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thePeorian.com
Literarea
JACK KEROUAC
VISIONS
OF CODY
Unlike Joyce and Faulkner,
Kerouac’s experiments with s/o/
c
13
grew out of his Franco-Amer-
ican heritage, where he learned
English as a second language. At
a very young age, Kerouac im-
mersed himself in classic English
literature in order to improve his
mastery of the English language.
The impressionistic form of his
language finds its genesis here: a
kid who speaks French translat-
ing those words (and structures)
into English. While On The
Road is legendary for being a
spontaneously written novel
14
,
in
Visions of Cody Kerouac explores
the life of Neal Cassady
15
and
zips through the On The Road
years
16
,
beginning with a series of
spontaneous prose essays, which
Kerouac called “sketches,” about
New York City and his family
after World War II, during which
he takes a trip west to see Neal.
The next section of the book is
primarily transcriptions of taped
conversations
17
between him-
self, Neal and Carolyn, Neal’s
wife, followed by more sketches
Kerouac wrote after listening to
the tapes himself. The concluding
section has Kerouac recounting
his many travels with Neal Cas-
sady and the effect they had on
both men’s families and relation-
ships.
(1)
Brother of Henry James,
author over two dozen novels
and over 100 short stories and
novellas, most notably “The
Turn of a Screw”, “Washington
Square”, “The Europeans”, and
“
The Bostonians”.
(2)
For expediency’s sake and
since I have to stay within a word
count, from here on out s/o/c
will be substituted for stream-of-
consciousness
(3)
In what is commonly
regarded as the foremost critical
study on s/o/c in the modern
novel entitled, ironically enough,
“
S/o/C in the Modern Novel”.
(4)
There are some notable
omissions due, again, to space/
word considerations, primarily
Virginia Woolf. My deepest and
most sincere apologies to the
entire Woolf family; I hope they
won’t hold it against me.
(5)
Specifically the Beatles in their
post-White Album years when
many of their compositions had a
stream-of-consciousness quality.
(6)
One scene in particular, where
Bloom apparently masturbates
while a young woman exposes
her legs and undergarments
to him in a park, resulted in
obscenity allegations in the U.S.
in 1920. At a trial in 1921, the
novel was effectively barred from
the U.S. Finally, in 1934, the novel
was ruled not pornographic and,
therefore, not obscene.
(7)
Ulysses often tops reviewer
and critic’s lists of the top
English-language novels of the
20
th century.
(8)
Which creates confusion at
times over the use of the word
“
Caddy.”
(9)
Who is now a student at
Harvard.
(10)
SPOILER ALERT!
(11)
Or more interesting, if you
are a Faulkner nerd like myself.
(12)
Even more so than Benjy!
(13)
Or spontaneous prose, as
Kerouac preferred to call it.
(14)
It wasn’t. Kerouac struggled
with novel for years, writing
and rewriting many sections in
his notebooks. The final scroll
version of the novel was written
in marathon of 20 days – and to
call it a marathon is more correct
because no one completes a
marathon without training, and
Kerouac trained, writing over
a million words before setting
down to write On The Road.
(15)
Who was also the muse for
novels by Ken Kesey and Tom
Wolfe, and poetry by Allen
Ginsberg.
(16)
At times, Visions of Cody
reads more like a refined version
of On The Road, as if Kerouac
decided to give the material
another pass with a very sharp
editor’s eye.
(17)
Something relatively
revolutionary in fiction at the
time (1951).
ENDNOTES
