One Art Form Can Influence Another: Notes on Kerouac’s “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose” and “Belief

There exists two documents written by Kerouac in which he attempts to explain his own writing style. These pieces essentially show the adaptation of bebop to prose writing. Bebop is a type of Jazz that is known for its fast tempo, improvisation, and focus on expertise in small combinations. Bebop’s heydays were in the 1940’s, the influential time period that would produce “the beats”. Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs inhaled the life of Jazz in New York City during this time, so it is no surprise that these author’s tried to replect the elements of Jazz into their prose and poetry and also, in some ways, identify with it.

The most notable element Kerouac adapted to prose from bebop is improvisation. In “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose” there is a section entitelde “CENTER OF INTEREST”. This section includes notes like “Begin not from preconceived idea of what to say about image”, “do not afterthink—never afterthink to ‘improve’, and “tap from yourself the song of yourself”. Kerouac I think took from bebop this idea to “blow” or rather write from the gut, whatever comes to mind and in that order.

Kerouac also borrows the frenetic elements of Jazz in his prose. He says so himself in “Belief & Technique for Modern Prose”:

28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better

This frenetic element doesn’t just exist theoretically in his prose, but in the actual composition of it. Kerouac was known to go on Benzendrine (the drug of choice for most Jazz muscians) binges and write for days straight to produce completely pure and improvised works.