{"id":11170,"date":"2010-10-28T19:37:31","date_gmt":"2010-10-28T19:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2010\/10\/28\/kerouac-october-quotation-27-jack-on-robert-lax\/"},"modified":"2010-10-28T19:37:31","modified_gmt":"2010-10-28T19:37:31","slug":"kerouac-october-quotation-27-jack-on-robert-lax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2010\/10\/28\/kerouac-october-quotation-27-jack-on-robert-lax\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerouac October Quotation #27: Jack on Robert Lax"},"content":{"rendered":"

During his years of unsuccess, when he was actually at his purest and best, an "unpublished freak," as he describes himself in a late summer 1954 letter to Robert Giroux, living for his art alone, Kerouac contemplated entering a monastery: "I've become extremely religious and may go to a monastery before even before you do." [. . .] "I've recently made friends in a way with Bob Lax and I find him sweet — tho I think his metaphysics are pure faith. Okay, that's what it's supposed to be." (Selected Letters <\/em>1940-1956, ed. Charters, Penguin 1995, p. 444.)<\/span><\/p>\n

And then on pp. 446-448 we find an amazing 26 October<\/strong> [sic!] 1954 letter to Robert Lax packed with etymology and scholarly detail which ends:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I'm no saint, I'm sensual, I cant resist wine, am liable to sneers & secret wraths & attachment to imaginary lures before my eyes — but I intend to ascend by stages & self-control to the Vow to help all sentient beings find enlightenment and holy escape from sin and stain of life-body itself [. . .] but thank God I'm a lazy bum because of that repose will come, in repose the secret, and in the secret: Ceaseless Ecstasy.<\/span><\/p>\n

"Nirvana, as when the rain puts out a little fire."<\/span><\/p>\n

See you in the world,<\/span><\/p>\n

Jack K.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For information on the enigmatic hermit Robert Lax (1915-2000) , see here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, Visions of Tom<\/a> for the Merton-Kerouac connection.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During his years of unsuccess, when he was actually at his purest and best, an "unpublished freak," as he describes himself in a late summer 1954 letter to Robert Giroux, living for his art alone, Kerouac contemplated entering a monastery: "I've become extremely religious and may go to a monastery before even before you do." … Continue reading “Kerouac October Quotation #27: Jack on Robert Lax”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,40,203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kerouac-and-friends","category-literary-matters","category-questers-and-other-oddballs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}