Saturday, June 25, 2011

Celine's influence on Jack Kerouac

In Pomes All Sizes, Jack wrote:

LIL POEM ON LOUIS FERDINAND CELINE

Where the madman plays with his fertilizers
Where the mad priest comes in the window covered in mud,
Where the submarine knocks down the walls of the publishers,
Celine, Celine, Celine.


The 50th anniversary of Celine's death approaches, and many are vexed by a dilemma: does honoring one of the most influential writers of the 20th century validate his anti-Semitic writing? Click here for details.

According to the latter article, Celine influenced the style-driven writing of authors from Thomas Wolfe to Jack Kerouac to Hunter S. Thompson.

I haven't read any Celine yet, but he's on my list. I'm not forgiving his anti-Semitism, but if I didn't read any authors with biases and flaws, my library would be pretty empty.

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