Carolyn Cassady
speaking at Nottingham Trent University. |
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When Carolyn
Cassady spoke at Nottingham Trent University, she wanted to dispel
many of the myths surrounding the ‘Beat Generation’.
"We knew
of no such movement or generation until after ‘On the Road’
was published."
Feature by
Suzanne Nash
Instead, she
prefers to talk about a closely-knit group of friends.
She would be
the first to admit, though, that both Kerouac and her husband were
"bad role models".
Rather like
the figure of James Dean, the ‘Beats’ have become legendary
in the public eye as charismatic underdogs. They were daring and
destructive, often resorting to petty crime, drink and drugs.
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| The golden
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Yet Carolyn
Cassady argues that "Hollyweird" and the media have constantly
misrepresented her husband.
Is this simply
naïve nostalgia on her part? Neal Cassady died in 1968 when
he fell asleep in the rain after a drinking binge – yet his
ex-wife says he couldn’t stomach vast quantities of alcohol.
Perhaps her perspective sheds new light on his death?
Her biggest
objection is against the "proposed [Francis Ford Copolla] film
of ‘On the Road’".
Copolla owns
the film rights to Kerouac’s novel. Cassady understands that
he has now chosen novelist Russell Banks as the definitive scriptwriter.
Her daughter
stumbled upon the second draft of the script when she visited the
internet auction site, E-Bay. Carolyn says she has written "an
angry letter" to Copolla about the "defamation of Neal’s
character".
She has not
yet received a reply.
The Cassady
family think the script portrays Neal as a "flashy" narrator.
They were horrified to see him "eyeing up an eight year old
girl" in one scene:
"Child
abuse was something Neal thought was the evil of all time".
Despite obtaining
a divorce from her husband in the mid sixties, she speaks fondly
of both Neal and his good friend, Jack [Kerouac]. She sums them
up as "macho men with soft centres".
On the other
hand she understands how ‘On the Road’ itself has contributed
to the ‘beat’ mythology.
Kerouac’s
writing is renowned for its contradictions, and Carolyn believes
it exaggerates Neal’s biography unfairly.
If anything,
Cassady’s lecture revealed another reason why ‘beat’
legends have attracted enduring fascination.
In life as in
fiction, the core individuals associated with it are notoriously
difficult to pin down.
Further
information
Carolyn
Cassady's lecture took place on Tuesday 12th February 2002 in the
New Lecture Theatre at the Nottingham Trent’s Clifton site.
"Off
the Road" was published in 1990 by Penguin Viking Press
(and the same book was also published in 1996 by Penguin Books).
It is Carolyn Cassady’s memoir of marriage to Neal Cassady
and life alongside Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
was first recorded in the San Francisco
Chronicle as a pejorative. The journalist evoked the Soviet satellite
with the same ending, ‘Sputnik’.
Neal Cassady
did not actually publish any fiction himself, but became famous
for starring in other ‘beat’ writers fiction.
, is well known for the beat poem, ‘Howl’.
Inspired by bebop jazz, Ginsberg wanted to introduce the musical
tempo into his writing. The poem develops improvisational pieces
around a common theme in a manner reminiscent of Charlie Parker.
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