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Old Angel Midnight
Series: City Lights/Grey Fox
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 383 ratings, 43 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book is ideal for readers interested in experimental literature, Beat Generation works, and those curious about the creative process behind spontaneous writing. It will especially appeal to admirers of Kerouac, fans of poetic improvisation, and students of modernist and postmodernist art and culture.
"The only book I've ever written in which I've allowed myself to say absolutely anything I want..." Jack Kerouac
Trades: PW, Booklist, Kirkus and Library Journal.
Promotion via City Lights social media: City Lights Blog, CL Facebook (27K likes), CL Twitter (79.3K followers), Goodreads (5000 friends), CL Instagram (3600 followers), CL Tumblr (3700 followers), CL Pinterest (1200 followers)
Frequent tweets and Facebook posts related to Kerouac and his legion of loyal followers.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
Old Angel Midnight is one of the great delights of the boundless improvisational world. Jack Kerouac's ear is peerless, manifesting structures otherwise impossible. A masterpiece of the mind freed to fly. Read it aloud, for yourself, 'for the sake of reading, and for the sake of the Tongue ... Let's hear the Sound of the Universe, son.' - Clark Coolidge
Old Angel Midnight is a treasure trove of Kerouac's experiments with automatic writing, a method he practised constantly to sharpen his imaginative reflexes. Recorded in a series of notebooks between 1956-1959, what Kerouac called his "endless automatic writing piece" began while he shared a cabin with poet Gary Snyder. Kerouac tried to emulate Snyder's daily Buddhist meditation discipline, using the technique of "letting go" to free his mind for pure spontaneous writing, annotating the stream of words flowing through his consciousness in response to auditory stimuli and his own mental images.
Kerouac continued his exercise in spontaneous composition over the next three years, including a period spent with William Burroughs in Tangiers. He made no revisions to the automatic writing entries in his notebooks, which were collected and transcribed for publication as originally written. Old Angel Midnight attests to the success of Kerouac's experiment and bears witness to his commitment to his craft, and to the pleasure he takes in writing: "I like the bliss of mind."
Old Angel Midnight is the illuminated notebook, the ur-text, of Kerouac vision/voice/language. The golden rule Catholicism of New England mind in kahoots with free time Godhead consciousness. This is true beat pleasure. This is our music. - Thurston Moore
Series: City Lights/Grey Fox
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Old Angel Midnight
Old Angel Midnight is one of the great delights of the boundless improvisational world. Jack Kerouac's ear is peerless, manifesting structures otherwise impossible. A masterpiece of the mind freed to fly. Read it aloud, for yourself, 'for the sake of reading, and for the sake of the Tongue ... Let's hear the Sound of the Universe, son.' - Clark Coolidge...PaperbackSold Out
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Critics have praised Old Angel Midnight for its inventive use of language and the way it embodies Kerouac's ambition to record the immediacy of experience. It is celebrated as a masterpiece of unedited, spontaneous writing that blends onomatopoeia, memory, and Joycean wordplay. The text’s playful and musical qualities highlight Kerouac’s distinctive voice and make it a notable contribution to Beat literature and experimental poetry.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780872867031
Publisher: City Lights Books
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 25 August 2016
Country: United States
Imprint: City Lights Books
Illustration: Illustrations
Contributors:
- Preface by Ann Charters
- Preface by Michael McClure
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 139.0mm
Height: 203.0mm
Weight: 127g
Pages: 94
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