How To Characterize Kerouac's The Dharma Bums
I think that The Dharma Bums is probably Kerouac's best novel. This is Kerouac at his best. One thing this book has in common with On the Road is that it does involve a lot of travel. He journeys northward from southern California to San Francisco in a boxcar. Then travels across country to stay with his sister in North Carolina where he meditates and prays in the woods. And the book closes with a journey north to Washington state instead of south the Mexico as On The Road does. Instead of Neal Cassady we have Gary Snyder as Kerouac's friend. Finally, after a series of adventures in the bay area and on a back packing trip with a character whom I believe is based on Kerouac's friend Philip Whalen, Snyder departs for a zen monestary in Japan
(he wouldn't return from Asia until the mid sixties and the two friends never saw each other again). Its a bit ironic that Allen Ginsburg (Goldberg in the novel) was initially skeptical of the Buddhist teachings but later became more devoted to it than Kerouac, becoming a diciple of the Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa. Whalen became a zen priest and lived for years at the San Francisco Zen Center. But this was Kerouac at his peak. His most blissful and holy. His golden dream of life in the Buddhalands.
(he wouldn't return from Asia until the mid sixties and the two friends never saw each other again). Its a bit ironic that Allen Ginsburg (Goldberg in the novel) was initially skeptical of the Buddhist teachings but later became more devoted to it than Kerouac, becoming a diciple of the Tibetan teacher Chogyam Trungpa. Whalen became a zen priest and lived for years at the San Francisco Zen Center. But this was Kerouac at his peak. His most blissful and holy. His golden dream of life in the Buddhalands.