Made a pilgrimage to Wolfe’s home last year— now a big museum — 40 years since my first visit as an agog young man. When it was just the house. Surrounded by modernity. October wind blowing. Closed for the day and ghosts everywhere. Thanks for this.
Yes it has. In 1983 I was able to just walk around the old house and imagine the stories. Look Homeward Angel inspired Kerouac who inspired me to live more intensely, foolishly, freely. Lived in San Francisco then. Rode my motorcycle to Asheville and back. Trying to understand…something.
I don't know, Aaron, it's all so breathless. Lost, O Lost! A hell of a lot of America is joining things, building things, working together. Raising children, universities, founding things. Domestic, even boring, sometimes tranquil. Leisurely, sometimes. Consider golf courses, sporting events, musical events, an appreciation of nature . . . I agree with Whitman, and one could add others, Hunter S. Thompson for example, to the manic thread in American letters, though Americans have no monopoly on mania, either. Larry McMurtry wrote about this in Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen. So, while I would say this is clearly of America, I don't think it IS America, any more than say NYC.
As always, keep up the good work, and I look forward to reading more.
Made a pilgrimage to Wolfe’s home last year— now a big museum — 40 years since my first visit as an agog young man. When it was just the house. Surrounded by modernity. October wind blowing. Closed for the day and ghosts everywhere. Thanks for this.
Nice, Clark. Sure has changed up there hasn’t it
Yes it has. In 1983 I was able to just walk around the old house and imagine the stories. Look Homeward Angel inspired Kerouac who inspired me to live more intensely, foolishly, freely. Lived in San Francisco then. Rode my motorcycle to Asheville and back. Trying to understand…something.
Where they laugh at tyrants and go to the dance hall
Melancholic and exultant
I don't know, Aaron, it's all so breathless. Lost, O Lost! A hell of a lot of America is joining things, building things, working together. Raising children, universities, founding things. Domestic, even boring, sometimes tranquil. Leisurely, sometimes. Consider golf courses, sporting events, musical events, an appreciation of nature . . . I agree with Whitman, and one could add others, Hunter S. Thompson for example, to the manic thread in American letters, though Americans have no monopoly on mania, either. Larry McMurtry wrote about this in Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen. So, while I would say this is clearly of America, I don't think it IS America, any more than say NYC.
As always, keep up the good work, and I look forward to reading more.