dbums 10

Dbums 10

p.224

“One thing about Japhy, though, wherever he’ll be all the resta his life, I don’t care how old he gets, he’ll always have a good time.”

This quote reassured me about how Japhy is living his life. He always has fun and that to me is what life is really about. He will never be a sad old man like many people, but will always enjoy life and live it till the fullest until the day he dies.

p. 239

“Oh gnashing teeth of earth, where would it all lead to but some sweet golden eternity, to prove that we’ve all been wrong, to prove that proving itself was nil…”

When I read this I felt like it was the final statement if the book. After all this working trying to live his life a certain ay realizes that it is probably all for nothing. There is no way of knowing what comes after life, so you should just live it how you want. I fell like this is the lesson of the book.

dbums 9

Dbums 9

Kerouac
p.202
“Life’s already shoved an iron foot down my mouth.”

Despite how happy Ray usually says that he is, here he says that he has had a bad life. This really surprised me, since he always seems so happy and carefree. It seems that he has not had that many bad things happen to him, and he has dealt with then easily.

Kerouac
p.210

“ ‘I know something good’s gonna come out of all this!’ ‘All what?’ ‘I dunno--- out of the way we fell about life.’”

In this quote, Japhy seems to doubt their way of life. He is trying to reassure himself that he has not been living like this for nothing. It is kind of like a midlife crisis. He is about to go to Japan, and is trying to reassure himself that this is the right way of life.

dbums 8

D bums 8

Kerouac p.196

“ ‘What are you doing?’
‘Oh, we just decided to take our clothes off.’”

I love how in this quote, when Ray asks Alvah and George what they are doing, they answer him so nonchalantly that they just took their clothes off. They speak of it as it were nothing, yet Ray is asking them seriously. This really shows how Ray has still not become totally comfortable with nudity. Ever since that first time with the orgy Japhy’s, Ray has felt a little uncomfortable around naked people, although he tries to hide it, and does quite well.


Kerouac p. 188

“One night I was mediating in such perfect stillness that two mosquitoes came and sat on each of my cheekbones and stayed there a long time without biting and then went away without biting.”

This quote really spoke to me about how far Ray has come. At the begging of the book he was lost, but now he is such a good Buddhist, the when he meditates, he is completely one with nature. He was able to meditate in such stillness that not only did the mosquitoes not notice him and bite him, but also they did not spook and fly away. Both of these actions of the mosquitoes really show how far Ray has come.

dbums7

Dbums 7

Kerouac. P. 170

“ ‘Aw maybe I'm getting tired of that. After I come back from the monastery in Japan I’ll probably have my fill of it anyhow. Maybe I’ll be rich and work and make a lot of money and live in a big house.’ But a minute later: ‘ and who wants to enslave himself to a lot of all that, though?’”

This is the first place where we have seen Japhy as weak, divided, and not completely sure that Buddhism is the only way to happiness. He even goes as far to say that he will make a lot of money. This is like blasphemy to Buddhists. He goes back to hating money though in just a few minutes. This unstable Japhy is one that we do not know.


Kerouac p. 157

“The silence is so intense that you can hear your own blood roar in your ears but louder than that by far is the mysterious roar which always identify with the roaring of the diamond of wisdom, the mysterious roar of silence itself, which is a great Shhhh reminding you of something you’ve seemed to have forgotten in the stress of your days since birth.”

This quote tells about how silence can be louder than actual noise. This noise can tell much more than actual noises. It is the sound of everything. Because it is the sound of nothing.

notes

• Continuous footpath from Mount Katadin, Maine to Springer Mountain, Georgia.
• 2160 miles long
• Traced back to 1921
• Passes through 14 states
• Shelters to rest at which are less than a days hike apart
• Trail towns used to accommodating AT hikers
• Hikers who hike the entire trail in one season are called thru-hikers
• People wwho take separate trips: Section hikers
• Takes 5 to 7 months
• Very few people actually make the whole trail
• “yellow blazers” hitch hike
• Part of AT subculture: People make colorful entreis in log books at trail shelters along with their own special trail name.

dbums 6

Dbums 6

Kerouac p. 123

“ ‘Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed and be free, than sleep in a comfortable unfree.’”

This quote shows why Ray lives his life the way he does. He sleeps in the cold, and never had comfortable bed. Most people would think this is stupid, but they are all unfree. They are all slaves to society. Ray has given up this comfort in order to live life free.


Kerouac p. 125

“Either side of the border, either way you slice the boloney, a homeless man was in hot water.”

This quote made me think a lot about homeless people. No matter what country you are in, homeless people are all the same. Unlike the well off people of different countries, who are all different and act different and spend their money on different things. All hobos live the same the same lifestyle and face the same problems.

dbums 5

Dbums 5

Kerouac p. 96

“Pain love or danger makes you real again, ain’t that right Ray like when you were on that ledge?”

This quote shows how Ray felt when he was on the mountain. It made him feel alive again. All the people down in suburbia who just sit around and watch TV all day get to really feel alive like Ray does. They do not experience real danger, since everything is “perfect” for them.


Kerouac p. 102

“I’ve got no use for the kulak with his barn and pasture . . . he just sets up a prison for himself, once in, he cant get out, think it over, it might happen to you.”

This quote of Han Shan’s poem is telling exactly how it is in life today. Al of the people in suburbia have built prisons for themselves. They have created a lifestyle that they cannot not escape from. Japhy and Ray on the other hand are more like Han Shan. They do not build prisons for themselves. They live freely, and go and do what they please. Although it would seem that a person with a house and car and family would be more happy, this is not so, since they are actually imprisoned in this life.

links to appalation trail hiker websites

http://www.fred.net/kathy/at.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Trail

http://www.aldha.org/

http://www.trailjournals.com/journals.cfm

http://www.trailstories.com/

dbums 4

Dbums 4

Kerouac p.77

“All he needs is his rucksack with all of those little plastic bags of dries food and a good pair of shoes and off he goes and enjoys the privileges of a millionaire in surroundings like this.”

This quote really tells how happy Japhy is with his life. He has almost nothing to his name, yet he is as happy and probably happier that people who have lots of money and don’t have to worry about anything. He doesn’t worry about anything, but he does it without having lots of money.


Kerouac p.84

“ ‘Now there’s the Karma of theses three men here: Japhy Rhyder gets to his triumph mountaintop and makes it, I almost make it and have to give up and huddle in a bloody cave, but the smartest of the them all is that poet’s poet lying down there with his knees crossed to the sky chewing on a flower dreaming by a gurgling plage, goddammit they’ll never get me up here again.’”

As Ray looks down from the mountain, he realizes that he has lost on this hike. Japhy has reached the top of the mountain, and gets the triumph of success. He has reached the goal that they went on this hike for. But Morely he realizes is the smartest. He stayed down below, and did not have to work hard for nothing, like Ray.

dbums 3

Dbums 3

Kerouac p.50

“The cheese was sharp Cheddar. But it didn’t satisfy me much and when we go out into country with no houses and anything I began to yearn for a good old hot breakfast…”

This quote puzzled me. Did Jack not travel around as a bum for many years? Was he not living off almost knighting, and riding around on trains? Why did he crave this hot breakfast if he believes that life was not about material things? I thought that he would be used to not having much to eat, and what little he had not being very good.


Kerouac p. 52

“’That’s what I like, hitchhiking around, feeling free, imagine though being an Indian and doing all that’”

This quote also puzzled me. Why would it many difference if you were an Indian bum or not? It seems that the life of a bum would not be any different what race you were, yet Japhy speaks of it as if it were a great hardship. He of all people I would think would not notice the hobo for being an Indian, and make such a big deal out of it

dbum 2

Kerouac p. 32

“I think he’ll end up like Han Shan living alone in the mountains and writing poems on the walls of cliffs, or chanting them to crowds outside his cave.”

Although Japhy is an amazing poet, and well respected among the poetic community, people still predict that he will be al alone. He chooses to live his life in solitude, instead of with others. He will be seen as a lunatic and maybe not a poetic genius until he long gone.


Kerouac p. 38

“’In the summers I was always a government fire lookout- that’s what you oughta do next summer, Smith-‘“

This quote seemed insignificant at first, but as I looked at it more, I really liked it. Spending the summer as a government fire lookout would give you lots of time by yourself to think. It is very much like Han Shan living in the mountains by himself. This may be one of the reasons that Japhy loves to be solitary.

d bums 1

D-Bums #1

Kerouac p. 11

“But as they stood and sat around I saw that he was the only one who didn’t look like a poet, though poet he was indeed.”

Japhy did not look like a poet because he too his dharma bummism to an extreme. Al of the other poets dressed like a poet is “supposed” to. They all had similar styles, and looked and acted like they should be there. This is how they let other people know who they were and how important they were because of there work. Japhy on the other hand was humble, and did not like to show off whom he was. This was his was of life.


Kerouac p. 5

“’Practice charity without holding in mind any conception of charity, for charity after all is just a word’”

This quote tells a lot about how Japhy lives his life. He is not concerned with looking good in the eyes of other people, but doing the right thing. Other people only do charity to look good, but he does not eve think about charity. He thinks about doing good things for other people

are these actual miles?

Raymond Carver, Are These Actual Miles?
Page. 586

“Food was one of the big items. They gorged on food. He figures thousands on luxury items alone. Toni would go to the grocery store and put in everything she saw.”


This quote reveals how Toni and Leo thought they could live life. When they first started out. They had plenty of money. When they started spending money on everything they wanted though, the money started disappearing. Toni wanted to get everything for the kids that she could not have when she was a child. They want to have the normal things that people have life fancy washers and dryers. This lifestyle though drained their money. Before they knew it, they were knee deep in debt.


Raymond Carver, Are These Actual Miles?
Page. 586

“He pours Scotch, adds water, carries the drink to the living room. He sits on the couch but finds his shoulders so stiff they wont let him lean back. He stares at the screen and sips, and soon he goes for another drink.”

This quote shows how similar this story is to the other stories that we have read. Leo uses alcohol to deal with his problems. He trying to live a normal life, but things are not going right for him. Because of this, Leo drinks. It has shown to be a popular way for people to deal with their problems.