Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums Chapter 28 in one sentence

Your assignment for today was to read Chapter 28 of The Dharma Bums and summarize it in one sentence. Below is my one-sentence summary -- post yours as a comment. I'd also love to see general comments about the chapter, or questions.


The Dharma Bums Chapter 28 in one sentence:

The night of the big party arrives, around Sean's roaring bonfire Cacoethes holds forth on the qualities of different contemporary poets, Morley shows up but just for a short time, wild dancing and nakedness ensues, Ray talks with Japhy's father, Japhy and Psyche have a disagreement, Ray tries to get her to come up the hill with him but she is out like a light, he eats alone by the fire, wonders about the pitifulness of human beings, and Japhy calls everybody to pancakes at 8 a.m. banging on his frying pan and chanting the "Gocchami" chant.

Your next assignment is to read The Dharma Bums Chapter 29 and post a one-sentence summary.

Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums Chapter 27 in one sentence

Your assignment for today was to read Chapter 27 of The Dharma Bums and summarize it in one sentence. Below is my one-sentence summary -- post yours as a comment. I'd also love to see general comments about the chapter, or questions.


The Dharma Bums Chapter 27 in one sentence:

When Japhy and Ray go into San Francisco to get haircuts and poke around the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores, Ray buys two poorboys of ruby port and gets drunk, Japhy and he get into an argument over Ray drinking too much so Japhy goes to a Buddhist lecture in Berkeley while Ray stays at Alvah's, then Japhy reappears after two hours drunk as a hoot owl because they were all drinking saki at the lecture and says Ray was right about drinking and they never had an argument again.

Your next assignment is to read The Dharma Bums Chapter 28 and post a one-sentence summary.

Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums Chapter 26 in one sentence

Your assignment for today was to read Chapter 26 of The Dharma Bums and summarize it in one sentence. Below is my one-sentence summary -- post yours as a comment. I'd also love to see general comments about the chapter, or questions.


The Dharma Bums Chapter 26 in one sentence:

Because they are tired of parties, Japhy and Ray make plans for a long hike part way through the big farewell party for Japhy (who is going to Japan), Japhy's sister Rhoda and her fiancé visit, Ray finds Rhoda attractive but puts sex out of his mind again whenever he sees something like a dead crow in the deer park ("all of it comes out of sex"), preferring to meditate pretty much wherever he is with his eyes closed (nobody ever considers his behavior strange), the one time Ray does bring a women to the shack Japhy and a friend burst in dancing and laughing and drive the beautiful brunette away, Japhy is stern about things being "done right" (like sharpening an ax properly), Ray is impressed with the meals Japhy can concoct from his side of the food shelf, and sometimes Japhy can't find Ray because Ray is meditating outdoors amidst the deer and mosquitoes and doesn't reply to Japhy's "Hoo!"  

Your next assignment is to read The Dharma Bums Chapter 27 and post a one-sentence summary.

Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums Chapter 25 in one sentence

Your assignment for today was to read Chapter 25 of The Dharma Bums and summarize it in one sentence. Below is my one-sentence summary (I hope I did it justice -- it was a long chapter) -- post yours as a comment. I'd also love to see general comments about the chapter, or questions.


The Dharma Bums Chapter 25 in one sentence:

After breakfast, Japhy and Ray split logs, Sean's wife Christine feeds them lunch, Japhy expounds on Buddhism, they have a big Saturday night party (with naked dancing girls), when couples pair off Ray goes to his sleeping bag under the rosebush to sleep, the party continues into Sunday (people in Sean's house, the yard, or the shack) -- Princess, Alvah, and Warren Coughlin show up -- these kind of festivities seem to go on every weekend and Ray always steals off for a nap, Ray has visions of Cody and Rosie, interacts with a hummingbird, one weekend Japhy's favorite girl Psyche shows up and Japhy makes her and Ray slumgullion and they borrow Sean's jalopy to go to the beach, Ray buys food for the shack and cooks for all the visitors (twelve at once in the shack on weekends), and Ray scares away some kids who had been throwing rocks on the shack roof by appearing at the door holding a black cat and saying in a low voice, "I am the ghost."

Your next assignment is to read The Dharma Bums Chapter 26 and post a one-sentence summary.

Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums Chapter 24 in one sentence

Real-life Sean Monahan (Locke McCorkle) at age 82 in April 2012 standing on the hill behind his house where his shack used to stand
(c) 2012 Gerald Nicosia

Your assignment for today was to read Chapter 24 of The Dharma Bums and summarize it in one sentence. Below is my one-sentence summary -- post yours as a comment. I'd also love to see general comments about the chapter, or questions.


The Dharma Bums Chapter 24 in one sentence:

Ray arrives at the Corte Madera home of joyously living carpenter Sean Monahan, whose rustic 3-room cabin (where Japhy is staying in one room) sits high on the hill behind Sean's house, Ray starts a pot of New England beans on the shack's woodstove, Japhy arrives after work and tells Ray about all the parties they will have there, Ray learns that all he has to do for his "keep" is cut firewood, Japhy tells Ray about Desolation Peak where Ray will be stationed as a fire lookout that summer, they discuss Japhy's disenchantment with Zen, Japhy tells Ray his sister Rhoda is in town, Ray and Japhy get a little out of sorts so Ray meditates outside in the trees, and in the morning Ray awakes to Japhy yelling, "Come on, boy, your pancakes are ready!" accompanied by the Buddhist "I take refuge in . . . " chant.  

Your next assignment is to read The Dharma Bums Chapter 25 and post a one-sentence summary.

New comment policy

Given that I received over 300 spam comments since my recent post cursing spammers, I am invoking a new policy regarding comments here at The Daily Beat.

Henceforth, I will not publish any comment from an anonymous source. What this allows me to do is mark comments so labeled in a batch and mark them as spam with one click.

I suspect the uptick in spam comments was because I mentioned spam, and out of spite the spambots target such blogs.

In any event, your legitimate comments are welcome here but you will need to use a screen name to get by my spam defenses.

A curse on spam commenters

I am receiving dozens of spam comments per day here at The Daily Beat. I say spam because the comments are posted as anonymous and they say nothing specific about the post they are directed at. It's just generic drivel.

My dilemma is that I cannot delete spam comments in a batch for fear that a legitimate comment is mixed in with the dozens of spam comments (which I must assume come from bots -- some that are poor at spelling, by the way). Consequently, I have to read each one and click on it and then mark it as spam. Time-consuming!

If you are a legitimate commenter, it would help if you didn't show up as anonymous. Also, remember that if your comment doesn't appear, it may be that I mistakenly deleted it. If you post a legit comment and don't see it in a couple of days, just repost it and maybe I'll catch it the second time around.

I don't know what is to gain from spamming my blog, but I do know that it is a waste of my time to deal with and it's rather annoying to boot.

So . . . go pound sand, spammers! I invoke a holy curse on your heads that you may suffer indignities galore and lose your minds in a dimly lit magnanimity of evil stench. Amen.