I was wandering the park, walking along the path, watching the leaves fall off the

tree’s branches and touch the floor with a gentle movement: a serene dance that is
hidden in plain sight on everything made by the mother nature, from the shapes drew by
the smoke to the swirls produced by the breeze. The air was fresh, with still a scent of
spring moving slowly to the nose, coloring with glittered paintings memories of love
and serenity.
I sat then in a bank in front of the river, calmly hearing the “good day” of the
passersby and the soft murmurs of the water flowing way down. Waiting for the time to
runs out, melting with the rivers itself, leaded to a garden of forking paths, a lawn of
cobwebs that catch the seconds, the minutes and the hours and pause then by a sleep
chant, to be replaced neatly in the form of numbers or another language spoken by
humans; shapes that allow us to formulate the following question: what time is it?
It was the 8:55 am. Another Tuesday within the month of June. The day of my
interview with Jack Kerouac: a new writer that says to be part of a new kind of literature
movement. The meeting was scheduled at 9:00 am in Columbia University: just a walk
of five minutes if you go by Morningside Dr. Street. So, I closed my diary and headed
to meet Mr. Kerouac.
Mr. Kerouac was waiting for me in the Butler Library. He was dressed casually, with
a Blue Jean, a black T-Shirt and brown shoes. I presented myself and so he did. Then he
leaded me to one of the tables where he was sitting, with “Ulysses” of James Joyces
wide open: “The movements which work revolutions in the world are born out of the
dreams and visions in a peasant's heart on the hillside”. We took sit and so I throw the
first question:
Q. How would you describe your writing style?
A- Well…Dare I’d say that it is as spontaneous as the life itself. I mean, not random, but
following an existing but invisible sequence of commands that delimitate, or rather
structure the condition of being alive. A subsequent positioning of ideas and concepts.
An Improvisation, like Jazz.
Q. What about the themes of your writings? What they have to be with the
movement that you form part?
A- I like to touch those themes that are part of the nature of the human being. Those
themes that are, for reasons unknowns, taboo for this Country. The catholic religion, the
fee love, and of course the sex. I think that the body have to be celebrated, not a thing to
feel ashamed of. And referring to the Beat Movement, I say that all those themes and
others touched by my fellows, are the substance of the movement, what make it what it
is.
Q. Why was the movement created?
A. It was a needing, more than anything else. An urge to hawk very, very loudly that,
yes, we are a nation rich to the core, but just in terms of money. We still are preys of our
inner fears, slaves of the hate. We have to pursuit to make a society not just based on
economic materialism, but focused on the pursuit of a spiritual quest.
Q. And tell me, what were your influences in defining your style?
A- Firstly, I would say James Joyce. He is a master of the language. His writings can
inundate anyone with words and forms. He always found a way to express even the
smallest detail, without losing the cadence of writing, with words going on, coming
back, turning and breaking: infinity of movements. In second hand, I would say the
Jazz, the Bepop and the Rock n’ Roll. Sincerely, I would be nothing without them
Q. What about the name of the movement? What does “Beat” stand for?
A- I heard it once when I was discussing about something with a friend of mine. He
took out that word that means “tired or “beaten down”, and I added it another sense:
“being on the beat”, like having swing.
Q. Where did all this movement start?
A- The movement was born not as a movement, but as a “vision”, a conglomerate of
ideas. Where in this university that all the noise started, when I met all my fellows
Q. Tell me about your works. What is your kind of written?
A- I’m a novelist, but I also want to be considered as a jazz poet blowing a long blues in
an afternoon jazz session on Sunday
Q. And do you pursuit another kinds of art expressions?
A- Maybe at this point is clear as water, but I love the Jazz. I have musician friends, so I
make a mix between the poetry and the jazz rhythm. You should check them out:
“Poetry for the Beat Generation”
Q. What did you do before being a writer?
A- I was a football player, and I had been given a scholarship to study in this
University. After my sportive career ended, I dropped out college: certainly, living an
scheduled day was not for me. That was also a reason why I deserted the army.
Q. Would you consider the Beat Movement a protest or a pose?
A- That’s a good question…Look, it depends: was Galileo just a poser when he was
defending his theory of the round Earth in front of the Holy Inquisition? Were the
woman posers when they were demanding equality. Dare I’d say no. We are a
movement that is trying to open the eyes of the people. We are saying them: “America
is rich, but just in money”

The Beat Generation

The Beat Generation was a literary movement started by a group of authors whose work

explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their
work was published and popularized by Silent Generationers in the 1950s. The central elements
of Beat culture are the rejection of standard narrative values, making a spiritual quest, the
exploration of American and Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism, explicit
portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual
liberation and exploration.