Littourati

Literature often describes places we are curious about, regardless of whether we know them or not. This blog maps the journeys laid out in selected books and offers reflections corresponding to the various stops. Happy traveling!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

On the Road: North Platte, Nebraska

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On the Road: North Platte, Nebraska

2 Comments:

Erik Donald France said...: Hey Mike,

Great work! Love the whole combination of mapping, analysis/reflection and links. I've been to some of these spots, but this is the most thorough coverage I've ever seen in tracing the actual miles of On the Road Cheers!; 8:30 PM
Steve said...: I've never been to North Platte, but your assessment of the situation following WWII could very well be accurate. Most probably, it did experience an economic downturn following the war. And if they were part of the dustbowl of the 30's, then you can understand their sullenness. The war helped them rebound from the that and they they took another turn for the worse after the war was ove.

At any rate, something to keep in mind about differentiating the character from the author (I'm an author, so I have a little freedom of speech here) is that though there may be similarities between the two, Sal Paradise is still just a character in a book. No doubt Kerouac spent many long hours editing his own manuscript even before it got into the hands of an editor. Who knows what he or the editor cut out.

The original stream-of-consciousness scroll of On The Road is touring the country right now, and even though I haven't seen it, I'm almost positive that it was a lot longer than the finished version. I wonder if there is a book form of the original scroll available?; 10:36 AM