Page 19 of Orpheus Emerged

LINK

  Text

  Hyperlink

  Blake.

  English poet, engraver, painter,

  and mystic William Blake (1757-1827) was a

  visionary: he bypassed organized religion and

  experienced God directly; his personal visions

  formed his idiosyncratic mythology. His most

  famous works are Songs of Innocence, Songs of

  Experience, and The Marriage of Heaven and

  Hell.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK

  Text

  Hyperlink

  Spengler. German historian

  Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) is best known

  for his philosophical work, The Decline of the

  West, in which he maintained that history pro-

  gresses in natural phases, and each culture

  grows, matures, and decays. He predicted

  that Western culture, post World War I, was in

  its final stage.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK

  Text

  Hyperlink

  Prometheus. The Greek god who

  stole fire from heaven and gave it to man. As

  a punishment, Prometheus was chained to a

  mountain; an eagle ate his liver every day, but

  it grew back each night. He was eventually

  rescued by Heracles.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK

  Text

  Hyperlink

  Orpheus. In Greek mythology, Orpheus

  was a beloved musician, the son of the muse

  Calliope and Apollo, and a follower of Dionysus

  (the god of wine and fertile crops). He married

  Eurydice, but she was killed by a snake while

  fleeing the advances of Aristaeus. Orpheus

  descended to Hades to find her. His playing of

  the lyre so delighted Hades himself that Orpheus

  was permitted to take Eurydice back with him,

  provided that he did not look at her until they

  arrived in the upper world. When they were

  nearly there, however, he no longer heard her

  behind him, and he looked back. Eurydice

  returned to Hades. He could not get over the

  loss of his love, and the women in his home of

  Thrace were so outraged that they tore him to

  pieces during a bacchanalian orgy. The pieces of

  his body were collected by the Muses, and buried

  at the foot of Mt. Olympus; but his head was car-

  ried out to sea and eventually came ashore on

  the island of Lesbos, where it became an oracle.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK

  Text

  Hyperlink

  Burroughs.

  William Seward

  Burroughs (1914-1997) was a student at

  Columbia University when Jack Kerouac met

  him there. The scion of a rich family, he

  became a heroin addict and based his first

  novels -- Junk (written as William Lee and

  published in 1953, then reissued as Junky in

  1964) and Naked Lunch (1959) -- on his drug-

  related experiences. Burroughs’ writing is

  characterized by biting and hilarious satire of

  contemporary society, and disjointed, phan-

  tasmagorical prose.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK

  Journal

  Hyperlinks

  Jan. 1944

  We are all too sensitive to go on: it is too

  cold, and our bodies are too exhausted.

  There is too much life around. The multi-

  tude is feverish and ill. There is war where

  men sleep on the snow, and when we

  waken from sleep we do not desire to go

  on. I hiccup very violently, twice. This is

  an age that has created sick men, all weak-

  lings like me. What we need is a journey

  to new lands. I shall embark soon on one

  of these. I shall sleep on the grass and

  eat fruit for breakfast.

  Perhaps when I

  return, I shall be well again.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK 51

  Journal

  Hyperlinks

  Brief notes on “The Half Jest”

  (Orpheus Emerged)

  Michael – the genius of imagination and art, 22

  Paul – the genius of life and love, 22

  Maureen – Michael’s mistress, 32 years old

  Claude [Arthur] – Michael’s friend, a student,

  20

  Leo – a student, 18

  Anthony – Paul’s friend, a drunkard and artist,

  38

  “Toni” – Claude’s [Arthur’s] girl, 21

  Jules – a strange student, 17

  Marie – Dmitri’s [Anthony’s] beautiful wife, 27

  “Barbara” – Maureen’s friend, 25

  “Robert” – a psychopath, 26

  Helen – the beloved of Marcel Opheus, 21

  Marcel Orpheus, who is never seen, 22

  Setting – A large city called West, in the land of

  Promethea – or vice versa.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK 52

  Journal

  Hyperlinks

  Symbolized Idea – M. trying to transcend

  human emotions to those of God – emotions of

  creation, or of Eternity, etc. Thus he abandons

  his human self, Paul, and strikes off for the High

  Regions. But there he finds himself lost, lonely,

  and out of his element: his species-self, biologi-

  cally speaking, holds him back. A fish trying to

  live out of water, on air alone, M. finds that his

  life exists unquestionably on human terms: he

  cannot be God, or be like him, because he is

  human. This makes him see that the highest

  state he can attain is that of the "Lyre of God,"

  and in a contemporaneous sense, that of God’s

  representative to man. "A high meeting…" As

  Orpheus, the artist-man, rather than merely

  man, or merely Prometheus (the artist), he

  achieves his great goal of wholeness. This is a

  "new vision" – possible only after the cold windy

  darknesses of the High Regions have been

  explored. The "Impulse of God" poem key to

  M.’s whole success – but he transcends, yet

  maintains, this success to that of wholeness plus

  vision.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK 53

  Journal

  Hyperlinks

  Symbolized Idea – M. trying to transcend

  human emotions to those of God – emotions of

  creation, or of Eternity, etc. Thus he abandons

  his human self, Paul, and strikes off for the High

  Regions. But there he finds himself lost, lonely,

  and out of his element: his species-self, biologi-

  cally speaking, holds him back. A fish trying to

  live out of water, on air alone, M. finds that his

  life exists unquestionably on human terms: he

  cannot be God, or be like him, because he is

  human. This makes him see that the highest

  state he can attain is that of the "Lyre of God,"

  and in a contemporaneous sense, that of God’s

  representative to man. "A high meeting…" As

  Orpheus, the artist-man, rather than merely

&nbsp
; man, or merely Prometheus (the artist), he

  achieves his great goal of wholeness. This is a

  "new vision" – possible only after the cold windy

  darknesses of the High Regions have been

  explored. The "Impulse of God" poem key to

  M.’s whole success – but he transcends, yet

  maintains, this success to that of wholeness plus

  vision.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK 54

  Journal

  Hyperlinks

  Symbolized Idea – M. trying to transcend

  human emotions to those of God – emotions of

  creation, or of Eternity, etc. Thus he abandons

  his human self, Paul, and strikes off for the High

  Regions. But there he finds himself lost, lonely,

  and out of his element: his species-self, biologi-

  cally speaking, holds him back. A fish trying to

  live out of water, on air alone, M. finds that his

  life exists unquestionably on human terms: he

  cannot be God, or be like him, because he is

  human. This makes him see that the highest

  state he can attain is that of the "Lyre of God,"

  and in a contemporaneous sense, that of God’s

  representative to man. "A high meeting…" As

  Orpheus, the artist-man, rather than merely

  man, or merely Prometheus (the artist), he

  achieves his great goal of wholeness. This is a

  "new vision" – possible only after the cold windy

  darknesses of the High Regions have been

  explored. The "Impulse of God" poem key to

  M.’s whole success – but he transcends, yet

  maintains, this success to that of wholeness plus

  vision.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK 55

  Journal

  Hyperlinks

  March, 1945 – Seeing a lot of Burroughs. He

  is responsible for the education of Lucien, whom

  I had found, in lieu of his anarchy (rather than in

  spite of it), an extremely important person. "I

  lean with fearful attraction over the depths of

  each creature’s possibilities and weep for all that

  lies atrophied under the heavy lid of custom and

  morality" – and – "The bastard alone has the

  right to be natural." (Gide) These lines elicit a picture of the Burroughs thought. However, the

  psychoanalytical probing has upset me prodi-

  giously.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK 56

  Journal

  Hyperlinks

  March, 1945 – Seeing a lot of Burroughs. He

  is responsible for the education of Lucien, whom

  I had found, in lieu of his anarchy (rather than in

  spite of it), an extremely important person. "I

  lean with fearful attraction over the depths of

  each creature’s possibilities and weep for all that

  lies atrophied under the heavy lid of custom and

  morality" – and – "The bastard alone has the

  right to be natural." (Gide) These lines elicit a

  picture of the Burroughs thought. However, the

  psychoanalytical probing has upset me prodi-

  giously.

  RETURN TO PREVIOUS

  LiveREADS

  LINK 57

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1922. Jean-Louis Lebris de

  Kerouac born 5 P.M. March 12 in Lowell,

  Massachusetts, third child of Gabrielle and

  Leo Kerouac, French-Canadian emigrants

  to New England; brother of Caroline and

  Gerard; family lives at 9 Lupine Road.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 1

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1923. Father opens print shop

  business, Spotlight Print.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 2

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1926. Brother Gerard dies

  from rheumatic fever.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 3

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1933. Skips 6th grade and

  enters 7th grade at Bartlett Junior High;

  becomes friends with Sebastian Sampas;

  writes first short story.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 4

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1938. Excels in football

  and baseball at Lowell High School;

  flood destroys father’s printshop.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 5

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1939.

  Graduates from Lowell High School.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 6

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1939-1940.

  Attends Horace Mann Preparatory School

  in New York City; short stories, "The

  Brothers" and "Une Veille de Noel" pub-

  lished in Horace Mann Quarterly; hears

  jazz at Harlem clubs; smokes marijuana

  for the first time; loses his virginity with a

  Manhattan prostitute.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 7

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1940-1941.

  Attends Columbia College on a scholar-

  ship; breaks leg in November during a

  game; reads Thomas Wolfe novels and

  James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a

  Young Man.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 8

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1942-1943.

  Serves in Merchant Marine and sails to

  Greenland aboard the Dorchester; joins

  Navy in February and is discharged on psy-

  chiatric grounds in September; sails to

  Liverpool on George Weems; returns to

  New York and hangs out at Joan Vollmer’s

  apartment at 421 W. 118th St.; meets

  Lucien Carr.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 9

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1944. Meets William

  Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg; Carr kills

  acquaintance David Kammerer, Kerouac is

  arrested for helping Carr dispose of mur-

  der weapon; marries Edie Parker to
raise

  bail money; Parker and Vollmer move into

  apartment at 419 W. 115th St., where

  Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs also

  stay; Herbert Huncke visits often.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 10

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1945. Completes novella,

  Orpheus Emerged, co-writes novella, And

  the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, with

  Burroughs; hospitalized for throm-

  bophlebitis.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 11

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1946. Father dies of cancer

  of the spleen; begins The Town and the

  City; meets Neal Cassady in December;

  marriage to Edie Parker annulled.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 12

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1947.Takes bus to Denver,

  meets up with Cassady and Carolyn

  Robinson (whom Cassady later marries),

  hitchhikes to West Coast; returns to New

  York in October.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 13

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1948. Meets John Clellon

  Holmes and invents the term "beat gener-

  ation"; completes early version of On the

  Road based on his 1947 travels.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 14

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1949. Leaves New York in

  January with Cassady, Cassady’s wife

  Luanne Henderson, and friend Al Hickle

  on second cross-country trip; takes bus

  from San Francisco to sister’s home in

  North Carolina; The Town and the City sold

  to Harcourt Brace for $1,000 advance;

  moves to Denver.

  Backward

  Back to

  Forward

  in Time

  Timeline

  in Time

  LiveREADS

  LINK 15

  Timeline

  Hyperlink

  1950. The Town and the City

  published; drives to Mexico with Cassady,

  and visits with Bill and Joan Burroughs;

  hitchhikes to New York; marries second