BOOKS
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Cassady and hi s ca rs. as do th e rh ythm a nd fl ow o f Ginsberg's hi ghway
poems, whi ch a rc amon g hi s hes t: "The Green Automobil e"
(R ealit y
Sandwich es).
whi ch is a poem a bout Cassady, " Wi chita Vo rt ex Sutra"
(Planet News).
and the cross-country "vortex" poems in
Th e Fall of
America.
But th e op en road is onl y a hi gh hetween sta rtin g po int and
des tina ti on . and in fl ee in g from on eself on e n ever ge ts mo re than a few
mil es ahead . Cassad y's urgent acti vity was onl y to buy time awa y from
hi s confusion and con gC'llita l bad luck. Indeed, whil e Burroughs and
Lucien Carr could get away with , litera ll y, murder, Cassady would
eventua ll y get ca ught fo r possess ion a nd sa le o f ma rijua na, and wind
up do in g two yea rs a t San Quentin , from 19.'>8 to 1960. After hi s release
he was redu ced to do in g hi s routin e in ca ri ca ture, dri ving th e bus fo r
Ken Kesey and hi s Merry Pra nksters. hillin g the road as a comi c
imitati on o f himself. In 1967 h e drift ed down to Mexi co, wh ere h e di ed ,
in Februa ry 1968. ap pa rentl y from a fa ta l mixture o f a lcoho l and
barbiturates.
But Gin sberg and Cassady h ad a lread y begun to drift ap art a fter
their reuni on in 1%4. G in sberg met Peter Orlovsky, whil e Cassady
tri ed
10
a ttend to hi s famil y a nd hi s jo b as a ra il road bra keman fo r the
Southern Pacifi c. In th e mid -fifti es. Gin sberg was a lso di scoverin g hi s
own strength and directi on. con signing hi s torments to hi s poetry and
spiritua li zin g hi s emo ti on s. T h e movement o f the journa ls is away
from the lucid . person a l. a nd to rmented style o f the ea rl y letters toward
an elli p ti ca l an d m ys tagog ic style tha t is diffi cult to penetrate. Rela–
ti onshi ps fade an d a re repl aced by cas ua l impression s and dreams;
almos t ha lf the contents o f these journa ls are Ginsberg's tran scriptions
of hi s own dreams, th o ll gh witho ut the assoc ia ti on s tha t mi ght ma ke
them avai la bl e to th e average reader. Indeed, there is a refractory
qualit y to these jo urna ls. and the
In dian J ournals
are the mos t res istant
of them a ll. Despit e their ass iduo llS documenta ti on o f the inn er life,
th ey obscure person a l qu a liti es in a blil.l.a rd o f fragment ary n o ta ti ons.
T he di sturbin g aspect o f these jOllrna ls is th e a bsence of an y familia r
ground o f "sensibility" or susta in ed thought between pure no ta tion
and pure des ire, unl ess th e meta ph ys ics. whi ch is appli ed with such
assm ance. qua lifi es as th ought. Cin sberg's imagin a ti on shuttl es back
and forth between observa tion and lon g in g, while socia l rela ti on s and
social thinkin g a rc consign ed to th e background . Con sider , fo r exam–
pl e, how importa nt Peter Orlovsky ha s been in Cin sberg's life and yet
how stra nge ly lill\(' we \('llrn a bo ut him in a n y o f these journa ls. But
then the journ a ls ha ve littl e to say a ho ut a nyone with whom Gin sberg
