The Dharma Bums

This is an important book mostly because Kerouac was an “influenster”, back in the day, for the beatniks, who are basically proto-hippies. Ray, the protagonist (a thinly veiled JK) wanders around the United States as a hobo (or as he would put it a “bhikhu”, a mendicant monk) along with his best buddy, Japhy and several other hangers on. He is a buddhist, an alcoholic in denial, and a recognized poet who receives academic grants for his writing. He does a lot of hiking in California and beautifully describes some beautiful country, notably to me, as a backpacker starting in the 1970’s is that he is able to drink unfiltered water from streams. This an interesting read simply as a travel journal. There is a fair amount of “beat” poetry in the book which is OK I guess. My biggest take away from the book is that Ray and most of his follower beatniks who have rejected materialism and the “rat race” come from a position of privilege (and all the characters are ofc white) that (much like the Buddha) enables their rejection of uptight materialism for the simple life (but then again “white privilege” was not even a whiff of a notion probably until 20 years later, so it’s unfair to hold that against the book). I would have loved more background as to how Ray came to consider himself a Buddhist and some explanation of the Buddhist vocabulary he used and mythos he referred to; in real life, JK read The Buddhist Bible when he was in the merchant marine during WWII.

[Our protagonist , “Ray” is pretty much Jack Kerouac. He begins the novel getting on a train from L.A. to San Francisco and rides it as a hobo. Ray thinks of himself as a buddhist as a “bhikkhu” a mendicant monk, who aspires to be a bodhisattva. In Berkeley, he hangs out with his buddy Japhy and a few other poets partying with cheap red wine and having free love. I was seriously sceptical of this book during this section because our author really seemed to be flaunting just how exceptional he thought his anti-materialistic lifestyle was, when from my perspective he and his fellow travellers are privileged white men who come from at least middle class backgrounds and have talent, money and/or charisma. The wanna-be bhikkhu/poets never seem to worry about economic hardship and only at a few points is it mentioned that Japhy has (or had) jobs. The buddist monks much like the original Buddha have been born princes and it is only with this background of abundance do they renounce their worldly possessions.

He along with Japhy and another poet/professor from Berkeley drive out to near Mono Lake to climb Matterhorn Peak. The expedition is incompetent and bumbling in the extreme, such that I thought one of them could have been seriously sick or injured but its not that kind of a book. But its during this part of the book where there are beautiful descriptions of the hike and of the group’s poetic dont-give-a-fuck antics where I began to feel a commitment to completing the journey.

They return to Berkeley and hang out until Ray decides to hitchhike back to his home in North Carolina for the winter. In the spring he returns to Corte Madera to hang out with Japhy before Japhy leaves for Japan. In the spring, after Japhy leaves for Japan, Ray hitchhikes up to Seattle and then to Desolation Peak in the Cascade Mountains just south of Canada border. The story ends in August when Ray is called to leave his lookout hut at the end of fire season in the Cascades.

My main thought on this semi-memoir is that in mid-1950s America it was a wonderful time to be a college-educated, charismatic, white man. (Then again, when in the last 2000 years or so has it not been a great time to be a white man?) Another thing that struck me was that the water in the backcountry was safe to drink without filtering it. I would have loved more background as to how Ray came to consider himself a Buddhist and some explanation of the Buddhist vocabulary he used. From context it is implied that Japhy is Ray’s inspiration, when in real life Kerouac read The Buddhist Bible when he was in the merchant marine.

This is more of a fictionalized memoir of JK than a story. Set in the mid-1950s, it follows his travels over 18 months from LA to Berkeley and then from LA back to North Carolina to his family’s home, back to Berkeley and then, finally to Desolation Peak in upper Washington state. It also includes hikes to Matterhorn Peak and to Mount Tamalpais.]: #