Was Kerouac bipolar?
His manic writing style, rampant drug usage (including cocaine), and alcoholism all suggest that he suffered from bipolar disorder.
He died of complications from alcoholism.
A few quotes to support my hypothesis:
"The only people for me are the
Mad ones.
The ones who are mad to live,
Mad to talk,
Mad to be saved,
Desirers of everything at the same time.
The ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing,
But Burn, Burn, Burn,
Like fabulous yellow roman candles
Exploding like spiders across the stars
And in the middle you see the blue center light
Pop and everybody goes 'aww.'
-Jack Kerouac
"The silence is so intense that you can hear your own blood roar in your ears but louder than that by far is the mysterious roar which I always identify with the roaring of the diamond of wisdom, the mysterious roar of silence itself, which is a great Shhhh reminding you of something you've seemed to have forgotten in the stress of your days since birth."
Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums p. 157
I always wondered why there was a reason I strongly identified with Jack Kerouac and Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye (who is also rumored to be a bipolar character).
ReplyDeleteIt makes me upset when people claim the love On the Road, but know nothing about what the "madness" is like. It has definitely been romanticized by fans. Although people should be free to like what they like. Maybe it will even be a way to communicate about what bipolar is actually like.