tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3806105670225878157.post8563717979411908925..comments2024-03-29T01:49:09.644-04:00Comments on The Automobile and American Life: Jack Kerouac as a Prophet in On the Road: Arabs Coming to New York to Blow it up.John Heitmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15891521792448497252noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3806105670225878157.post-24192301734756574942017-12-05T07:42:37.000-05:002017-12-05T07:42:37.000-05:00Kerouac also made a reference to a town near New O...Kerouac also made a reference to a town near New Orleans being destined to wash away in a hurricane, if I remember correctly....I don't have a copy of the book with meKevin Mullinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08440806344590906113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3806105670225878157.post-82803588545169751922014-06-20T01:25:22.211-04:002014-06-20T01:25:22.211-04:00This was not Jungian. This was not prophetic. This...This was not Jungian. This was not prophetic. This was metaphor as coincidence. Great cloud of Metropolitan NY = glowing lights. Sweater around the face = it's cold. Blow up NY = We're a rowdy bunch, and we are going to tear it up. Yes, the first thing I thought was, "OMG, that sounds so much like Sept. 11th!" Then I got over the fact that Arabs have been around longer than 1957. Mark Kesselhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10999986270925354252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3806105670225878157.post-61134544661743252882013-09-18T04:30:42.110-04:002013-09-18T04:30:42.110-04:00Some of the Beats would have read T. E. Lawrence&#...Some of the Beats would have read T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom.<br />Cassady might not have read it, but if not he would surely have read Lowell Thomas's books about Lawrence of Arabia, and seen the newsreels on Lawrence that Thomas made and narrated.<br />Lawrence was the founder of Arab terrorism and taught the Beduoins how to use explosives. His roving guerrilla bands would come out of the Saudi desert and blow up Turkish trains in the Holy Land.<br />They were folk heroes of the Beats' childhoods, also the homoerotic mysticism of Lawrence's writing would have recommended him to them.Puddleghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00953398103675945541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3806105670225878157.post-51398781072970369192012-10-25T18:37:33.998-04:002012-10-25T18:37:33.998-04:00Hey I just found this blog post by typing that lin...Hey I just found this blog post by typing that line from the book into Google. I knew other people would have found it interesting like me. Neal Cassady was an interesting person, but I think it'd be a stretch to call him a prophet. It's an odd coincidence I guess, but I just wonder where the idea of arabs blowing up things, and in particular New York, would have come from back then. If this was something that Neal Cassady actually said, and not something that Jack Kerouac made up, then that would mean that it was uttered way back around Christmas of 1948, which was when that event of the book took place. The connection you made to Israel is interesting, as Israel was proclaimed independence in may of 1948. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10732896114720473666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3806105670225878157.post-57667791385727681472011-05-16T12:33:47.950-04:002011-05-16T12:33:47.950-04:00I just read this portion last night and had the sa...I just read this portion last night and had the same exact question. I have no idea what Mr. Kerouac's basis was for that statement, but it's very mysterious. <br /><br />This is, however, one small aspect of a fantastic work of literature!Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07284982278359155191noreply@blogger.com