| -2/12/04
- Jack Kerouac - Mike Wallus Interview - (Safe in Heaven Dead)
There's a nifty little book that came out a number of years ago called
"Safe In Heaven Dead". It's a collection of interviews that
Kerouac gave between 1958 and 1968. It's a tiny little book, fits in your
shirt pocket like one of the little spiral notebooks Jack wrote in all
the time. And it is chock full of gems!
In one of the interviews Jack talks to Mike Wallace (prior to his joining
his TV gig at 60 Minutes) for an article that ran in the New York Post
January 21, 1958. It's entitled "What is the Beat Generation?"
and in it Jack discussed mysticism:
MW: What sort of mysticism is it? What do Beat mystics believe?
JK: Oh, they believe in love. They love children... and I don't know,
it's so strange to talk about all this... they love women, they love animals,
they love everything.
MW: Why is jazz so important to this new mystique?
JK: Jazz is very complicated. It's just as complicated as Bach. The chords,
the structures, the harmony and everything. And then it has a tremendous
beat. You know, tremendous drummers. They can drive it. It has just a
tremendous drive. It can drive you right out of yourself.
MW: What is the basis of your mysticism?
JK: What I believe is that nothing is happening.
MW: What do you mean?
JK: Well, you're not sitting here. That's what you think. Actually we
are all great empty space. I could walk right through you... you know
what I mean, we're made out of atoms, electrons. We're actually empty.
We're an empty vision... in one mind.
MW: In what mind - the mind of God?
JK: That's the name we give it. We can call it tangerine... god... tangerine...
But I do know we are empty phantoms, sitting here thinking we are human
beings and worrying about civilization. We're just empty phantoms. And
yet, all is well.
MW: All is well?
JK: Yeah. We're all in Heaven, now, really.
MW: You don't sound happy.
JK: Oh, I'm tremendously sad. I'm in great despair.
MW: Why?
JK: It's a great burden to be alive. A heavy burden, a great big heavy
burden. I wish I were safe in Heaven, dead.
From: Safe In Heaven Dead
Read more about these interesting interviews by adding "Safe
In Heaven Dead." to your shopping cart.
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