I have always said that the greatest shock Kerouac ever got in his life was when he walked into my house, sat down in a kind of stiff-legged imitation of a lotus posture, and announced he was a Zen Buddhist ... and then discovered everyone in the room knew at least one Oriental language.
Kenneth Rexroth, 1971
2 comments:
Do you think it's egotistical of Rexworth to think he knows the greatest shock that Kerouac ever got in his life?
Yeah, well Rexroth was annoyed by all those Dharma Bums with bad manners and instant Zen. Still, it being 1971, he might have had the humility to say, "But then, Jack's dead and I'm not, which is a lucky thing for me, I suppose."
(Personally, I think it might have been a greater shock to Jack when he discovered that Allen Ginsberg really wanted to establish intimate acquaintance with his Willy.)
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