V. discussed!

[Aaron Yeater]

Great point.  Perhaps a new play, also, on "On The Road", since 
Kerouac was a seafarer himself (Merchant Marine...hmmm...) who 
spent his land-lubbing moments bumping around NYC and on road-trips 
w/ Cassidy.  what's interesting is that Profane never takes the road 
to open space.  Both Paradis/Kerouac and Ishmael are seeking 
uncharted, open territory.  Profane goes to the most crowded place on 
earth, lives a claustrophobic Manhattan slumming lifestyle.

> >     1. Chapter 1.  The paragraph which begins "Since his discharge from 
> >     the Navy Profane had been road-laboring and when there wasn't work 
> >     just traveling, up and down the east coast like a yo-yo..."  (Harper 
> >     Perennial paperback, p. 10)  What visions does this paragraph conjure? 
> >     A-and--why is it dark in the east and why are there no more bars? 
> 
> Just a quickie--this is a reversal of _Moby Dick_, and it's good to invoke 
> MD when you attempt a largescale American novel.  It shows you're 
> serious.  Ishmael gets restless on land and goes to work on the sea; 
> Profane leaves the sea and hits the road, traveling, working. 
> 
> Is V. the postmodern white whale?
>           
> --Eyal
> 
> 
***********************************************************
Aaron C. Yeater
Innovations in American Government