tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3668066.post3765402714589035938..comments2024-03-28T16:17:20.965-05:00Comments on Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine: So You Think You Know Jack?mybillcriderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02350478005243505108noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3668066.post-45034049652414596232010-08-17T19:36:54.493-05:002010-08-17T19:36:54.493-05:00He wrote once,
“I knew of no horse in the city o...He wrote once, <br /><br />“I knew of no horse in the city of Oakland that worked the hours I worked. If this were living, I was entirely unenamoured of it. I remembered my skiff, lying idle and accumulating barnacles at the boat-wharf; I remembered the wind that blew every day on the bay, the sunrises and sunsets I never saw; the bite of the salt air in my nostrils, the bite of the salt water on my flesh when I plunged overside; I remembered all the beauty and the wonder and the sense-delights of the world denied me. There was only one way to escape my deadening toil. I must get out and away on the water. I must earn my bread on the water. And the way of the water led inevitably to John Barleycorn. I did not know this. And when I did learn it, I was courageous enough not to retreat back to my bestial life at the machine.<br /><br />“I wanted to be where the winds of adventure blew. And the winds of adventure blew the oyster pirate sloops up and down San Francisco Bay, from raided oyster-beds and fights at night on shoal and flat, to markets in the morning against city wharves, where peddlers and saloon-keepers came down to buy. Every raid on an oyster-bed was a felony. The penalty was State imprisonment, the stripes and the lockstep. And what of that? The men in stripes worked a shorter day than I at my machine. And there was vastly more romance in being an oyster pirate or a convict than in being a machine slave. And behind it all, behind all of me with youth abubble, whispered Romance, Adventure.”<br /><br />He also wrote:<br /><br />"I would rather be ashes than dust!<br />I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze <br />than it should be stifled by dry rot.<br />I would rather be a superb meteor,<br />every atom of me in magnificent glow,<br />than a sleepy and permanent planet.<br />The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.<br />I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.<br />I shall use my time."<br /><br />Aside from the infection of racism his mom gave him ... he was an all right dude.<br /><br />I'd'a sailed with him.<br /><br />(He was, I guess, a seminal writer.)Fred Zackelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3668066.post-24036533070314293562010-08-17T13:44:37.898-05:002010-08-17T13:44:37.898-05:00Yeah. That was kinda creepy.Yeah. That was kinda creepy.Gerardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3668066.post-61631192068709458862010-08-17T12:19:28.484-05:002010-08-17T12:19:28.484-05:00I laughed out loud when I read that.I laughed out loud when I read that.mybillcriderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02350478005243505108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3668066.post-38953800801230036152010-08-17T11:31:48.740-05:002010-08-17T11:31:48.740-05:00"If you read his work today, you can see lite...<i>"If you read his work today, you can see literary semen spraying across the American century..."</i><br /><br />Literary <b>semen</b>??? <b>Spraying</b> across???<br /><br />Man, that Johann Hari can sure turn a phrase!Gar Haywoodhttp://www.wisdommistakenforlunacy.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3668066.post-64866578604698412862010-08-17T08:53:31.449-05:002010-08-17T08:53:31.449-05:00Thanks for the link. A hell of a life. When I saw ...Thanks for the link. A hell of a life. When I saw your header, I thought you meant Jack Kerouac. I wasn't too far wrong.Ron Scheerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15357501069513854664noreply@blogger.com