by Jack Kerouac
All photographs and graphics courtesy of the Estate of Stella Kerouac, John Sampas, Literary Executor, except photograph of Kerouac with Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Hal Chase, reprinted by by permission of the Allen Ginsberg Trust.
Video clip from The Source, a film by Chuck Workman, presented by Hiro Yamagata, distributed by Winstar Film and Video, used by permission of Chuck Workman. The videocassette and DVD of
The Source are available from Barnes&Noble.com.
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ORPHEUS EMERGED 283
Using this LiveREAD
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Live READ. Welcome. Of course, with every first step, there’s a bit of a learning curve, and this short primer will help you maneuver and fully enjoy ORPHEUS
EMERGED.
We have created an experience that sets the
novella within the context in which it was written. The
digital medium allows Live READS to bring you an innovative design, an interactive timeline, hyperlinks for
related information, a bibliography linked directly to a
bookstore, a short audio version of the story, and an
excerpt from a movie about the Beats.
It’s much more than simply text on a screen.
First off, your Adobe Glassbook Reader offers
some innovative features: bookmarks, sharpening the
text, annotations, rotating screen, among others. Please
refer to the Getting Started Guide that comes with your Glassbook Reader (in the Library).
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1. Click on the LiveREADS logo at the bottom of
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Contents. Consider it your way home if you get
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2. Any words that you see in orange represent a
Ulysses
hyperlink to more information. Give them a
look…you may even learn a new thing or two.
We did.
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ORPHEUS EMERGED 284
3. In the novella, you’ll occasionally encounter the
phrase, "see journal entry" handwritten in the mar-
gins. This indicates text that relates to passages in
Kerouac’s journals. Clicking on "see journal entry"
will take you to the relevant portion of the journals.
4. If you see the images to the left and are connect-
ed to the Internet, Live READS (care of our friends at Apple and Salon.com) will stream either an audio
A V
excerpt (click A) or short clip from The Source, a
movie about the Beats.
5. In the bibliography, you’ll go directly to Barnes & Noble.com (if you’re online) and be able to purchase the particular book you click on.
6. On the timeline, click on the date, and the Live READ provides more information about where Jack was and, more interesting-ly, what he was doing.
7. If you have Glassbook version 2.0, please read ORPHEUS
EMERGED with the two-page spread (just click on the icon in the Glassbook panel that indicates two-pages). The right spread should have even number pages on the left. If, for some reason, it’s an odd number on the left, drag your mouse to the bottom of the page; a "Go to Page" marker will appear; drag mouse and click on an even page.
8. Enjoy the read.
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Regards,
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Scott Waxman
Co-Founders of Live READS
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ORPHEUS EMERGED 285
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Text
Hyperlink
Nietzsche. German philosopher, clas-
sical scholar, and poet Frederich Nietszche
(1844-1900) is noted for his theory of the uber-
mensch (“superman”). Nietszche set himself
against the systematic philosophy of the first part
of the 19th Century, particularly that of Hegel.
He tried to go beyond the rational to the irra-
tional, human level. He rejected Christianity
because he felt it directed human thought away
from this world and into the next, thereby ren-
dering man incapable of coping with the reality
of everyday life; he said that Christianity teaches
men how to die but not how to live. He went
insane in 1889, and remained so until he died a
year later.
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Text
Hyperlink
Stendhal. This is the pen name of
the French novelist and critic, Marie Henri
Beyle (1783-1842). Stendhal’s fiction strongly
influenced the development of the modern
novel, bridging the realistic and romantic
schools, and including deep character studies
that pointed the way to the psychological
novel. His most celebrated work is The Red
and the Black (1830), a probing study of the
provincial romantic, Julien Sorel, and a satiric
analysis of the French social order under the
Bourbon restoration.
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Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot.
Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich
Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), whose works
include
Crime and Punishment, The Brothers
Karamazov, and The Possessed, is one of the
most important and influential writers of
modern literature. Along with Tolstoy,
Dostoyevsky is acknowledged to be the mas-
ter of the realistic novel.
The Idiot (1868) is set in the worldly society of
St. Petersburg, and follows the life and loves of
the saintly Prince Myshkin. Dostoyevky
acknowledged that his goal with Myshkin was to
portray a truly good man – a blend of human and
Christ-like attributes.
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Text
Hyperlink
Ulysses. The novel by James Joyce
first published in France in 1922 and banned in
the United States until 1933 that is now recog-
nized as the greatest novel written in English
in the 20th Century. On one level, the novel
recounts the events of a typical day in the lives
of Leopold Bloom; his wife, Molly; and his son,
Stephen Dedalus. Journeys throughout the
city of Dublin are matched by inward journeys
into the consciousness of the characters. Also,
the plan of the book parallels the Odyssey, with
Bloom, Molly, and Stephen echoing Ulysses,
Penelope, and Telemachus. Bloom is engaged
in the life of the world: society, ethics, politics,
love; Stephen is the artist living the life of the
mind, seeking spiritual fulfillment; Molly is the
embodiment of the feminine, regenerative
principle.
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LINK
Text
Hyperlink
Nietzsche. German philosopher, clas-
sical scholar, and poet Frederich Nietszche
(1844-1900) is noted for his theory of the uber-
mensch (“superman”). Nietszche set himself
against the systematic philo
sophy of the first part
of the 19th Century, particularly that of Hegel.
He tried to go beyond the rational to the irra-
tional, human level. He rejected Christianity
because he felt it directed human thought away
from this world and into the next, thereby ren-
dering man incapable of coping with the reality
of everyday life; he said that Christianity teaches
men how to die but not how to live. He went
insane in 1889, and remained so until he died a
year later.
RETURN TO PREVIOUS
LiveREADS
LINK
Text
Hyperlink
Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot.
Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich
Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), whose works
include
Crime and Punishment, The Brothers
Karamazov, and The Possessed, is one of the
most important and influential writers of
modern literature. Along with Tolstoy,
Dostoyevsky is acknowledged to be the mas-
ter of the realistic novel.
The Idiot (1868) is set in the worldly society of
St. Petersburg, and follows the life and loves of
the saintly Prince Myshkin. Dostoyevky
acknowledged that his goal with Myshkin was to
portray a truly good man – a blend of human and
Christ-like attributes.
RETURN TO PREVIOUS
LiveREADS
LINK
Text
Hyperlink
Kenneth Patchen’s Journal
of Albion Moonlight. A novel
by the American writer Kenneth Patchen
(1911-1972) who was primarily known for
his poetry – which combined elements of
humor, fantasy, social protest, and surreal-
istic imagery. He illustrated some of his
verse with his own abstract drawings. In
the early 50s, he read his poetry to a jazz
accompaniment, much in the spirit of the
Beat movement. The Journal of Albion
Moonlight attracted a cult following
among college students of the 60s.
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Faustus. A legendary character based
on a 15th Century German magician named
Georg Faust and the inspiration for many
works of literature and operas. Goethe’s Faust
(1808) was the first: a tale of an old scholar
who promises his soul to the destructive spir-
it, Mephistopheles, in exchange for infinite
wisdom – both of the realm of personal feeling
and experience, as well as the larger sphere of
history, politics, and culture. Thomas Mann
wrote a novel called Doktor Faustus (1947);
the Faust legend also inspired operas by
Berlioz, Gounod, and others.
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Text
Hyperlink
Nietzsche. German philosopher, clas-
sical scholar, and poet Frederich Nietszche
(1844-1900) is noted for his theory of the uber-
mensch (“superman”). Nietszche set himself
against the systematic philosophy of the first part
of the 19th Century, particularly that of Hegel.
He tried to go beyond the rational to the irra-
tional, human level. He rejected Christianity
because he felt it directed human thought away
from this world and into the next, thereby ren-
dering man incapable of coping with the reality
of everyday life; he said that Christianity teaches
men how to die but not how to live. He went
insane in 1889, and remained so until he died a
year later.
RETURN TO PREVIOUS
LiveREADS
LINK
Text
Hyperlink
Zarathustra. Frederich Nietzsche
wrote a philosophical narrative called Thus
Spake Zarathustra, in which the Persian
philosopher Zarathustra (also called
Zoroaster) spouts the doctrine of the ubermen-
sch, and other Nietzschian ideas. The word
ubermensch originally appeared in Goethe’s
Faust (see Faustus). Nietzsche used it to mean the person who devotes himself to achieving
the universal human goal –- as opposed to the
goals unique to a given cultural context. If a
man sacrifices his life for his earthly goal, the
ubermensch ("superman") would arise from
that sacrificial self-destruction.
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Lucretius. The Roman poet (98?-55
BC) who wrote the unfinished De rerum natu-
ra (On the Nature of Things), a six-book trea-
tise intended to explain the science of the uni-
verse. The central thesis is that all things,
including man, operate according to their
own laws, and are not subject to outer, super-
natural powers, and that therefore, men need
not be enslaved by religious superstition and
fear of death. Lucretius committed suicide
before finishing the work, and Cicero pre-
pared the manuscript for publication.
Tennyson wrote a poem in 1869 called
"Lucretius" which recounts the legend that
the poet was driven to suicide after drinking a
love potion given him by his wife.
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LINK
Text
Hyperlink
Nietzsche. German philosopher, clas-
sical scholar, and poet Frederich Nietszche
(1844-1900) is noted for his theory of the uber-
mensch (“superman”). Nietszche set himself
against the systematic philosophy of the first part
of the 19th Century, particularly that of Hegel.
He tried to go beyond the rational to the irra-
tional, human level. He rejected Christianity
because he felt it directed human thought away
from this world and into the next, thereby ren-
dering man incapable of coping with the reality
of everyday life; he said that Christianity teaches
men how to die but not how to live. He went
insane in 1889, and remained so until he died a
year later.
RETURN TO PREVIOUS
LiveREADS
LINK
Text
Hyperlink
Zarathustra. Frederich Nietzsche
wrote a philosophical narrative called Thus
Spake Zarathustra, in which the Persian
philosopher Zarathustra (also called
Zoroaster) spouts the doctrine of the ubermen-
sch, and other Nietzschian ideas. The word
ubermensch originally appeared in Goethe’s
Faust (see Faustus). Nietzsche used it to mean the person who devotes himself to achieving
the universal human goal –- as opposed to the
goals unique to a given cultural context. If a
man sacrifices his life for his earthly goal, the
ubermensch ("superman") would arise from
that sacrificial self-destruction.
RETURN TO PREVIOUS
LiveREADS
LINK
Text
Hyperlink
Oscar Wilde. As an undergradu-
ate at Oxford, the Irish-born poet, dramatist,
and novelist Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a
disciple of Walter Pater and became the leader
of an aesthetic movement that advocated "art
for art’s sake." He was found guilty of engag-
ing in homosexuality and sentenced to two
years in prison. Wilde is best known for his
plays ( Lady Windermere’s Fan, The
Importance of Being Earnest, and others), and
the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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T. S. Eliot. Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-
1965), the American-born poet, essayist, and play-
wright who lived in England from 1914 and eventu-
ally become a British subject, was a preeminent
proponent of literary modernism. Along with con-
temporaries such as Ezra Pound and James Joyce,
he experimented with new techniques and
explored subject areas ignored by the Romantics
and Victorians. His poems ("The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock," "The Waste Land," "Portrait of a Lady," "Gerontion," "The Hollow Men," and others) reflect the post-World War I sense of dislocation,
malaise, uncertainty, emotional impoverishment,
ennui, and spiritual emptiness.
In his later life, Eliot converted to Anglicanism,
and poems such as " Ash Wednesday" reflect alter-nating states of despair/skepticism, hope/joy. " Four Quartets" is acknowledged as the major work of
Eliot’s late period, consisting of four long medita-
tions exploring the tension between man’s tethered
and limited existence in the material, earthly world,
and his desire to transcend and escape those limits.
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Text
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Zarathustra. Frederich Nietzsche
wrote a philosophical narrative called Thus
Spake Zarathustra, in which the Persian
philosopher Zarathustra (also called
Zoroaster) spouts the doctrine of the ubermen-
sch, and other Nietzschian ideas. The word
ubermensch originally appeared in Goethe’s
Faust (see Faustus). Nietzsche used it to mean the person who devotes himself to achieving