Greetings from Taipei, textual deviants!
This week on the pod, Tomek and I discuss Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums (a.k.a. On the Road 2.0). We struggled with various technical issues during the recording process, but by making the most of our ever-developing audio editing skills we have cobbled together an episode we hope you will enjoy. Press play to learn about bhikkus, yabyum, Avalokitesvara, and the all-important ethic of compassion, among other things.
In case you’re wondering, the title of the episode is an allusion to the following passage from Kerouac’s seminal novel (p. 171 of the Penguin Modern Classics edition):
East’ll meet West anyway. Think what a great world revolution will take place when East meets West finally, and it’ll be guys like us that can start the thing. Think of the millions of guys all over the world with rucksacks on their backs tramping around the back country and hitchhiking and bringing the word down to everybody.
Not to be outdone, Tomek has brought down the word to everybody that next week’s text will be . . . the sunflower. Stay tuned!
MW
"East'll Meet West Anyway"