"There is no language in a heap of stones."

For our response, we read an interview of Jack Kerouac conducted by Ted Berrigan. It can be found here: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4260/the-art-of-fiction-no-41-jack-kerouac

It’s difficult to conceive of Jack Kerouac, the author, without considering Jack Kerouac, the individual. So influential were his own experiences in his work that Kerouac lamented the interview process, asking why he must waste his breath answering hundreds of questions when he has spent his entire career “interviewing myself in my novels.” However, Kerouac is often viewed not as an individual writer, but as the representative, or spokesperson, for a group he named: the Beat Generation. Kerouac coined this phrase in 1948 in a conversation with his close friend and fellow Beat writer, John Clellon Holmes. The group also included influential writers Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, William S. Burroughs, and Gregory Curso. Though each of these men made significant contributions to American literature, they are often considered as a unit, rather than autonomously. In this way, the Beat Generation, particularly Jack Kerouac, represents a conflation of the individual writer and the author. Kerouac, as his interview with Ted Berrigan indicates, refuses to play the role of a writer who is somehow separate or removed from his work, instead attempting to get closer to actual lived experience and forms of thought through his prose.

The connection between Kerouac’s “spontaneous style” of prose and his erratic manner erratic manner of speaking cannot be ignored in his interview with Ted Berrigan. Kerouac resists the formal method of interview at all levels: he frequently interrupts the interview, suspends conversation to recite poetry for long portions of the tape, and speaks on subjects that have little or no connection to the question being asked of him. While some of these factors may be due to the fact that all participants in this interview are in various states of drunkenness and have consumed at least three kinds of pills during the course of the interview, it is clear by Kerouac’s responses that he is not interested in maintaining any kind of false pretense during the interview process. Kerouac’s frequent interruptions and tangents call attention to the Beat philosophy to which he adheres: the idea that one should attempt to get as close as possible to actual lived experience and though through speech and writing. Kerouac often corrects Berrigan, making additions or amendments to his questions and comments. This self-conscious need to correct Berrigan’s speech calls attention to the superficiality of the interview process and the inadequacy of language.

Despite the problems of language, which are likely compounded by the mixture of prescription drugs and alcohol consumed by all parties, readers can gain some insight regarding Kerouac’s take on his generation and his writing. The circumstances surrounding this interview and the atmosphere in which it takes place are interesting in and of themselves. First, Berrigan’s introduction notes that the Kerouac’s do not have a telephone, so the interviewing crew simply shows up on Kerouac’s doorstep one day when they feel it’s time to talk. Kerouac’s wife, Stella, answers the door and initially refuses to let the interviewers in, thinking they are simply another hoard of people looking for the author of On the Road. Berrigan brings two friends with him to the interview, poets Aram Saroyan and Duncan McNaughton. Thus, rather than a standard two-person, question-and-answer style interview, readers get a myriad of six different voices all conversing, drinking, and reciting poetry. This atypical style of interviewing speaks to both the perception of Kerouac as a writer and the connection between the author and the man. In fact, the confusion and spontaneity of Berrigan and Kerouac’s initial meeting calls to mind several scenes in on the Road, particularly the moment when Sal shows up with Dean and a hoard of friends at his Aunt’s: all are reluctantly ushered in, fed, and entertained, but always with the understanding that their welcome is conditional, and they may only stay so long.

In addition, the long and abstract responses Kerouac gives to Berrigan’s questions draw a parallel between the style of his prose and his manner of speaking. Throughout the interview process, Kerouac seems suspicious of Berrigan, refusing to be subjected to the authority of the interviewer over the interviewee. As mentioned before, Kerouac often answers circuitously, or turns the question on Berrigan, exploring the meaning and reasons behind asking such a thing, rather than answering directly. The vast majority of the interview focuses on the connection between Kerouac’s life and his work, seemingly drawing the conclusion the Beat literature is more a group effort, rather than a collection of works promulgated by individuals. For example, Berrigan discusses Kerouac’s role in the production of William S. Burrough’s Naked Lunch and spend a lot of time discussing Ginsberg’s influence in Kerouac’s work. In this way, the interviewer seems to suggest that there is no difference between the characters and style in Beat literature and the lives of the men who were considered Beat. This assumption is often made, so much so that scholars often hyphenate names, referring to Neal Cassidy as Moriarty-Cassidy. It would be interesting (though inconsequential) to consider how this assumption informed both Kerouac’s writing of these characters, and also, given the level of interaction these writer had with each other, how Kerouac’s interpretation of these men affected their actual relationships and actions.

Kerouac pays particular attention to the idea of what it means to be a great writer and how this status has both informed as affected his career as a writer. In the end, he says that “Notoriety and public confession in the literary form is a frazzler of the heart you were born with, believe me,” which is to suggest that publication, not writing, is what makes an author, and in the end, perverts the writer. Towards the end of the interview, Kerouac stops Berrigan, saying there is something important he needs to say before the tape ends. This vital piece Kerouac must includes a meditation on his name. He explains how etymology of his name means many different things, but that ultimately the name Kerouac means “There is no language in a heap of stones."
Whether Kerouac and the Beat writers were actually successful in their attempts to convey something authentic about experience and thought is open to interpretation. What the name or the man Kerouac actually represents is beyond the scope of this project. However, it is clear from his interview with Berrigan that Kerouac, at least the man, believed in the power of language to immortalized his heroes and to question our assumptions. In this way, Kerouac has left at some bit of himself immortalized in his prose, and while the influence of his writing may be something entirely separate from the man who wrote it, Kerouac can at least be credited with naming a discourse, if not fathering one.