CORSO intewrviewed by Tom Brokaw,
jk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1z1LkYLDCrg
If You Want to be a Writer, Get Another Job . . .
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If You Want to be a Writer, Get Another Job . . .
I don't think 'Therefore, I am.' Therefore, I am.
- stilltrucking
- Posts: 20607
- Joined: October 24th, 2004, 12:29 pm
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Excerpt from a letter Kerouac wrote in 1964 to Nando Pivano, an Italian translator who had asked permission to include Kerouac's work in an anthology of American "Beat" poetry. Kerouac refused, replying to Pivano:
What these bozos [Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso] and their friends are up to now is simply the last act in their original adoption and betrayal of any truly "beat" credo. Now that we're all getting to be middleaged I can see that they're just frustrated hysterical provocateurs and attention-seekers with nothing on their mind but rancor towards "America" and the life of ordinary people. They have never written about ordinary people with any love, you may have noticed. I still admire them of course, for their technical excellence as poets, as I admire [Jean] Genet and [William] Burroughs for their technical excellence as prose writers, but all four of them belong to the "keep-me-out-of-the-picture" department and that's the way I want it from now on.
Now that we're all getting to be middleaged I can see that they're just frustrated hysterical provocateurs and attention-seekers with nothing on their mind but rancor towards "America" and the life of ordinary people. They have never written about ordinary people with any love, you may have noticed
I like that. Ti Jean had a heart, even if he became a bit conservative and grouchy as he aged. Genet was not the saint that some frenchy-leftists thought, either: he had pals in the Vichy (as did Sartre). Jus' cause he was queer, did time, or later supported leftists doesn't make him (or beat X) a hero.
Revival for JK, a french-canadian gent? I think not: he may have returned slightly to his catholic roots, but it's more like he wasn't down with the Nihilist chic. And note that he still admired the technique of Burroughs and the others. The hepcats weren't down with JK's authenticity, and sincerity.
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