Week 5 - The Episodic Novel

Research and Writing Assignments: Write rough draft and post to writing group Read and edit rough drafts for each member of your writing group in First Class

Bedford Guide: Read Chapters 6 & 7

Movie: None

Literary Reading: On the Road (keep at it!)

Lecture 5

Sometimes the long way round is the short way back. Individuals and groups in search of insight or a higher consciousness have tried many means to achieve their goals, even when they could not define what those goals were in clearly understandable, shared terms. The so-called Beat generation tried many means to get to a deeper or expanded space within their psyche. In the tradition of the American road trip and older forms of quests for truth, going back to the Middle Ages and even ancient times, they would sometimes just get in the car and go.

This idea of the outward journey to achieve an inward goal has been
a popular motif in American film since the earliest of silent films. Think about other films you have seen where the characters voyage out and discover an inner truth. Can you name some of these. You could e-mail me with your ideas and/or discuss them with your writing group, as well. The enigmatic ending of a movie like “Thelma and Louise” indicates how the journey becomes an end in itself.

Other methods, including drugs, alcohol, sleep deprivation, meditation, chanting, religious practices and even induced forms of madness have been tried in the search for a depth of understanding. Which of these did Kerouac use in On The Road? Where is he when he finds a kind
of deep insight, and what induces it? Seemingly, over a lifetime we all have moments of deeper inspiration. Something as simple as the sunset can cause many people to pause and “know”.

When writing, often the form is a seeming reflection of the content, a kind of holder that takes the contents shape, or seems to. Here, the writer attempted what looks like a kind of rolling continuum. For the
final copy, he used roller paper and what seemed like a continuous seamless attempt to roll the story out. In truth, he had been working
on the story for many years, but the myth of the continuous writing
has, as they say, “legs”. This very appealing image is what the media picked up on when they made Kerouac a kind of media darling. If you go on Google video you can find old tapes of the author talking about this. It's great to see and hear him and hear the rhythm of his voice.
Use Google to implement your search when reading.