Orpheus Emerged

By Jack Kerouac

Book Overview

Chronicles the passions, conflicts, and dreams of a group of bohemians searching for truth while studying at a university. This book offers a portrait of an artist as a young man and shows a writer in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743434846
• ISBN13: 9780743434843
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: UNKNO
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Wholeness plus Vision

A literary artefact that is intriguing as it reveals a writer at the beginning of his career, concerned with topics and issues that Kerouac would explore for the rest of his life. Although not in the familiar `spontaneous prose' style and endless stream of consciousness, often taken as difficult to follow and understand by some readers, this novella is written in the third person and well structured. As it is a short piece, the characters are not fleshed-out as they could be, which is really only possible in a full-length novel. That said, however, the two lead characters, Michael and Paul, are developed enough to sustain the plot. Overall, Orpheus is an absorbing tale about the nature of the artist or poet in their search for truth and purity of artistic vision. Kerouac's Orpheus is the merging of two types of individuals, archetypes if you will: Michael is the tortured genius, with an imagination conducive to writing poetry, however, he is so serious and self absorbed, single minded, that he is incapable of being happy. A young man with a fine-tuned conscience, when he transgresses, he feels tremendous guilt and wallows in self-pity. Michael's relationships with the older woman, Maureen, lacks spark, and his affaire with Maria, falls flat because Michael cannot feel true love for himself or anybody else. Paul is Michael's opposite, a roving poet-vagabond, in love with knowledge and life. Kerouac characterizes him as a genius of love and life. Paul's actions are spontaneous, humorous and driven by a devil-may-care attitude to just about everything. One day, after an altercation with Michael, he disappears for a week, and tells his friend's that he has been "Lying on the wet grass eating only fruit", which personifies the carefree, romantic wandering poet. Written during that early time at Columbia University, when the young Kerouac first meets Alan Ginsberg and William Burroughs, we can perceive these men in some of the characters in Orpheus: enthusiastic bohemian types, learning philosophy, writing poetry and prose, listening to Brahms and drinking copious amounts of wine. The novel ultimately is about the artist/man in search of a genuine aesthetic vision a `new vision' and the attainment of wholeness as the artist/man - there is a merging of types, and the success of this goal is the attainment of `wholeness plus vision' the `ideal' of the true artist. This novella was by no means a disappointment, because, although a young work, Kerouac and his life long concerns are all included here. Recommended to all Kerouac readers and students.

Jack, Emerged

Sadly, it's been over a year since I read any Kerouac. Whenever I walk into a new library or used book store I judge them on how much Kerouac they carry. This tells me how intelligent they are. If there is a boatload of Kerouac on the shelves, every novel they could possibly have ordered, I know the people running the show know what is going on. If there are a few random books on the shelf, for instance, one copy of Good Blonde and one copy of On the Road, I know they are bordering on clueless. The latter would be why I picked up this book, which is no reflection on the book, but to be honest I may not have chosen this one if they had some others I was itching for on the shelves. There were about three to chose from, and this is what I brought home. "Orpheus Emerged" was written when he was in college, having just met some of his closest friends and starting to really discover himself and the art/music/words that surrounded him. It has the same undertones as his other books...fast paced dialogue, incoherent interactions at parties, hard pressed obsession towards poetry and its territory. Although the women pose as ornaments, just as in his other novels, they seem to take on more importance in the way of having effect on the men they are involved with and the lives they are a part of. You don't learn much about them, as usual, but their effects are easily outlined. I hesitate to say that Jack would fall short of much but this book might be one of the few examples of a lack of prose. The dialogue is purely colloquial while the story has more premeditation than would otherwise be expected. It's a short, enjoyable read and it is fun to see the beginning of his progress. I would say this book is more for someone who has already declared their love, rather than a first time reader. You can sense the potential in it, like the foundation for what is to come. "Those books!", a character named Paul exclaims, "If only I had time to read them, and more. This morning, after I lost my job, I went to the University Library itself, and do you know, there were hundreds of thousands of books there I honestly felt I should read! And the ideas that rush through my mind. The impatience I feel! The time running off like sand. Ah...." Yeah, Paul....I know what you mean. My thoughts, on paper, written by the genius himself. When his talent was just a seed planted in the soil of this novella.

So pretentious and arty, it's fun

"Orpheus Emerged" is, like the bulk of Jack Kerouac's work, about a bunch of "bohemians" getting really trashed all the time and beating the hell out of each other to prove how passionate they are. The other reviewers who claim that Jack Kerouac advanced somehow or became a better writer are simply wrong. "Orpheus Emerged" is all one needs to read to understand Jack's ever present "on the edge" mentality. And I found it enjoyable. One character (we might as well call him Burroughs, since that's who he was) stands out among this seriously jaded crowd of people as the only one with guts enough to adhere to his somewhat loopy and wild notions of life. He constantly quotes Rimbaud among the most dismal scenes, which I found inspiring and pretentious at the same time. The women in Kerouac's works are exceptionally strong and, paradoxically put up with the worst kind of men imaginable. This is exhilarating in the same way as "Fight Club" is exhilarating: so over the top and doe eyed rebellious that one has to love it. Anyone who doesn't wax nostalgic while reading this never had a good time. Kick back, get your beret and black coffee, and crack it open.

If you love Kerouac...

I would consider myself a Kerouac junkie, but I dont think that matters to anyone. I personally dont find the need to break down Kerouac in such a way that it all turns into semantics and academia. To me, Kerouac wrote beautifully, and in such a way that to break it down as such, devalues any of the intent or meaning given to the book. I also dont agree that his later works were 'whiney'. That is part of the beauty of Jack Kerouacs works. They are the timeline of his life and adventures. I'm pleased that he was honest and wrote what he felt, not what he may have thought a reader would want to read. I could care less if this was written when he was 22 or 42. Most of his works are not comparable, they just shine on their own, in their own way. This, like his other books, is just another exciting opportunity to glimpse into his life. I dont know, I think I just find humor in the fact that there are people over analyzing this book and talking and talking, especially when Kerouac was smoking pot and doing crazy fun mind opening, and even spiritual things. His soul searching, and the way he wrote about his traveling mean a lot more to me than the people who critisize it. Those are the folks who really dont have a clue.

Exciting

But more for the possibility of what else may turn up. I would really love to see "The Sea is My Brother" appear out of nowhere, but sadly that is unlikely to happen. But its just really great to see NEW publications by Jack so long after he left this world. That something so marginal as work like this should be worthy of publication, just because it is Jack, and he was special, and still loved, is a testiment to him as a man. It certainly has to beat all the later whinney self absorbed stuff he wrote during his disintegrating part of his life i.e. Big Sur and Vanity of Duluoz, as we still have the young hopeful voice. Besides, whoever said that this was meant to be a novel in the traditional sense, it is more an effort to captutre essense of life, which doesnt have plots or always make sense. Thats the secret to Kerouac, trying to say something about life. If you dont enjoy it, get it, fine. Just because the stuff in On the Road was about sex n drugs n bebop, doesnt mean that this is any less a truthful mirror than that monumental book.