Shangri La Hotels Business Analysis

Shangri La Hotels Business Analysis Introduction Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad is an investment holding company and also a public limited company. This company was incorporated on June 29, 1971 and currently having a total of 2364 employees. Its headquarters is located at the Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang. This company is engaged with the operations of services such as hotels and beach resorts, golf course and clubhouse, property management and investment and commercial laundry. The Companys segments has two segments, which include hotels, resorts and golf course, which is engaged in hotel, beach resort and gulf course business; investment properties, which includes rental from offices, shoplots and apartment and rental of car parks, and others, which include commercial laundry services and investment holding. Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad has many hotel branches located at many different states and locations in Malaysia. Also, customers may have an infinite choice of luxury possibilities with Shangri-La Hotels as there are over 66 hotels located across the globe. Most importantly, customers may find themselves living in a hidden paradise once they chose to stay in Shangri-La Hotel. They can feel relaxed in the luxurious guestrooms, pampering themselves in a 5 star rated hotels with all the supreme services and facilities. As of December 31, 2010, Shangri-La Hotel (M) Berhad hotel had its properties included Rasa Sayang Resort Spa, Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Traders Hotel Penang, Golden Sands Resort, Palm Beach Resort and Rasa Ria Resort. However, its subsidiaries include Shangri-La Hotel (KL) Sdn Bhd, Komtar Hotel Sdn Bhd, Golden Sands Beach Resort Sdn Bhd, UBN Holdings Sdn Bhd, UBN Tower Sdn Bhd, Pantai Emas Sdn Bhd, Madarac Corporation and Wisegain Sdn Bhd. The principal activities of the Company are investment holding and the operation of a beach resort, namely Rasa Sayang Resort. In Malaysia, Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad owns the 29-storey, 720rooms Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur. On the other hand, it also owns the Golden Sands Hotel, Komtar Hotel and Palm Beach Hotel in the island state of Penang. Shangri-La hotels always differentiate their service to match with customers taste and demand. Company Background The company was incorporated in Malaysia on 29 June 1971 under the Companies Act, 1965. The company was limited by shares with the registered name Taman Developments Sdn Bhd. On 7 September 1974, the name was then changed to Rasa Sayang Beach Hotels (Penang) Sdn Bhd. The company was converted to public company on 23 February 1977 under the name of Rasa Sayang Beach Hotels (Pg) Berhad. On 1 September 1982, the company was listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE). Yet, the company was delisted from KLSE on 21 December 1987 due to a general offer made by Perlis for the entire issued share capital of the Company and acquired more than 90% of the issued share capital of the company. On 2 January 1992, the company assumed its present name. The company had successfully merged with UBN Holdings Sdn Bhd which comprised the acquisition by the company from Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd and Landmarks Berhad, the entire issued share capital of UBN Holdings Sdn Bhd on 21 September 1992. However, the company was re-listed on the KLSE on 1 December 1992 with the company undertook a bonus issue and subsequently a public issue. Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad has its own vision for achieving the goals to be the best hotel. Its vision is to be the first choice for our guest, colleagues, shareholders and business partners. Whereas Shangri-La hotels also has its mission at all the time which is to delight our guests every time by creating engaging experiences straight from our hearts. The company is operating based on the following principles: Ensuring leadership drives for results. Making guest loyalty a key driver of the business. Enabling decision-making at the guest contact point. Creating an environment where colleagues may achieve their personal career goals. Demonstrating honesty, care and integrity in all relationships. Ensuring policies and processes are guest and colleague friendly. On top of that, Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad is operating under all professional persons in order to make Shangri-La hotels to be the top hotel in the world. Board of directors include : Tan sri A. Razak bin Ramli (Chairman) Kuok Oon Kwong (Managing Director) Datin Rozina Mohd Amin (Executive Director) Dato Haris Onn bin Hussein (Independent Non-Executive Director) Dato Seri Ismail Farouk Abdullah (Independent Non-Executive Director) Datuk Supperamaniam a/l Manickam (Independent Non-Executive Director) Dato Dr Tan Tat Wai (Independent Non-Executive Director) Tan Yew Jin Dato Khoo Eng Min Ravinder Singh Grewal Sarbjit S Joseph Patrick Stevens (Alternate Director to Ravinder Singh Grewal Sarbjit S) Business What is the basic requirement of a hotel in order to satisfy customers? Hotel is basically belongs to service industry which mostly provide accommodation services to people for a comfortable stay. Service is very important to a hotel as it will bring to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Shangri-la Hotels (M) Berhad are definitely the best hotel which provides high standards of services to customers as it had awarded Best Business Hotel Brand in Asia Pacific by the Business Traveller 2012. Under Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad, it has currently 9 brands of hotels in the service industry. It includes, Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Shangri-Las Rasa Ria Resort Kota Kinabalu, Shangri-Las Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa Kota Kinabalu, Putrajaya Shangri-La, Traders Hotel Puteri Harbour Johor, Golden Sands Resort Penang, Shangri-Las Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa Penang and Traders Hotel Penang. Every hotel under Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad are doing very well as mostly hotels are ranked five stars hotel and have a very good reputation among customers. Every hotel has its own special attractions such as Traders Hotel always located in the city which easier attach to the entertainment. Whereas Shangri-La hotel offers stylish and luxurious environment for customers. In order for a hotel to maintain and improve its business, Shangri-la hotels always push their services to a higher level as services are the main key to bring in more businesses. Its five-star reputation always maintaining a world-class service at all the time. Stylishly decorated, the luxurious guestrooms at Shangri-La hotel present large clear windows with beautiful city views. Memorable and satisfaction of every customer became the crucial mission of Shangri-La hotel. Shangri-La hotel differentiate its rooms according to customers preference. Rooms can be chosen in Deluxe room, Executive room, Horizon Executive room, Premier room and Executive Suite. Customers are able to choose their rooms to prefer a better environment and comfortable stay in the hotel. There are varieties of services provided by Shangri-la Hotel in order to satisfy customers and bring customers loyalty to the business. Facilities provided by Shangri-la Hotel are partially free of charge for customers to fully utilize such as the facilities of fitness centre, outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, steam room, sauna, massage, aerobics or dance studios and many more. The beautifully landscaped outdoor swimming pool is the facility always satisfied the customers as they are able to relax and enjoy the fascinating environment. The fitness centre is also an important facility for hotel as many people nowadays are going to fitness centre every week. This had become a habit to them and the fitness centre is an important place for them to workout. In Shangri-La hotel, there have the facilities of clinic to provide medical service for customers who in ill. This will make customers convenient as they do not need to go clinic outside and able to rest in the hotel after getting medical treatment. Shangri-La hotel also provide disabled facilities for handicapped such as handicapped toilet as to satisfy them although they are people with disabilities. Customers are able to choose non-smoking rooms or smoking rooms according to their preference. Safe deposit box also provided to let customers safe keeping their important documents or expensive goods. Parking facilities and valet service are provided for customers who looking for a stay in the hotel. Services such as the complimentary shoeshine service is provided for customers who staying in the hotel for a period of time and looking for shoeshine service. Postal and courier service also provided in order for customers to deliver documents or packages. Laundry service provided for customers who want to wash their clothes. Those services are provided to easier customers as they are not necessary to looking those service outside. Child care or babysitting service also provided in the hotel as some parents have some urgent things to do, they can looking for babysitting of their babies. A hotel can be occupied without few facilities, but cannot be occupied without restaurants and bars. Shangri-La hotel features the impressive selection of international, award winning restaurants, including the award-winning Restaurant Lafite, which serves the finest western cuisine. There are five awesome restaurants and two bars located inside the hotel. The wide selection of dining options makes Shangri-La hotel a best location for travellers who enjoy fine cuisine, and also makes the hotel an excellent location for businessman to convene meetings and conferences. Not only that, Shangri-La hotel provides free breakfast or drinks for customers at the cafà © while they preparing rooms for customers. This implication done by Shangri-La hotel is to concern the desired expectation of customers and try to satisfy customers by exceeding customers perceived expectation. Shangri-La hotel also provides 24-hour room service which customers are able to request dishes or drinks with a simply phone call. 24-hour room service is best required by businessman who went out for business meeting and came back late night. It will satisfy them with a delicious meal and the fast delivery. Few shops are located inside the hotels such as the foreign exchange counter and gift shop. Foreigners are able to exchange their currency in the hotel and tourists can purchase gifts in the shop. As now technology became more important, Wi-Fi is the best tool for tourists and businessman. Free Wi-Fi access is provided for every room guests in order for them to access to the internet. Shangri-La also provides travel and transportation service for customers. Airport connection is one of the service included, guests can choose to reach hotel by hotel limousine pick-up, express train or taxi. This usually is made for foreigners and tourists. Hotel limousine pick-up can be chosen with different types of cars. Car rental service and travel agency also provide for customers in order for them to visit any places nearby the hotel. This services provided for customers so they do not need to look at outside of the hotel and can be avoid scamming. Many business amenities are offered to businessman such as the meeting rooms, binding service, laser printing, scanning and photocopying services in order for them to prepare important documents in their trip. Prompt and fast check-in and check-out service also attract customers as they dont have to wait for so long with the service process. Helpful and cheerful receptionists are also type of service that the hotel provided for customers. Receptionists and customer service can help the customers to solve problems such as the changes of rooms or handle complaint. Outstanding staff will satisfy customers as they provide great and wonderful service for them. Hotel employees with smile and cheerful look will make the customers feel happy and satisfied in terms of hospitality service. By according to the feedback received online, Shangri-La hotel can said to be the highest positive feedback received by the customers. Most customers are satisfied and happy with the services provided by the hotel. Satisfied customers will promote and recommend to others with the great services they received at the hotel. Positive word of mouth can improve the reputation of the hotel and this enable the hotel to attract more customers. Customers satisfactions always brings Shangri-La hotel the effort to do better and it leads to customers loyalty where customers will come back to visit the hotel next time. Shangri-La hotel always maintain a high standard of services as they believe service is the crucial rules of a successful hotel. This is how Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad do business in a fully competitive environment and yet did so well in the service industry. SWOT Analysis A companys successfulness always depends on the strategy that the company used to improve its business. SWOT analysis is one of tools that most companies like to use to determine the companys strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat. Hotel industry such as Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad also need SWOT analysis to use as a guide for the business and distinguish between today situation and future situation. SWOT analysis will be very effective and useful for Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad to improve its strengths and opportunities and yet minimize the weaknesses and threats. Strengths, which are the beneficial aspects of the organization or the capabilities of an organization, which includes human competencies, process capabilities, financial resources, products and services, customer goodwill and brand loyalty. One of the strengths of Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad is the brand name. Brand is very important for every business as it helps to internationally recognized for its luxurious hotels and resorts. Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad is said to be an aspirational brand to the public. Besides, the leadership and management skills of Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad is well known for its fine and tuned management that is capable enough to run the whole corporation. It helps Shangri-La hotels provide great and excellent service for every customer. Next, the high quality service of Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad also attract a large number of repeat customers which form a loyalty between them. In addition, another strength of Shangri-La hotels is its five-star venture that won numerous awards including the leading spot as the Top Asia Hotel in Malaysia, Best Luxury Hotel in Malaysia by the 2012 Trip Advisor Travellers Choice Awards and World Luxury Hotel Awards Global Winner in the Best Luxury Business Hotel and Best City Hotel category 2011. These awards build up a branded image for Shangri-La hotels and reputation in the hotel field. Not only that, Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad also is the leading corporation on its line of food expertise in various cuisine from eastern to western. Many customers visit Shangri-La hotels are mostly due to the delicious and relaxing restaurants. Clean and tidy of the hotel rooms are the main reason of customers likes to visit Shangri-La hotels as they always satisfied with the environment. Weaknesses, which deteriorate influences on the organizational success and growth. There are little of weaknesses of Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad as they always minimize their weaknesses and transform to their strengths. One of the weaknesses is the inadequate of staff with qualifications as Shangri-La only hires personnel with skilled expertise and the draught for manpower. This may affect the shortage of workers and influence the performance of the hotel. Furthermore, the concept of Shangri-La is outdated and does not appeal to younger generation. They rather go for hotels such as Hard Rock Hotel or G Hotel. Next, the maintenance cost is too high to handle as Shangri-Las hotel and resort must be excellent to its quality for accommodation. This will increase the expenses of Shangri-La hotels and thus the price of the hotel room will also increase. Opportunities, that are presented by the environment within which our organization operates. These arise when an organization can take benefit of conditions in its environment to plan and execute strategies that enable it to become more profitable. As economy of Malaysia had improve steadily nowadays and tourism sector is growing and booing in the recent years making the demand for hotels to increase significantly. Economy of the country will directly enhance the tourism sectors, thus service industry such as hotel will be attractive. Besides, online market is one of the opportunities that helps the growth of Shangri-La hotels as it ranks No.1 in the Tripadvidor website. Technology helps Shangri-La hotels to attract customers as it is kind of marketing and promotion strategy. On the other hand, partnership with international airways, KLIA, is one of the opportunities that more foreigners will be able to visit Asia. This in return increases the occupancy in hotels. Besides, as the steadily growth of economy had increase the job opportunities in Malaysia and this will occurs the lack of human resource. Thus, the lack of human resource will encourage expatriates to come and work in Malaysia. These are the upper class people and usually require hotels for their choice of stay. Threats, one of the threats facing by Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad is the competition of the business. Rival hotels are setting up their base in Asia and lower their prices making it more competitive. Those competitors will influence the sales of Shangri-La hotels. Guesthouses will also compete as they provide much lower rate and affordable to all people. Low budget hotels are the competitors which offering lower costs of accommodation for customers to compete with Shangri-La hotels. In addition, spreading virus such as SARS and H1N1 and robbery cases will discourage people not travel overseas and thus affected the business of Shangri-La hotels. SWOT analysis is one of the tools that are very important and effective for every business to determine the situation of the business and thus making improvement for it. Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad will keep providing great service for customers after doing SWOT analysis as understand the internal and external determinants of the business. Marketing Strategies (7 Ps) A companys success is not only depends on the effectiveness and efficiency of the companys management. It also need to focus in marketing which is the important process of communicating the product or service with customers. Customers are important as without customers, a company will not grow and success. In order to grow a company, customers satisfaction need to get into details. Shangri-La hotel is a company which marketing its services to the customers. Therefore, Shangri-La hotel must has its marketing strategies to achieve the companys goals. Marketing strategies defined as the marketing logic by which the business unit hopes to achieve its marketing objectives. Marketing strategy consists of specific strategies for target markets, marketing mix and marketing expenditure level. Marketing mix is the most common strategy used by many company. Shangri-La hotel is one of the companies which implement marketing mix strategy. Marketing mix consists of 7Ps for developing an effective marketing strategy. It consists of product, price, people, process, promotion, place and physical evidence. The first P Product, usually defined in the capacity of goods or services. Product can be differentiated with quality, design, variety and features. The product of Shangri-La hotel is providing services to customers instead of goods. Shangri-La hotel provides online customer service for customers and customers can get to know the hotel with their website provided. Accommodation service is the main service a hotel provides for customer. So, in order to satisfy customer, types of rooms are playing an important role. There are five types of rooms provided for customers according to their preferences. A hotel must always satisfy customer and build a good relationship with customer through service provided in order to get loyal customer for the hotel and yet maintaining a long term business. Shangri-La hotel provides variety of facilities for convenience their customer to enjoy the stay from the time check-in until check-out. Facilities can be included exclusive room facilities, hotel facilities, dining and entertainment, sport and leisure for customers. Services with intangible are the helpful services provided by receptionists and the smiling face welcoming customers by the staff. The second P Price, is the amount of money for customers to pay for accommodation service in the hotel. Shangri-La hotel always fixed the price according to the types of rooms chosen by customer. Customers are able to make booking online as to convenient them for make comparison and know the price. Online booking usually will requested customers to choose few options according to their choices and they can pay the total amount of the room by using credit card. Besides, online booking will convenient foreigners as it provide currency converter for them to convert into their currency. Pricing strategy using by Shangri-La hotel is based on the service ordered by customers, so customers will be more satisfy with the service because the hotel provide service according to customers order. Discounts and allowances will be given by Shangri-La hotel in the off-peak seasons as to attract more customers to increase sales. By giving discounts in a special room rate, customers can have the chance to stay in the hotel with a relatively lower price and the hotel can build the customer loyalty at the moment. Customers also can made their payment with cash or card as to convenient customers and prevent hassle of customers. The third P People, relate to persons who involve in the process of interaction. People can be classified into target customers and service personnel by Shangri-La hotel. Target customers of Shangri-La hotel are mostly from upper-class or those who posses higher financial ability. Shangri-La hotel is mostly targeted customers of tourists and businessman. Tourists who come from overseas are willing to stay in a luxurious and expensive hotel as they are of higher financial group and likes with relaxing lifestyle. Besides tourists, businessman is another target customer who mostly required to stay in a five star hotel as their expense will be paid by company. By choosing a five star hotel by business travelers, it will create a good image of the company he/she represented. Whereas the people of service personnel involve in the interaction, Shangri-La hotel must recruits and hires employees with skills and attitudes. Skills can be relate to the qualification, ability and competency. Attitudes are those behavior that every staff in the hotel must be acquired such as helpful, responsive and smiling. Shangri-La hotel has provided training programmes for all the hotel employees to make improvement. With skills and attitudes, employees are able to satisfy customers in any issues and lead them back to loyalty. The fourth P Process, refers to the systems used to assist the organization in delivering the service. For example, when enter a hotel, you welcomed by staff with smiles, check-in service is fast, baggage is taken to room, have a great service from the restaurant and facilities, and finally ended trip and baggage delivered to you. This is the process in Shangri-La hotel. Shangri-La hotel demonstrate process involve in delivering services. Fast check-in process is the key of first impression of customer as reservation will be served directly by the receptionist. Besides, when customers are in hunger and order dishes through room service, a fast delivering process is enough to satisfy customers. If customers want to make a complaint regarding the non-working of air-conditional, the fast process of making complaint and solve the problem is very important. Shangri-La hotel always help customers to solve problem as they care of customers. The fifth P Promotion, usually made to attract more customers to increase sales. Shangri-La hotel usually have promotion and special offer to build long term relationship with loyal customer. Shangri-La hotel is using advertising and online marketing to make promotion. Advertising can be regarded as the banner and brochures of the hotel. Technology had become very important nowadays as most people know how to surf internet. Online marketing is the trend to promote Shangri-La hotel. Customers can book hotel rooms at other website such as booking.com and agoda.com. Those websites are able for customers to leave feedback regarding their stays. Positive feedback will successfully attracted more customers to visit the hotel. Furthermore, customers are able to pay less for more with special offer and promotion made by Shangri-La hotel. Customers can enjoy delicious meals at the restaurant with the special offer made in particular day such as Valentines day. Positive word of mouth is one of the ways for promotion as satisfied customers will recommend other customers to visit the hotel. The sixth P Place, where customer can receive the service. Shangri-La hotel is a world-class hotel as hotels are distributed all over the world such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Australia and etc. New hotels are built by according to the demand chain management as the company knows what places are demanded by people for a hotel. There are three Shangri-La hotels in Penang, two at Batu Feringgi and one located in Georgetown. Batu Feringgi Beach is one of the tourist attractions in Penang. Foreign travelers love to visit the beach and this had made the popularity of Rasa Sayang Resort and Golden Sands Resort. Traders hotel is located in Georgetown where most of the businessman likes to visit. Hotels located in the city will be more preferable by travelers as they can go visit any place nearby. Places of the locations of Shangri-La hotel are wonderful and it has its own specific environment. The seventh P Physical evidence refers to services in tangible. The most common physical evidence of Shangri-La hotel is the brochures which mostly customers can requested at the counter. Business cards of receptionists or managers can be regarded as physical evidence as it can be used for next visits or recommendations. Customers can enjoy the beautiful and extraordinary designs of the outdoor swimming pool as it is regarded as the physical evidence. When customers made payment of the hotel room, an invoice of payment will be received by customer. It belongs to physical evidence as shows that customers are able to enjoy the optimum level of satisfaction of services. Service Issue Shangri La Hotel Berhad is a limited company that operates throughout Malaysia. Although Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad is doing good in the service industry, there have some issues that need to be improved and overcome. One of the issue faced by Shangri La Hotel Berhad is the insufficient manpower to conduct the daily operations. This is because Malaysia is facing lack of workers and is importing workers from other foreign countries. The link between manpower and Shangri La Hotel Berhad is fairly simple as manpower is proportional to productivity. The more people are available to work, the faster projects can be completed or the more projects a company can take on. Conversely, a lack of adequate manpower prevents businesses from completing tasks. The lack of productivity translates into a reduction in revenue and profit, which in some cases means the business cant stay operational. Hence if Shangri La do not handle this issue adequately, the efficient and effectiveness of the company will be affected. The second issue faced by Shangri La is the standards of the hotel staff not on par. With the increasing challenges the hotel sector is facing globally and the escalating demand for tourism products and services, especially in the emerging markets, there is urgent need for players in the region to offer high quality performance standards to survive. As stated, because of insufficient workers, Shangri La has to hire foreign workers in order to balance up the workforce. Foreigners on the other hand are usually hired from third world countries because of their low cost. This in return has taken toll on the overall performance of the company. Therefore, Shangri La should also look into this matter. The third issue is about the maintenance handled by Shangri La. As noted Shangri La Hotel Berhad is engaged in the operation of hotels and beach resorts, a golf course and clubhouse, property management and investment and commercial laundry. In the field of golf courses and clubhouse, maintenance is the upmost important. Shangri La on the other hand is doing just average based on the reviews. Because Shangri La Hotel Berhad is a five star company, they should be able to improve their maintenance and achieve excellence. As stated, maintenance is important in the hospitality trade as it reflects the service provided by Shangri La to their customers. Besides that, Shangri La also engages in beach resorts, having one in Batu Ferringhi and one at Sabah which is the more popular ones. Based on the reviews of the hotels, Shangri La Hotel Berhad has received complaints on the lack of entertainment provided on the beachfront which is also one of the issue faced by Shangri La. The beach itself is already amazing to enjoy. However, being viewed for their excellence, Shangri La Hotel Berhad should enhance a solution to that matter. Several reviews stated that there is nothing for the people to do at the beach but loafing around making the stay boring and unworthy. All these issues should be addressed by Shangri La Hotels Berhad as to maintain their international standards. If these service issues are solved, there is no doubt that Shangri La Hotels Berhad will achieve excellence in their line of trade. Latest Venture / Business Plan Although Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad already owns 66 hotels all over the world and has long term customers, Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad want to keep expand and differentiate its business in order to provide more service to the public. This is also a way to get more income and try to satisfy customers in a long run. Recently, Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad have some new business plan and latest venture for its business. For example, they planned to have some major renovation programme for certain resorts. For example, some renovation would be held in Rasa Ria Resorts Garden Wing guestrooms. When the renovation is fully completed, those improved room products will give the resort a stronger business platform for the companys future growth and well to compete strongly in this competitive marketplace. They try to satisfy customers of their specific services provided which cant be found among competitors. This will lead to a competitive advantage for them and customers will looking forward for new venture and service provided by Shangri-La hotels (M) Berhad. Besides, Shangri-La Hotels (M) Berhad has planned to

Heroes and villains essay Essay

In today’s society, one does not need to wear a cape or be able to fly to be a hero. Someone does not need to wear black and have an evil laugh to be a villain either. Today, an ordinary, everyday person can be transformed into a hero or villain almost instantly. A catalyst is definitely needed to perform this transformation. An event usually has to pull out the heroic traits of a person. For instance a person who witnesses a car accident and this person runs to the scene of the burning car and pulls the occupant(s) out risking his own life in doing so. If this accident had not had happened, this person would never have been considered a hero of any sort. Another example of this is Stuart Diver. He was buried in a landslide in 1997. After 3 days and against all odds, Stuart was pulled alive from the ruble. The media labeled him as a hero. One day Stuart was skiing in Threadbo, the next he was fighting for his like under his house and the next he was a household name and a hero. To become a villain there is a different ‘procedure’. A person must perform an evil act to be considered a villain. Suicide bombers are instantly classified as villains the second they detonate their bomb. 2 minutes before the detonation, the bomber was an ordinary person who looked like he was minding his own business, no one could have suspected he was a soon-to-be villain. But people must remember that these are martyrs for their cause. They feel they are doing the right thing by killing people and their people idolize and label them as heroes. Another example of this is ‘chopper’ Reed. He went around the streets killing many people who he labeled ‘bad’ people (mainly drug dealers†¦). Chopper thought he was doing the world a favour by killing these people, but as society states – anyone who kills is a villain. A person who accidentally releases a poisonous gas and kills many people can also be labeled a villain by definition, but I believe a villain has to have the intention to create havoc and evil. So this is an example of how an  ordinary person can suddenly be called a villain by way of a mistake – which acts as the catalyst. So yes, ordinary people can suddenly become villains or heroes at the flick of a switch but there is always going to be a catalyst, an event that will perform the transformation.

English Literature Dissertations - Jack Kerouac - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 21 Words: 6346 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Introduction Jack Kerouac was responsible for spawning the literary movement that became known as the Beat Generation, a movement not only significant to literature, but one which incorporated music and visual art to chart a personal progression. Kerouac was the leader of a literary movement and a way of life he thought was a passing fad. The basic characteristics of Beat are defined in Kerouacs 1957 novel On the Road, a text which was to become a virtual gospel for the Beat Generation. As the author of this commandment, Kerouac became known as the King of the Beats. His reaction to this title is documented in an article printed in Playboy, The Origins of the Beat Generation (Journal of Beat Poet Holmes recalls friendship, death of Jack Kerouac). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "English Literature Dissertations Jack Kerouac" essay for you Create order The term beat has a range of meanings, affording critics of Beat writing a rich array of ambiguities for their textual analyses. As an adjective, it was most famously defined by Allen Ginsberg, a member of Kerouacs close knit group, as exhausted, at the bottom of the world, looking up or out, sleepless, wide-eyed, perceptive, rejected by society, on your own, streetwise, while the word beat was originally used as a musical term by post-World War II musicians in reference to an individual or tune that was exhausted or downbeat. At the time, America herself was beat- the country had emerged from the 1930s disaster of economic depression only to find itself entangled in World War II, and having to deal with threats from the reds and the ominous propositions of McCarthyism. In one striking blow to Kerouac and other Bohemians, a definite link between smoking and lung cancer was confirmed in 1953. Kerouacs audience was a disenchanted, self righteous population, an unguided generation with no clear direction or idea of what they wanted form life and too powerless and world-weary to go out in search of the meaning of their existence. Such readers found refreshment and salvation in Kerouacs self-declared confusion, embodied most apparently in his definitive novel- On the Road. Kerouacs style, like all of the Beat writers, is defined simply and very easy to recognize. The Beat Generation saw themselves on a quest for beauty and truth, allying themselves with mysticism. The works themselves were to be streams of consciousness written down spontaneously and not to be altered or edited Kerouac himself simply stated, if you change it the gig is shot. Poets and novelists of the Beat Generation labelled Kerouac the embodiment of Beat and hailed him as leader of the movement, the King term is perhaps more carefully chosen than it appears, patriarchally loaded as it is. Other well-known authors of the Beat Generation include Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William S. Burroughs, and Ken Kesey. 1. Kerouacs Spontaneity and the Beats. While the title implies supreme spontaneity, Kerouac was never quite as deliberately spontaneous as his legend has insisted. His plan was to create a giant epic in the tradition of Balzac and Proust, but he never managed to determine a literary technique capable of welding the separate books of his Duluoz chronology into a coherent whole, even if he tried. Ann Charters is the voice behind much of the critical discussion of Kerouacs overwhelming legend-making aspiration, He couldnt come up with any literary technique to help him fit all the volumes of the Duluoz Legend into one continuous tale. All he could think of was to change the names in the various books back to their original forms, hoping that this single stroke would give sufficient unity to the disparate books, magically making them fit more smoothly into their larger context as the Duluoz (Kerouac the Louse) Legend[H]e wanted the books reissued in a uniform edition to make the larger design unmistakeable. To claim that each individual novel is insufficient without integration into the larger context of the legend assumes a very conventional definition of legend. Not only is it linear and coherently chronological, it is also bound by the rules of time that govern reality. Of course there is no real reason why this should be so. Kerouacs beats create permanent and timeless impressions, and unending rhythms like Nature herself- the beat will go on if it is not bound by temporality or rationality, but, like a true legend, circulates and permeates the universal consciousness all the time, for all time. A legend can, after all, be many things: an unauthenticated story from ancient times; an allegorical tale of obvious exaggeration or fallacy; simple fame; an explanation accompanying an image or map- and, in music, a composition capable of relating a story- even without words. Charters criticisms fall away rapidly. Kerouacs work easily adheres to each of these versions of the term legend, as if he is unconsciously sensitive to the subtle multiplicity of the word, and feels obliged to fulfil the words promise. His work is carefully designed, indeed, he was preoccupied by the notion of design- the pre-styling of the free-styling- and perhaps not, then, the carefree and careless King of Beats. The assumption of wild abandon seems to arise from misunderstandings of the term free prose. The free to which Kerouac refers does not, in any way, signify a relinquishing of control. It is, however, rather like Wordsworths spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling, which creates an impression of experimentation but really represents a highly contrived artifice to contain the exuberance of natural speech. Associating Kerouacs particular diction with what he has called, the unfulfilled linguistic intentions of the British Lake poets, Tytell asserts that Kerouac sought a diction compatible with the natural and irrepressible flow of any uncontrollable involuntary thoughts that he had to release. While Kerouac clearly hoped that his Spontaneous bop prosody would revolutionize American literature, just as Joyce had revolutionized English prose, spontaneous bop has musical implications far more than literary ones. Kerouac and the other Beat writers listened to music as they worked, and bop surely applies to the jazz which accompanied their writing, more than anything; the music of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonius Monk. In many ways Kerouacs literary technique is structured on a model of Jazz riffs- the impulse for both being to perfect a deliberate style that does not look deliberate, something which systematically generates an impression of spontaneity. Albert Murray has defined a jazz riff as, a brief musical phrase that is repeated, sometimes with very subtle variations, over the length of a stanza as a chordal pattern follows its normal progressionRiffs always seem spontaneous as if they were improvised in the heat of the performance. So much so that riffing is sometimes seen as synonymous with improvisationnot only are riffs as much a part of the same arrangements and orchestrations as the lead melody, but many consist of nothing more than stock phrases, quotations from the same familiar melody, or even clichs that just happen to be popular at the moment. Such is the technical improvisation of Kerouacs prose. Despite his declared disinterest in music, Kerouacs writing evidences a profound identification of the creation of music with that of literary works. As he states in his Paris Review interview: As for my regular English verse, I knocked it off fast just as a musician has to get out, a jazz musician, his statement within a certain number of bars, and later likens the writers craft to that of the hornplayer, I formulated the theory of breath as measure, in prose and in verse, never mind what Olson, Charles Olson says, I formulated that theory in 1953 at the request of Burroughs and Ginsberg. Then theres the raciness and freedom and humour of jazz. In Kerouacs own terms, then, the beat follows the phrasing of the jazz model. In his theory of breath as measure he reveals his acute attention to the sentence- elsewhere denounced- and even acknowledges the control of cadence. His contemporary critics occasionally saw musical rhythm in Kerouac: Tallman found a version of sentimental thirties music in The Town and the City, where melody rather than a storyline, controls the work. On the Road, however, demonstrates a departure into bebop, Where the sounds become BIFF, BOFF, BLIP, BLEEP, BOP, BEEP, CLINCK, ZOWIE! Sounds break up. And are replaced by other sounds. The journey is NOW. The narrative is a humpty dumpty heap. Such is the condition of NOW. Its impossible to avoid the philosophical and religious implications of this kind of anti-chronology. Just as music appears endless, repeatable, circular and circuitous, such is the freedom of writing unshackled to narrative. In Kerouacs novel, Big Sur, the message appears to be that since Nature is a part of the self, and to fear it is to fear oneself. The two meanings of Nature become one: human nature is animalistic, and this novel is cautionary to the extent that it shows the dangers of failing to acknowledge this. Kerouacs nature/Nature synthesis represents the essence of his Buddhist sympathies, and this in turn relates to the literary theme of tracing a path. It is hard not to read this author without conflating the mystical with post-modern work on impasses, such as Derridas aporia, and the sense that however far we go we can never escape our selves. It recalls the Buddhist expression, Wherever you go, there you are. I am beginning to see a vast Divine Comedy of my own based on Buddha-on a dream I had that people are racing up and the Buddha mountain, is all, and inside the Cave of Reality. The immediacy of his writing adds to the sense of guru-like mysticism in Kerouacs work: his work spills out like revelations, if not beats, we certainly get the sensation that he is King of something. The work responds to deconstructive literary theory because of its very currency- it has almost completely evaded the conventional segregation and hierarchy of speech and writing. My work comprises one vast book like Prousts except that my remembrances are written on the run instead of afterwards in a sick bed. Criticism is forced to be perpetually lagging behind the designs and dictates of the author, whilst the works language is seen as a simple means towards a referential end. Language is thereby devalued to the status of an instrument. Barthess statement, it is only through the function of the author as the possessor of meaning that textual reality is made obeisant to extra textual reality is almost the antithesis of Kerouac. Kerouacs restoration program also depends on the authors willingness to disappear slightly and conduct meaning, but uniquely, Kerouac demands that the hierarchy of the textual and extra-textual be flattened. Not only this, but that the direction of realist discourse be inverted. As Barthes describes it, the author is always supposed to go from signified to signifier, from passion to expressionthe critic goes in the other directionthe master of meaningis a divine attributefrom the signified towards the signifier. Clearly Kerouac does not begin with the apparent and source its cause. He is the archetypal author, travelling from a source within himself a passion- towards a grand confection of layered expressive analogies. This critic is not working as an unseen evangelist of truth-in-nature, but uses nature as a space to unveil meaning, that is, to work from the signifier of the word, to the signified of the writing, like a painter signing his own name on the canvas. In fact, Kerouac is suspended between the conditions of observer and recorder. The recorders self is neither ejected nor declared in his writings, but rather encrypted- both in and as the writing. This partly explains the fascination that encrypted and marginalized author figures hold for Kerouac. His own experience of suspension and estrangement from easy linguistic categorisation, and from the body of conventional society, is unconsciously articulated in all Kerouacs writings. The very potent agency of unconscious in itself is of course another natural tie, binding this writer to the natural world. When, in Big Sur, he talks of the meandering river/path leading into/out of the picture, he is describing the same path into and out of meaning which he himself treads. As a fugitive of consciousness, he travels from work to signifier -in the sense of both meaning, and of the artist, the maker of meaning, and his conclusions merge meaning and its maker into a single signifier. As an author, Kerouac functions as a human conduit to bring external reality to textual reality- and is guided in this venture by the original source, the world outside. All this is reinforced, and microcosmically present, in Kerouacs easy fluctuation into and out of the page, into and out of the rythm- all of which implies a certain arbitrariness of the page. This is not carelessness, but merely the flip-side of significance. It simply doesnt matter to Kerouac whether a symbol works in one direction or another, the importance is the motion- the action- itself. This is particularly evident in the repeated jazz references in On the Road. The musical analogy for temporal progression is made explicit as Kerouacs fundamental modus operandi. When he describes his unique philosophy of composition, blow as deep as you want to blow, it seems he imagines the writer as a kind of horn-player. He attaches his methodology to a rationale for his bizarre habits of punctuation, Method. No periods separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily riddled with false colons and timid usually needless commas- but the vigorous space dash separating rhetorical breathing (as jazz musicians drawing breath between outblown phrases) The words occurring between dashes resemble linguistic entities unaligned with the conventional subject-verb arrangement of English sentences. These linguistic configurations appear to obey a different notion of time to the real world, with its real language. Traditionally, a sentence fixes time by acting as a frame for the past-present-future sequence. The conventional sentence does not allow the motion, flash, and fluctuation of Kerouacs writing ambition. In this way, the musical analogy enables Kerouac to construct a notion of time outside of the temporal constriction of conventional literature. His work is less poetic, non-linear, and dislocated. A phrase need not refer to the outside world, for it can now begin and end with reference only to its own rhythm- a truly poetic quality, measured pauses which are the essentials of our speech-divisions of the sounds we hear-time and how to note it down (William Carlos Williams). So Kerouacs prose is measured with breath, and timing holds the key to its rendition. As he describes the process, Time being of the essence in the purity of speech, sketching language is undisturbed flow from the mind of personal secret idea-wrds, blowing (as per jazz musician) on subject of image On the Road is an attempt to solve the time/space problems Kerouac is troubled by, but his success is always qualified by what we might term psychoanalytic obstacles. However much he attempts to overrule the order of cause and effect, past and present, this author must remain subject to the government of his own past. His repeated attempts to perfect the form contradict the effort itself, of course- and this is Kerouacs paradox. The more he writes, the more he develops, and the more evident the writers evolution, the more it relates to a chronological dynamic. In the same way that labouring spontaneity foregrounds the labour, and consequently the authors hand, aspiring to defeat timeliness through constructing a series of books over years only betrays his inescapable mortality, tying him inextricably to the outside world in spite of himself. The writing brings to mind the words of art critic, Michael Fried, whose anxiety around the visually present world is everywhere present in his work, a means of evoking an experience of journeying corporeally through space as opposed to merely viewing a world present to eyesight but fundamentally out of reach. It is clear that Kerouacs work is a melancholic writing of history i the most literal sense: his books create chimeras of invisible historical figures, and in so doing evoke their absence- an absence which inevitably feeds his unfalsifiable claims, and, unfortunately for Kerouac, the claims of unfalsifiability made against him. 2. The Beat and the Origin The life of every Beat Writer is characterized by a prolonged psychic crisis that is finally resolved by means of a sudden vision or insight James T. Jones, in his book Jack Kerouacs Dulouz Legend: The Mythic Form of an Autobiographical Fiction, argues forcefully for an Oedipal analysis of Kerouacs work. Grouping the Kerouac texts in the Freudian context, particularly the Oedipus myth, Jones reflects on ways in which Kerouacs depiction of family relationships and by extension, relationships in his personal life and as fictionalized in his prose may be explained through Freud. His look extends to the enduring relationship between Kerouac and his mother, the residual rivalry with his father, sibling rivalry with his older deceased brother Gerard, and eventually a succession of male colleagues. Big Surs alcohol-induced nervous breakdown is perceived as being induced by or symptomatic of his catastrophic attachment to his mother and obsession with the psychic tensions induced by the Oedipal family struggle. As Jones writes, Jack Dulouz , suffering from the effects of chronic alcoholism and sensing an impending nervous breakdown, seeks refuge at the oceanside cabinunfortunately, like the grove of the Eumenides in Oedipus at Colonus, it is full of reminders of both the cause of his misery and the fate that awaits him, The oedipal signifier works in two directions, then, standing outside of time. The Origin supplied by the grove recalls the past and anticipates the future. A visit to the canyon in which the breakdown took place, its rumbling surf and endless brook which babbles with vital noise, and the yawning canyon recall Kerouacs hometown of Lowell. We are reminded of the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the bridge across the Merrimack River there. Since Kerouac was introduced to it by his brother Gerard, the site, with its awesome mystical potency, is described with passion. The sounds seem to express, yet barely contain, the power of the place: as the river water cascades over the long weir, traffic roars in the background. All this combined with the anthropomorphically cragged vista of the grotto itself creates a sense of almost unbearably powerful otherness, an origin in nature now frighteningly alien to the human soul. Kerouacs realism in Big Sur may be summarised as the doomed ambition to structure impossible desire. The labour of the carefully constructed Beat pattern is present in the background, as a sort of displaced metaphor for the mental and physical effort of writing. Thus Kerouacs Beat takes the anti-mimetic definition of realism one step further- since writing does not have to relate to what it depicts, it will resist immediacy, but relate in specific and indirect ways to the authors private life. In many ways, Kerouacs enterprise resembles that of a visual artist at least as much as an aural or literary construction. Courbets paintings, for example, operate in a very similar way to Kerouacs works. They share this meta-symbolism, with particular interest in representing origins as water, or indeed as female genitalia- and also aspire to an impossible merging with lost roots. In Courbets art the impossible merger is one of body and work; for Kerouac it is the artifice of language and the unruly inevitability of the natural- taking him as close as anything ever can to his father. An erotics of the word and image is then inevitable, and Kerouac finds one fully-formulated and ready to use, in Freudian psychoanalysis. While studies on Courbet resituate sexual difference within the (male) painter-beholder, rather than between him and his representations, Jack Kerouac does something subtly different. Through its emphasis on the writing/experiencing incommensurability, Kerouac resituates sexual difference within the (male) writer/reader rather than between the artist and their work. The authorial voice is only ostensibly the source of psychoanalytic narrative- in fact the same narrative can be sourced through theoretical channels (backwards into the page) to the writer, and, if we believe him, to the reader too. It grew exceedingly hot and strangeWe were going though swamps and alongside the road at ragged intervals strange Mexicans in tattered rags walked along with machetes hanging from their rope belts, and some of them cut at the bushes. They all stopped to watch us without expression. Through the tangled bush we occasionally saw thatched huts with African-like bamboo walls, just stick huts. Strange young girls, dark as the moon, stared from mysterious verdant doorways, Psychoanalysis corroborates Kerouacs general preoccupation with the fantasy of origination, in the case of Big Sur, the origination as personified in the figure of the father. In this imagery from On the Road, the dark girls are linked to the moon, loaded words like thatch and bush are always used alongside machetes and eery expressionlessness. Reading Kerouac like a goya painting or a poem, we can easily recognise the guilty violence involved. Kerouacs unedited unconsciousness reveals his sense of alienation, as the girls who are so strange are like the moon- nature is female- irresistible, unfathomable, untouchable. The horizontal thatch or low bush of the women is disrupted by the weapons and interference of the vertical agent of the male machetes. The interference in the body of water is the same- or at least, linguistically symmetrical- to the interference on reality that the act of writing always engenders. If female bodies and contrived spontaneity are references to the origin and the unconscious ambition to merge with the origin; then any discreet writing surface is fetishised as an oedipal object of impossible desire, always disrupted, interfered with and disfigured by the very desire that defines it. Kerouacs Freudian desire to merge with the source must disturb the way he perceives himself. In fact, it illustrates and literally reflects the way in which we, as readers, percieve ourselves in so far as we are reflections of our origins- how it is only through disturbance that we can become aware of the source. If any reflection were perfect, with no material interference, we would have no way of knowing that it was a reflection. Kerouacs tireless autobiography project is not only a non-narcissistic event, but an entirely natural one. In Hegels Aesthetics such self-portraiture is established as a primal impulse of self-identification. According to Hegel, for man to become self-conscious he must first represent himself to himself, and second, man brings himself before himself by practical activitythis aim he achieves by altering external things whereon he impresses the seal of his inner being and in which he now finds again his own characteristics. Man does thisto strip the external world of its inflexible foreignness and to enjoy the shape of things only an external realization of himself. Hegel goes on to describe a childs impulse to throw stones into a river: there is no reflection involved, none of the self-annihilating narcissism of passive desiring seeing, but a declared primacy of action over seeing. Kerouac is invoked by Hegels wording, the continuity between ordinary action and the action of producing works of art is already implied by the image of the drawing of circles in the surface of the water. These circles are inscriptions of objects on flat planes that require a certain maturity of consciousness to interpret as the effects of a (manual) cause. Here, Kerouacs dormant reference to, and defence of, his own ideal situation as a realist author is very evident. In a later paragraph from Fried the message that the self is best quietly discovered through displaced descriptive action is completely inescapable, the effacement of the very conditions of resemblance (the breaking of the mirror-surface of the river) also means that the boys relation to the spreading circles in the water might be described in Flaubertian language as present everywhere but visible nowhere. A sentiment repeated in Kerouacs poetry, which breaks the reflective power of water by introducing the contrasting element of heat and dryness, Describe fires in riverbottom sand, and the cooking; the cooking of hot dogs spitted in whittled sticks over flames of woodfire with grease dropping in smoke to brown and blacken the salty hotdogs, and the wine, and the work on the railroad. The desire to identify with the origin, whether through disturbing the water, impersonating the father, or labouring to represent oneself to oneself, may always end in action, but it is only ever the action of wrenching open the facture of desire. The impulse to create will always be driven by a lack, and Kerouac is most conventionally Realist when he recognises this. Kerouac, after all, is aiming to reorganise an imbalance of power, and to characterise a sense of the monadic other. Philosophically, Kerouacs work is incredibly resistant to the Other, to the point that he scarcely needs the anterior of an audience. In spite of his evident veneration of the Natural, the world beyond that of writing/reading is so unbearable that Fried has trouble imagining it, levelling the differences between interiors and exteriors and converting all mimetic imagery into narratives of action or narratives of material: surfaces to be read. To the extent that it is a self-sufficient sign-system (and I am arguing it is far more than this) Kerouacs work evacuates the reader and effectively reads itself. It fits Derridas conception of autobiography, My written communication mustremain legible despite the absolute disappearance of every determined addresseefor it to function as writingto be legible. It must be repeatable, iterable, in the absolute absence of the addressee Again, this supported by the assertions of one anonymous online Kerouac archivist, Almost everything he wrote was autobiographical. Like Thomas Wolfe, he saw writing as identical with introspection. The word fiction does not really describe his work. It was more like self-directed psychoanalysis, except that his outlook was more religous and tragic than psychological. His books are crowded with his friends, lightly disguised behind new names. Allen Ginsberg, for instance, appears variously as Carlo Marx, Adam Moorad, Irwin Garden, Leon Levinsky and Alvah Goldbrook. Late in his life, Kerouac even considered publishing a unified edition of all his works, with all the characters representing himself appearing under a single name, Jack Duluoz (French for Jack the Louse). This homogenising impulse, the need to resist difference and integrate everything, drives the rhetorical case which Kerouac makes in an attempt to show that outdoor scenes are actually the same as indoor ones. It is affected spontaneity of language which Fried cites as the connection between the inner and the outer. Indoor and outdoor scenes are treated as having the same character and affect, to the extent that they have a rhythm and no inherent narrative. Kerouacs holistic ambition repeats itself on every level- here the very scene of representation is moulded by the realist theory. The internal and external scenes, like the internal and external levels of a psyche, become one, as they are united in common, necessary pain, of the disfiguring theoretical intervention. Applying psychoanalysis to Kerouac, this does look like an attempt at integrating the repressed inner and outer of the psyche, where the first might be characterised as darkness, depth, recession, primordial instinct, and the past, and the second as light, shallowness, presence, and surface agency. Farewell Sur- Didja ever tell him about water meeting water-? O go back to otter- Term-Term-Klerm Kerm-Kurn-Cow-Kow- Cash-Cach-Cluck- Clock-Gomeat sea need be deep I see you Enoch soon anarf in Old Britanny Say yes. Say yes to the sea. Say yes to chaos. Say yes to eternity. Say yes and let it all go. Go, go to the sea. To the waiting open arms of the sea. You and me you and me the sea. Yes. Let us be. There is light. Reflections are also the assertion of the horizontal. In spite of the violence metaphorically wrought, and acknowledged by his writing, Kerouacs work is concerned with empowering the natural within the man. The vigorous negation of comfortable feminine origination in his poetry refuses to allow the implied horizontality of the original sheet of paper to be wholly superseded, and in effect suppressed, by the verticality of the outside world. Psychoanalysis works through poetry subliminally, appealing to the subconscious by encoding itself in visual puns like reflections. 3. Missed Beats Misunderstandings and misnomers It has been claimed that, for at least one definition of the word, Kerouac was not a Beat at all. Mayer writes, A keen observer rather than a confident insider, Kerouac never really was a member of the Beats though he was among them from the beginning and as a chronicler cast their emergence into prose. When Daniel Belgrad remarks that Kerouac would attend parties only to sit silently in a corner, listening intently to the multiple conversations and noting them down in his memory, he is in line with a comment by Ginsberg, I guess [Kerouac] felt more like a private solitary Melvillean minnesinger or something. Subterranean Kerouac, a biography by Ellis Amburn, develops the oedipal theme in his work, referring notably to his dream-fear of homosexuality. Claiming that Kerouac became a homophobic homoerotic by the early nineteen forties, Amburn insists that in the fifties, while an increasing misogyny came to pervade writings like Some of the Dharma, his homophobia was increasing in direct proportion to his homoerotic activity. , a development which might have been facilitated at least partially by Kerouacs worsening dependency on alcohol. Kerouac is known as the king or the speaker of the beat generation and his writings are probably the most widely read works for anyone studding the beat culture, but there is real evidence that he resisted the title of King, particularly the patriarchal overtones. Even in 1952, John Clellon Holmess book Go presents Kerouac as Gene Pasternak, railing against all that free-love stuff, that liberal bohemianism, between friends. Kerouacs 1958 novel The Subterraneans features a narrator whose sexual hang-ups are barely known to him. Ben Giamo has termed the narrators stance in the novel as a curious form of approach/avoidance. The authors avatar in The Subterraneans, is French Canadian. His name is Leo Percepied and it has been appropriated for psychoanalysis. Kurt Mayer claims that as his first name is that of Kerouacs father, and his last, literally translates aspierced foot, the characters name is an obvious Oedipal reference. The characters destiny echoes Jacks, as he abandons pretentions to being middle class, and ultimately returns to his mothers house. Jack, of course, always returned to Memre- Gabrielle Kerouac, what Mayer refers to as the only consistent relationship in his life. The novel begins provocatively, this is the story of an unself-confident man, at the same time of an egomaniac, As the novel progresses we find the anxious character being transported from New York to San Francisco. Perhaps this displacement somehow stands for the distance the author puts between himself and those peopling his narrative- although we know that, as the Buddhists say wherever you go- there you are, and there can be never be any real success in efforts to distance oneself from ones labels. In Giamos words, it is as though Kerouac wants to disavow early on the role of spokesman of the beats, let alone king or father. Conclusion It is essential to bear in mind that the accolade of King of the Beats was not coined by Kerouac, but has been adopted by his followers. It is an implicitly patriarchal title, one that has subsequently invoked a range of responses framed by psychoanalytic paradigms. Several convincing arguments have shown that the patterns of Kerouacs writing have been deliberately modelled on the musical inflection of jazz. More interestingly, though, is the notion that his work is not spontaneous in the sense so often asserted, but is, like jazz music, compiled from pre-selected riffs. This does not necessarily undermine the regal title, but it would seem to compromise the usual assumption of the term Beat as some harnessed and continuous natural mystery, like a heartbeat, or the endless rhythms of nature. In other words, if Kerouac is the father of Beat, it is because he created the word itself, and the conscious generation of the term is identical to the conscious construction of the prose style. This need not be a criticism of Kerouac, but on occasions where people have misunderstood the nature of Kerouacs spontaneity, it has certainly been presented as such. Examining the King part of the title has opened up the oedipal question. Since Kerouacs work has been seen to be both so emphatically autobiographical and so uncompromisingly unconscious, there is a clear case for Freudian interpretation. His fictional work documents several instances where Kerouac appears to be thematising his anxiety around familial rivalry, his anxious disassociation from females, and the paradoxical yearning to return to the feminine source. I found that oedipal analysis led me to an assessment of Kerouacs realism, and have expounded on the notion that water is often one (and only one) signifier of origin in Kerouacs work, and that the reflection afforded by water is frequently identified with the an introspective reflection occurring within the psyche. Not only that, but since perfect reflections disguise the reflective material, writers keen to represent language to itself, as authentically as possible, are presented with a painful inevitability. To reproduce m imetically is generally to damage the original, one can never retrace the origin of inspiration precisely, as Derrida has shown, so Kerouacs realism will always be infused with both pain and guilt. Finally, Kerouacs critical reception has generally betrayed severe misconceptions about the nature of his work. When critics concede, for example, that the book On the Road-and its author- were instrumental in rucksack revolution, the praise is unwelcome, as Kerouac is reduced to a one-book author despite the fact that he published some twenty volumes in a relatively short space of time, ranging widely across prose and poetry. Indeed, merely acknowledging of a sociohistorical fact smacks of a thinly veiled aesthetic grudge displaced onto a novel that is in fact far more conventional than critics often acknowledge. The book is more interesting and relevant, paradoxically, when its sexual politics are not read as propagation of libidinous licentiousness. Bibliography Amburn, Ellis. Subterranean Kerouac. The Hidden Life of Jack Kerouac. New York: St. Martins P, 1998. Boston University Bridge Journal of beat poet Holmes recalls friendship, death of Jack Kerouac. [Boston] 7 Dec. 2001, Vol. V, No. 16 ed. 20 Oct. 2004 Charters, Ann. Kerouac: A Biography. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1973. Charters, Ann, ed. Liner notes to Howls, Raps Roars: Recordings From the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. Fantasy, 4FCD-4410-2, 1993. Charters, Ann, ed. The Portable Beat Reader. New York: Penguin, 1992. Derrida, J. The Ear of the Other, US: University of Nabraska Press, 1989. Fried, M. Courbets Realism, US: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Giamo, Ben. Kerouac, the Word and the Way. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2000. Jones, James T. Jack Kerouacs Duluoz Legend. Carbondale : Southern Illinois UP, 1999. Kerouac, J. Columbia University Archives, manuscript pages of Daydreams for Ginsberg, Ginsberg Collection, 10 February 1955 as quoted in Weinreich, Regina The Spontaneous Poetics of Jack Kerouac, US: Southern Illinois University Press (1987) p. 7 Kerouac, Jack. Belief and technique for modern prose Evergreen Review 2 (Spring 1959): 57 Kerouac, Jack. Essentials of Spontaneous Prose Evergreen Review 2 No. 5 (Summer 1958): 72-73 Kerouac, Jack. 3rd Chorus Mexico City Blues in Scattered Poems US: City Light Books (1986) Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. Text and Criticism. Scott Donaldson, ed. New York: Viking, 1977. Kerouac, Jack. The Subterraneans. New York: Ballantine, 1973. (New York: Grove P, 1958.) Kerouac, Jack. Visions of Cody. London: Granada, 1980. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.) Mayer, K. A. Beat Foundation Myths and Their Erosion in Jack Kerouacs On the Road and The Subterraneans Presentation at Foundation Myths SANAS/AAAS Conference, Zurich. November 17-19, 2000 Mayer, Johnny. From Beat to Beatnik. Beat Writers. Blues For Peace. 29 Oct. 2004 McCormick, Diane. In a Dark Time: On the Road with Kerouac and the Beat Generation (2002) Stephenson, Gregory Essays on the Literature of the Beat Generation US: Southern Illinois University Press (1990) Website References https://www.bluesforpeace.com/beat.htm https://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/beatgeneration/BG-Essays.htm#The%20Influence%20of%20Jazz https://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/bin/litcrit.out.pl?au=ker-77 https://www.jackmagazine.com/issue4/griffin.html https://www.litkicks.com/Lists/KerouacWorks.html https://www.poembeat.com/asher6.html https://www.poembeat.com/essay.html

The Anatomy Of The Lungs - 926 Words

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