From Local characters and Public figures
From the time I read On the Road in early 1962 until at least when I wrote “Warren and I on the Sidewalk…” in 1997 I was enthralled by the mythic Neal Cassady. What finally broke the spell, though it had been waning for years, was this passage in Bob Dylan’s 2004 Book Chronicles:
Within the first few months that I was in New York I’d lost my interest in the “hungry for kicks” hipster vision that Kerouac illustrates so well in his book On the Road. That book had been like a bible for me. Not anymore, though. I still loved the breathless dynamic bop poetry phrases that flowed from Jack’s pen, but now, that character Moriarty seemed out of place, purposeless — seemed like a character who inspired idiocy. He goes through life bumping and grinding with a bull on top of him.
As my wife commented when I showed her this passage that cutting loose from Neal is one of the last pieces of my long process of growing beyond the Puer Aeternus archetype.
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My Cassady encounters
Sharon McLaughlin freshman year 1962-3
Chloe’s party September 1965
Kesey’s place October 1965
Acid Test 12/18/65
Laurel house late 1965-early 1966
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