Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Visions of Cody
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Author | Jack Kerouac |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | New Directions |
| Released | 1960 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-14-017907-0 |
| Preceded by | Tristessa (1960) |
| Followed by | Lonesome Traveler (1960) |
Visions of Cody is a novel by Jack Kerouac, perhaps his most stylistically free and varied. It was written in 1951-1952, and though not published in its entirety until 1973, it had by then achieved an underground reputation. Since its first printing, Visions of Cody has been published with an introduction by Beat poet Allen Ginsberg titled "The Visions of the Great Rememberer."
Like nearly all of Kerouac's works, Visions of Cody involves a "mythologizing" of his life, here as "Jack Dulouz", renaming characters and imposing grander themes on actual events while rapturously describing the mundane around him. It is also heavily focused on his perception of and relationship to Neal Cassady, renamed "Cody Pomeray."
The first section of the book is essentially a collection of short stream-of-consciousness essays, which Kerouac called "sketches", many simply describing elements of Dulouz's (Kerouac's) post-World War II New York City environment, from the texture and smells of a lunch counter to St. Patrick's Cathedral, or minor events like the decision to masturbate in a public restroom—all interlaced with Kerouac's internal dialogue. Along the way through these descriptions, Dulouz meanders towards a decision to go visit Cody in San Francisco.
The third section consists mainly of the transcription of taped conversations between Kerouac and Cassady (and occasionally "Evelyn"—Cassady's last wife, Carolyn) that extended over five nights as they smoked marijuana. This is followed by a brief section entitled "Imitation of the Tape," a writing experiment by Kerouac in which he attempted to work from the spontaneity and speech patterns of the tape.
Some of Visions of Cody is a fast-forward recapitulation of the events described in On the Road, which was also about Kerouac and Cassady.
- 1960. Visions of Cody ISBN 0-14-017907-0
- A gallery of Visions of Cody book covers and history of publication
- Neal Cassady's official site authored by his family and updated monthy
| Books by Jack Kerouac |
| The Town and the City • On the Road • The Subterraneans • The Dharma Bums • Doctor Sax • Maggie Cassidy • Mexico City Blues • Book of Dreams • Tristessa • Visions of Cody • Lonesome Traveler • Big Sur • Visions of Gerard • Desolation Angels • Satori in Paris • Vanity of Duluoz • Pic • Scattered Poems • Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings • Old Angel Midnight • Good Blonde & Others • Orpheus Emerged • Book of Sketches • And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (unpublished) |