THE DAILY BEAT: Salon article: Breaking up with the Beats

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Salon article: Breaking up with the Beats

"Breaking up with the Beats" is a killer piece from Salon in 1999. In it, author David Gates is fairly critical of the beats, and yet he states:

Dean Moriarty, the pseudonymized Neal Cassady of "On the Road," is one of American literature's great characters.

I appreciate Gates' criticisms, yet they pale in comparison to Kerouac's achievements. Who do we have today of Kerouac's stature? What living author has created one of American literature's great characters? What living author is identified as the defining voice of a generation?

Don't tell me it's a different time, there's the Internet, Jack's competition wasn't like it would be now, blah-blee-blah. Deal with what is! Jack did. And Jack's work will stand the test of time.

Period.

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Reviews of The Beat Handbook

Gerald Nicosia, author of the acclaimed Kerouac biography Memory Babe, said The Beat Handbook is "full of Jack's heart."

Jared Randall, author of the excellent book of poetry, Apocryphal Road Code, said this about The Beat Handbook: "Sometimes a book comes along at just the right time. In my wandering pack of experiences, I find they often do. Enter The Beat Handbook by Rick Dale."

Kenneth Morris, Kerouacian extraordinaire, said this:
"I just finished reading Rick Dale's beautiful utterance and call to action of Kerouac mind-set and zen sensibilities. It made me laugh and reflect on my own life and road I have naturally grooved into after absorbing the Kerouac canon. The road less traveled always had my name on it. And that has made all the difference. The Beat Handbook 100 Days of Kerouactions reaffirms the attitudes and ideology that made the Beats and Kerouac the important men of ideas that America (and the world) thirsted for, needed, and swallowed whole. Beautiful, absorbing, Top Ten whipsmart from my articulate, tender-hearted friend and fellow traveler. Highly recommended."