Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Jack Kerouac and Krazy Kat (+ pirates, ninjas, & zombies)



In doing some research for my "guest post" (see February 3), I was reading Jack's "The Origins of the Beat Generation" in A Casebook on the Beat (1961). He was listing all the many things that the Beat Generation goes back to, and one of them was "the inky ditties of old cartoons (Krazy Kat with the irrational brick)..." (p. 71).

I loved Krazy Kat when I was cartoon-watching age. Watching it now, I can't figure out why, but there is that still small Kerouac connection afoot, since he liked it, too. There were lots of Krazy Kat versions, but the one I remember is represented by this clip from YouTube.

Referring to Krazy Kat, Jack supposedly said, "An immediate progenitor of the Beat Generation and its roots could be traced back to the glee of America, the honesty of America, its wild, self-believing individuality" (Source: Quotes on Krazy).

Do you remember Krazy Kat?

P.S. In future posts, we'll be exploring Jack's connection to pirates, ninjas, and zombies. Apparently, those are search terms that get attention on-line, so we'll take advantage of them!

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