Post by Paul Maher Jr. on Jan 1, 2017 9:51:29 GMT -5
Brando and Kerouac
Kerouac’s letter to Brando went to auction from the Brando estate:
www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4537761
So what was Brando’s perspective? He may not have answered Jack’s letter, but he did opine on Beat culture as printed in the Lowell Sun beamed from Hollywood on January 27, 1959 where it led off, “Sorry, Beatniks, Marlon Brando isn’t one of you.”
Though the slant of the article rails against the beats and how Brando is considered a hero of beat culture, it also quotes Brando, which more or less may shed light on why he didn’t bother answering Kerouac. He was already sick of the motorcycle and leather jacket image, and he yearned for more challenging roles than what was being offered at the time.
Says Brando: “Mere protest for its own sake can be a foolish thing,” he remarked. “After a while, they lose sight of what they were protesting about. And you wonder if they would ever be satisfied, even if life were set the way they want it.”
The article goes on to state that Brando had read one of Kerouac’s novels, but doesn’t elaborate on it. Instead, it goes on to say that Brando had frequented San Francisco’s North Beach “joints”where the movement started.”
“I guess you can’t blame them for wanting to seek some identity in this world. If they don’t want to be ivy league, then they’ll be anti-ivy league—anything to escape the anonymity of today’s society. Man is a herd animal. He lives like the cow society, which is broken down into groups and then clans and then families, all traveling together. But there are a few who won’t travel with the herd at all: they’re called ridgerunners. In most of our history, there was always a frontier for the non-herd people to escape to. Now there is no frontier. I think we have to find one on a different level.”
Perhaps Brando’s assessment was the wisest back in the day…none of the beat hype applied to Kerouac anyway.
Kerouac’s letter to Brando went to auction from the Brando estate:
www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=4537761
So what was Brando’s perspective? He may not have answered Jack’s letter, but he did opine on Beat culture as printed in the Lowell Sun beamed from Hollywood on January 27, 1959 where it led off, “Sorry, Beatniks, Marlon Brando isn’t one of you.”
Though the slant of the article rails against the beats and how Brando is considered a hero of beat culture, it also quotes Brando, which more or less may shed light on why he didn’t bother answering Kerouac. He was already sick of the motorcycle and leather jacket image, and he yearned for more challenging roles than what was being offered at the time.
Says Brando: “Mere protest for its own sake can be a foolish thing,” he remarked. “After a while, they lose sight of what they were protesting about. And you wonder if they would ever be satisfied, even if life were set the way they want it.”
The article goes on to state that Brando had read one of Kerouac’s novels, but doesn’t elaborate on it. Instead, it goes on to say that Brando had frequented San Francisco’s North Beach “joints”where the movement started.”
“I guess you can’t blame them for wanting to seek some identity in this world. If they don’t want to be ivy league, then they’ll be anti-ivy league—anything to escape the anonymity of today’s society. Man is a herd animal. He lives like the cow society, which is broken down into groups and then clans and then families, all traveling together. But there are a few who won’t travel with the herd at all: they’re called ridgerunners. In most of our history, there was always a frontier for the non-herd people to escape to. Now there is no frontier. I think we have to find one on a different level.”
Perhaps Brando’s assessment was the wisest back in the day…none of the beat hype applied to Kerouac anyway.