The Beat Handbook, Kerouations

Kerouactions

If you're new to The Beat Handbook, you're probably wondering about the word, "Kerouaction." Here's an excerpt from the book that helps explain the term.

I have dubbed the answer to "What would Kerouac do?" a "Kerouaction."I think that’s fairly clever, and while I would love to see the term in Webster’s some day, I know better than that and will take my satisfaction from the fact that I came up with it at all. It would be payback enough if one other human being on the planet ever used the term,[1] even if only to criticize me for inventing it. I hope I don’t take criticism to heart quite like Jack did, and I would dearly love to find out if fame could drive me madder than I already am. Each reading also includes a suggested “Kerouactivity.” That’s for readers who need someone to tell them what to do. It’s okay. We all look for that in one form or another (religion, government, experts, leaders, authors). If you don’t like a suggested Kerouactivity, make up your own but remember to go go go [pg. 15].

A Sample Entry from the Book (p. 73):

Day 28

Today’s Kerouaction: On Clothing

In Jack’s kindness to Eddie, a fellow hitchhiker, we get a hint at a piece of clothing one might choose in order to follow the beat path: wool plaid shirts. In other places Kerouac calls them “lumberjack shirts.” You know the kind: red, plaid, the kind Paul Bunyan probably wore. Many pictures of Jack confirm his love of the wool plaid shirt. Now it is possible that Kerouac would approve a wool “blend” or even cotton. We don’t know for sure. We do know that while cotton flannel shirts feel better on our skin, there is nothing like wool for durability and warmth. Get over the itchiness. Use it as a meditation. When you feel the itch, it can remind you to be fully aware in the present moment.

One also gets a hint at the kind of bag to use in carrying one’s possessions while on the road: canvas. The hell with all this newfangled ripstop breathable nylon earth-polluting resource-depleting synthetic crap!

Suggested Kerouactivity:

Get yourself a good old-fashioned canvas bag. Land’s End still makes them, don’t they? Or how about the Boy Scouts? Or how about visiting your nearest used clothing store[2] and scrounging around? That is almost always a worthwhile idea and you never know: you might find a wool plaid shirt to boot. And while you’re at it, drop off something you haven’t worn or used in a year.

[1] I mean use in a serious way in an authentic context. My sales rep from BookSurge, Kelly, told me on the phone that it was her new favorite word, but that doesn’t really count. No offense, Kelly.

[2] Or “vintage apparel” store, the euphemism for used clothes, according to George Carlin.

Stop by The Beat Handbook Store where you can find some
beat items to buy!