Beating Time: Configurations of Temporality in Jack

Transcription

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Time:
ofTemporality
Configurations
Beating
inJack
Kerouac's
OntheRoad
Erik R. Mortenson
States
II, the United
was
for a
Corporation
looking
new product
it in the
line. It found
Timex watch.
In amarket
traditionaUy dom
After
War
World
Time
Mortenson
on his Ph.D.
University
is currently
atWayne
in Detroit.
revo
inated by the Swiss, this U.S. company
the field through a twin combina
lutionized
tion of industrial mechanization
and market
notes
in
in
Revolution
ing. As David S. Landes
States Time
Time, "United
in every
amiUion
not
available
retail
or
but
prestige
could
people
or three or more"
success
becoming
ny's name
monolithic
to which
post-war
time-conscious.
This
alone
conjures
of
proportions,
that aUAmericans
a
booming
tion
that
cheap
of
quarter
...
seUing
. . .
time
but
two
States
(1983, 339). United
it demon
is teUing because
strates the degree
was
a
one watch
afford not
Time's
...
of sale at the peak
points
elegance
sold these watches
outlet
post-war
could
indeed
everything
"ran
compa
of
up
images
a standard time
set their lives by. In
economy,
to time was
America
such
necessary
smoothly."
an
atten
to ensure
After
aU,
This content downloaded from 128.122.149.145 on Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:21:53 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
working
State
52
28.3 (Fall2001)
CollegeLiterature
dictum stiU rang true: Time
ismoney. But not everyone
on every American
arm
the idea of a wristwatch
Franklin's
Benjamin
welcomed
1957 novel On the Road was one
Jack Kerouac's
Kerouac's
novel has long been considered
subversive
such voice
of dissent.
in its questioning
of
was
it
its
both
economy.
post-war
booming
Upon
pubUcation
lauded as an "authentic work of art" by GUbert MiUstein
(Nicosia 1983, 556)
of "everything
that is bad and
and derided by one critic as the quintessence
America's
about this otherwise wonderful
age we live in" (TyteU 1976, 159).
of mar
The novel was attacked for both its innovative
style and its depiction
one
to
Time
reviewer
Kerouac
label
the
characters,
causing
"Hippie
ginalized
Homer" writing
about a "disjointed
segment of society acting out its own
horrible
few
1973, 290). Yet for aU this controversy,
(Charters
necessity"
on
one
remarked
the novel's questioning
of
of the most fundamental
(if often
use
time.
On
the
Road
of
of
any
overlooked)
society?its
underpinnings
neurotic
notions of time that companies
like United
wages an attack on constraining
so eager to exploit. Repeatedly
States Time were
the
questioning
accepted
instead probes
concept of temporality defined by the clock, Kerouac's work
for away
address
notion of time in an attempt to
through this constricting
of
existential
problems
larger
temporaUty.
of time
basic sense, On theRoad is an attack on the corruption
to break
the even
In itsmost
In his essay "Reification
and the Consciousness
of the
by capitalism.
an
Proletariat," Georg Lukacs explores capitaUsm's influence
through
analy
sis of the notion of reification first established by Karl Marx. The central tenet
Lukacs
his
from Marx
derives
own
labour
becomes
is that through
something
him by virtue
reification
"a man's
own
activity,
of him,
independent
alien to man" (1968,
consciousness
subjugating
and
objective
of an autonomy
that controls
something
itself gains ascendancy,
86-87). The commodity
itself as the basis of interaction between humans. And the key
and establishing
that aUows this process to occur is time. Through
element
rationalization,
time
becomes
of temporal
for work
necessary
rationaUzation
objectively
established
cision
more
and
more
precise,
on the worker.
demands
to be
aUowing
Lukacs
accompUshed
...
for
explains
is converted,
an
ever-constricting
that "the period
as mechanization
set
of time
and
are intensified, from a merely
empirical average figure to an
as a fixed and
that confronts
the worker
calculable work-stint
reality" (88). The
that aUows demands
specificity
on time
of "clock
to become
time" creates a greater pre
precise. This
increasingly
is accompanied
of time into space.
by the conversion
quantification
on
"time
its qualitative,
Lukacs
concludes
that
sheds
Marx,
Again drawing
an
con
it
into
freezes
variable, flowing nature;
exactly delimited, quantifiable
...
in short, it becomes
tinuum filled with quantifiable
space" (90).
'things'
work was once an individual craft tied to the organic notion of length
Where
of time
ErikR.Mortenson 53
as
has now rendered production
of day or season, capitalist mechanization
a
a
and
in
time.1
have
for
The
farmer
fixed
carpenter
place
designated
being
forced to repro
stuck in front of amachine,
given way to the factory worker,
the same motions
duce
for the length of his shift.
to see how Kerouac's novel On
It is not difficult
superficial level, a reaction
characters
hold
at work,
while
unconstrained
the Lukacsian
is, on itsmost
of reification. Few
theRoad
notion
against
a job, and those who do usually work only temporarily. Even
Sal and Dean often show up late or skip out at various times,
of mecha
by schedule or routine. Set against the repetition
of idiosyncratic
actions and
rationalization, we have an overabundance
behaviors. Very few actions in this novel are ever repeated exactly. Kerouac
seldom gives the precise dates and times of his travels, referring only to
insistence on "clock time" is
of the year or seasons. Thus reification's
months
nistic
in favor of spontaneity. Space in On theRoad remains equally neb
jettisoned
ulous. The title itself hints at this; the book ismore
concerned with move
ment
than with fixed location. In fact, the reader is often surprised by this
to
need
avoid
in
staying
one
place,
as
cross-country
are
trips
undertaken
in another city or to stop by for "a few days." Many
merely
events in the novel, for instance, take place in the
of the most
important
from one location to another. If reification con
while
spaces between,
moving
on the
into
insistence
fluid
rigid spatiality, Kerouac's
geals
temporality
to see someone
motion
of travel sunders
tion of the "fellahin"
this bond
is likewise
Theory of Practice, Pierre Bourdieu
dar" time with
the North African
by replacing stasis with flux. Sal's venera
a critique of reification.2
In Outline
of a
contrasts Western
notions of linear "calen
idea of "practical time, which
is
Kabyle
own
islands
of
each
its
of
incommensurable
with
duration,
up
rhythm,
on what one is doing" {1911, 105).
the time that flies by or drags, depending
not on
The Kabyle concept of time is personal and idiosyncratic, depending
made
an "objective"
one happens to be and what one hap
standard but on where
to
in a more
the
Road
confronts
reification
Yet
On
be
pens
doing.
specific
of
Dean
the
character
manner,
Moriarty.
through
is an example of, rather than an
At first glance it seems as though Dean
reification. Early in the novel, Sal travels to Denver
attack against, Lukacsian
to see his friends, and asks Carlo Marx "What's the schedule?" explaining
that
in Dean's
life" (Kerouac 1976, 42). Sal then
"There was always a schedule
treats the reader to an
it to Dean's
makes
apartment, where Dean promptly
example of his schedule-making.
in turn replies:
"But what
"It
is now"
exactly
Explaining
to Camille
that he must
go, she
time will you be back?"
(looking
three-fourteen,
at his watch)
one-fourteen.
"exactly
for our hour
of reverie
together.
I shall
...
So
be
now
back
at
in this
54 College
Literature
28.3(Fall
2001)
exact
side
Imust
minute
life,
streets
dress,
and what
put
not
on my
to
go back
pants,
it is now
one-fifteen
...
that
life,
and
time's
is to out
running,
running"?
all right,
"Well,
"Just
as I said,
Dean,
darling,
but
and
please
be
remember
sure
not
and
be
three
at three."
back
but
three-fourteen."
(Kerouac 1976, 43-44)
his
striking in this passage is the detafl in which Dean plans out
routine
is fluid by comparison,
of Dean's
Carlo's explanation
to the half-hour. Dean himself, however,
carries his
off (at most)
is most
What
actions.
rounding
calculations
not simply three
to the exact minute,
insisting on three-fourteen,
p.m. Such detafled division of time seems consistent with Lukacs's notion of
an
ever-increasing
rationaUzation
of
time.
In fact,
Dean's
account
seems
over
since not even capitaUsm runs with such minute-by-minute
effi
rationalized,
as
Even
time
is
he
is
of
exiting the
ciency Dean's conception
hyper-realized.
he realizes that "it is now one-fifteen
and time's running, running?."
to the next step, he is caUing
course, by taking capitalist rationalization
to which
to the degree
Yet
"clock time" has gained currency3
attention
so
not
to
in
mech
resides
much
the
reification
Dean's antagonism
increasing
door
Of
of time, but rather in how that time is employed.
have to be a limiting phe
does not necessarily
a
calendar. It is only when
rudimentary
employ
of production which
is coupled with a capitaUstic mode
such rationalization
time and space that the mechanization
of temporality
becomes
conflates
man
on
Marx's
during an
critique of the idea that "one
pejorative. Drawing
anization
By itself, rationalization
even the Kabyle
nomenon;
as another man during an hour," Lukacs con
just as much
into abstract,
time is transformed
where
that "In this environment
...
must
of
likewise be
the
labour
physical space
subjects
exactly measurable,
a
For
time
becomes
Lukacs,
space to be
(1968,89-90).
rationaUy fragmented"
workers who now form just another
inhabited by equaUy interchangeable
hour
is worth
cludes
It is this "machine"
in the workings
that then takes
of the "machine."
own
to
set
its
of
laws
and
rules.
The
workers
over, subjecting
Kabyle might
operate under a temporal grid, but their temporal paradigm is fluid and open
factor
to individual
1977, 106). Dean's
(Bourdieu
interpretation
temporal rational
of pro
also avoids such pitfaUs since it is not tied to a capitalist mode
time in order to constrict
duction. While
the reification process has perverted
the worker, Dean uses time to serve his own ends. Thus
space and dominate
ization
is able to retain the agency that is denied the worker;
the spaces he wiU
be his own. Time may stiU be subsumed by space, but it is a space
to his own wishes. Time does not
is free to configure
that Dean
according
time.
Dean?he
employs
employ
Dean
inhabit wiU
ErikR.Mortenson 55
space Dean creates is inhabited by a variety of pursuits that likewise
notion
of reification
and the capitalistic
the constricting
system
challenge
it. Dean's
actions are indeed "rationally fragmented,"
but this
that utilizes
The
is figured in an economy
of ecstasy, not of oppression. Finding
fragmentation
a girl for Sal, making
auto races, having sex with
plans to go to the midget
various women,
and getting drunk with his friends are all activities that focus
on the fulfillment of desire rather than materialist
In fact, this fre
production.
he claims that
activity has left Dean broke. For all of his "production,"
in weeks"
"I haven't had time to work
it would
While
(Kerouac 1976, 45).
as
a
to treat Dean
Marxist
be wrong
rebel, he is able to avoid the pro
simply
netic
which
the worker.
commodities,
ultimately
destroys
time
its
nature"
it,
"variable, flowing
(Lukacs
regains
that is denied it by reification, and the space filled for Lukacs with
duction
of
names
Dean
fied, mechanically
objectified
performance
of the worker"
Because
1968, 90)
"the rei
(90) is replaced by
experience.
personal
notion
of time as rigid space, Dean's
space is
one
to
from
is
Dean's
another,
extremely
place
temporality
not
stasis.While
Dean may rational
inextricably bound up with movement,
ize time, the uses to which
he puts it often involve activity and change. If
And
against Lukacs's
fluid. Running
is correct in declaring
that "those who
command
space can
Harvey
the
of
itiner
control
then
Dean's
restless
always
politics
place" (1990, 234),
a
con
to
notions
threat
established
of
ary poses
capitalistic power. Through
is able to avoid remaining
in a fixed place that would
Dean
tinual motion,
David
to control. As Harvey notes, "The rigid discipline
of
susceptible
of
and
other
forms
of
schedules,
spa
tightly organized property rights
tial determination,
resistances on the part of individuals
generate widespread
who
seek to put themselves
outside
these hegemonic
constraints"
(238).
Dean's
of Beat attempts to escape a
rejection of fixed place is emblematic
render him
time
intertwined with temporal constraint. Rejecting
spatial control that becomes
of time" that Harvey
the "spatialization
associates with "Being," Dean
opts
that seeks "the annihilation
of space by time" (273).
instead for a "Becoming"
Thus Dean's need to constantly "go," to perform "our one and noble func
tion of the time, move'' (Kerouac 1976, 133) as Sal says, needs to be under
stood as a desire for both spatial and temporal movement
and flux.4
notions of time that Dean's
tacit rejec
This questioning
of conventional
tion of reification
involves
based
in the moment.
Dean's
completely
of time
to inhabit
allows him
On
is shifted
theRoad
a different
temporality,
ample evidence
one
that
provides
from
and
future
and
towards
away
past
at the doorstep
in
of Sal's relatives
conception
an ever-changing
present. Arriving
Sal describes an altered Dean:
Virginia,
56 College
28.3(Fall
Literature
2001)
now
"cause
town
Testament,
180
of
is the
become
thing
and we
time
in every
looking
around
degrees
his
time!"
...
and
seeing
direction
without
eyeballs
time.
he
1976,
(Kerouac
he
roared
into
to be
seemed
down
in an arc
everything
his head.
moving
in his movements;
mad
absolutely
at the same
all know
. . .He
doing
had
every
114)
is freneticaUy
living in the moment,
of
the "now." To "know
horizon
unfolding
Dean
the ever
trying to stay within
time" is to engage it both pas
that life must be lived in the pres
sively and actively. Dean accepts the belief
as
ent and practices
with
this knowledge
by filling each of these moments
at the same time." For
much activity as possible, attempting "to do everything
this idea of life in the present is concomitant
with
the idea that there
Dean,
is an underlying
order that makes worry
"We
Sal that
passed a little kid who was
later explains to
at the cars in the
a stone through a man's
Dean
superfluous.
stones
throwing
of it,' said Dean.
'One day he'll put
and the man wiU crash and die. ... I am positive beyond doubt
windshield
in this pas
that everything wiU be taken care of for us" (120). The difficulty
care
in
if
lies
idea
that
wiU
the
be
taken
of, then
sage
reconciling
everything
road.
'Think
about
him?
But
the man with
what
a rock through his windshield? Who
took care of
does not say everything wiU turn out safely.
that Dean
that "everything wiU be taken care of." And every moment
notice
Instead, he claims
is based
takes care of itself; it occurs. Dean's faith in the moment
necessarily
on a knowledge
that past and future are not separate frames of reference, but
are not separate times, but one
are instead part of the present itself. There
time,
and
that
Maurice
time
is "now."
Merleau-Ponty
Phenomenology
What
is, is not
there
in being,
has offered
and
not
even
a present,
a present
then
is only
nothing
present
Ponty
one
single
time
another
of temporaUty.
which
which
present
its vistas
with
in which
those
present
by another
same
to effect
is needed
spectator
there
a similar account
In
of Perception, he writes:
vistas
are
the
synthesis
of past
disrupted,
of
is self-confirmatory,
takes
and
so
future
that
one
its place
followed
and
perspectives:
can
which
bring
into existence unless it has already laid that thing's foundations
and
eventual
past,
and which
establishes
itself
the
successive
at a stroke.
as
(Merleau
1962, 421)
and to remain fixed on a past
time is a sort of continuum,
is to betray the "plenitude of being in itself" (1962, 421).Thus
for
a
or
to
Dean
fret about
rock through his windshield,
any other calamity
which might befaU him, is absurd. Itmay occur, but when
and if it does, it is
occur
as
must
it
it
that
and
does
becomes
so,
part of
necessarily
something
For Merleau-Ponty
and future
the present. Of course, such an idea sounds disturbingly
close to the notion
moment
in
in
the
But
that life
of fate.
Dean's belief
need not mean
living life
ErikR.Mortenson 57
the moment;
his
still retains personal agency within
is that his actions will
inevitably be the right ones for that particular
is predetermined.
faith
Dean
idea that Dean
and
espouses, then, is to accept this moment,
present. The
or
to
it with
about
rather than fighting
the
fears
for
the
future,
past
regrets
which
both
revel in it as a type of momentary
encompasses
past,
infinity
present,
and
What
future.
Dean
wishes
to avoid
in his abandonment
refers to as "inauthentic"
ent iswhat
to the continual
time. In his work
pres
Being and
Heidegger
that "The inauthentic
of everyday
Time, Heidegger
explains
temporality
as it falls, must, as such a looking-away
from finitude, fail to recognize
Dasein
in general" (1962,477).
In order
authentic futurity and therewith temporality
to avoid facing the knowledge
of her/his own death, a person will look away
from this "finitude," and instead dwell in an "inauthentic
temporality" which
Ermarth
time as infinite. As Elizabeth Deeds
claims in Sequel to
mistakes
time is to exist as nobody
and
('inauthentic')
History, "To exist in historical
thence, Heidegger's
logic goes, to act like an immortal or at least like some
one able to pretend
is not absolute and that it can be
that one's finitude
(1992, 35). People often attempt to avoid con
by various means"
some
of
existence by positing
final
end
their
the
that they will
templating
or amassing wealth.
how "live on" through fame, philanthropic
contributions,
is the real basis
Such attempts, however, distract one from the present, which
mediated
time in two comple
to
in the moment.
live
attempt
By
he locates himself within
the Heideggerian
notion of
for life. Dean
mentary
avoids Heidegger's
most obvious
ways.The
idea of "inauthentic"
isDean's
residing in the present,
that life will end, he seeks to make
time. Realizing
"authentic"
the most of
it by maximizing
of every moment.
his understanding
Second, his "Beat"
lifestyle disavows fame, fortune, and other attempts at personal aggrandize
ment
that are the "means" to supposedly
transcend finite human life. This is
the secret of Dean's
"Beatness." He
realizes
that the material
and social glo
life. Focusing
are nothing
to viewing
but obstructions
the world
on
the
Dean
avoids
the trap of seeing the
moment,
unfolding
exclusively
as
it
but
what
is?the
final
and
ultimate
present
really
anything
reality.
On theRoad is not content to provide Dean as the only example of how
ries of
life in the present is lived. Kerouac's novel works through contrast aswell. On
to New York, Sal and Dean
their way from San Francisco
end up in a car
it is immedi
with a man headed for Kansas and a tourist couple. Although
to the "Beat"
ately clear that these passengers are the "square" counterparts
on
to
Dean
goes
protagonists,
explain the separate notions of time that dis
the
groups:
tinguish
"Now
miles,
you
they're
just
dig
thinking
them
in front.
about
where
They
to
have
sleep
worries,
tonight,
they're
how
much
counting
the
money
for
58
28.3 (Fall2001)
CollegeLiterature
how
the weather,
gas,
you
anyway,
and
false
see. But
otherwise,
unless
peace
they
they'U
they
there?and
get
to worry
need
anxious
purely
can
on
latch
all
and
the
betray
their
and whiny,
an estabUshed
to
time
they'll
with
time
souls
get
be
really won't
and
proven
there
urgencies
at
worry."
(Kerouac 1976,208)
to plan and fret about past and future,
to be free
they do not aUow themselves
wiU
is
time
time
that
take care
of
knowledge
to break up duration,
"betray time" because
In attempting
the passengers
Dean's
in the present moment.
on. This fact leaves
must continue
of itself, it has to, because each moment
own horizon.Thus
to
its
is
Uve
in
that
the
continual
Dean free
present
always
that characterizes Dean
and On the
the insistence on action and movement
in order to stay in sync with
in general: you need to continuaUy move
on
to
its
live
time,
unfolding
edge. The passengers, by
perpetuaUy
always
to
in the present implies.
in
what
Ufe
worries
order
avoid
need
comparison,
"authen
they are able to leave Heidegger's
By focusing on future problems,
into infinity. A worry
about the future implies that there
tic" time and move
Road
be a future for that worry
the knowledge
"at peace" with
anxiety is positive since it helps
ing of its Being, one that is based
wiU
Dasein
back upon
that it wiU
about?its
authentic potentiality
a
are evidencing
Yet
these
passengers
(1962, 232).
is
that
"He
who
of the "they." Heidegger
explains
in terms of those very closest events and be
himself
that which
for-Being-in-the-world"
different
anxiety?that
irresolute understands
in, and thus their soul can be
exist tomorrow. For Heidegger,
to an authentic understand
to bring Dasein
on the finality of existence. Anxiety
"throws
to materialize
it is anxious
and which
thrust
in such a making-present
he encounters
faUings which
in
the
themselves upon him in varying ways. Busily
object of
losing himself
about such things as
he loses his time in it too" (463). Fretting
concern,
one fact
"money," "gas," and "weather," the passengers blind themselves to the
an
to
authentic
existence?death.
live
which
could aUow them
temporal
WhUe
such a denial
the present
ment
to
is costly since it is bought with anxiety
is even more fearful, as it implies uncertainty
and unhappiness,
and an abandon
time.
too is implicated
in an "inau
that Dean
be argued, however,
thentic" losing of himself in worldly
objects. But whUe the passengers already
in an over-identification
with worldly
aUuded to lose themselves
concerns,
seeks to escape his ties
Dean might be said to do precisely the opposite?he
It could
contrasts what he terms the "moment
around him. Heidegger
is a phe
of vision
that "The moment
the "now," claiming
of vision" with
nomenon which
inprinciple can not be clarified in terms of the 'now!... In the
can occur; but as an authentic Present or wait
moment
of vision' nothing
to the situation
ing-towards,
the moment
of vision
permits
us to encounterfor
thefirst
timewhat
ErikR.Mortenson 59
or present-at-hand"
'in a time' as ready-to-hand
(1962, 387-88). To
in a world
is to exist "inauthentically"
dictated by the
can be
in the "now"
exist
The
"they."
"moment
of
vision,"
by
a more
involves
contrast,
exami
primal
of the world, one that does away with everyday notions
and assump
is indeed escaping. But what he escapes is not simply responsi
tions. Dean
of things. Rather
than seeing the world as
bility, but the ordinary conception
nation
see it, Dean
attempts to "encounter
in
the
present moment.
important
for the first
others
to what
But
time" what
is truly
extent
time? Although
has Sal escaped "inauthentic"
in
the
when
moment,
revelry
expounding
a different belief system emerges, one that focuses
seems to share Dean's
Sal
ecstatic
own
his
not
thoughts, quite
on the fleeting quality of life, but on death. Early on in the narrative, Sal feels
. . . this is
realizes that "Naturally
haunted, and ultimately
only death: death
will overtake us before heaven. The one thing that we yearn for in our liv
... is the remembrance
of some lost bliss that was probably experi
ing days
... in death"
and can only be reproduced
enced in the womb
(Kerouac 1976,
use worries
the passengers
and fears to leave the present, Sal
124). While
seems to look both backward and forward for release. Death becomes
equat
ed with
birth,
thus becomes
and life becomes
the proverbial
that both
circle. Transcendence
for a death
a desire
some
for Sal
"bliss" while
replicates
the person from time into heaven. Dean, however,
simultaneously
removing
to Dean, who
remains unconvinced.
Sal relates his feelings
"would have
us
never
to
it"
"we're
of
in
do
with
because
all
life
nothing
again" (124). In
Dean
viewpoint,
keeping with his Heideggerian
our final act, it makes
sense to enjoy the moments
a belief that Sal finally admits is correct.
he agrees with Dean's admonition
Although
realizes
that since death
of life that we
to live in the moment
forget death, Sal cannot escape his fixation. Later in the novel, alone
Francisco and hungry, Sal passes a fish-n-chips
joint and has a vision:
for just a moment
And
wanted
into
to
timeless
reach,
I had reached
was
which
...
shadows
and
is
are given,
and
in San
the point of ecstasy that I always
the
complete
the
sensation
step
across
of death
time
chronological
at my
kicking
heels
to
move
on, with a phantom dogging its own heels, and myself hurrying to a
all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of uncreat
where
plank
ed
emptiness
. . . innumerable
swarm of heaven.
Once
again Sal's notion
acceptance
Heideggerian
on death itself. Timelessness
conception
"angels"
is likewise
is, of course,
lotus-lands
falling
open
in the magic
moth
(Kerouac 1976,173)
of transcendence
of death
involves
death. But
rather than a
as ameans
is achieved
to live life, Sal remains focused
through death, not because of it.This
terms.The word
firmly rooted in specifically Christian
laden with religious implications, "mothswarm"
evokes
60 College
Literature
28.3(Fall
2001)
angels flying towards
Sal's final destination
images of winged
the tunnel, and
is always
in Being and Time, declaring
is to say, of Being-in-the
the question of eschatology
as the 'end' of Dasein?that
sidesteps
is defined
Heidegger
"If'death'
light at the end of
conceived
of as heaven.
the God-created
not imply any ontical decision whether
'after death' stiU
is
it would
however,
(1962, 292). OntologicaUy,
Being
possible"
that a belief in the afterlife abstracts the believer out of the world and
does
world?this
another
appear
into a timeless
infinity. Yet Sal's vision, despite its apparent "inauthenticity,"
time" and into
provides ameans of escape "across chronological
exam
terms "timeless shadows." Sal may attempt to follow Dean's
nevertheless
he
what
his Christian
ple, but ultimately
entiates him from Dean's belief
Dean
foUows
belief
in the transcendence
of death
differ
in the sanctity of the moment. Although
Sal
the novel, he never entirely abandons his own
throughout
Sal's failure to emulate Dean,
However,
they
conceptions.
despite
to escape oppressive
in their mutual
remain united
nevertheless
attempts
notions of time.
moral
on death
Sal's insistence
even more
starkly when
tion. Sal states:
For when
of
stare with
of Bali,
know.
comes
destruction
the Fellahin
the
where
once
returns
same
as an element
he describes
from
eyes
it all
to
the world
more
the
transcendence
on Mexico
of "history"
as so many
caves
and where
began
of
his thoughts
times
as well
of Mexico
Adam
and
before,
was
suckled
can be
seen
and civiliza
the Apocalypse
will
stiU
people
as from
and
the
taught
caves
to
(Kerouac 1976, 281)
notions
Sal seems to be caUingWestern
is bracketed by quotes, a styUstic move
of time to task in this passage. History
that it is suspect. Thus his
suggesting
to be important, and often excludes
such mar
to
wiU
be
notion, according
overturned,
Sal,
ginalized places
and real history, rooted in its "primitive," feUahin beginnings,
shaU return.
in a
notions
the erasure of Western
of time is stiU figured
Interestingly,
tory iswhat
theWest
deems
asMexico.
Christian
Adam,
This
since timeless origins are connected with
the suckling of
economy,
an obviously
even
more
Yet
is that this
Biblical
figure.
disturbing
an
"inauthentic"
that seeks to make
from
easy sense of
history
escape
humankind's
term is Christian
and thus
past is rendered as "Apocalypse."This
in keeping with Sal's reliance on BibUcal concepts, but the idea that we wiU
end up staring out of caves is highly disastrous. Once
again we see transcen
dence
rendered
exists
a tension
as death
between
and destruction.
Dean
On the Road there
Throughout
and Sal's conceptions
of timelessness. Dean's
a belief that Ufe should be lived to the fuUest in
is a Ufe-affirming
philosophy,
Sal seems to desire
every moment. Though
ly entrenched
in Christian
ideals
this idea, his notions remain firm
in
transcendence
that display temporal
ErikR.Mortenson 61
terms of annihilation. Where
Dean
infinity in the beyond.
is not
Yet Mexico
to critique
references
Mexico
writes
sees an infinity
always configured
of time in the United
notions
as death
in the moment,
and doom.
Sal sees
In an attempt
numerous
the novel makes
States,
less constricting
The
temporal order of Mexico.
capital,
a
as
or
is
without
end.
Sal
described
City,
place
physical
temporal
ate beautiful
in a frenzy and a dream. We
"We wandered
steaks for
to the
cents in strange tiled Mexican
cafeterias with
of
generations
forty-eight
at
one
immense
marimba musicians
standing
marimba_Nothing
stopped;
.
the streets were alive all night.
.nothing ever ended" (Kerouac 1976, 302).
at a single "immense"
is limitless, from "generations"
temporality
a
to
is
It
is no accident that On
where
there
"all
marimba,
activity
city
night."
the Road takes a detour from its east-west
heads
travelings and eventually
Here
in obverse relation to an oppressive
is repeatedly portrayed
are
are
and time sheds its constraining
nicer,
Things
cheaper, cops
in
Dean's
feel. This point culminates,
for a
perhaps,
gift of his wristwatch
some
the
Dean
Indian
mountains,
spots
crystal. Traveling
through
girls sell
south. Mexico
America.
then "went fishing around in the battered
ing crystals by the road. Dean
same old tortured American
trunk in the back?the
trunk?and
pulled out
. . Then
.
a wristwatch.
Dean poked in the little girl's hand for 'the sweetest
and purest and smallest crystal she has personally picked from the mountain
298). The contrasts generated
by this passage are
trunk" situates the wristwatch,
itself laden with
a
in
context.
of
U.S.
Its
for
the native crys
time,
images
distinctly
exchange
tal thus signals a swap of constraining,
American
constructed,
temporality for
for me'"
(Kerouac 1976,
endless. The "American
the natural, formless production
of the Indian earth itself.5 The presentation
an
the idea that time construct
of
alternative temporal universe undermines
ed in the U.S.
is somehow
On
"natural" and singular.
as preferable
to
clearly sees Mexican
temporality
inMexico
the question as to what time itself means
remains.
the Road
Though
that of America,
If U.S. time is rejected, with what
can be found
in Robert
question
some
written
Admittedly
is nevertheless
work
is it being replaced? An answer to this
Levine s book A Geography
of Time.
this
years after On the Road's publication,
forty
a valuable asset in understanding
how time is perceived
terms of three factors,
inMexico.
in
Levine compared
countries
thirty-one
work
and
the
accuracy of public clocks, in order to
walking
speed,
speed,
determine where
the pace of life was fastest. Mexico
ranked last (1997,136).
to Levine, "Slowness
is so ingrained inMexican
culture that peo
According
the
clock
invite
who
abide
insult"
Rather
than
time
(138).
by
ple
controlling
to
with
clocks and established
Mexico
instead
tries
mesh
with
schedules,
time.Where
the U.S.
has accepted
a Lukacsian
rationalization
of temporali
62 College
Literature
28.3(Fall
2001)
a psychologist
who
of time. Quoting
opts for organic notions
we are
to San Diego,
"In Mexico,
Levine writes
from Tijuana
Uve with the time" (190). Of
time. We
the time. We
don't control
even
Sal had experience with this concept
before his trip toMexico.
ty,Mexico
commutes
inside
course
In CaUfornia
with
"'Manana,'
It was
manana.'
Sal has an affair with
she
always
said.
'Everything'U
... a
manana
aMexican
Terry,
be
lovely
aU right
word
girl who
and
one
that
soothes
. Sure,
tomorrow.'..
probably
him
baby,
means
is
the English word "tomorrow"
(Kerouac 1976, 94). Interestingly,
translated as "manana',' but the dictionary
translates "manana" as both "tomor
row" and "in the near future" (CastiUo and Bond
the
1987, 161). WhUe
an
as
can
to
it
refer
"tomorrow"
future,
appears
though
English
unspecified
heaven"
than desig
the Spanish "manana" contains more
temporal ambiguity. Rather
a
use
word
"manana"
for
fixed
the
of
the
aUows
time,
pos
nating
open-ended
in
the
is
it
"means
which
Sal
thinks
heaven."
future,
sibiUty
precisely why
is less rigid and fixed than in America.
to
reach a separate temporal order situated apart from con
attempt
occurs
"clock time" through an appeal to a marginaUzed
community
inMexico
Time
The
fining
in American
jazz clubs as weU. In San Francisco,
on Folsom Street," where
in "the Uttle Harlem
Sal and Dean
"colored
men
spent a night
in Saturday
it up in front_A
six-foot skinny Negro woman
night suits were whooping
was roUing her bones," and "Groups of colored guys stumbled in from the
in
street." (Kerouac 1976, 196-97). Jazz scenes such as this occur frequently
On theRoad, and are always depicted as events charged with frenzy and activ
to "Stay with
it!" (197)
the musicians
ity. Crowds flow in and out, exhorting
or "Blowblowblow!"
sweat
strain
and
while
musicians
themselves
the
(200)
to reach higher and higher levels of ecstasy. And these characters are almost
Levine
the anthropologist
Jules Henry,
Citing
always African-Americans.
sense
own
their
culture's
of
talks about how African-Americans
"distinguish
Like
time ... from the majority
standard of'white
time'"
(1997,10).
people's
time is structured
notions
of time in Mexico,
African-American
around
as
not
this
the sociologist John Horton
the clock. But
events,
notes, whUe
is tight, "time is 'alive' whenever
and wher
money
on
accelerates
and
[it]
exponentiaUy
Friday
Saturday
is a coping mechanism.
Jazz scenes such as this
dichotomy
slow tempo exists when
ever there is 'action'...
nights" (11).This
Sal
show the "hot" side to the staid, "cool," beat character on the street.What
a
is
different
and Dean find in the African-American
community
temporal
resources are not available
order, one that maximizes
joy by slowing when
and expanding when
they are.
Yet
sphere
this shift in temporal
of African-Americans,
but
is not
the social
only bound up with
as weU. The day
the music
exists within
order
ErikR.Mortenson 63
after this scene takes place, Dean attempts to explain
inaugurates. He says:
porality that jazz music
a guy
"Here's
on
everybody's
. . All
.
mind.
everybody's
chorus
ing
and
he
gets
looks
the
with
to him
right? Up
a sudden
somewhere
there,
of
it?everybody
space
empty
tune
of
the moment
up
and
of
our
substance
bridges and come back to itwith
the
that
to Sal the different
knows...
to put
in
. .. He
what's
the middle
.Time
lives.
down
has
of
stops. He's
to blow
everybody
it's not
the
tune
that
the
fill
across
such infinite feeling soul-exploratory
knows
tem
for
counts
but IT." (Kerouac 1976, 206)
points in particular bear comment. The first, and most
important, is that
"Time stops." At first glance, this seems at odds with
the notion
that Dean
Two
time by living perfectly within
mean
that Dean would
that
would
stops,
within
the
There
is, however,
stay
present.
each
transcends
have
successive moment.
to become
If time
static in order
to
another way of viewing
this state
mean
ment. The phrase "Time stops" could
that the authoritative,
oppressive
"clock time" iswhat stops. In The Culture of Spontaneity, Belgrad discusses the
of our internal, subjective
it as "the coordination
of mitwelt, defining
to Belgrad,
with
external
"Clock
(1998, 191). According
reality
processes"
state of mitwelt,
status
time is the psychological
reified and given objective
.
sense
in the culture. . . Rhythm,
the
of
time
mitwelt
contrast,
preserves
by
as relational
and intersubjective"
the
dominant
(191-92). Jazz challenges
notion
notion
of
time,
instead
creating
its own
internal
temporality. As Belgrad
allows the listener "to think of
rather than as an immutable outside force"
such music
notes, quoting George
Lipsitz,
time as a flexible human creation
time stops, but a new temporality, governed
(192). Clock
by the jazz musi
the substance
cian, continues on, allowing him to "fill the empty space with
of our lives." It is also worth noting that this tune is finite. As Dean explains,
a sound which
is looking for the "tune of the moment,"
is infi
the musician
nitely
which
variable
it must
but
limited
be meshed.
by the audience
The "IT" Dean
and the particular present into
to, then, is that temporal
time that always waits
in the back
refers
space chiseled out of capitalism's reified
ground for the tune to end. But as Ermarth
mic
time for historical
time has
notes, "the substitution of rhyth
significant and threatening
consequences"
listeners access to that plenitude
of being in
(1992, 53). This finitude allows
tries to achieve, but at the cost of know
the present that Dean
continually
or
exists only for that duration. As
that
transcendence
any
ing
understanding
it
that
this
is
notes,
knowledge
things will not last that provides
Heidegger
such access
eventually
to the present. The
tune reminds
everyone
that everything
must
end.
not only provides access to the moment,
but access to
Jazz improvisation
a community within
aswell. The jazz musician,
the moment
though respon
64
28.3 (Fall2001)
CollegeLiterature
is by no means
sible for putting down "what's on everybody's mind,"
alone.
audience
is likewise involved in attaining the "IT" that is the ultimate
he gets "IT," then "everybody
looks up and
goal of the improvisation. When
knows; they listen" (Kerouac 1976, 206). As the tune continues, "everybody
The
that counts but IT" (206). "IT" is a connection
of the audience
the audience, and individual members
as
a
whole.6
Without
the
this
musician,
together
synthesis would
the audience,
but without
the musician would
be blowing
only
it's not
knows
the tune
the musician,
between
aU coming
occur,
for himself. As Belgrad
not
the structure of bebop "suggests an inter
observes,
one
in which
and the community
the individual
dynamic,
subjective
one another"
nature of the
the participatory
empower
(1998, 191). And
a
a connec
is
marked
social
and
racial
what
aUows
such
blindness,
genre,
by
to Belgrad, "There is no dichotomy
tion to occur. According
pitting the indi
.
is unity of purpose
enforced by a hierar
vidual against the group. . . Nor
is egalitarian and
chical authority
structure" (191). Jazz's altered temporality
to participate.
is welcome
Such
everyone
open to aU, a joint project where
a
an idea of community
is emblematic
of Kerouac's
novel as whole
and its
an
to
enact
view
readers
with
its
altered
of
attempt
change by providing
as
that
Beat
works
such
On
the
Road
observes
"entailed
temporaUty. Belgrad
to a larger social and historical
context"
(206).
linking personal experience
Like
the jazz musician,
work,
trying to catch
it's not
the
tune
ment
ries
IT."
but
invest
end, the written word lives on. Kerouac's
as the passengers
in the literary places him in the same sort of position
the tune wiU
But while
in
the words
counts
that
too is trying to catch the "IT" through his
and phrases that wiU let "everybody
know
Kerouac
the
car;
generate
he
needs
writing
a future,
Kerouac's
as
a
But
guarantee.
seek
writings
where
to preserve
the
passengers'
a
past.
Sal insists on the written
In
wor
contrast
as
ephemeral
to "inauthenticaUy"
extend his past experiences
into the future.7 It
is no surprise that Dean comes to Sal to learn "how to write"
(Kerouac 1976,
and needed
5), and that Sal then shambles after him, "because Iwas a writer
to Dean's
life in the moment,
record
a means
new experiences"
in the same way that he loses
(9). Sal loses himself in Dean
himself in his visions, and regains himself only when he returns home at the
end of his journeys in order to write.The
irony of Kerouac's work is that Sal's
can never be truly recorded, since describing
amem
ory is not the same as being present during it.A book is an ersatz substitute
for a lived life, just as a recording of a jazz set wiU never aUow the listener to
the audience
that was actuaUy there. Sal may critique the
fuUy connect with
adventures
Dean
with
in the beyond, but his need to
by time's ceaseless flow. By cre
is engaged in a historicizing
project that
idea of "history" and seek transcendence
record signals a fear of the chaos occasioned
ating his "Duluoz
Legend," Kerouac
ErikR.Mortenson 65
as a "zeal to master
as Julia Kristeva
have criticized
time"
(Ermarth 1992, 41).
On theRoad's attack on constraining
notions of temporality
is not with
out its problems. The novel's critique ultimately
remains inconsistent; Sal and
Dean's notions of transcendence
often differ radically from one another, and
critics
such
of time continually
alter throughout
the text.
conceptions
to
the
likewise retains a completely modernistic
approach
prob
text seldom
considered
lem of temporality. Though
innovative, Kerouac's
in away we have come to expect in his more exper
challenges
temporality
these characters'
On
theRoad
in general?through
and in postmodern
the narrative
works
as a
Dean
is
novel
the
end
of
the
the
hero
Moriarty
by
presented
his
and
his
once-transcendent
force,
energy
spent
oratory
questionable
that it is?or
turned into mumble:
"can't talk no more?do
you understand
imental novels
itself. And
these considerations
listen!"
(1976, 307). But
despite
in introducing
is still effective
its readers to new ways of
time. The first step involves exposing
it
clock time for what
be?But
might
Kerouac's work
thinking about
really is?a means
of controlling
the worker. Only
after this oppressive
sys
can
a
an
tem is abandoned
time
"authentic" way of experiencing
quest for
be undertaken.
Sal and Dean have certainly left the work-a-day
world behind
an
their continual
attempt to live time to the fullest becomes
to
in
notions
of
the
what
injunction
reader?question
accepted
temporality
ever way you can if you want to reach the infinity beyond
time.
and
them,
Notes
1 In his article "Time Cents: The Monetization
Richard
Biernacki
Perspective,"
not
simply mirror
cultural
assumptions"
of
reification
of
exigencies
the
(1994,81).
Despite
seem
an
acceptable
does
to
is forced
worker
the
that "the
claims
sell her/his
time
2
While
in Comparative
of theWorkday
commodification
labor
of
process"
capitalist
this important
time
labor
does
on
"depends
notion
the Lukacsian
but
caveat,
also
a system
for explaining
paradigm
to a
firm.
particular
where
the
the Oxford English Dictionary defines "fellahin" as "A peasant inArabic
speaking countries," in her book Off theRoad, Carolyn Cassady explains that for
Kerouac
term
this
"a Utopian
represents
without
existence
a timeless
hassles,
peace"
(1990,166).
3 Dean's
tion would
time
that
exactitude
for Kerouac's
memorize
enormous
see Dean
then
it must
4 In Grace
as
account
Beats
Dean
for
Karma:
allowed
also
be
every
a
From
a formula
of "camp."
Such
on
that is so "hung-up"
system
capitalist
minute
relates
as a form
viewed
mocking
Letters
Moriarty,
the names
task
could
of
Prison
that while
it.
Neal
Cassady,
in
and reigns of all the Popes. His
Cassady
to
continue
moving
the
real-life
San Quentin
he
inspiration
attempted
space effectively
across
time,
mentally
physically.
to
fixed, this
if not
66 College
Literature
28.3(Fall
2001)
5 In his
Michael
article
Out
"Man
connects
D'Orso
of Time:
and
Kerouac,
in
interest
this
the
Spengler,
"fellahin"
with
to D'Orso,
believed
of theWest. According
Spengler
no
moment
of past or future,"
each
"with
but
conception
... man
on them,
surroundings
imposed
thought
gradually
Decline
'Faustian
the
Oswald
The
man"
lived
aware
of his
that "primitive
"as he
became
...
touch
losing
Soul'"
Spengler's
the
with
rhythm of nature" (1983, 20).
6
Thus
box,
Kerouac's
and
records,
to
7
While
Kerouac
Sal
While
presence.
for
it is important
radio,
in order
formances
on
insistence
to
them
this sense
gain
over
has well
twenty
and Dean
the juke
club
jazz
per
of mitwelt.
truly
in print,
books
has
Cassady
It is not
two
and
attend
actually
to
listen
only
a
three:
of letters.
collections
then,
surprising,
autobiography
a
in
him
Kerouac's
secured
adventures,
writing
although
they shared many
place
name
in
American
while
the
of
relative
Cassady
obscurity.
history
languishes
half-finished
that
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Friedland and Deirdre Boden. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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Bourdieu,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Beating Time: Configurations of Temporality in Jack

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