The flood of 1936 was a real event that left a mark on 14-year-old Jack. Written in 1952 but not published until 1959, Jack Kerouac presented a more organic and surreal epic using the great flood of 1936 as metaphor for the apocalypse of the soul. We are all in a state of flux, and the seemingly evil forces within and without which mark our destruction will morph into that which will ultimately deliver us. The Beats often talked about the possibility of the apocalypse befalling the skyscrapered streets of Manhattan, and now in Mexico, Kerouac resurrects the apocalyptic night by stepping back into Lowell, to the inner apocalypse of the soul using metaphors of innocence surrounded by indecency, the annihilation of childhood by sad adolescence, the tainting of all golden eternities by the ugliness of death, and the epiphany that there is no firm line drawn between black and white. Ah, apocalypse! That word was frequently bandied about in 1940s Times Square over coffee in Bickford’s as the Benzedrine fuelled night turned to dawn. Burroughs in Mexico, and it was there that he penned his own apocalyptic opus. In 1952, Jack Kerouac visited his friend and teacher William S. So, now is a perfect time to revisit Jack Kerouac’s often overlooked masterpiece, Dr. But if you are one who dares to look internally, you’ll agree that all that connects us inside is an explanation for all that threatens us outside. Even worse, perhaps we don’t want to look IN. Here we are, baffled by the all-too-obvious metaphors and symbolism that smackdown like a Three Stooges routine when confronted by the Netflix satire Don’t Look Up, which in bold-face type lampoons Trump and MAGA, Zuckerberg, Tories, Brexit, climate change, and obsequious or apathetic ignorance. Here we are, children of enlightenment and revolutions, Age of Aquarian Hippies, black-clad offspring of the Velvet Underground turned Glam Rockers who sneered their way into Punk Rock No Futures, users of Jetsons’ technology, gigglers at the Cold War antics of Moose and Squirrel only to be sucker-punched by Putin-esque reality in the 21 st Century. She explains why it’s as important a part of Kerouac’s ‘legend’ as Visions of Cody. Sax is an acquired taste, and Cat de Leon, who grew up years later in Lynn, not far from Lowell, acquired it early on. The narrative’s unifying event is the Flood of 1936, when the Great Snake of the Merrimac River swelled to record levels and inundated the mills, homes, businesses and lives of the working-class city.
Incorporating themes from New England heroes Melville and Hawthorne, Kerouac revisits boyhood scenes in Lowell, Mass., in rich, hallucinogenic prose. Sax is Jack Kerouac’s most enigmatic novel. Written in Mexico in 1952 but not published until 1959, Dr.
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