"What [Kerouac] wanted was to capture in words what everything is like. Ginsberg, who appears under pseudonyms in nine of his books, put the question that drove Kerouac during his productive years. As Carlo Marx in On the Road he interrupts Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady), who is goofing around, to say: "‘I have an announcement to make.’ ‘Yes? Yes?’ ‘What kind of sordid business are you on now? I mean, man, whither goest thou? Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?’" Thomas Powers • LRB

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