The Pagan Agenda

update New muxtape version of this playlist can be listened to here

Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums is a grinning fool of a book, partially autobiographical, spewing forth like a wine-induced poetry reading, all mirth and chaos, and yet, fighting through the adolescence and restless spontaneity of the piece is the aspiration for a mature spiritual enlightenment of a Buddhist nature, a clamor in pursuit of calm. Throughout the loosely strung events of the book, a gaggle of beatniks (Zen Lunatics) traverse America, climb mountains, sleep in boxcars, quibble over dogma, screw and meditate. As escpaist literature goes this entry really hits the spot, calling out to that teenager in me who still longs for the satori Suzuki talked about. One feels the joy of at least Kerouac’s kind of buddhism through his tumbling diction, that cascade of words which become descriptive/poetic/paintstrokes creating a fiery mosaic of what is in reality a fairly non-eventful series of events. He of course wrote this novel in a flow without editing as a disciplined act of spontaneity hoping to capture some of the instilled truth of his experiences through it. The effect is awesome and awe-inspiring.

In the same spirit I have cobbled together a playlist which shares the same pleasure of creation and spiritual themes of the novel. Finally I get to give some love to Cat Stevens.