Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Here is my review on Jack Kerouac's book Dharma Bums.
I found the beginning of the book very intriguing. There was a sense of freedom and adventure, as Kerouac recounted his days of hopping on freight trains, sleeping on beaches and spending time with his friends in San Francisco. However, I began to lose interest in the middle of the book, when he spent the winter months back east at his mother's house. Kerouac shares an epiphany or an enlightening moment in his book which he ends up preaching a lot about. He comes to the conclusion that everything is empty. I disagree with his thought here. If he were talking about possessions like money, cars, wealth, toys, ect, I would agree, but he is not. He sees everything as empty, including nature, life and himself. My thought is if God is omni-present, how could anything He has made be empty? If God touches all things and is everywhere and a piece of God is within everything, it would be far from empty.
On another thought, Kerouac seems to be on to something, but I am not sure if he knew it or not. In his quest of Dharma or Truth, he seems to understand that truth is everywhere. Some places have more than others, but nonetheless, truth is everywhere. Though he was a practicing Buddhism of the sort, he also found truth in Christian Evangelical preaching and Evangelism as well as the Bible. As Russ said on Sunday, all truth is God’s truth. Kerouac either understood this or at least was close to this concept.
I found the beginning of the book very intriguing. There was a sense of freedom and adventure, as Kerouac recounted his days of hopping on freight trains, sleeping on beaches and spending time with his friends in San Francisco. However, I began to lose interest in the middle of the book, when he spent the winter months back east at his mother's house. Kerouac shares an epiphany or an enlightening moment in his book which he ends up preaching a lot about. He comes to the conclusion that everything is empty. I disagree with his thought here. If he were talking about possessions like money, cars, wealth, toys, ect, I would agree, but he is not. He sees everything as empty, including nature, life and himself. My thought is if God is omni-present, how could anything He has made be empty? If God touches all things and is everywhere and a piece of God is within everything, it would be far from empty.
On another thought, Kerouac seems to be on to something, but I am not sure if he knew it or not. In his quest of Dharma or Truth, he seems to understand that truth is everywhere. Some places have more than others, but nonetheless, truth is everywhere. Though he was a practicing Buddhism of the sort, he also found truth in Christian Evangelical preaching and Evangelism as well as the Bible. As Russ said on Sunday, all truth is God’s truth. Kerouac either understood this or at least was close to this concept.
