Jack Kerouac The Dharma Bums Read by Tom Parker Unabridged Unprotected 7 Hours/6 CDs MP3s The Dharma

Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The semi -fictional accounts in the novel are based upon events that occurred years after On the Road. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on Kerouac, and Japhy Ryder, based on the poet, essayist and Buddhist Gary Snyder. The book largely concerns duality in Kerouac\'s life and ideals, examining the relationsh ip that the outdoors, mountaineering, hiking and hitchhiking through the West ha ve with his \"city life\" of jazz clubs, poetry readings, and drunken parties. One of the most important episodes in the book is of Smith, Ryder and Henry Morl ey (based on real-life friend John Montgomery) climbing Matterhorn Peak in Calif ornia. The real-life episode was Kerouac\'s first introduction to this type of m ountaineering and would serve as inspiration for him to spend the following summ er as a fire lookout for the United States Forest Service on Desolation Peak in Washington state. Highlighting the aforementioned duality of the novel, one of t he other most important episodes in the novel is an account of the legendary 195 5 Six Gallery reading, where Allen Ginsberg gave a debut presentation of his poe m \"Howl\" (changed to \"Wail\" in the book) and other authors such as Snyder hi mself, Kenneth Rexroth, Michael McClure, and Philip Whalen performed. A key to K erouac\'s aliases for his friends is helpful in deciphering the rest of the char acters. Ray Smith\'s story is driven by Japhy, whose penchant for the simple life and Ze n Buddhism greatly influenced Kerouac as he began to mature on the eve of the wi ld and unpredicted success of On the Road. The action shifts between the wild, s uch as three-day parties and enactments of the Buddhist sexual rite of \"Yab-Yum \" ceremony to the sublime and peaceful imagery where Kerouac seeks a type of tr anscendence. The novel concludes with a change in narrative style, with Kerouac working alone as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak (Adjacent to Hozomeen Mountai n), in what would soon be declared North Cascades National Park (see also Desola tion Angels). These elements place The Dharma Bums at a critical junction foresh adowing the consciousness-probing works of several authors in the 1960s such as Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey.