See the Moon?

In 'See the Moon?', Donald Barthelme creates a character who frantically tries to explain everything he can about life to his unborn son, Gog. Gog, his beloved, hears about life in a fragmented (call it post-modern) frenzy, with bits of personal history from a few minutes in the past to many years ago. Like a human hopped up on too much coffee, suffering from too many thoughts with too little time to say them, the character jumps from idea to concept to obsessively categorizing certain aspects of life, trying desperately to get back to the main thread of what he feels necessary to be sharing with Gog. Similar to how Dean and Sal, in Kerouac's On the Road, rapidly talk while walking in the dark underneath the streetlights, and Dean says, "This is a parenthetical, Sal, and I shall get back to the main point at the very next street light."

See the Moon? captures for the reader the sheer volume of sights and sounds, understandings and perceived misunderstandings that patch together and highlight personal characters and lives. "In another month Gog leaps fully armed from the womb" (p.101, Sixty Stories, Peguin edition). This sentence comes at the end of Barthelme's short story and elucidates for us what the main character is trying to do with his constant abrupt changes and odd, personal reveries. He is dramatically and anxiously attempting to give every possible life experience to Gog before the baby is even born.

At times, the protagonist, if we can call him that, seems to be working out ideas and concepts for himself, because many things he says do not, and could not, apply to an unborn baby. "I set out to study cardinals...A perverse project, perphaps, but who else has embraced this point of view" (98)? A means for justification, by talking to the unborn child, while in reality working things outloud for himself.

Barthelme is famous for his off-the-wall, postmodern, and new way of telling a story. See the Moon? exemplifies his talent and gives support to why we still read him.

Editing Kerouac

Jack Kerouac is famous for his two week tryst of benzedrine and coffee fueled writing, which led to the breakthrough 'On the Road.' The infamous picture is of a writer, hunched over his typewriter, typing furiously, taking pills and slugging cups of coffee, in the confines of his private room, telling a tale, spontaneously as it came, depicting the prior four years of his life as he criss-crossed the United States with the unforgettable Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady). His manuscript of 'On the Road' is a scroll, taped together and worth big bucks. It unrolls over one hundred feet, and is really an American relic, produced by one of the most mysterious writers the North American continent has ever produced.

But is it all true?

Jack Kerouac is famous for his supposed belief of no revision. He is said to have written spontaneously, and whatever he wrote remained, untouched, and ready to be published. He loved the errors and all. But that is untrue. Pertaining to his American opus, 'On the Road,' Kerouac revised many times, contradictory to the legend. He actually worked on that piece for four or more years, compiling notes and journal entries from his travels. It was his work in progress. And while it may be true he sat down and hammered it out in the space of a few weeks, the majority of the plot and memories had been recorded and written down, needing only to be patched together and put in a coherent manner. And Kerouac revised like hell. He worked on his manuscript like any other author would have, and even sent it away to a friend to read first. The friend suggested Kerouac provide more centering on the story's main character, Dean Moriarty. Kerouac understood his friend's critique and put Dean center stage.

The misconception of Kerouac being the great Non-Revisor might have originated with the fact that the author refused to let the editor at the publishing house make certain changes to the 'On the Road' manuscript. That somehow became the genesis for Kerouac not believing in revision to his work, and keeping 'On the Road' as is, with no care or concern for criticism. Like any author, Kerouac was obstinate on what keeping 'On the Road' as he'd sent it to the publishing house, and not as it was after he supposedly slapped it together in the space of two weeks. In truth, the manuscript had been worked and reworked, in pieces and sections, for at least four years.

But the legend remains, and it's a beautiful one.

Kerouac's 'On the Road'

A possible reason to enjoy and write about Kerouac's 'On the Road' lies in its use of hyperbole and folkloric feel. Kerouac delves into the antiquated art of telling a "tall tale" when he writes on the road and, more importantly, sketches the bigger than life character, Dean Moriarty. Kerouac speaks of highs and lows in life, surrounding his narrative on the characters, based on real people, that enter and exit his life like a stage show. Carlo Marx, who is understood to be the real world Alan Ginsburg, plays the angry, mad poet, designing words and spitting phrases that come off as anti-American, anti-imperialism, and anti-society. He is only one example of a character who reigns supreme in his own right, and holds his ground in the reader's mind, even though he never gets the attention that other characters do, like the illustrious, Neal Cassady (Dean Moriarty).

The tall tale is important to keep in mind when reading Kerouac's 'On the Road' as it could be compared to a debaucherous Paul Bunyan tale. Kerouac speaks of Dean, the crazy, maddest character of them all, infamously driving through the treacherous Sierra Nevadas without using either brake or gas pedal, but simply coasting, shouting "Whoo-ee" the entire way as his jalopy swings and dives around sharp turns and corners, nearly careening over the edge. Kerouac mentions that he feels safe, as long as Dean is at the wheel. This is only one small aspect of Kerouac utilizing the "tale tale" effect when describing his traveling days.

Another tall tale element derives from a wonderful paragraph written by Kerouac as he describes the fervor with which Dean travels from East to visit Jack in Denver. Dean has heard, through the grapevine, that Jack (Sal, actually, in the novel) is going to go to Mexico. Dean, who has finally decided to settle down with one woman and his child, picks up seemingly in an instant, and descend his magical character force upon the West. Kerouac describes this as following:

Suddenly I had a vision of Dean, a burning shuddering frightful Angel, palpitating towards me across the road, approaching like a cloud, with enormous speed, pursuing me like the Shrouded Traveller on the plain, bearing down on me. I saw his huge face over the plains with the mad, bony purpose and the gleaming eyes; I saw his wings; I saw his old jalopy chariot with thousands of sparking flames shooting out from it; I saw the path it burned over the road...destroying bridges, drying rivers. It came like wrath to the West. I knew Dean had gone mad again.

This paragraph manifests Kerouac's desire to paint Dean Moriarity as something transcendant of human quality, moving over the earth like a specter, like the "Angel" of death, doing what he is best at doing: going mad. Again. Kerouac uses descriptions like, "shuddering, burning, frightful," "huge face," and "jalopy chariot," giving Dean an otherworldly presence.

This would be a great paper topic, especially when combined with a polished understanding of what a tall tale is, and being familiar with some of the famous stories that have come to be known as "tall tales."