Kerouac, On the Road: Nihilism?
In the interest of hopefully revitalizing this blog, I'm copying here the recent e-mail discussion started with Alan Johnson's comments here; Richard's response is in a comment.
Alan wrote:
Jon did break out the hard stuff Pastika(sp?) (Pernod) and we like dug it
the most. We had continued conversations on 'time and space' as Bill so
stated. I also continued my defense of the nihilist term. Jon said
regarding why I was so vigorous in my defense, "Like, don't back the man rat
into a corner". I can dig that. In the interest of keeping a lively
topic alive I have the following with regard to the book. I may not be
right but something seems to match in that rejection of morality.
From Wikipedia: "In the domain of ethics, nihilist or nihilistic is often
used as a derogatory term referring to a complete rejection of all systems of
authority, morality, and normativity, or one who purportedly makes such a
rejection. Either through the rejection of previously accepted bases of
belief or through extreme relativism or skepticism, the moral nihilist is
construed as one who believes that none of these claims to power are
valid. Nihilism not only dismisses received moral values, but rejects
'morality' outright."
posted by Chuck at 7:58 AM
4 Comments:
As noted in the main post, I'm trying to move the discussion here from e-mail. Richard had the following response to Alan's statements:
The commonly accepted definition of nihilism precludes defining any term with authority. Therefore nihilism allows itself to be defined as anything we fricking like.
Also, someone noticed that I had only one glass of wine which indicated that I felt a little under the weather and was therefore not able to contribute much. At Meg's urging I tried but didn't have the energy to fight for my point:
I considered it to be a spiritual novel in that Dean and especially Sal were searching for some transcendent meaning in life (Barb & Kris, I accept your criticism that being drunk, drugged and promiscuous is no way to find IT, but never-the-less they were searching.). An optimistic read of the last few paragraphs has Sal embarking on a new period of his life (wife, child) and saying good-bye to Dean as he drives off west into NJ with not so much jealousy as with a shake of his head with a mild condemnation. I read a touch of redemption here.
Why did I take the optimistic read? Kerouac claimed that Thomas Wolfe was a great influence so I read his You Can't Go Home Again. Both On the Road and You Can't... have similar stories and structure: A struggling artist experiencing life to the fullest as raw material for their art. The structure is action followed by a narrative introspection. The introspection in On the Road takes less space than in You Can't... Additionally the introspection in You Can't Go... is more thoughtful (analytical - what does Wolfe think?) and less emotional (as opposed to what does Kerouac feel?). There is a Dean character in You Can't Go... He provides a parallel and offers, to me a least, a reason to see Sal being redeemed. The Wolfe character goes to England to get out of the New York "IT" (the Wolfe character's "IT" was fame and women) so that he can concentrate on finishing his novel. Back home, the Dean character, also an acclaimed novelist who happens to be the Wolfe character's hero, endorses Wolfe as the next big thing. The Wolfe character is elated, especially when the Dean character wants to visit Wolfe after his upcoming European tour. When they get together in England, Wolfe sees the manic Dean character for what he is: someone wildly searching without success; unhappy and unfulfilled even with the great commercial success.
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For my own part:
Re "nihilism", in the Wikipedia article Alan cites, I note the following general definition:
"Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position which argues that Being, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value."
I think it's twisting the term beyond recognition to try to apply it to the characters in On the Road, who firmly believed that existence absolutely did have "objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value"; i.e., the "IT" that they were pursuing.
Come on, Alan: you used the wrong word---no great sin.
bob was here
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