RE: jack kerouac/terrible drafts
Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Tue, 29 Jun 1999 16:20:12 -0400 (EDT)
After having disgraced myself in the world's eyes (and, perhaps even more
importantly, in Scottie's eyes....) last week, by exhibiting nearly suicidal
tendencies towards alcoholism, only moments after mentioning my
self-confessed love of apparently low-brow literature like Armistead Maupin,
I'm now about to combine my two fatal flaws by jumping onto the Hunter S.
Thompson bandwagon.... I mean, if a guy is going to fall off the wagon, what
better wagon to fall off than the one Hunter has been falling off for years!
Hunter is the only journalist since 1960 that I'd instantly induct into the
Felt Fedora Hall of Fame for Hack/Seers.... (Previous inductees include S.
J. Perlman, H. L. Mencken, James Thurber and E. B. White.) (Jimmy Breslin's
case is currently up for consideration....)
But what's this?:
>
>when you finish reading something like "ask the dust" it really gets to you
>and can almost change your life, and when you finish "the sun also rises"
>it's just like "oh, ok...."
>
>
>
Papa's taken enough poop around here of late. So I'll ignore the second
part of the above passage..... But what, pray tell, is "Ask the Dust"? (I
can't pretend to have sought out--let alone read--everything that HST ever
wrote.... although my Ralph Steadman autograph in STILL LIFE WITH BOTTLE
ranks right up there beside Joe Carter's on an American League baseball in
my personal reliquary of important objects....)
I'd be willing to bet that Hunter is a Holden fan.... and that there's a
red-and-yellow copy of CATCHER, stashed not far from the dope, out there in
his Colorado homestead....
Where can I find "Ask the Dust"?
Please!
Cheers,
Paul
PS: Hunter, I'm almost certain, drinks Bourbon.... But I'll pass, just
now, and solicit Scottie's praise for my admirable abstinence....