The Dharma Bums
The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of On the Road. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on Kerouac, and Japhy Ryder, based on the poet and essayist Gary Snyder, who was instrumental in Kerouac's introduction to Buddhism in the mid-1950s. The book concerns duality in Kerouac's life and ideals, examining the relationship of the outdoors, mountaineering, hiking, and hitchhiking through the west US with his "city life" of jazz clubs, poetry readings, and drunken parties. The protagonist's search for a "Buddhist" context to his experiences (and those of others he encounters) recurs throughout the story. The book had a significant influence on the Hippie counterculture of the 1960s.
Stats for nerds
12recommend
17mentions
17people
2014–2026years
71% recommend29% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- A lot of people will say to start with the most well known stuff - Naked Lunch, On the Road. I never liked Naked Lunch much, but On the Road is still probably the best gestalt depiction of the post-war America that was smack in the middle of transitioning from post-depression NYC jazz to California hippie. Once you have a feel for what that time and context was, then the poetry makes more sense.
It's been a while, but I remember enjoying a lot the very early writings that were collected posthumously in Atop an Underwood, very easy to pick up arbitrarily. Other good ones - Desolation Angels, Dharma Bums, The Town and the City, Subterraneans, Satori in Paris. Those are all formative. There was another posthumous release And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks which was just a funny and ridiculous retelling of a murder of a friend.
Of course, lots of fun stuff from Bukowski, Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, Phil Lamantia, John Clellon Holmes, Richard Brautigan, short stories and poems. Neal Cassady Collected Letters, 1944-1967 was probably my single favorite book back then. I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of stuff.
Oh and Dog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk8cMyCUnoo
- Dharma Bums is my favorite Kerouac book, and I've read most of his. Bonus points if you have even a passing interest in Zen.
- I've been re-reading Kerouac lately (LOA has a nice collection of novels in a single volume). His prose is jumps from bebop riffs (On the Road) to elegiac praise of hiking in the woods/mountains (Dharma Bums). The characters (like them or not) are well drawn and always interesting. My hitchhiking days are long gone and I don't suppose this mode of transportation obtains much in the US anymore, which I think is unfortunate as it is (or was) a great way to see the country and meet a lot of people.
- Exactly the same. I loved Dharma Bums much more as a book, but On the Road certainly changed the course of my life. I'd always been made to wander, but never fully understood it.
- All great books but missing some important items:
- Candide
- A Peoples History...
- Manufacturing Consent
- Dharma Bums
- Naked Lunch/Western Lands
- Infinite Jest
- Something Thompson, Campaign Trail '72 maybe.
- The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
Both offer a fictitious and simplistic introduction to eastern philosophy. Growing up as an atheist in Western Europe, I never realized just how deep the influence of religion on our culture, traditions and history was. These books gave me a playful look at Buddhism and Taoism, right when I needed it. Shifted my entire worldview.
Related
The town and the city
2 recommend · 2
Desolation angels
2 recommend · 6
On The Road
23 recommend · 69
Stories of Your Life and Others
66 recommend · 87
Le Ton beau de Marot
27 recommend · 70
Klara and the Sun
17 recommend · 30
The Jungle
32 recommend · 152
