Word: thoreaus
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Hobohemian Thoreaus. The Subterraneans celebrates that "systematic derangement of the senses" from which Rimbaud concocted his visions of hell. The difference is that Jack Kerouac, ex-merchant seaman, ex-railroad brakeman, is not Rimbaud but a kind of latrine laureate of Hobohemia. The story line of The Subterraneans is simple and stark: it concerns a short, manic-depressive love affair between a "big paranoic bum" and occasional writer named Leo Percepied and a near-insane Negro girl named Mardou Fox. Says Kerouac: "I wrote this book in three full-moon nights," and it reads that way. The details...
...Budding Thoreaus would bloom in Peterborough. In the clear mountain air, the astronomy department would flourish. In secret mountain lairs, organic chemists could make fortunes. And most important of all, the Administration would no longer have to worry about bringing God all the way to Harvard, for Harvard would be bringing itself part...