (ISBN 0743475143)

*"[[Lonesome Traveler]]" (ISBN 0802130747)

*''The Jack Kerouac Collection'' [Box](Audio CD Collection)

*''Reads On The Road'' (Audio CD)

*''Dr Sax & Great World Snake'' (Play Adaptation with Audio CD)

'''Further Reading'''

* Amburm, Ellis. "''Subterranean Kerouac: The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac''". St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0312206771

* Amram, David. "''Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac''". Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002.ISBN 1560253622

* Bartlett, Lee, (ed.) "''The Beats: Essays in Criticism''". London: McFarland, 1981.

* Charters, Ann, "''Kerouac''". San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1973.

* Charters, Ann, (ed.) "''The Portable Beat Reader''". New York: Penguin, 1992.

* Charters, Ann, (ed.) "''The Portable Jack Kerouac''". New York: Penguin, 1995.

* French, Warren, "''Jack Kerouac''". Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.

* Gifford, Barry; Lee, Lawrence "Jack's Book (An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac)" St. Martin's Press 1978. ISBN 01400.52690

* Goldstein, N.W., "Kerouac's On the Road." Explicator 50.1. 1991.

* Hunt, Tim, "''Kerouac's Crooked Road''". Hamden: Archon Books, 1981.

* Johnson, Joyce. "''Minor Characters: A Young Woman's Coming-Of-Age in the Beat Orbit of Jack Kerouac''". Penguin Books, 1999.

* Johnson, Ronna C., "''You're Putting Me On: Jack Kerouac and the Postmodern Emergence''". College Literature. 27.1 2000.

* Jones, James T., "''Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend''". Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.

* Maher Jr., Paul. "''Kerouac: The Definitive Biography''". Lanham: Taylor Trade P, July 2004 ISBN 0878333053

* McNally, Dennis. "''Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America''". Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0306812223

* Mortenson, Erik R., "''Beating Time: Configurations of Temporality in Jack Kerouac's On the Road''". College Literature 28.3. 2001.

* Nicosia, Gerald. "''Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac''". Berkely: U of Cal P, 1994. ISBN 0520085698

* Theado, Matt. "''Understanding Jack Kerouac''". Columbia: University of South Carolina, 2000.

* Turner, Steve, "''Angelheaded Hipster''". Viking Books, 1996. ISBN 0670870382

== External Links ==

* [http://www.jackkerouac.com/ The Official Web Site of Jack Kerouac]

* [http://www.heureka.clara.net/art/kerouac.htm Jack Kerouac]

* [http://cosmoetica.com/TOP93-DES90.htm Essay on Jack Kerouc’s Courage]

* [http://emptymirrorbooks.com/kerouac.html Jack Kerouac Bibliography]

* [http://emptymirrorbooks.com/duluoz.html Books comprising Jack Kerouac's Duluoz legend]

* [http://emptymirrorbooks.com/alias2.html Key to the characters in Jack Kerouac's books, and their real-life counterparts]

* [http://emptymirrorbooks.com/alias.html Key to the real people represented in Jack Kerouac's books, and their fictional counterparts]

* [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1385865 A more complete Jack Kerouac Character Key from the everything2 site]

*[http://www.neonalley.com/kerouac.html Blue Neon Alley - Jack Kerouac directory]

* [http://archives.radio-canada.ca/IDC-0-72-55-126-21/inoubliables/arts_culture/jack_kerouac_entrevue Interview with Jack Kerouac (Montreal, 1967)] (in French)

*[http://www.litkicks.com/BeatPages/page.jsp?what=BlylerKerouac&who=muse_maiden Blyler, Kerouac, and Bohemian Roads]- Article linking Kerouac's novel On the Road with D.A. Blyler's Steffi's Club.

* [http://www.levity.com/aciddreams/docs/dearcoach.html A letter he wrote to Timothy Leary, describing his experience with psilocybin]

* [http://www.americanwriters.org/classroom/videolesson/vlp35_kerouac.asp American Writers: Jack Kerouac] - A two-hour C-SPAN television show about Jack Kerouac

* [http://www.markbeebe.com/Kerouac%20title.htm "A Vision of Kerouac as The Shadow"] - a six page comic about two guys in Indiana talking about Kerouac

*[http://archive.tc/kerouac/beat.html "About the Beat Generation", by Jack Kerouac] - a definition of the Beat Generation in Kerouac's own words

*[http://www.runmuki.com/paul/random/dharmabummed.html Dharma Bummed: A Marxist Analysis of Jack Kerouac and the Beats]

*[http://www.languageisavirus.com/ Language Is A Virus] Kerouac's 'Belief and Technique for Modern Prose' and 'Essentials of Spontaneous Prose'

{{wikiquote}}

[[Category:1922 births|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:1969 deaths|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:American novelists|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:American poets|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:American World War II veterans|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:American writers|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:Beat writers|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:Bisexual writers|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:Buddhists|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:French Americans|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:Jack Kerouac|*Jack Kerouac]]

[[Category:People from Massachusetts|Kerouac, Jack]]

[[Category:References in On the Road|References in ''On the Road'']]

[[cs:Jack Kerouac]]

[[de:Jack Kerouac]]

[[es:Jack Kerouac]]

[[eo:Jack KEROUAC]]

[[fr:Jack Kerouac]]

[[io:Jack Kerouac]]

[[it:Jack Kerouac]]

[[lt:Džekas Keruakas]]

[[hu:Jack Kerouac]]

[[nl:Jack Kerouac]]

[[ja:ジャック・ケルアック]]

[[no:Jack Kerouac]]

[[pl:Jack Kerouac]]

[[fi:Jack Kerouac]]

[[sv:Jack Kerouac]]

[[tr:Jack Kerouac]]